Happy Birthday to the NES, Nintendo’s childhood companion for millions Gaming consoles

TThe Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States on October 18, 1985: about a year after I was born, and 40 years before the day. It’s as if the company felt that a fool who was spending thousands of dollars on plastic toys and electronic games had just entered the world. In fact, it’s as if the company has completely felt it generation Fools like me were about to enter the world. And this is true. This was the right time to strike. We were about to exhaust every dollar we got on Christmas and birthdays and all those times when our father didn’t want us to tell our mother about something. (Maybe that last one is just me.)

Despite being a bit older than the NES, the horror I’m forced to confront is only now as I write this, it’s as if this console has always been there in my life. I don’t have many memories from my childhood years because I was too busy learning how to use my hands and eyes, but as far as I can actually remember, the word “Nintendo” was synonymous with video games. Friends will ask you if you have a Nintendo (no “the”, no “a”) in your house in the same way they might ask if you have Coca-Cola in the fridge.

My sister and I spent two years begging our parents for an NES. My mom and dad weren’t worried about the corrupting influence of video games — that would come later with Doom, Mortal Kombat, and of course Stardew Valley — but they were certainly worried about buying an expensive game that only worked if you bought additional expensive games to put inside it. Yes, the Nintendo Entertainment System was advertised in the US as a cutting-edge piece of technology even though it looked like a rejected design for a VHS cassette player, but we all knew it was meant to be. I played with. While touching my parents’ home theater resulted in a lot of screaming, this eventually became an electronic device that we kids were allowed to use.

It’s also worth noting that I’m of the first generation who completely missed the Atari home consoles that dominated earlier in the 1980s. Although Atari systems were still around at the time, kids my age talked about them with the same historical distance as we talked about World War II. Even seeing Atari was like taking a look at an ancient artifact that none of us understood well enough to enjoy. Watching a neighbor operate his Atari was shocking to me: the basketball game literally used a square for the ball. No. No, no thank you. I need to sit down for a second.

But the NES – oh, the NES had graphics that actually looked like arcade games. Was it perfect? Of course not! Some of them look absolutely terrible now! But when you’re five years old, the subtle but slightly washed-out version of Pac-Man is still Pac-Man. While my parents never let me play archery at carnivals (who can say why?), Duck Hunt was the next best thing. no! better! Because we all realized almost immediately that we could just press that stupid plastic gun to the screen and lock it in every time. This is an obvious technique that you can only learn from a 40 year old video game or by becoming a Mafia hitman.

The games on the NES also felt more open. Super Mario Bros. seems weird now, but the first time that plumber went down that pipe? My mind has melted into a purer, finer substance. These were games with worlds full of surprises and puzzles. Secrets and Easter eggs have been planted in games before, but now it feels like that About me can be found. They were there to help you, not as some crazy developer joke. We were exploring almost fantasy kingdoms, sort of, Kind of It looked like a lively cartoon, jumping to find the “?” The hidden and invisible. boxes.

Let’s not forget that the NES brought us Mario as we know and love. Yes, it was a construction worker trying to take down Donkey Kong. Fortunately, he switched careers to plumbing and became a character who would soon adorn every folder, every backpack, every lunch box, every beaker, and every bed sheet that I and most of my friends owned. Nintendo was an internal language, long before all references became internet memes viewed by billions. We constantly quoted from the original Legend of Zelda: “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!”

Every generation gets its cultural touchstone. But Nintendo’s entertainment system boosted gaming culture, at least in America where the ZX Spectrum and other home computers never took off as they did in Europe. It was a common language, a game that allowed us to explore our imaginations – and certainly a way for my parents to get a break from their children. I still have the NES they bought us. And I still have to blow into the cartridges for them to work, no matter how much the guy advises me not to.