When was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System first introduced?
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.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES was also released in Europe, albeit in stages and in a rather haphazard manner. Most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy, Portugal and Spain) received the system in 1986, where it was distributed by various companies. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand received the system in 1987, where it was distributed by Mattel. In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration (though the console did see more success later on in its life). The NES did outsell the Master System in Australia, though by a much smaller margin than in North America.
Nintendo DS
Multiple games were released alongside the DS during its North American launch on November 21, 2004. At launch there was one pack-in demo, in addition to the built-in PictoChat program: "Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt" (published by Nintendo and is a demo for "Metroid Prime Hunters", a game released in March 2006). At the time of the "Electric Blue" DS launch in June 2005, Nintendo bundled the system with "Super Mario 64 DS".
Nintendo Selects
In North America and Europe, Nintendo introduced the label on May 20, 1996, as "Player's Choice" both for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and for the Game Boy to distinguish titles that had sold over one million copies. , recommended retail prices are £19.99 in the United Kingdom, USD$19.99 in the United States, CDN$19.99 in Canada, A$49.95 in Australia and €29.99 throughout the Eurozone. Nintendo's "Player's Choice" range concept is similar to the "Greatest Hits" line (known as the Platinum range in PAL regions) on Sony consoles, the "Platinum Hits" (Xbox Classics in Europe) line on the Xbox, and the "Sega All Stars" line on the Dreamcast.
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.
Nintendo Cereal System
Nintendo Cereal System is a breakfast cereal which was produced by Ralston Cereals in 1988 and discontinued in 1989. The name of the cereal was based on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and represents two of the most popular video games for the NES at the time: "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda". Over the years, the cereal has been sold as memorabilia for collectors on online auction sites, at prices exceeding $100 per box. In 2010, a box was sold on eBay for over $200.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era despite its relatively late start and the intense competition it faced in North America and Europe from Sega's Genesis console. The SNES remained popular well into the 32-bit era having sold 49.1 million worldwide (Comparative to the NES's 61.9 million). It continues to be popular among collectors and retro gamers, some of whom still make homebrew ROM images, in addition to its popularity in Nintendo's emulated rereleases, such as in Virtual Console environment.
History of Nintendo
In 1985, Nintendo announced that they were releasing the Famicom worldwide with a different design under the name the "Nintendo Entertainment System" (NES). They used a creative tactic to counter the bad view that the media was giving on video games, and released the NES with R.O.B. units that connected to the console and were synchronised to the games. To ensure the localization of the highest-quality games by third-party developers, Nintendo of America limited the number of game titles third-party developers could release in a single year to five. Konami, the first third-party company that was allowed to make cartridges for the Famicom, would later circumvent this rule by creating a spinoff company, Ultra Games, to release additional games in a single year. Other manufacturers soon employed the same tactic. Also in 1985, "Super Mario Bros." was released for the Famicom in Japan and became a large success.
List of best-selling Nintendo 64 video games
The list of best-selling Nintendo 64 games consists of 45 titles which have yielded 1 million or more unit sales each. The best-selling video game on the Nintendo 64 is "Super Mario 64". First released in Japan on June 23, 1996, it was a launch title for the system and the first "Super Mario" game to use three-dimensional graphics. The game went on to sell 11.91 million units worldwide. "Mario Kart 64", the second in the "Mario Kart" series, is the second best-selling game on the platform, with sales of more than 9.8 million copies. The console's top five is rounded out by Rare's "GoldenEye 007" at third, with sales of just more than 8 million units, "" in fourth, with 7.6 million units sold worldwide, and "Super Smash Bros." in fifth, with sales of more than 5.5 million units.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The SNES and Super Famicom launched with few games, but these games were well received in the marketplace. In Japan, only two games were initially available: "Super Mario World" and "F-Zero". (A third game, "Bombuzal", was released during the launch week.) In North America, "Super Mario World" launched as a bundle with the console; other launch games included "F-Zero", "Pilotwings" (both of which demonstrated the console's "Mode 7" pseudo-3D rendering capability), "SimCity", and "Gradius III".
Nintendo video game consoles
The Super NES was Nintendo's second home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System. Whereas the earlier console had struggled in the PAL region and large parts of Asia, the Super NES was a global success, albeit one that could not match its predecessor's popularity in Northeast Asia and North America—due in part to increased competition from Sega's Genesis console (released in Europe as the Mega Drive). Despite its relatively late start, the Super NES became the best selling console of the 16-bit era, selling 49.10 million systems worldwide. The Super NES library is known for upgrading some of Nintendo's most famous franchises, and making the games even more critically acclaimed, such as "Super Metroid", "", "Final Fantasy IV" and "VI", "Donkey Kong Country" and "Super Mario World", as well starting some popular franchises such as "Star Fox" and "Mega Man X".
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Most of the PAL region versions of the console use the Japanese Super Famicom design, except for labeling and the length of the joypad leads. The Playtronic Super NES in Brazil, although PAL-M, uses the North American design. Both the NES and SNES were released in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic, a joint venture between the toy company Estrela and consumer electronics company Gradiente.
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis &amp; Development
In 1989, one year before the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in Japan, the R&D4 department was spun-off and made its own division named "Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development" (commonly abbreviated as "Nintendo EAD"). The division was comprised into two departments: the "Software Development Department", which focused on video game development and was led by Miyamoto, and the Technology Development Department, which focused on programming and developing tools and was led by Takao Sawano. The technology department was born out of several R&D2 engineers that were assisting SRD with software libraries. After that, the same department later collaborated with Argonaut Games to develop the Super FX chip technology for the SNES, first used in "Star Fox" in 1993. This venture allowed the Technology Development Department to become more prominent in the 3D era, where they programmed several of Nintendo EAD's 3D games with SRD.
History of Nintendo
In Japan, the Super Famicom easily took control of the gaming market. In the US, due to a late start and an aggressive marketing campaign by Sega (Headed by the Sega Company's new mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog, their answer to Nintendo's Super Mario), Nintendo saw its market share take a precipitous plunge from 90-95% with the NES to a low of approximately 35% against the Sega Genesis. Over the course of several years, the SNES in North America eventually overtook the Genesis, thanks to franchise titles such as "Super Mario World", "", "Street Fighter II", and the "Final Fantasy" series. Total worldwide sales of the SNES reached 49.10 million units, eclipsing the estimated 40 million unit sales of the Genesis.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Nintendo presented the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as a playable demonstration. The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Spaceworld, when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3. Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" were prizes for the winner. Before the game's release, the Japanese official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles. Nintendo followed this trend with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", in which there were daily updates by the game's developer, Masahiro Sakurai. Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" reported that Nintendo advertised the game in between showings of "Pokémon 4Ever" across movie theaters in Japan. In January 2003, "Super Smash Bros Melee" became part of the Player's Choice, a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games that have sold more than a million copies. In August 2005, Nintendo bundled the game with the GameCube for $99.99.
Esports
Large esports tournaments in the 1990s include the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, which toured across the United States, and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Nintendo PowerFest '94. There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego, California. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize. Blockbuster Video also ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included "NBA Jam" and "Virtua Racing".
