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Nintendo Entertainment System: Difference between revisions
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[[File:NES LINEUP.png|thumb|right|650px|A 1988 line-up of NES games and accessories from 1985-1987.]] | [[File:NES LINEUP.png|thumb|right|650px|A 1988 line-up of NES games and accessories from 1985-1987.]] | ||
The NES infected the American pop culture zeitgeist, with Nintendo firmly establishing itself in the and first making its name known in the U.S. as the de-facto video game company in both Japan and America until {{wp|Sega}}'s uprising in the early 90s, being featured in countless mainstream magazines, articles, television and media references, advertisements, and fictional media such as the 1989 {{mw|The Wizard}} film, in which a boy is an intuitive master of Nintendo games (the film was used to promote ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 3}}'') and ''{{wp|The Simpsons}}'', where the NES and Nintendo characters also make appearances. When Phil Rogers, the head of consumer service department, set up the phone lines for NOA's headquarters with four operators at the helm in February 1986, NOA had no knowledge about customer service; "we knew about service to distributors because we'd been doing that for arcade games, but we'd never even talked to a consumer." Rogers would later state. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> Soon after, calls came "flooding in", so much so that Rogers purchased a $40,000 electronic call distributor in 1987, with 550 people answering 150,000 callers a week on a recently-bought 3,000,000-dollar phone system in 1988. Eventually, NOA's 1-800 number was backed up often because half a million callers came in every week. Questions regarding NES games were directed over to Howard Philips and other game players under Don James, the co-head of NOA. Bilingual representatives were hired for the French and Spanish callers, while Nintendo established a 1-900 number, which was a Captain Nintendo Hotline for "tips and adventure stories about Nintendo games." <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> A toll-free 1-800 Nintendo hotline number was soon established to help callers out with tips, tricks, and guides to difficult parts of NES titles, with the number even being put into 1987's ''{{zw|The Legend of Zelda}}'''s instruction manual by Minoru Arakawa who knew that the game was a difficult one; Arakawa eventually had to increase the original NOA hotline staff members to 200 to 400 by 1990 (500 for the holiday rush). <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> "Game Counselors" worked the 1-800 number, offering answers to any questions a caller might have regarding NES games; by 1990, the 1-800 toll-free hotline became so expensive that The callers for all of NOA's hotlines never decreased, even when the 1-800 toll-free number was removed later on. A seven-minute time limit was also placed before the 1-800 number was removed and continued through to the 1-900 number; by the three-minute mark, the Counselor had to make sure the caller (usually a child) was speaking to them with their parents knowing about the phone bill, and by the end of the time limit, the Counselor had to gently let the caller off the phone, no matter what. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> But it didn't matter in the slightest in the end; the hotline, with "Gameplay Counselors" manning the lines on an hourly basis and being ready to help any hapless or questioning NES players with their system or game title further cemented Nintendo's "caring" reputation among its customers. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Power_Up/lD4fDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> | The NES infected the Japanese and American pop culture zeitgeist, with Nintendo firmly establishing itself in the and first making its name known in the U.S. as the de-facto video game company in both Japan and America until {{wp|Sega}}'s uprising in the early 90s, being featured in countless mainstream magazines, articles, television and media references, advertisements, and fictional media such as the 1989 {{mw|The Wizard}} film, in which a boy is an intuitive master of Nintendo games (the film was used to promote ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 3}}'') and ''{{wp|The Simpsons}}'', where the NES and Nintendo characters also make appearances. When Phil Rogers, the head of consumer service department, set up the phone lines for NOA's headquarters with four operators at the helm in February 1986, NOA had no knowledge about customer service; "we knew about service to distributors because we'd been doing that for arcade games, but we'd never even talked to a consumer." Rogers would later state. