Category: NES

Nintendo Famicom

FamicomIn Japan, Nintendo launches the Famicom (Family Computer) home video game system, with a few games available at the product’s launch, all of which are ports of popular Nintendo arcade games. Within months, major technical problems are reported and faulty consoles are returned, and Nintendo discovers that a design flaw is responsible. All Famicom units are recalled and refurbished at the company’s expense. In two years, the console will be launched in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, almost single-handedly reviving the video game industry around the world.

The Legend Of Zelda (NES)

The Legend Of ZeldaNintendo releases The Legend Of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, having already released a version early in 1986 in Japan. Rolled out with a major advertising campaign, Zelda revitalizes and redefines the video adventure game genre, as well as players’ expectation of electronically-moderated role-playing games, and spawns one of Nintendo’s most profitable major tentpole franchises. Read more

Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo president, dies

Nintendo FamicomThe president of Nintendo through the latter half of the 20th century, Hiroshi Yamauchi, dies at the age of 85. Having dropped out of college to assume control of Nintendo from his ailiing grandfather in 1949, Yamauchi transformed the company from a maker of playing cards into a power player in the electronic game market, even though Nintendo’s first video game product was a licensed version of the American-made Magnavox Odyssey. Twice, Yamauchi boldly decided to break into the American video game market with no guarantee of success: once with the arcade game Donkey Kong, and again with the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System, even after a Stateside licensing deal with Atari fell through at the last minute, depriving the NES of Atari’s existing marketing and distribution channels.