FLASHBACK – The Nintendo Entertainment System
Flashy graphics, surround sound and high-definition are relatively new characteristics of video games.
For the older gamers out there, it all began with a few poorly drawn sprites, synthesised sound and long-loading games.
E-Talk is this week taking a look at one era-defining video games machine that has helped to dramatically foster the industry into what it is today.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Released 1983, known as the Famicom in Japan
THE NES is history these days, but with legendary gaming franchises such as the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers making their debuts on the Japanese company’s first home console, one could argue that other consoles and gaming companies have done very little in the past 24 years to change the way we play games.
The NES introduced the controller as we know it – a game pad with a multidirectional cross on the left, and a handful of buttons on the right.
Such an innovation, coupled with fast-loading cartridges and an extensive library of hundreds of games, made the NES a gaming phenomenon that revived the pastime in the United States and the rest of the world.
Even better, in Australia the NES came bundled with Super Mario Brothers, which revolutionised the way platform games were designed, and went on to sell millions and breed a swag of sequels and spin-offs that continues to pop up today on Nintendo’s new console, the Wii.
Yes, Nintendo is still around, and is now the fifth-most profitable company in Japan – all thanks to the path the NES helped pave for it. Believe it or not, but before video games, Nintendo was a trading card manufacturer!
If you want to relive some NES greatness, and own a Wii, then you can use the Virtual Console feature to download the games in their original format and play them using the Wii, and its remote control – which turns on its side to become a NES controller.
