Nintendo Entertainment System - Toy's 'R' Us commercial (US)

Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce a cartridge-based console. Masayuki Uemura designed the system, which was released in Japan on July 15th 1983 alongside three ports of Nintendo's successful arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. The Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) was slow to gather momentum; a bad chip set caused the initial release of the system to crash. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the Famicoms popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984.

Encouraged by these successes, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the North American market. Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom under Ataris name as the name Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System; however, this deal eventually fell apart. Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller, and a special BASIC cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never materialized.

In June 1985, Nintendo unveiled its American version of the Famicom at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on October 18th 1985, following up with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year. Nintendo simultaneously released eighteen launch titles: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogans Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew, and Super Mario Bros.

In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Distribution in region B, consisting of most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy), was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases; most of region B saw a 1986 release. Mattel handled distribution for region A, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, starting the following year. Not until 1990 did Nintendo's newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe. Despite the systems lackluster performance outside of Japan and North America, by 1990 the NES had outsold all previously released consoles worldwide.

As the 1990s dawned, however, renewed competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive (called the Sega Genesis in North America) marked the end of the NESs dominance. Eclipsed by Nintendo's own Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the NESs user base gradually waned. Nintendo continued to support the system in North America through the first half of the decade, even releasing a new version of the system's console, the NES-101 model (known as the HVC-101 in Japan), to address many of the design flaws in the original console hardware. The final games released for the system were as follows: in North America, among unlicensed titles, Sunday Funday was the last, whereas Wario's Woods was the last licensed game (also the only one with an ESRB rating). In the wake of ever decreasing sales and the lack of new software titles, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES by 1995. Despite this, Nintendo of Japan kept producing new Nintendo Famicom units up until September 2003, when it discontinued the line. Even as developers ceased production for the NES, a number of high-profile video game franchises and series for the NES were transitioned to newer consoles and remain popular to this day. Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid franchises debuted on the NES, as did Capcom's Mega Man franchise, Konami's Castlevania franchise, and Squaresoft's Final Fantasy and Enix's Dragon Quest (now Square Enix's) franchises.

Nintendo of Japan continued to repair Famicom consoles until October 31st 2007, attributing the decision to discontinue support to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• nintendo
• entertainment
• system
• toy's
• 'r'
• us
• commercial
• video
• game
• console
• advert

[TheArcCaster]

I had a better dream

A WET DREAM!

[kingamer19]

I'm 26 & still is a Toys'R'Us kid

[TheYoNate]

Honestly, again, the kid is kinda cute. :)

[TheYoNate]

Wait! No one was controlling Mario in the system offer part! POLGERGIEST!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheYoNate]

$79.97? Jesus! No wonder why it was such a huge hit!

[TheYoNate]

OK, this might be weird, but I don't care, but... I think the kid's kinda cute. :)

[T16Akatsuki]

@TheArcCaster I had a wet dream and it was this commercial

[WebVManReturns]

@Chikunnism Yeah, those were the good ol' days.

[NesBoy1985]

@TheSleepClips Actually this is well after the NES launch. When it first came out in "85" there were 2 bundles one for 199.99 and one for 249.99

[GunManDamn]

@Chikunnism things were cheaper back then...

[PeTeEnStAcY]

positive this guy is a game freak, like me :L

[TheSleepClips]

$79.97 for the NES at Toys "R" Us in 1980s aren't similar to the same price with 2 cents more on the GBA SP in 2005 at the same place, dude. The Zapper got a near-20 since it's a controller for games like Duck Hunt..We hardly seen them today. As Fun Stuff Inc., we did, indeed.