Nintendo video game consoles
Although the company had earlier released Color TV Game and Game & Watch, which were their first and second systems respectfully, they did not achieve worldwide success until the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1983. The NES restarted the video game industry after the video game crash of 1983, and was an international success. In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, which became the first handheld console to sell in large numbers. In the early 1990s, Nintendo's market lead began to decrease; although the 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was a strong seller, the Mega Drive/Genesis was a very strong contender. Nintendo and Sega would both lose a significant portion of the console market towards the end of the 1990s, as Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation became the most popular console, beating the Nintendo 64, though Nintendo managed to sell more than Sega Saturn.
Super Mario Bros.
"Super Mario Bros." was first released in Japan on September 13, 1985, for the Family Computer. It was released later that year in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Its concrete North American release date is unknown and is frequently debated; despite generally being cited as having been released alongside the NES in October 1985 as a launch title, several other sources conflict with this statement, suggesting that the game may have released in other varying time frames ranging from November 1985 to early 1986. The game was released in Europe two years later on May 15, 1987 for the NES.
In 1988, the game was re-released along with the shooting range game "Duck Hunt" as part of a single ROM cartridge, which came packaged with the NES as a pack-in title, as part of the console's "Action Set". This version of the game is extremely common in North America, with millions of copies of it having been manufactured and sold in the United States. In 1990, another cartridge, touting the two games as well as "World Class Track Meet", was also released in North America as part of the NES "Power Set". It was released on May 15, 1987 in Europe, and during that year in Australia as well. In 1988, the game was re-released in Europe in a cartridge containing the game plus "Tetris" and "Nintendo World Cup". The compilation was sold alone or bundled with the revised version of the NES.