History of Nintendo
Nintendo test marketed the Nintendo Entertainment System in the New York area on October 18, 1985. They expanded the test to Los Angeles in February 1986, followed by tests in Chicago and San Francisco. They would go national by the end of 1986, along with 15 games, sold separately. In the US and Canada, it outsold its competitors by a wide margin. This was also the year that "Metroid" and "" (the Japanese version) were released. In 1987, "The Legend of Zelda" was released to much critical acclaim.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
The original "Super Mario Bros." was released in North America in October 1985. Within four months, it had sold tens of millions of Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom in Japan) video game consoles and signaled the end of the 1983 video game crash. When developing a version of the game for Nintendo's coin-operated arcade machine, the VS. System, the team experimented with new, challenging level designs. They enjoyed these new levels, and thought that "Super Mario" devotees would too. Shigeru Miyamoto, who created the "Mario" franchise and directed "Super Mario Bros.", no longer had time to design games by himself, given his responsibilities leading Nintendo's R&D4 division and their work on "The Legend of Zelda". Thus, the "Super Mario" sequel was delegated to its predecessor's assistant director, Takashi Tezuka, as his directorial debut. He worked with Miyamoto and the R&D4 team to develop a sequel based on the same underlying technology, including some levels directly from "Vs. Super Mario Bros."
Nintendo Entertainment System
The console was released on July 15, 1983 as the Family Computer (or Famicom for short) for ¥14,800 () alongside three ports of Nintendo's successful arcade games "Donkey Kong", "Donkey Kong Jr." and "Popeye". The Famicom was slow to gather momentum; a bad chip set caused the initial release of the system to crash. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the Famicom's popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984.
Mega Man X (video game)
Mega Man X is an action-platform video game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was the first "Mega Man" game for the 16-bit console and the first game in the "Mega Man X" series, a spin-off of the original "Mega Man" series that began on the SNES's predecessor, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). "Mega Man X" was released in Japan on December 17, 1993 and was released in both North America and Europe the following year. Taking place a century after the original "Mega Man" series, "Mega Man X" is set in a futuristic world populated by both humans and "Reploids", robots capable of thinking, feeling, and growing like their human creators. Because of these complex attributes, many Reploids are prone to destructive, criminal activity and are thereafter referred to as "Mavericks". The plot of the game follows the protagonist Mega Man X, an android member of a military task force called the "Maverick Hunters". With the help of his partner Zero, X must thwart the plans of Sigma, a powerful Maverick leader wishing to bring about human extinction.
Super 8 (video game accessory)
The Super 8, also sold under the title Tri-star or Tristar, is an unlicensed video game peripheral released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System designed to allow the system to run games developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Super 8 utilized an NES-on-a-chip integrated circuit to duplicate the functionality of the original NES hardware, and connected to the SNES's own cartridge slot.
GameCube
The console was announced as the Nintendo GameCube at a press conference in Japan on August 24, 2000, abbreviated as "NGC" in Japan and "GCN" in North America. Nintendo unveiled its software lineup for the sixth generation console at E3 2001, focusing on fifteen launch games, including "Luigi's Mansion" and "". Several games originally scheduled to launch with the console were delayed. It is also the first console in the company's history not to accompany a "Super Mario" platform game at launch.
History of video games
A 16-bit generation of video game consoles starts in the late 1980s. The TurboGrafx-16, named the PC Engine in Europe and Japan, debuted in 1987 as the first commercial 16-bit game system. It had a large following in Japan, but, did poorly in North America and Europe because of its limited library of games and because of excessive distribution restrictions imposed by Hudson Soft. Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis sold well worldwide early on after its debut in 1988. Nintendo responded with its own next generation system named the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in 1990.
This time was one of intense competition and not entirely truthful marketing. The TurboGrafx-16 was billed as the first 16-bit system but its central processor was an 8-bit HuC6280, with only its HuC6270 graphics processor being a true 16-bit chip. Also, the much earlier Mattel Intellivision contained a 16-bit processor. Sega used the term "Blast Processing" throughout its marketing to describe the simple fact that their console's CPU ran at a higher clock speed than that of the SNES (7.67 MHz vs 3.58 MHz).
Super Cassette Vision
Epoch's original Cassette Vision was introduced in Japan by Epoch in 1981, which had steady sales and took over 70% of the Japanese home console market at the time, with around 400,000 units sold. However, the introduction of next-generation systems from Nintendo, Casio and Sega quickly pushed back the original Cassette Vision, leading Epoch to quickly develop a successor. The Super Cassette Vision was released in 1984, featuring an 8-bit processor and better performance more in line with its competitors. It was later released in France by ITMC under the Yeno branding. At least 16 games were brought over from Japan for a European release. A version of the system targeted the young female market, the Super Lady Cassette Vision. The console came packed in a pink carrying case, alongside the game Milky Princess. The system did not take off, and was unable to match the massive popularity of the Nintendo Famicom, leading Epoch to drop out of the console market by 1987.
Fifth generation of video game consoles
The Nintendo 64, originally announced as the "Ultra 64", was released in 1996. The system's delays and use of the expensive cartridge format made it an unpopular platform among third party developers. Several popular 1st party titles allowed the Nintendo 64 to maintain strong sales in the United States, but it remained a distant second to the PlayStation.
List of Virtual Console games for Wii U (North America)
These titles were originally released for use on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was launched in 1991.
Nintendo video game consoles
Released July 15, 1983, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa and was Nintendo's first home video game console released outside Japan. In Japan, it is known as the "Family Computer" (or "Famicom", as it is commonly abbreviated). Selling 61.91 million units worldwide, the NES helped revitalize the video game industry following the video game crash of 1983 and set the standard for subsequent consoles in everything from game design to business practices. The NES was the first console for which the manufacturer openly courted third-party developers. Many of Nintendo's most iconic franchises, such as "The Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid" were started on the NES. Nintendo continued to repair Famicom consoles in Japan until October 31, 2007, attributing the decision to discontinue support to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.
Nintendo 64
"Popular Electronics" called the launch a "much hyped, long-anticipated moment". Several months before the launch, "GamePro" reported that many gamers, including a large percentage of their own editorial staff, were already saying they favored the Nintendo 64 over the Saturn and PlayStation.
The console was first released in Japan on June 23, 1996. Though the initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out on the first day, Nintendo successfully avoided a repeat of the Super Famicom launch day pandemonium, in part by using a wider retail network which included convenience stores. The remaining 200,000 units of the first production run shipped on June 26 and June 30, with almost all of them reserved ahead of time. In the months between the Japanese and North American launches, the Nintendo 64 saw brisk sales on the American grey market, with import stores charging as much as $699 plus shipping for the system. The Nintendo 64 was first sold in North America on September 26, 1996, though having been advertised for the 29th. It was launched with just two games in the United States, "Pilotwings 64" and "Super Mario 64"; "Cruis'n USA" was pulled from the lineup less than a month before launch because it did not meet Nintendo's quality standards. In 1994, prior to the launch, Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln emphasized the quality of first-party games, saying "... we're convinced that a few great games at launch are more important than great games mixed in with a lot of dogs". The PAL version of the console was released in Europe on March 1, 1997. According to Nintendo of America representatives, Nintendo had been planning a simultaneous launch in Japan, North America, and Europe, but market studies indicated that worldwide demand for the system far exceeded the number of units they could have ready by launch, potentially leading to consumer and retailer frustration.