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> Soon after, calls came "flooding in", so much so that Rogers purchased a $40,000 electronic call distributor in 1987, with 550 people answering 150,000 callers a week on a recently-bought 3,000,000-dollar phone system in 1988. Eventually, NOA's 1-800 number was backed up often because half a million callers came in every week. Questions regarding NES games were directed over to Howard Philips and other game players under Don James, the co-head of NOA. Bilingual representatives were hired for the French and Spanish callers, while Nintendo established a 1-900 number, which was a Captain Nintendo Hotline for "tips and adventure stories about Nintendo games." <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> A toll-free 1-800 Nintendo hotline number was soon established to help callers out with tips, tricks, and guides to difficult parts of NES titles, with the number even being put into 1987's ''{{zw|The Legend of Zelda}}'''s instruction manual by Minoru Arakawa who knew that the game was a difficult one; Arakawa eventually had to increase the original NOA hotline staff members to 200 to 400 by 1990 (500 for the holiday rush). <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> "Game Counselors" worked the 1-800 number, offering answers to any questions a caller might have regarding NES games; by 1990, the 1-800 toll-free hotline became so expensive that The callers for all of NOA's hotlines never decreased, even when the 1-800 toll-free number was removed later on. A seven-minute time limit was also placed before the 1-800 number was removed and continued through to the 1-900 number; by the three-minute mark, the Counselor had to make sure the caller (usually a child) was speaking to them with their parents knowing about the phone bill, and by the end of the time limit, the Counselor had to gently let the caller off the phone, no matter what. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> But it didn't matter in the slightest in the end; the hotline, with "Gameplay Counselors" manning the lines on an hourly basis and being ready to help any hapless or questioning NES players with their system or game title further cemented Nintendo's "caring" reputation among its customers. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Power_Up/lD4fDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> | ||
[[File:Nintendo Power 1988.png|220px|thumb|left|The first ''Nintendo Power'' issue, released in July/August of 1988. The cover is based off of ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 2}}'' and features clay models of both {{mw|Mario}} and {{mw|Wart}} from the game. | [[File:Nintendo Power 1988.png|220px|thumb|left|The first ''Nintendo Power'' issue, released in July/August of 1988. The cover is based off of ''{{mw|Super Mario Bros. 2}}'' and features clay models of both {{mw|Mario}} and {{mw|Wart}} from the game. The clay models were done by Will Vinton Studios in Oregon, known for {{wp|California Raisins}} fame. <ref> </ref>}}] | ||
The NES gave birth to the "Nintendo Generation", which were the young children who grew up with the NES during the late 80s and early 90s, passing game codes, secrets and rumors at schoolyard playgrounds, faking being sick to stay home and play their NES, and devouring each issue of Nintendo Power with aplomb. At the height of its popularity, the NES was in one out of three American homes. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> The NES library contained first-party titles that are still revered as some of the best games of all time today through innumerable lists of NES favorites, and licensed third-party titles ranging from mega-popular fictional franchises to live-action films from ''{{wp|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles}}'' to ''{{wp|The Simpsons}}'' to ''{{wp|Back to the Future}}''. The 1990 title ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' sold 14,000,000 copies worldwide with its total grosses only being succeeded by the [[wikipedia:Steven Spielberg|Spielberg]] blockbuster ''{{wp|E.T.}}'' film, with ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' going on become the highest-selling individual game in history at the time. A {{wp|UK}} company named [[wikipedia:Rare (company)|Rare]] also became a reputable third-party licensee for Nintendo through their NES titles ''{{wp|R.C. Pro-Am}}'', ''{{wp|Snake, Rattle 'n' Roll}}'', and the hit game ''[[wikipedia:Battletoads (1991 video game)|Battletoads]]'', leading Nintendo to purchase a 25% stake of the company in 1994 after being impressed by their recent Silicon Graphics (SGI) advances in video game technology, leading Rare to become an independent second-party developer for Nintendo. The stake increased to 49%, while Rare would go on to develop more titles and franchises for Nintendo's subsequent consoles, such as the ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Country (series)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', ''{{wp|Killer Instinct}}'', ''{{wp|Banjo-Kazooie}}'', and ''[[wikipedia:Conker (series)|Conker]]'' franchises, with stand-off titles such as ''[[wikipedia:GoldenEye 007 (series)|GoldenEye 007]]'', ''{{mw|Diddy Kong Racing}}'', ''{{wp|Perfect Dark}}'', and ''[[lylatwiki:Star Fox Adventures|Star Fox Adventures]]'', before finally being bought out by {{wp|Microsoft}} in 2002 due to Nintendo refusing to purchase the other 51% of Rare. <ref>https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare</ref> In addition, R.O.B. has gone on to star in other Nintendo franchises as a cameo, from being a statue, a minor appearance, or a part of a mini-game in the ''[[mariowiki:WarioWare (series)|WarioWare]]'' series, a giant statue in [[fzerowiki:Port_Town|a race]] in ''{{fzw|F-Zero GX}}'', and its head and gyro blocks being part of the [[pikipedia:Blast from the Past Series|Blast from the Past series]] in ''[[pikipedia:Pikmin 2|Pikmin 2]]''. His most notable appearances in other Nintendo franchises are as a playable racer in ''{{mw|Mario Kart DS}}'' and the ''[[smashwiki:Super Smash Bros. (series)|Super Smash Bros. series]]'' as a playable fighter in every series title beginning with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. The NES itself has also been subject to an innumerable amount of references and appearances in other media since the 80s, like television (''{{wp|The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air}}'', ''{{wp|The Big Bang Theory}}''), fan-made documentaries (like {{wp|Nintendo Quest}}, which features two friends as they try to collect every licensed NES game in a month), and feature films (like {{wp|8-Bit Christmas}}, where a young boy and his friends try to obtain a coveted NES system for Christmas 1989). | The NES's success also gave rise to NOA's in-house magazine named ''{{wp|Nintendo Power}}'' in late 1988, which gave game walkthroughs, cheats, hints, a list of upcoming titles, NOA's 1-800 hotline number, and advertisements for Nintendo products and peripherals from the past, present, and future. An Official Nintendo Player's Guide book was released in the late 80s, covering various walkthroughs of NES titles, while ''Nintendo Power'' Strategy Guides for NES titles were also periodically released between the bimonthly standard issues, which were essentially entire "issues" devoted entirely to the walkthrough, guide, and tips and tricks to NES titles such as ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' and {{wp|Final Fantasy}}. After ''Nintendo Power'' became monthly, entire books were published with ''Nintendo Power'' that covered multiple walkthroughs of games from various platforms or specific, such as the NES GAME Atlas, Game Boy, Mario Mania, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System books, with ''Nintendo Power'' branded Player's Guide issues that covered one specific game's walkthrough, with this later formula being emulated by BradyGames and Prima's game guides. The magazine succeeded NOA's former free-to-join ''{{wp|Nintendo Fun Club}}'' newsletter, which functioned similarly to ''Nintendo Power''. The final issue of the newsletter encouraging its 1,000,000 subscribers to transfer over to ''Nintendo Power''. Howard Phillips later stated, "When we first launched the NES in 1985, we figured out very quickly that kids were just dying to get extra information about the games—not just new games that were coming out, but also how to play them." <ref>https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/nintendo-power-remembering-america-s-longest-lasting-game-magazine</ref> Thusly, after the NOA hotlines were formed, Howard Phillips and Gail Tilden started up the ''Nintendo Fun Club'' newsletter to provide a more inexpensive solution. As the ''Nintendo Fun Club'' was becoming too costly to produce, the newsletter was discontinued in 1988, with ''Nintendo Power'' succeeding it. Instead, Arakawa hired Howard Phillips and Gail Tilden to create the paid-subscription ''Nintendo Power'' magazine to satisfy readers' insatiable appetite with a biannual 100-page coverage of all things Nintendo, having seen several examples in Japan and deciding that that should be the focus of the magazine. (''{{wp|Famistu}}'', ''Famicom Tsushin'', ''Jump'', etc.) Howard Phillips was responsible for fact-checking the NES coverage in the issues, as well as inventing the modern walkthrough format;he and the ''Nintendo Power'' studio would take pictures of the game screens, which the team would then cut out with X-Acto knives and paste them together into one big collage of the game world map.<ref>https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/nintendo-power-remembering-america-s-longest-lasting-game-magazine</ref> Howard Phillips also cameoed as a character in a ''Nintendo Power'' comic strip, "Howard and Nester", in which Howard, dressed in a polka-dotted bowtie and having short, impeccable ginger hair (both of which were present on Phillips in real life: by this time, he had gained a Howdy-Doody quality to him), and the fictionalized skate-punk kid Nester (NES-ter), engaged in comedic adventures based on the game on the previous issue's cover. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> The strip was eventually dropped, but the strip further helped the magazine gain a unique identity to itself. Gail Tilden also found a perfect voice for the magazine, one that didn't talk down to children and belittle them whilst managing to keep the magazine upbeat and relatable without giving the air of an adult failing to relate to their kid's generation; According to David Sheff in his book ''Game Over'', that voice was a "cross between the dialogue in ''Wayne's World'' and a {{wp|Pee-wee Herman}} routine." The magazine became the largest-circulating U.S. children's magazine by the end of its first year, while 6,000,000 subscribers were gained by the year 1990. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> With the hotline, Nintendo's American repututation was firmly established in American minds, though not without some drawbacks: Nintendo faced lawsuits from various companies (and often conducted various lawsuits against other video game companies themselves) about Nintendo's monopolistic practices in the U.S. and the possible side-effects of video games on the minds of U.S. citizens and children, most of which are covered in ''Game Over''. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> Nonetheless, | ||
Eventually, a game counselor sect called "The Big Three" "GC6" (six game counselors) was formed, in which Howard Phillips, [[Phil Sandhop]] | |||
The NES gave birth to the "Nintendo Generation", which were the young children who grew up with the NES during the late 80s and early 90s, passing game codes, secrets and rumors at schoolyard playgrounds, faking being sick to stay home and play their NES, and devouring each issue of Nintendo Power with aplomb. At the height of its popularity, the NES was in one out of three American homes. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> The NES library contained first-party titles that are still revered as some of the best games of all time today through innumerable lists of NES favorites, and licensed third-party titles ranging from mega-popular fictional franchises to live-action films from ''{{wp|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles}}'' to ''{{wp|The Simpsons}}'' to ''{{wp|Ducktales}}'' to ''{{wp|Back to the Future}}''. The 1990 title ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' sold 14,000,000 copies worldwide with its total grosses only being succeeded by the [[wikipedia:Steven Spielberg|Spielberg]] blockbuster ''{{wp|E.T.}}'' film, with ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' going on become the highest-selling individual game in history at the time. A {{wp|UK}} company named [[wikipedia:Rare (company)|Rare]] also became a reputable third-party licensee for Nintendo through their NES titles ''{{wp|R.C. Pro-Am}}'', ''{{wp|Snake, Rattle 'n' Roll}}'', and the hit game ''[[wikipedia:Battletoads (1991 video game)|Battletoads]]'', leading Nintendo to purchase a 25% stake of the company in 1994 after being impressed by their recent Silicon Graphics (SGI) advances in video game technology, leading Rare to become an independent second-party developer for Nintendo. The stake increased to 49%, while Rare would go on to develop more titles and franchises for Nintendo's subsequent consoles, such as the ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Country (series)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', ''{{wp|Killer Instinct}}'', ''{{wp|Banjo-Kazooie}}'', and ''[[wikipedia:Conker (series)|Conker]]'' franchises, with stand-off titles such as ''[[wikipedia:GoldenEye 007 (series)|GoldenEye 007]]'', ''{{mw|Diddy Kong Racing}}'', ''{{wp|Perfect Dark}}'', and ''[[lylatwiki:Star Fox Adventures|Star Fox Adventures]]'', before finally being bought out by {{wp|Microsoft}} in 2002 due to Nintendo refusing to purchase the other 51% of Rare. <ref>https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare</ref> In addition, R.O.B. has gone on to star in other Nintendo franchises as a cameo, from being a statue, a minor appearance, or a part of a mini-game in the ''[[mariowiki:WarioWare (series)|WarioWare]]'' series, a giant statue in [[fzerowiki:Port_Town|a race]] in ''{{fzw|F-Zero GX}}'', and its head and gyro blocks being part of the [[pikipedia:Blast from the Past Series|Blast from the Past series]] in ''[[pikipedia:Pikmin 2|Pikmin 2]]''. His most notable appearances in other Nintendo franchises are as a playable racer in ''{{mw|Mario Kart DS}}'' and the ''[[smashwiki:Super Smash Bros. (series)|Super Smash Bros. series]]'' as a playable fighter in every series title beginning with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. The NES itself has also been subject to an innumerable amount of references and appearances in other media since the 80s, like television (''{{wp|The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air}}'', ''{{wp|The Big Bang Theory}}''), fan-made documentaries (like {{wp|Nintendo Quest}}, which features two friends as they try to collect every licensed NES game in a month), and feature films (like {{wp|8-Bit Christmas}}, where a young boy and his friends try to obtain a coveted NES system for Christmas 1989). | |||
=Console Accessories and Bundles= | =Console Accessories and Bundles= | ||