40th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

It is July 2023, and 40 years have passed since the Nintendo Famicom was first released in Japan. The console would soon reach international success as the Nintendo Entertainment System, seeing release in North America on 18 October 1985 and in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on 1 September 1986. Release in other parts of Europe then continued throughout 1987, for example, the console came to France in October 1987.

The rest is history. The NES became one of the most successful home video game consoles ever, and suddenly, entire families would soon know Mario, Link, Zelda, Mega Man and the Belmont Family. Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles scored major successes with the console.

Production was cancelled in the Western World on 14 August 1995, and in Japan on 25 September 2003, the same day as production of the Super Famicom ended there.

[Sumac]

Great machines. One of the greatest in fact. Even though I've never owned original, only clones.

[Dpooly84]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Great machines. One of the greatest in fact. Even though I've never owned original, only clones.

If you have the space for one invest in a top loader, NES Jr and a crtv(less than 200 us$ together) alot of the games still hold up. And it so much better playing og equipment than emulators. The difference is real, but I understand not everyone can afford that.

[Andrew NDB]

I came to the system late in the game but what a giant game changer (no pun intended) the NES was. Video games would never be the same, and so many series were born.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Dpooly84

If you have the space for one invest in a top loader, NES Jr and a crtv(less than 200 us$ together) alot of the games still hold up. And it so much better playing og equipment than emulators. The difference is real, but I understand not everyone can afford that.

Its not that I couldn't afford it - Nintendo was not selling NES in Russia in 90s at all. So you either had a clone or an expensive import, if you have connections with diplomats and the like. My parents didn't so I, like millions of kids in Russia had a NESclone. And all NES carts (I think I have around 70 of them?) are bootlegs of various quality. From more "official"-looking ones to complete Chinese hacks.

Nowadays I settle for emulators. Much easier alternative than using old hardware with an old TV. Not to mention significantly cheaper. Besides, I am not a purist who want every single wrinkle on the screen to be like on my CRT TV in 95. As long as it looks and sounds 80% similar to what I remember - fine by me. Not that I can recall how it looked and played 20+ years ago.

[Dpooly84]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Its not that I couldn't afford it - Nintendo was not selling NES in Russia in 90s at all. So you either had a clone or an expensive import, if you have connections with diplomats and the like. My parents didn't so I, like millions of kids in Russia had a NESclone. And all NES carts (I think I have around 70 of them?) are bootlegs of various quality. From more "official"-looking ones to complete Chinese hacks.

Nowadays I settle for emulators. Much easier alternative than using old hardware with an old TV. Not to mention significantly cheaper. Besides, I am not a purist who want every single wrinkle on the screen to be like on my CRT TV in 95. As long as it looks and sounds 80% similar to what I remember - fine by me. Not that I can recall how it looked and played 20+ years ago.

Did not know that about you brother, but by 95 we weren't playing NES we had moved on by that point

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Throughout the pandemic years, I used to watch some old video came commercials, including the NES ones.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Dpooly84

Did not know that about you brother, but by 95 we weren't playing NES we had moved on by that point

Depends on where you have lived - in Russia, everything coming from outside was "lagging", so by 95 NES was still actual. In fact, it was still selling in Russia in the beginning of the 00s, alongside Sega Genesis. You could find walls of NES and Sega Genesis carts pretty much in any electronic market. Only by mid-00s old consoles were phased out in favor of PCs and genuine consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo themselves.

In the 90s Sega Genesis was a more expensive alternative to the NES, thanks to the Chinese bootleggers, and SNES was known only to a select few, because, there were neither bootleg consoles nor bootleg carts, which meant SNES and carts were genuine articles, and extremely expensive and inaccessible for regular people.