Originally intended to be priced at , the console was ultimately launched at to make it competitive with Sony and Sega offerings, as both the Saturn and PlayStation had been lowered to $199.99 earlier that summer. Nintendo priced the console as an impulse purchase, a strategy from the toy industry. The price of the console in the United States was further reduced in August 1998.
The Nintendo 64's North American launch was backed with a $54 million marketing campaign by Leo Burnett Worldwide (meaning over $100 in marketing per North American unit that had been manufactured up to this point). While the competing Saturn and PlayStation both set teenagers and adults as their target audience, the Nintendo 64's target audience was pre-teens.
1980s in video gaming
By 1985, the home market console in North America had been dormant for nearly two years. Elsewhere, video games continued to be a staple of innovation and development. After seeing impressive numbers from its Famicom system in Japan, Nintendo decided to jump into the North American market by releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short. After release it took several years to build up momentum, but despite the pessimism of critics it became a success. Nintendo is credited with reviving the home console market.
Nintendo Entertainment System
Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller and a special BASIC cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never materialized. By the beginning of 1985, more than 2.5 million Famicom units had been sold in Japan, and Nintendo soon announced plans to release it in North America as the Advanced Video Entertainment System (AVS) that same year. The American video game press was skeptical that the console could have any success in the region, as the industry was still recovering from the video game crash of 1983. The March 1985 issue of "Electronic Games" magazine stating that "the videogame market in America has virtually disappeared" and that "this could be a miscalculation on Nintendo's part."
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Designed by Masayuki Uemura, the designer of the original Famicom, the Super Famicom was released in Japan on Wednesday, November 21, 1990 for 25,000 yen (equivalent to yen in ). It was an instant success; Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours, and the resulting social disturbance led the Japanese government to ask video game manufacturers to schedule future console releases on weekends. The system's release also gained the attention of the Yakuza, leading to a decision to ship the devices at night to avoid robbery.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
A dedicated mini-console, the Super NES Classic Edition, was released in September 2017 after the NES Classic Edition. The emulation-based system, which is physically modeled after the North American and European versions of the SNES in their respective regions, is bundled with two SNES-style controllers and comes preloaded with 21 games, including the previously unreleased "Star Fox 2".
Nintendo Entertainment System (Model NES-101)
Nintendo marketed the NES-101 model as the NES Control Deck, exactly the same as the original NES-001 model, only with a "new design" mark on the packaging. It retailed in North America for $49.99 USD (equivalent to $ in ). This was at a significantly lower price than the already released Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES-101 control deck came packaged with a redesigned version of the standard NES controller (model number NES-039) shaped very similarly to the Super NES controller.
Nintendo Entertainment System
In October 1993, Nintendo redesigned the NES to follow many of the same design cues as the newly introduced Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Super Famicom. Like the SNES, the NES-101 model loaded cartridges through a covered slot on top of the unit replacing the complicated mechanism of the earlier design. For this reason the NES-101 is known informally as the "top-loader" among Nintendo fans.
Koji Kondo
Kondo was the third person hired by Nintendo to create music and sound effects for their games, joining Hirokazu Tanaka and Yukio Kaneoka. However, he was the first at Nintendo to actually specialize in musical composition. The first game he worked on was the arcade game "Punch-Out!!", although it was before he had officially joined Nintendo. Despite creating mostly jingles and sound effects, he was able to overcome the challenges of early arcade sound hardware. As the Famicom had become highly popular in Japan, Kondo was assigned to compose music for the console's subsequent games at Nintendo's new development team, Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD). Kondo also wrote an instruction manual on how to program Japanese popular music into the Famicom using the peripheral "Family BASIC". To conclude his first year at Nintendo, he created the music to "Devil World" alongside Akito Nakatsuka. In 1985, Nintendo started marketing the Famicom abroad under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to capitalize on the 1983 video game crash that devastated Atari, Inc. He composed the music for the hit releases "Super Mario Bros." (1985) and "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), which helped the system to sell 60 million copies in total and established some of the most well-known melodies in the video game industry.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
For the nationwide launch, the NES was available in two different packages: The fully featured $249 USD "Deluxe Set" as configured during the New York City launch, and a scaled-down "Control Deck" package which includes two gamepads and a copy of "Super Mario Bros."
Super FX
According to Argonaut Games founder Jez San, Argonaut had initially intended to develop the Super FX chip for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The team programmed an NES version of the first-person combat flight simulator "Starglider", which Argonaut had developed for PC systems a few years earlier, and showed it to Nintendo in 1990. The prototype impressed the company, but they suggested that they develop games for the then-unreleased Super Famicom due to the NES's hardware which was becoming outdated in light of newer systems such as the Sega Mega Drive and the PC Engine. Shortly after the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show held in Chicago, Illinois, Argonaut transferred the NES version of "Starglider" onto the Super Famicom, a process which took roughly one week according to San.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
To compete with the popular Family Computer in Japan, NEC Home Electronics launched the PC Engine in 1987, and Sega followed suit with the Mega Drive in 1988. The two platforms were later launched in North America in 1989 as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Sega Genesis, respectively. Both systems were built on 16-bit architectures and offered improved graphics and sound over the 8-bit NES. However, it took several years for Sega's system to become successful. Nintendo executives were in no rush to design a new system, but they reconsidered when they began to see their dominance in the market slipping.
History of Nintendo
In 1989, Nintendo (which had seen a large amount of success from the Game & Watch) released the Game Boy (both created by Gunpei Yokoi), along with the accompanying game "Tetris". Due to the price, the game and its durability (unlike the prior Microvision from Milton Bradley Company, which was prone to static and screen rot), the Game Boy line sold extremely well, eventually amassing sales of 118 million units. Later, "Super Mario Land" was also released for the Game Boy, which sold 14 million copies worldwide. 1989 was also the year that Nintendo announced a sequel to the Famicom, to be called the Super Famicom.
Super Smash Bros.
The original "Super Smash Bros.", released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, had a small budget and was originally a Japan-only release, but its domestic success led to a worldwide release. The series achieved even greater success with the release of "Super Smash Bros. Melee", which was released in 2001 for the GameCube and became the bestselling game on that system. A third installment, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", was released in 2008 for the Wii. Although HAL Laboratory had been the developer of the first two games, the third game was developed through the collaboration of several companies. The fourth installment, "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS" and "Wii U", were released in 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, respectively. The 3DS installment was the first for a handheld platform. A fifth installment, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate", was released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo
In 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer (colloquialized as "Famicom") home video game console in Japan, alongside ports of its most popular arcade games. In 1985, a cosmetically reworked version of the system known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES, launched in North America. The practice of bundling the system along with select games helped to make "Super Mario Bros." one of the best-selling video games in history.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo's 8-bit video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the or , was introduced after the video game crash of 1983 in North America. It enjoyed a long lifespan and dominated the North American video game market during the late 80's. Facing obsolescence in 1989 with the advent of 16-bit consoles, it was later supplanted by its successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but support and production continued until 1995. After its discontinuation, interest in the NES has since been renewed by collectors and emulators, including Nintendo's own Virtual Console platform.
Nintendo
In 1996, Nintendo released the Ultra 64 as the Nintendo 64 in Japan and North America. The console was later released in Europe and Australia in 1997. The Nintendo 64 continued what had become a Nintendo tradition of hardware design which is focused less on high performance specifications than on design innovations intended to inspire game development. With its market shares slipping to the Sega Saturn and partner-turned-rival Sony PlayStation, Nintendo revitalized its brand by launching a $185 million marketing campaign centered around the "Play it Loud" slogan. During the same year, Nintendo also released the Game Boy Pocket in Japan, a smaller version of the Game Boy that generated more sales for the platform. On 4 October 1997, famed Nintendo developer Gunpei Yokoi died in a car crash. In 1997, Nintendo released the SNS-101 (called Super Famicom Jr. in Japan), a smaller redesigned version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Super Mario Bros.
"Super Mario Bros." has been re-released for several of Nintendo's game systems as a part of their Virtual Console line of classic video game releases. It was first released for the Wii on December 2, 2006 in Japan, December 25, 2006 in North America and January 5, 2007 in PAL regions. The release is a complete emulation of the original game, meaning that nothing is changed from the its original NES release. This version of the game is also one of the "trial games" made available in the "Masterpieces" section in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", where it can be demoed for a limited amount of time.
A Nintendo 3DS release of the game was initially distributed exclusively to members of Nintendo's 3DS Ambassador Program in September 2011. A general release of the title later came through in Japan on January 5, 2012, in North America on February 16, 2012 and in Europe on March 1, 2012. The game was released for the Wii U's Virtual Console in Japan on June 5, 2013, followed by Europe on September 12, 2013 and North America on September 19, 2013.
Mario (franchise)
The "Nintendo Comics System" was a series of comic books published by Valiant Comics in 1990 and 1991. It was part of a licensing deal with Nintendo, featuring characters from their video games and the cartoons based on them. Valiant's "Super Mario Bros." comic books were based on the three main "Mario" games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show". The "Mario" line was renewed for 1991 with two different books—"Super Mario Bros." and "Adventures of the Super Mario Bros."
Nintendo video game consoles
The Nintendo DS (abbreviated NDS, DS, or the full name Nintendo Dual Screen, and iQue DS in China) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, released in 2004. It is visibly distinguishable by its horizontal clamshell design, and the presence of two displays, the lower of which acts as a touchscreen. The system also has a built-in microphone and supports wireless IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standards, allowing players to interact with each other within short range (10–30 meters, depending on conditions) or over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service via a standard Wi-Fi access point.
According to Nintendo, the letters "DS" in the name stand for "Developers' System" and "Double Screen", the former of which refers to the features of the handheld designed to encourage innovative gameplay ideas among developers. The system was known as "Project Nitro" during development.
Nintendo
Nintendo of America has engaged in several high-profile marketing campaigns to define and position its brand. One of its earliest and most enduring slogans was "Now you're playing with power!", used first to promote its Nintendo Entertainment System. It modified the slogan to include "SUPER power" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and "PORTABLE power" for the Game Boy. Its 1994 "Play It Loud!" campaign played upon teenage rebellion and fostered an edgy reputation. During the Nintendo 64 era, the slogan was "Get N or get out." During the GameCube era, the "Who Are You?" suggested a link between the games and the players' identities. The company promoted its Nintendo DS handheld with the tagline "Touching is Good." For the Wii, they used the "Wii would like to play" slogan to promote the console with the people who tried the games including "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Super Paper Mario". The Nintendo 3DS used the slogan "Take a look inside". The Wii U used the slogan "How U will play next." The Nintendo Switch uses the slogan "Switch and Play" in North America, and "Play anywhere, anytime, with anyone" in Europe.
Nintendo's internal research and development operations are divided into three main divisions: Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (or EPD), the main software development division of Nintendo, which focuses on video game and software development; Nintendo Platform Technology Development (or PTD), which focuses on home and handheld video game console hardware development; and Nintendo Business Development (or NBD), which focuses on refining business strategy and is responsible for overseeing the smart device arm of the business.
Nintendo Entertainment System
In 1991, Nintendo provided an add-on called the "Super NES Counter Tester" that tests Super Nintendo components and games. The SNES Counter Tester is a standard SNES on a metal fixture with the connection from the back of the SNES re-routed to the front of the unit. These connections may be made directly to the test station or to the TV, depending on what is to be tested.
Nintendo VS. System
The , officially sold simply as the , is a coin-operated video game platform sold to arcades from 1984 to 1990. Designed for two-player competitive play using the VS. UniSystem or VS. DualSystem and with arcade system boards based on the Nintendo Entertainment System, many of these stand-up or sit-down arcade machines have two screens and controllers joined at an angle. Cutting costs compared to higher powered arcade hardware, games were ported from existing home video games for the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System.
List of Nintendo 64 games
Of the console's 389 official releases, 196 are region-locked to Japan, 296 to North America, and 242 to Europe. The Nintendo 64 was first launched in Japan on June 23, 1996 with "Super Mario 64", "Pilotwings 64", and "Saikyō Habu Shōgi"; in North America with "Super Mario 64" and "Pilotwings 64"; and in Europe with "Super Mario 64", "Pilotwings 64", "", and "". The last game to be published for the system was the North American-locked "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3" on August 20, 2002. The best-selling game is "Super Mario 64" with 11 million units . Regardless of the higher cost of cartridge production and of continued criticism over releasing a cartridge-based system, the total unit sales of Nintendo 64 software has exceeded the total unit sales of Nintendo GameCube software. The Nintendo 64 library is to date the smallest overall library of game titles on a Nintendo home console.
New-Style Super NES
The New-Style Super NES (also known by its model number SNS-101) is a compact redesign of the original Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console released by Nintendo in 1997. In Japan, the system is called the . The New-Style Super NES continued Nintendo's practice of releasing low-cost, redesigned systems towards the end of a platform's lifespan.
CD-i games from The Legend of Zelda series
In 1989, Nintendo signed a deal with Sony to begin development of a CD-ROM-based system known as the SNES-CD (also known as the "Nintendo Play-Station", with separated words) to be an add-on to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that would allow for FMV and larger games. However, Nintendo broke the agreement and instead signed with Philips to make the add-on, which caused Sony to spin off their add-on into its own console called the PlayStation (with "PlayStation" as one word due to a copyright issue with the trademark "Play-Station" owned by Nintendo). Witnessing the poor reception of the Sega Mega-CD, Nintendo scrapped the idea of making an add-on entirely. As part of dissolving the agreement with Philips, Nintendo gave them the license to use five of their characters, including Link, Princess Zelda, and Ganon, for games on Philips's console called the CD-i, after the partnership's dissolution.
Nintendo Entertainment System
On August 14, 1995, Nintendo discontinued the Nintendo Entertainment System in both North America and Europe.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
While the NES in its heyday was never officially released in the Soviet Union, an unlicensed Chinese hardware clone named the Dendy was produced in Russia in the early 1990s. Aesthetically, it is an exact duplicate of the original Famicom, with the color scheme and labels altered. In addition, the hardwired controllers of the original console were omitted in favor of removable controllers which connected to the front of the unit using DE-9 serial connectors, identical to those used in the Atari 2600 and the Atari 8-bit family of computers.
All games sold in Russia for "Dendy" are bootleg copies, not the original Nintendo cartridges.
In North America, the NES widely outsold its primary competitors, the Atari 7800 and the Sega Master System. The successful launch of the NES positioned Nintendo to dominate the home video game market for the remainder of the 1980s. Buoyed by the success of the system, NES Game Paks produced similarly appropriate sales records. Released in 1988 in Japan, "Super Mario Bros. 3" would gross well over US$500 million, selling over 7 million copies in America and 4 million copies in Japan, making it the most popular and fastest selling standalone home video game in history. The original "Super Mario Bros." actually outsold "Super Mario Bros. 3" by a margin of 40.24 million to 17.28 million. Many of the sales of the original game, however, were the result of the fact that it was packaged alongside the NES console itself.
History of Nintendo
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 (N64) was released in Japan, selling over 500,000 units on the first day of its release. On September 29, 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in North America, selling out the initial shipment of 350,000. Many feel that the advertising onslaught by Sony at this time did not truly begin to take effect until many of the consumers who held out for the N64 became frustrated at the lack of software following the first few months after the system's release. What also greatly contributed to the extremely competitive climate that Nintendo was entrenched in was the fact that many third-party companies immediately began developing and releasing many of their leading games for Nintendo's competing consoles. Many of those third party companies cited cheaper development and manufacturing costs for the CD format, versus the cartridge format. On December 1, 1999, Nintendo released an add-on to the Nintendo 64 in Japan, titled the Nintendo 64DD, although it was never released elsewhere.
Video gaming in Japan
In 1991, "Final Fantasy IV" was one of the first role-playing games to feature a complex, involving plot, placing a much greater emphasis on character development, personal relationships, and dramatic storytelling. It also introduced a new battle system: the "Active Time Battle" system, developed by Hiroyuki Ito, where the time-keeping system does not stop. The fact that enemies can attack or be attacked at any time is credited with injecting urgency and excitement into the combat system. The ATB combat system was considered revolutionary for being a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat, with its requirement of faster reactions from players appealing to those who were more used to action games.
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. Despite stiff competition from the Mega Drive/Genesis console, the Super NES eventually took the top selling position, selling 49.10 million units worldwide, and would remain popular well into the fifth generation of consoles. Nintendo's market position was defined by their machine's increased video and sound capabilities, as well as exclusive first-party franchise titles such as "Super Mario World", "" and "Super Metroid".
Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES was released after the "video game crash" of the early 1980s, when many retailers and adults regarded electronic games as a passing fad, so many believed at first that the NES would soon fade. Before the NES/Famicom, Nintendo was known as a moderately successful Japanese toy and playing card manufacturer, but the popularity of the NES/Famicom helped the company grow into an internationally recognized name almost synonymous with video games as Atari had been, and set the stage for Japanese dominance of the video game industry. With the NES, Nintendo also changed the relationship between console manufacturers and third-party software developers by restricting developers from publishing and distributing software without licensed approval. This led to higher quality software titles, which helped change the attitude of a public that had grown weary from poorly produced titles for earlier game systems.
Super NES Emulator SE
The Super NES Emulator SE was a Nintendo-sponsored game development system for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed by Intelligent Systems, and sold only to licensed Nintendo development houses.
Nintendo Entertainment System
In Europe, Oceania and Canada, the system was released to two separate marketing regions. The first consisted of mainland Europe (excluding Italy) where distribution was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases. Most of this region saw a 1986 release. The release in the Netherlands was in Q4 of 1987, where it was distributed by Bandai BV. In 1987 Mattel handled distribution for the second region, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Not until the 1990s did Nintendo's newly created European branch direct distribution throughout Europe.
Super Controller
The Super Controller is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was released by Bandai and was a plastic clip-on device that was supposed to allow the player to have a better NES playing experience. The original NES controller could be inserted inside by snapping open the back. The Super Controller still allowed the player to use the original A, B, Start, and Select buttons on the NES controller; the only difference was an arcade stick-like knob that fit over the D-pad of the original NES controller.
Nes
NES is the Nintendo Entertainment System, an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in 1985.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Also that year, the young subsidiary Nintendo of America was just completing its test marketing of, and beginning its nationwide launch of, the new Nintendo Entertainment System and its flagship game, "Super Mario Bros." This American adaptation of the Famicom platform had been altogether deliberately delayed in the wake of the video game crash of 1983, a regional market disaster which the Japanese market had not directly experienced. The subsidiary did not want the increasingly popular "Mario" series to be known for maximal frustration and thus inaccessible to a recovering, transfiguring, and expanding market — nor to be stylistically outdated by the time the Japanese "Super Mario Bros. 2" could be eventually converted to the NES's cartridge format, localized, and mass-produced for America. Utilizing its considerable regional autonomy in order to avoid risking the franchise's popularity in this burgeoning market, Nintendo of America declined this game's American release and instead requested a newer and more player-friendly "Super Mario Bros." sequel for the non-Japanese world.
History of Nintendo
The Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990. The system's launch was widely successful, and the Super Famicom was sold out across Japan within three days, selling 1.6 million units by June 1991. In August 1991, the Super Famicom was launched in the US under the name ""Super Nintendo Entertainment System"" (SNES), followed by Europe in 1992.
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo aired its first-ever Super Bowl ad during the United States broadcast of Super Bowl LI. Set to the Imagine Dragons song "Believer", the ad showcased the various play modes with the Switch and its launch titles, particularly "Breath of the Wild", and upcoming releases; while an ad to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Pokémon" was broadcast the previous year during Super Bowl 50, this ad was paid for by The Pokémon Company and not by Nintendo. Chavez said of the ad, "There's no bigger stage in the U.S. on which to showcase the platform. I think it speaks to our confidence in the system."
History of Nintendo
In October 2016, Nintendo revealed a new system called the Nintendo Switch, which was released on March 3, 2017. It is a hybrid video game console with detachable controllers with an emphasis on portability and on the go multiplayer in contrast of the then competitors PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In the year the Switch was released Nintendo put out "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" and "Super Mario Odyssey", both games with critical acclaim that helped sell millions of units in the first year of the new console, eventually culminating with the "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" being named Game of the Year 2017.
