Growing up with the Nintendo Entertainment System

Every gamer has fond memories of their first video game console. Whether you came of age in the 70s and it was an arcade cabinet, or your a 2000s kid and it was a Nintendo GameCube, we all had a first love. That state of the art technology of its time that introduced you to a life long hobby made of pixels and imagination. My introduction to video games was Nintendo's very first home console the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Originally released in 1983 in Japan as the Famicom, the North American version did not hit stores here until 1985. This modest grey and black box single handedly jump started the video game industry which crashed and burned two years earlier. By 1983 there was such an oversaturation of video game consoles with mediocre games the industry tanked hard. It was so bad retailers wanted nothing to do with video game consoles. In 85' when Nintendo released the NES it had to almost con its way into stores. Referring to the console as an "entertainment system" not a "video game console". They also sold it along side R.O.B, a toy robot that interacted with the system. Another way to show it was not another video game console. When the system finally got into players hands it didn't matter what you called it or how many robot buddies it came with people where hooked. With the help of an Italian plumber by the name of Mario Nintendo sold 33 million units in North America and one of those babies sat on top of my wood cabinet living room TV.

Photo of Nintendo Entertainment System European Version

We owned the Action Set which released in 1989 at around $149.99 USD (approx. $365 USD in 2023). The action set came with the console, two controllers, the light gun or "zapper", and a combo cartridge of Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. You really got the bang for your buck back then. This was really my introduction to the gaming world in all its 1980s 8-bit glory. Finally a system where the graphics started to challenge what you saw in the arcades. In the early 80s with Atari it was no contest. I can play this game of blocks and blobs that resembles Pacman or I can hit up my local arcade loose my allowance and play the real deal. With the NES, and its attention to detail more and more opted for the comfort of their living room floor. My research highlighted that Nintendo actually was inspired by the graphical quality of the Colecovision and how it stood out from competitors. Nintendo wanted their graphics to be superior to previous home consoles. So shout out to Coleco for setting the bar that made the NES so awesome!!

The Nintendo Advantage Arcade Stick Gamepad with Super Mario Bros. on in the background

The gameplay experiences are still as fresh in my mind as they where from my youth. Even though other systems had light guns the Nintendo Zapper was just a thing of beauty. That construction worker orange color they added so you couldn't stick up a liquor store with it and the grey trim were surprisingly an attractive combination. That flash noise it made as you squeezed the trigger to blow away a clay disk or cartoon duck. That cheeky moment that you decided to see if you could shoot and kill that annoying dog. Good times. The real pearl of the action set was Super Mario Bros. The most ridiculous concept really. A plumber in a Kingdom of mushrooms sent to save a princess from a fire breathing lizard turtle creature. Surprisingly, not only did it work it redefined video games and platformers. Super Mario put other video game companies on notice that you need a flagship game where the wacky character becomes the face of your company. You could say the reason we have Sonic the Hedgehog is because Super Mario existed. Super Mario Bros was a fun title, but was even better was that the sequels didn't suck! Super Mario 2 (North America) was crazy fun and then one of my favourite games of all-time Super Mario 3. I have this very early memory. I am not even really sure if its an actual memory or a dream. In this memory my dad tells me after school we will get SM3. He picks me up from school and we go straight to the store to get it. I remember the beautiful bright yellow box and blue letters. Its a happy memory I cherish even if it was a dream that over the years became a faded memory. SM3 was perfect. The world map, the cool new enemies, the new power ups, the Koopa kids, it was all just perfect. I remember finding out about the secret flutes to warp to the other zones. We had no internet back then. It was all word of mouth. You heard it from your neighbor whos cousin's best friends step-brother had a subscription to Nintendo Power.

A Child playing Duck Hunt with the Nintendo Zapper

Outside of Super Mario the NES had a terrific Library of games. Some games where legendary. I had no idea what I was doing as a kid playing Legend of Zelda, but I knew each time I popped in that golden cartridge I was going on an adventure. Some games where frustrating impossible tasks like Double Dragon III: Sacred Stones where by the time you even got to the end of the first stage you had exhausted all your health. No saves. No retries. These old NES games demand perfection from you. The greatest thing I remember was renting video games. We had a small mom and pop video rental place where we used to go to rent movies and games. Oh right.. Video rental places where stores where you would pay a fee to borrow physical media for a prescribed time with a promise to return it before the expiry date. I remember going to these places and making judgement calls on how cool the cover art was or if it was a recognizable brand. Usually getting games based on movies like The Adams Family or Last Action Hero.

We played our NES well into the 90s until one Easter morning in 1994 where the Easter Bunny laid chocolate eggs and a Sega Genesis Sonic 2 bundle in our living room. That's when Sega became a household name in our household. More and more gaming came and went but the NES always held a special place in my heart. So much so that to this day I still have our families original Nintendo Entertainment System as part of my collection.

Thank you for stopping by and reading this blog post. Stay safe out there gamers.

Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda are the intellectual property of Nintendo Company Ltd. and all of their subsidiaries.

Sonic The Hedgehog is the intellectual property of the SEGA Corporation and all of their subsidiaries.

Research for this article was taken from wikipedia.org and https://nintendo.fandom.com/

Images in this article where taken from pixabay.com for free use.

This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended.