Nintendo NES Control Deck Manual
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Identifier
2025.13.6Description
After seeing the success and potential of a console system with interchangeable cartridges, Nintendo developed its first multi-cartridge gaming system in 1983, the 8-bit Famicom (Family Computer), which delivered near-arcade quality games with far more power and memory than any previous console on the market.Nintendo was seeing a boom in the video game market in Japan, but the U.S. game market was in disastrous shape. As Atari had no way to prevent unlicensed titles from being designed for its system, the Atari 2600, the U.S. market was literally flooded with poor quality games. That caused the entire industry to suffer from a poor reputation. By the end of 1983, the U.S. video game market crashed, causing most of the major players to go out of business.
Convinced that its system could still make a splash in the U.S. market, Nintendo made preparations to release the Famicom itself, taking special care to learn from Atari's failures. Nintendo renamed the Famicom to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and redesigned it to look more like an entertainment center component. To prevent other companies from releasing unauthorized and low-quality games, Nintendo developed the 10NES lockout chip that prevented unlicensed games from working on the system.
The NES was launched in North America at CES 1985. It played 8-bit games and was designed for the home. It was by far the best-selling console of its time, selling in excess of 60 million units, and helped North America recover from the videogame crash of 1983 that saw too many consoles flood the market and personal computers become more powerful. Launch titles included Super Mario Bros, Ice Climber, Pinball and Duck Hunt. You could pick up a console with a copy of Super Mario Bros for
$99US ($230US today) or a Deluxe Set, which included two games and several accessories, for $199.99 ($470US today). It paid off. Towards the end of the decade, the NES had almost a complete monopoly in the US home video games market.