Video game crash of 1983
Nintendo reserved a large part of NES game revenue for itself by limiting most third-party publishers to only five games per year on its systems (some companies tried to get around this by creating additional company labels like Konami's Ultra Games label); Nintendo would ultimately drop this rule by 1993 with the release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It also required all cartridges to be manufactured by Nintendo, and to be paid for in full before they were manufactured. Cartridges could not be returned to Nintendo, so publishers assumed all the financial risk of selling all units ordered. As a result, some publishers lost more money due to distress sales of remaining inventory at the end of the NES era than they ever earned in profits from sales of the games.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
In October 1997, Nintendo released a redesigned model of the SNES (the SNS-101 model referred to as "New-Style Super NES") in North America for US$99, with some units including the pack-in game "". Like the earlier redesign of the NES (model NES-101), the new model was slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, but it lacked S-Video and RGB output, and it was among the last major SNES-related releases in the region. A similarly redesigned Super Famicom Jr. was released in Japan at around the same time.
List of Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS (North America)
These titles were originally released for use on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was launched in 1991. These Virtual Console titles are exclusively available for New Nintendo 3DS platforms (New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, or New Nintendo 2DS XL), due to technical issues regarding the CPU in older Nintendo 3DS models for rendering the emulation.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Many popular SNES games have since been ported to the Game Boy Advance, which has similar video capabilities. In 2005, Nintendo announced that SNES games would be made available for download via the Wii and Wii U's Virtual Console service. On October 31, 2007, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would no longer repair Family Computer or Super Famicom systems due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts. On March 3, 2016, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would be bringing SNES games to the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL (and later the New Nintendo 2DS XL) via its eShop download service.
Sega CD
By the early 1990s, compact discs were making significant headway as a storage medium for music and video games. NEC had been the first to use compact disc technology in a video game console with their PC Engine CD-ROM² System add-on in October 1988 in Japan (launched in North America as the TurboGrafx-CD the following year), which sold 80,000 units in six months. That same year, Nintendo announced a partnership with Sony to develop its own CD-ROM peripheral for the Super NES. Commodore International released their CD-based CDTV multimedia system centered in early 1991, while long-in-waiting CD-i from Philips finally arrived towards the end of that year.
Platform game
Nintendo's platform game "Super Mario Bros.", released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for many platformers to follow. The title was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and went on to sell over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records. Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platform games as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the 8-bit console generation.
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.
Nintendo Entertainment System (Model NES-101)
The NES-101 model of the Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the New NES, the New-style NES, the top-loading model, or simply the Top Loader) is a compact cost-reduced redesign of the video game console of the same name released by Nintendo in 1993.
1993 congressional hearings on video games
During this period, two key players were Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo had been instrumental in helping to recover the North American market after the crash with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System; in 1990, with its release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Nintendo sales accounted for 90% of the US market. However, to avoid repeating one of the issues that caused the crash, Nintendo took care to limit and review what third-party games could be made for its platforms to avoid a glut of poor games. Sega, which had already released its Mega Drive in Japan, found their sales to be lagging behind Nintendo. In a aggressive campaign aimed at the United States market, the Mega Drive was renamed the Sega Genesis, and heavily pushed the game "Sonic the Hedgehog", with its titular character aimed to become Sega's mascot and rival that of Nintendo's Mario. Sega was less selective about what titles it wanted for the platform, allowing many more third-party games onto the system to increase its library in contrast to Nintendo's. Further, Sega used marketing language purposely aimed at Nintendo, such as "Sega does what Nintendon't". By 1992, Sega had obtained 65% of the US gaming market, overtaking Nintendo's dominant position. Subsequently a strong rivalry between Nintendo and Sega was formed, referred as the "Console Wars", which continued through the next decade and into the fifth generation of consoles, after which Sega dropped out of the hardware market and became principally a game developer and publisher, and at times working collaborative with Nintendo.
Playtronic
The announcement of the fusion attained great attention on the media, considering that Playtronic was the first company in the world to produce Nintendo products outside Japan. Shortly thereafter, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was the first console to be announced and then produced already in August 24, 1993, adapted to the Brazilian's PAL-M analog TV system and bundled as Control Set (with one controller) and Super Set (with two controllers and the Super Mario World game cartridge) versions. The initial distribution included the Super Scope light gun and 12 games shipped and later sold separately. Even with the late release, the success of its sales snapped up 60% from the 16-bit video game consoles local segment in April, 1995.
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS, or simply DS, is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and released by Nintendo. The device went on sale in North America on November 21, 2004. The DS, short for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld gaming: two LCD screens working in tandem (the bottom one featuring a touchscreen), a built-in microphone, and support for wireless connectivity. Both screens are encompassed within a clamshell design similar to the Game Boy Advance SP. The Nintendo DS also features the ability for multiple DS consoles to directly interact with each other over Wi-Fi within a short range without the need to connect to an existing wireless network. Alternatively, they could interact online using the now-defunct Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. Its main competitor was Sony's PlayStation Portable as part of the seventh generation era. It was likened to the Nintendo 64 from the 1990s, which led to several N64 ports such as "Super Mario 64 DS" and "Diddy Kong Racing DS", among others.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
While other companies were moving on to 32-bit systems, Rare and Nintendo proved that the SNES was still a strong contender in the market. In November 1994, Rare released "Donkey Kong Country", a platform game featuring 3D models and textures pre-rendered on SGI workstations. With its detailed graphics, fluid animation and high-quality music, "Donkey Kong Country" rivaled the aesthetic quality of games that were being released on newer 32-bit CD-based consoles. In the last 45 days of 1994, the game sold 6.1 million units, making it the fastest-selling video game in history to that date. This game sent a message that early 32-bit systems had little to offer over the SNES, and helped make way for the more advanced consoles on the horizon. According to TRSTS reports, two of the top five best-selling games in the U.S. for December 1996 were Super NES games.
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System offered a number of groundbreaking titles. "Super Mario Bros." pioneered side-scrollers while "The Legend of Zelda" helped popularize battery-backed save functionality.
Nintendo
In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the new Game Boy handheld system, with the purpose of merging the two very successful ideas of the Game & Watch's portability along with the NES's cartridge interchangeability. Nintendo released the Game Boy in Japan on 21 April 1989, and in North America on 31 July 1989. Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa managed a deal to bundle the popular third-party game "Tetris" along with the Game Boy, and the pair launched as an instant success.
Nintendo 64
The console's design was publicly revealed for the first time in late Q2 1994. Images of the console displayed the Nintendo Ultra 64 logo and a ROM cartridge, but no controller. This prototype console's form factor would be retained by the product when it eventually launched. Having initially indicated the possibility of utilizing the increasingly popular CD-ROM if the medium's endemic performance problems were solved, the company now announced a much faster but space-limited cartridge-based system, which prompted open analysis by the gaming press. The system was frequently marketed as the world's first 64-bit gaming system, often stating the console was more powerful than the first moon landing computers. Atari had already claimed to have made the first 64-bit game console with their Atari Jaguar, but the Jaguar only uses a general 64-bit architecture in conjunction with two 32-bit RISC processors and a 16/32-bit Motorola 68000.
Later in Q2 1994, Nintendo signed a licensing agreement with Midway's parent company which enabled Midway to develop and market arcade games and formed a joint venture company called "Williams/Nintendo" to market Nintendo-exclusive home conversions of these games. The result is two arcade games, "Killer Instinct" and "Cruis'n USA", which boasted their upcoming debut on the arcade branch of the Nintendo Ultra 64 platform. Completely unrelated to Project Reality's console-based branch of Ultra 64, the arcade branch uses a different MIPS CPU, has no Reality Coprocessor, and uses onboard ROM chips and a hard drive instead of a cartridge. "Killer Instinct" features 3D character artwork pre-rendered into 2D form, and CG movie backgrounds that are streamed off the hard drive and animated as the characters move horizontally.