I remember in 1996 my father took credit in the bank, so we could move to the new apartment and I almost bought a SNES. Instead I've bought cool Lego set. In retrospect I am not disappointed, because, if we did bought SNES, it would be hard to find carts for it, not to mention they would have been expensive. It doesn't help, that soon after moving to a new place my family had fallen on a hard times and we couldn't afford normal food, not to mention expensive carts. So Lego set was a much better investment. I still got SNES, but in 2001, but majority of the carts were bought in used condition and not all of them worked.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

By the 1990's, Russia was still suffering from the consequences of 74 years of Communist misrule. If I lived in Russia by 1995, I would have been happy just to be able to play video games at all.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

By the 1990's, Russia was still suffering from the consequences of 74 years of Communist misrule. If I lived in Russia by 1995, I would have been happy just to be able to play video games at all.

By 1995 a lot of kids could allow themselves to play consoles. None of them were genuine articles. Things were not as bad as some people say, but neither they were good.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

My first ever video game console. I think I've been playing since 3. Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo, Super Mario Bros 3, Tom and Jerry, a few Seasame Street educational games were all my first games I've ever played. Sadly I don't think my NES works anymore but I still keep it for sentimental value.

[MrPliggins]

In the late '90s I'd play my NES emulator occasionally. My roommate asked "Do you think you'll still be playing these old games in 20 years?" Here we are 25 years later and yep, I still play them on occasion. Classics never die.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Visiting a friend's house, The Legend of Zelda from 1986 was the first NES game I ever saw and played. It must have been mid 1989.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by MrPliggins

In the late '90s I'd play my NES emulator occasionally. My roommate asked "Do you think you'll still be playing these old games in 20 years?" Here we are 25 years later and yep, I still play them on occasion. Classics never die.

Same here. Currently to find time to go through some of my favorite NES games. In parallel with Metal Gears and Street Fighter 6.

[Tortuglio]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Its not that I couldn't afford it - Nintendo was not selling NES in Russia in 90s at all. So you either had a clone or an expensive import, if you have connections with diplomats and the like. My parents didn't so I, like millions of kids in Russia had a NESclone. And all NES carts (I think I have around 70 of them?) are bootlegs of various quality. From more "official"-looking ones to complete Chinese hacks.

Nowadays I settle for emulators. Much easier alternative than using old hardware with an old TV. Not to mention significantly cheaper. Besides, I am not a purist who want every single wrinkle on the screen to be like on my CRT TV in 95. As long as it looks and sounds 80% similar to what I remember - fine by me. Not that I can recall how it looked and played 20+ years ago.

You wanna hear something weird? we had almost the same experience in Bs As, Argentina through the 90s. You could buy the original NES but was waaay more expensive than the famiclones, and nobody even knew the difference back then anyways. I remember watching a documentary in Youtube by Kinamania and being amazed at how similar were the experiences being from countries with such different backgrounds.

Then with the 16 bit consoles it was more common having SEGA Genesis clones. Because Brazil had a license to produce their own SEGA consoles and carts it seems it was easier to pirate those stuff. SNES was rarely seen.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Tortuglio

You wanna hear something weird? we had almost the same experience in Bs As, Argentina through the 90s. You could buy the original NES but was waaay more expensive than the famiclones, and nobody even knew the difference back then anyways. I remember watching a documentary in Youtube by Kinamania and being amazed at how similar were the experiences being from countries with such different backgrounds.

Then with the 16 bit consoles it was more common having SEGA Genesis clones. Because Brazil had a license to produce their own SEGA consoles and carts it seems it was easier to pirate those stuff. SNES was rarely seen.

Poor countries are all the same, I guess.

I don't think majority of people here know difference between NES and famiclones even this days - its all the same "Dendy" for them.

Sega Genesis (Mega Drive here) was super popular here, even though Russia never saw official support from Sega, since Sega pulled out from console market just when Russia finally started to receive official partnerships from console manufacturers. But bootleggers had out backs. It was still common to find Genesis carts in the beginning of 00s in typical electronic shops.

I never had Sega Genesis, since I dreamed about SNES, being loyal Nintendo fanboy and when I finally get it, just few years later I jumped right on the PC.

At some point I wanted to buy Dreamcast, but eventually I settled on PC, which was the best decision.

In retrospect, I wish I've bought myself PC back in 2001, instead of SNES - I could've get access to all those emulated games, not to mention having access to early Internet and many cool PC games of the time.