Fourth generation of video game consoles
Nintendo executives were initially reluctant to design a new system, but as the market transitioned to the newer hardware, Nintendo saw the erosion of the commanding market share it had built up with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Famicom, was released in Japan on November 21, 1990; Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours. The machine reached North America as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on August 23, 1991, and Europe and Australia in April 1992.
Nintendo Super System
The Nintendo Super System (NSS) is an arcade system used to preview Super NES games in the United States. It is essentially the Super NES hardware with a menu interface, similar to Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 hardware for NES games, that allows players to play select Super NES games for a certain amount of time, depending on how many game credits they had.