Nintendo Selects
In April 2006, the "Player's Choice" was applied to Game Boy Advance games, which sell for $19.99 in the United States.
The Player's Choice label was renamed Nintendo Selects on May 15, 2011. The first Wii games added were "", "", "Mario Super Sluggers" and "Wii Sports". The New Play Control! version of "Pikmin 2" debuted in North America as a Nintendo Selects title, alongside New Play Control! "Mario Power Tennis". On February 28, 2013, Nintendo announced that the UK would receive two new Nintendo Selects games: Mario Party 8 and Wii Sports Resort. These launches coincided with the Wii Mini launch, on March 22, 2013. On October 22, 2013, was announced "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", "Mario Kart Wii", "Super Mario Galaxy", "" and "Wii Sports + Wii Sports Resort" for the new Nintendo Selects Australian line by price AU$49.95 and NZ$59.95 with the release date of November 7, 2013. On September 28, 2015, Nintendo of Europe announced a Nintendo Selects range of games for the Nintendo 3DS. The label was then expanded to the Wii U alongside select Wii and Nintendo 3DS titles in Canada, released on March 11, 2016, priced at CA$29.99. On March 10, 2016, a range of Nintendo Selects were announced for release on April 15, 2016 in Europe.
Super Mario 64 DS
"Super Mario 64 DS" was first released in North America for the Nintendo DS on November 21, 2004 as a launch title for the system. On June 5, 2011, the game was repackaged in a red-colored case (along with "New Super Mario Bros.", "Mario Kart DS", "Mario Party DS", "" and "") in tandem with a price drop of $99 for the DS. "Super Mario 64 DS" was later rereleased in Japan for the Wii U as a part of the Virtual Console line of games on January 6, 2016, and was later released in North America in August of that year.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega resulted in what has been described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history, in which Sega positioned the Genesis as the "cool" console, with games aimed at older audiences, and advertisements that occasionally attacked the competition. Nintendo however, scored an early public relations advantage by securing the first console conversion of Capcom's arcade classic "Street Fighter II" for SNES, which took over a year to make the transition to the Genesis. Despite the Genesis's head start, much larger library of games, and lower price point, the Genesis only represented an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market in June 1992, and neither console could maintain a definitive lead for several years. "Donkey Kong Country" is said to have helped establish the SNES's market prominence in the latter years of the 16-bit generation, and for a time, maintain against the PlayStation and Saturn. According to Nintendo, the company had sold more than 20 million SNES units in the U.S. According to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on NPD sales data, the SNES ultimately outsold the Genesis in the U.S. market.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was released in Japan on October 23, 1988, and in North America on February 12, 1990. It was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, led by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.
History of Nintendo
In 1988, Nintendo of America unveiled "Nintendo Power", a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo that served to advertise new games. The first issue published was the July/August edition, which spotlighted the NES game "Super Mario Bros. 2". "Nintendo Power" has since ceased publication with its December 2012 edition.
SNK
In response to strong sales of the company's NES ports, SNK began to dabble in the development of original software designed specifically for the NES console. Two games came out of this effort: "Baseball Stars" (1989) and "Crystalis" (1990) (known as "God Slayer" in Japan). 1989 also marked the release of two new home video game consoles in North America: the Sega Genesis and NEC's joint project with Hudson Soft, the TurboGrafx-16. Nintendo followed suit with a new system in 1991, the Super NES. Rather than become involved in the early 90s system wars, SNK Corporation in Japan, along with SNK Corporation of America, chose to refocus its efforts on the arcade market, leaving other third parties, such as Romstar and Takara, to license and port SNK's properties to the various home consoles of the time with help from SNK's American home entertainment division. With console ports mainly being handled outside the company, it moved on to developing SNK branded arcade equipment. SNK also licensed Tiger Electronics to market handheld electronic games from some of its brands.
Hiroshi Yamauchi
In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan. It was released a year later in North America and in 1992 in Europe, in both regions as the "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" (SNES). The Super Famicom was sold out within three days in Japan and had gamers camping for days outside shops in hope of getting the next shipment. Nintendo showed major expansion during this period with new plants, R&D facilities and a partnership with Rare. Yamauchi had displayed from the beginning a knack at identifying good games even though he had never played them, and he continued to do so alone at least until 1994. A 1995 article in "Next Generation" reported that Yamauchi, though 68 years old, "remains very much in charge" of Nintendo and called him "The most feared and respected man in the videogame industry."
Hotel Mario
In 1989, Nintendo and Sony agreed to develop a CD-ROM-based add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), known as the SNES-CD or Nintendo Play-Station, that would allow for full motion video (FMV) and larger games. However, Nintendo instead signed with Philips to make the add-on, and Sony redesigned their console as the PlayStation. By 1993, Nintendo had abandoned plans for the add-on. As part of dissolving the agreement, Nintendo licensed Philips to use some Nintendo characters for their CD-i console, resulting in three "Legend of Zelda" games as well as "Hotel Mario". Another "Mario" game, "Super Mario's Wacky Worlds", was canceled at the prototype stage. Nintendo had no part in the games' development; they were instead created by inexperienced developers.
History of video games
In efforts to make the Famicom marketable in the US, Nintendo created a completely redesigned version of it, called the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), to be sold in the country as a product unrelated to video gaming. For this same reason, the company also developed a toy robot accessory called the R.O.B. to be sold together with some versions. The NES was released on 18 October 1985 in the US, reviving the video game market in the country and proving successful to the American audience, peaking in popularity between 1987 and the early 1990s. The console was later released in other Western countries, but because of heavy competition from home computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64, and a lack of marketing, the NES was prevented from having as much success in Europe.
Super NES Classic Edition
Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition, known as Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Australia and the in Japan, and also colloquially as the SNES Mini or SNES Classic, is a dedicated video game console by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pre-installed, including the first official release of "Star Fox 2". It was released in North America and Europe on September 29, 2017.
Super Smash Bros. (video game)
Super Smash Bros. (retroactively known as Super Smash Bros. 64 to avoid confusion with later entries in the series) is a crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in Japan on January 21, 1999, in North America on April 26, 1999, and in Europe on November 19, 1999. The first game in the "Super Smash Bros." series, it is a crossover between several different Nintendo franchises, including "Mario", "The Legend of Zelda", "Star Fox", "Donkey Kong", "Metroid", "Mother", "F-Zero", "Yoshi", "Kirby", and "Pokémon". It presents a cast of characters and locations from these franchises and allows players to use each character's unique skills and the stage's hazards to inflict damage, recover health, and ultimately knock opponents off the stage.
