fuze01
Padawan
Posts: 54
Loc: Green Bay, Wisconsin-
Reg: 03-08-05
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10-31-05 04:19 AM - Post#19775
I am sure most of you know that it is the 20th anniversary of the NES being launched. I read it over in the Nintendo forum. My sister and I got one for xmas that year as I was only 6, so I didn't really appreciate what was coming out. My question for the older gamers is...Was the NES launch day anything like we have seen in the past couple of years. I.E. the upcoming XBOX 360, PS2, XBOX, Halo 2, etc.
I was wondering if this unit was hyped up through other means like publications, commercials, tv specials, etc. Since the internet was 10 years out of the mainstream, that probably limited a lot of media outlets.
Was their midnight launches, mad dashes to the toy stores, or back in that day, the department store. Where I am from, we didn't have a Best Buy, Circuit City, EB. Those didn't show up till the early 90's. I am frmo the Duluth Minnesota area.
So I wsa just wondering if some could share their experiences back then. Who knows, the reception could of be luke-warm at best since people were probably skepticle of this.
BUt I thought it would be neat to hear other peoples descriptions of the NES launch day. Thanks a lot spotties,
fuze 01 
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Peench
SPottie
Posts: 8460
Age: 37
Loc: San Diego
Reg: 01-22-05
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Re: NES Launch Day
10-31-05 05:49 AM - Post#19776
I remember getting an NES, but I don't remember when we got it or if it was on launch day or afterwards. It may have been a Christmas or birthday gift too. I don't recall purchasing it myself though or I'd remember. Hm... maybe I'll have to call my dad and see if he recalls. 
My guess is that the launch probably wasn't as huge a thing as it is today for a couple of reasons. One you mentioned is ease of advertising. Right now there are so many ways to advertise it is virtually impossible for someone not to know what's going on. There is still print, radio, and TV, but the internet being so huge these days allows information to be broadcast insanely fast around the globe.
The second reason is that gaming is a much larger industry these days than it was 20 years ago. Back then gaming was a huge industry in which the masses participated. Nowadays everyone knows something about gaming consoles and games on PC and even phones. The hype these days is a bit larger I'd say than in the past.
That being said, its all speculation as I can't remember what hype there was over the NES launch. There does seem to be a bit of support for my thoughts though. Check out this quote:
Quote:
The NES launch in America was a modest affair. The system was tested in New York and didn't roll out to most of the rest of the country until 1986. Part of the system's innovation was a rectangular controller that had two action buttons and a plus-shaped pad for movement — a significant departure from the joysticks of the Atari era. The controller design would influence gamepads for decades to come.
Source
The rest of the article is a fairly interesting read if anyone is interested. Great topic fuze!!!
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Smokehouse
Old School Gamer
Posts: 377
Loc: Peoria, Illinios
Reg: 02-17-05
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Re: NES Launch Day
11-01-05 01:57 AM - Post#19777
The launch was terrible for Nintendo. As a matter of fact they had to lie about what it was just to get distributors to take it. In the height of the Teddy Ruxpin craze Nintendo decided to sell the NES like an interactive toy rather than a video game systems. Thus the name “Entertainment System” . The NES was showed at toy shows, and was sold with the premise of
“Here’s the great new NES, it includes a interactive Robot, ROB and a Zapper. We have included two great games in order to use these great toys, Duck Hunt and Gyromite. Oh, and if you happen to get bored with the two AMAZING titles (something we doubt will ever happen), there’s also the Super Mario game as well…”
Well, Nintendo knew that ROB was a pile of junk and the Zapper (note, the word “gun” is not present in the name, very PC on Nintendo’s part) was not much better. Of course kids were going to play Super Mario Bros, they knew it. They banked on it. Shortly Nintendo dropped ROB and Gyromite and came out with the Action Set. The Zapper was later dropped as well.
All in all it was a hard start for Nintendo. No one believed that the US market could be stimulated, not even Nintendo of Japan.
| Retro for life........
I wonder when the current systems will be considered retro?.... |
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Peench
SPottie
Posts: 8460
Age: 37
Loc: San Diego
Reg: 01-22-05
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Re: NES Launch Day
11-01-05 05:40 AM - Post#19778
But thankfully they did it! But for them we probably wouldn't be where we are today (with console gaming anyway).
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AaronNeal
Newbie
Posts: 5
Age: 43
Reg: 01-12-10
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01-12-10 06:14 PM - Post#52964
In response to Peench
I agree. Nintendo was the beginning of great game consoles. I liked NES but I loved Sega and playing College Football in my college days.
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