Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in 1983 as the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. It featured the console with two hardwired controllers and games that ran off cartridges. The controller design came from their previous handheld console “Game & Watch” which had 8 buttons; A, B, Start, Select and a D-pad with 4 directional buttons. It had a slow success in Japan due to faulty products at launch, but quickly gained popularity after a reissue. Nintendo had only developed their own games for the system and didn’t have plans for third party developers. They were however approached by Namco and Hudson Soft a year after the consoles release and agreed to produce third party games for a 30% fee. As a result of their success with the console, Nintendo began to look at markets outside Japan and set their eyes on North-America. The same year as the Famicom was released, did the United States see a massive market crash in video games and the American video game press was skeptical of the consoles success. The console and controller went through some design changes and was released in 1985. It saw huge success over the next years and by 1990, 30% of American households owned the NES, compared to 23% for all personal computer.