Nintendo Entertainment System
To differentiate Nintendo's new home platform from the perception of a troubled and shallow video game market still reeling from the crash, the company freshened its product nomenclature and established a strict product approval and licensing policy. The overall system was referred to as an "Entertainment System" instead of a "video game system", which was centered upon a machine called a "Control Deck" instead of a "console", and which featured software cartridges called "Game Paks" instead of "video games". This allowed Nintendo to gain more traction in selling the system in toy stores. To deter production of games which had not been licensed by Nintendo, and to prevent copying, the 10NES lockout chip system acted as a lock-and-key coupling of each Game Pak and Control Deck. The packaging of the launch lineup of NES games bore pictures of close representations of actual onscreen graphics. To reduce consumer confusion, symbols on the games' packaging clearly indicated the genre of the game. A 'seal of quality' was printed on all licensed game and accessory packaging. The initial seal stated, "This seal is your assurance that Nintendo has approved and guaranteed the quality of this product". This text was later changed to "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality".
Unlike with the Famicom, Nintendo of America marketed the console primarily to children, instituting a strict policy of censoring profanity, sexual, religious, or political content. The most famous example was Lucasfilm's attempts to port the comedy-horror game "Maniac Mansion" to the NES, which Nintendo insisted be considerably watered down. Nintendo of America continued their censorship policy until 1994 with the advent of the Entertainment Software Rating Board system, coinciding with criticism stemming from the cuts made to the Super NES port of "Mortal Kombat" compared to the Sega Genesis'.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Bolstered by its success in Japan, Nintendo soon turned its attention to foreign markets. As a new console manufacturer, Nintendo had to convince a skeptical public to embrace its system. To this end, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom outside Japan as the "Nintendo Enhanced Video System". Though the two companies reached a tentative agreement, with final contract papers to be signed at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Atari refused to sign at the last minute, after seeing Coleco, one of its main competitors in the market at that time, demonstrating a prototype of "Donkey Kong" for its forthcoming Coleco Adam home computer system. Coleco had licensed "Donkey Kong" for the ColecoVision home console, but Atari had the exclusive computer license for the game. Although the game had been originally produced for the ColecoVision and could thus automatically be played on the backward compatible Adam computer, Atari took the demonstration as a sign that Nintendo was also dealing with Coleco. Though the issue was cleared up within a month, by then Atari's financial problems stemming from the North American video game crash of 1983 left the company unable to follow through with the deal.
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES for short) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It is a remodeled export version of the company's Family Computer (FC) platform in Japan, also known as the Famicom for short, which launched on July 15, 1983. The NES was launched through test markets in New York City and Los Angeles in 1985, before being given a wide release in the rest of North America and parts of Europe in 1986, followed by Australia and other European countries in 1987. Brazil saw only unlicensed clones until the official local release in 1993. In South Korea, it was packaged as the Hyundai Comboy and distributed by SK Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics; the Comboy was released in 1989.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The SNES is Nintendo's second programmable home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other systems at the time. The development of a variety of enhancement chips integrated in game cartridges helped to keep it competitive in the marketplace.
Nintendo video game consoles
Released June 23, 1996, The Nintendo 64, commonly called the N64, and codenamed Ultra 64, was Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. It was released with three launch games in Japan ("Super Mario 64", "Pilotwings 64" and "Saikyo Habu Shogi") and two in North America ("Super Mario 64" and "Pilotwings 64"). PAL regions also had three launch titles ("Super Mario 64", "" and "Pilotwings 64") with "" delayed until three days after launch. Other key games included "Donkey Kong 64", "Diddy Kong Racing", "Banjo-Kazooie", two games in "The Legend of Zelda" series, "GoldenEye 007", "Mario Kart 64", "Super Smash Bros." and "Star Fox 64". The Nintendo 64 sold 32.93 million systems.
Nintendo
Aiming to produce an affordable virtual reality console, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in 1995, designed by Gunpei Yokoi. The console consists of a head-mounted semi-portable system with one red-colored screen for each of the user's eyes, featuring stereoscopic graphics. Games are viewed through a binocular eyepiece and controlled using an affixed gamepad. Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and the red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued. Amid the system's failure, Yokoi retired from Nintendo. During the same year, Nintendo launched the Satellaview in Japan, a peripheral for the Super Famicom. The accessory allowed users to play video games via broadcast for a set period of time. Various games were made exclusively for the platform, as well as various remakes.
Sega Meganet
Sega's 16-bit console, the Sega Genesis (known as Mega Drive in most areas outside of North America) was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, though the launch was overshadowed by Nintendo's release of "Super Mario Bros. 3" a week earlier. Positive coverage from magazines "Famitsu" and "Beep!" helped to establish a following, but Sega only managed to ship 400,000 units in the first year. In order to draw a larger audience, Sega began work on an Internet service, similar to what Nintendo had attempted with the "Famicom Tsushin" for the NES.
Entertainment Software Rating Board
A 1983 industry crash, caused by the market being overrun with low-quality products, prompted a higher degree of regulation by future console manufacturers: when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was launched in the United States in 1985, Nintendo of America instituted requirements and restrictions on third-party developers, including the requirement for all games to be licensed by the company. The console itself also included a lockout chip to enforce this requirement and prevent the console from loading unlicensed games. Such leverage on developers has since become a standard practice among console makers, although Nintendo of America also had stringent content policies, frequently censoring blood, sexual content, and references to religion, tobacco and alcohol from games released on its consoles in the United States.
Super Mario 64
More than five years prior to the release of "Super Mario 64", producer and director Shigeru Miyamoto conceived a 3D "Mario" design during the development of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game "Star Fox" (1993), developed by Nintendo along with Argonaut Software. He considered using the Super FX chip to develop a SNES game which would have been called "Super Mario FX", with gameplay based on "an entire world in miniature, like miniature trains". Instead, he eventually reformulated the 3D "Mario" idea for the Nintendo 64 - not due to the next generation console's substantially greater power, but because its controller has more buttons for gameplay. According to former Argonaut engineer Dylan Cuthbert, no game titled "Super Mario FX" had ever entered development, but rather "Super Mario FX" was the internal code name of the Super FX chip itself. According to Argonaut founder Jez San, "Super Mario 64" was influenced by a prototype of a canceled Argonaut game starring the "Mario" character Yoshi, which later became the 1997 platform game "".
Sonifi Solutions
In late 1993, LodgeNet launched its on-demand hospitality service, including worldwide delivery of Super NES games to hotel guests via its proprietary building-wide networks. LodgeNet eventually reported the system being installed in 200,000 hotel guest rooms by April 1996, and 530,000 guest rooms by mid-1999. By April 1996, LodgeNet reported that its partnership with Nintendo to deliver Super NES games had yielded 200,000 worldwide hotel guest room installations. On June 16, 1998, Nintendo and LodgeNet entered a 10-year licensing agreement for an "aggressive" upgrade to add Nintendo 64 support to their existing 500,000 Super NES equipped guest room installations. LodgeNet says that within the system's previous five years to date, the system had "caused Nintendo to become the most successful new product rollout in the history of the hotel pay-per-view industry". LodgeNet reported that within the middle of 1998 alone, 35 million hotel guests encountered the Nintendo name as an integral amenity, and it reported sales of more than 54 million minutes of Nintendo-based gameplay.