March/15/2025

Nintendo Entertainment System

Hello there! Penguin here and for my first blog I thought I would talk about Nintendo!!! Nintendo holds a special place in my heart, I love their games so much!! Been playing there games ever since I was 4 years old, with my first home console, the Nintendo GameCube! So, this won’t be the last time I talk about them!!! Okay so for my first blog ever on here, I thought I would talk about the Nintendo Entertainment System!

The Nintendo Entertainment or NES for short is Nintendo’s first major home console!!! The NES is an 8-bit cartridge-based system with two controller ports. It was released in North America in October 1985!! However, the NES is actually a redesign version of the Nintendo Family Computer, Famicom for short, from Japan which released on July 15 1983. So technically, the Famicom is Nintendo’s first major home console!! The Famicom is a top loader (which means that you load the cartridges from the top), so the cartridges are very short!! This is why whenever you open a NES cartridge there is so much space left inside!! The Famicom was redesigned into the NES, in which they ‘Americanized’ the Famicom. The NES is supposed to resemble something like a VCR which is why you insert the cartridges like a VHS tape on a NES!!

When Nintendo first launched the NES in USA, Nintendo marketed more like a toy you could use on your tv. This was mostly due to the videogame crash of 1983 in US, they actually avoid calling it a videogame home system. The market crashed happened mostly due to low quality and buggy games, you know shovelware, something which the Nintendo Wii has lot of too!! No hate to Atari and the others, but ya the quality control wasn’t the best during that time! This is why the NES often game with sets. Like the Deluxe set, which game with the console and 2 controllers with Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B), a zapper gun and 2 games. Or the more famous action set which contains the console, 2 controllers and the zapper gun with also 2 games! Nintendo of America was very cautious of not mispresenting what the NES could do in its first year, which is why the first 30 games, there box art featured pixel sprites from the games. They did this to build trust with its customers, unlike Atari in which often the box art looked nothing like the game. As the NES got more popular, they started to get more creative with the box art of their games. Also, because the NES was able to represent more than what the Atari 2600 could.

Now let’s talk about the games!!! Even though I’m 22 years old I actually like a lot of Nintendo’s older games!!! The NES spawned many great franchises like Mario, Megaman, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, ect! Probably the most famous NES game is Super Mario Bros., I mean everybody heard of Mario even if they hadn’t played the games!!! The first Mario game had 8 worlds with 4 levels each!! There are even secret shortcuts you can find!! Did you know, the Super Mario Bros. 2 that released in the USA isn’t the true sequel to the first game?? The Super Mario Bros. 2 that released in the USA is actually a reskin of another game that released only in Japan called Doki Doki Panic. They did this due to poor reception of the real Super Mario Bros. 2 and because they thought it was too hard for the American audience!!! The real Super Mario Bros. 2 eventually released in USA as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost levels! The NES spawned many game series that I love like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid!!

I actually have a NES in real life, I have a little collection, here is a picture of all of my NES games!!! (This is the whole reason why I talked about the NES, to have an excuse to talk about my little NES game collection lol)

I don’t have an old ctr tv laying around so unfortunately, I have to play it on a modern flatscreen led tv! Its honestly not too bad, it’s just a little bit blurrier than I would like it to be. I actually got a pretty good deal on when I bought the NES! I got the console, 2 controllers and 2 games with the zapper gun all for like 45ish bucks!! Too bad I can’t use the zapper gun since those only works on ctr tvs! I also never spent like above 20 bucks for each game I gotten!! There’re only 3 more games I really want to add to my collection which are: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Kirby’s Adventure! I have beaten Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 only on the actual NES. I gotten close to finish Punch Out too but man those last levels do get harder. Right now, I’m trying to beat Castlevania but man, does it just gets so hard, I only gotten to level 3 out of 6. What makes it hard is that each level has 3 stages, with a boss fight at the end of of the 3rd stage!!

Okay that is everything for my first blog, hopefully the structure makes sense and that you understood everything! This is my first time trying to write a blog so sorry if it kind of makes no sense!! I hope you all enjoyed learning a bit about the NES!!