History of Video Games - Part 6
Now You’re Playing With Power
Catch Up on the Series
3 - Have You Played Atari Today?
4 - The Great Video Game Crash of 1983
Morning in America
The 1980s has gone on to become one of the most iconic decades in American history. It was a decade symbolized by big hair, the rise of the computer, the emergence of the pop star, classic hip-hop and rap, music with a synthesizer, the blockbuster action star, Steven Speildberg’s golden era, Disney’s slow but steady comeback, the final stages of the Cold War, Back to the Future, and the images and voice of Ronald Reagan as the ultimate symbol of the country at the time. As iconic as the decade was, it didn’t necessarily start well.
The 80s started with a deep recession and double-digit inflation. There were also oil shocks and the Iran Contra Crisis. When Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election, he was almost killed by an assassin just a couple of months into his term. The economy dragged him down after a short burst of popularity, with the 1982 midterm election hitting his Republican Party badly. Entering 1983, people were comparing him to Herbert Hoover and there was a malaise in the country. Then, things began to change.
1983 saw some of the biggest job growth in the country’s history, mostly led by inflation coming down and the Federal Reserve cutting rates. Reagan saw his approvals rise and by the time 84 hit, he was able to run for re-election with favorable numbers. Reagan ran on the the platform slogan “Morning in America”, highlighting the upward trend in the economy and American moods. The pop culture of the decade began to get a foothold and for the first time since Kennedy’s election, there was a sense of pride in the country. Reagan would go on to be re-elected in one of the greatest landslides in American history.
Now why do I bring this up? Well, whatever your feelings about Reagan, not only did he epitomize 80s America, but his story would be mirrored by the American video game industry. The video game console industry crashed in 1983. Now, the Japanese company Nintendo was looking to revive it. At the time, Japan was starting to become known as the tech giant of the world. Companies like Sony and Panasonic were becoming household names in the United States. Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi would task his son-in-law to launch the system in America. Eventually, much like Reagan’s political career, it would be Morning in America for the video game industry soon enough.
The Nintendo Advanced Video System
Nintendo knew they wanted to enter the American market and attempted to in the summer of 1983. They had made a deal with Atari to distribute the Famicom in North America, but the deal fell through after Atari CEO Ray Kassar was fired. Nintendo planned to launch the system as the Nintendo Advanced Video System, sporting a design similar to consoles of the time and would have (amazingly) wireless accessories and a cassette recorder.
Once the deal fell through, Nintendo decided to go at it alone and Yamauchi put pressure on his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa to make it happen. They targeted a 1985 launch. The video game and tech media in the states questioned why Nintendo would try to launch a console, as the feeling was that the industry was dead in America. One thing Nintendo did that worked, was deploy their arcade VS System machine across the country. This helped make their name known and trusted by American gamers and got them used to characters like Donkey Kong and Mario.
The Gamble
In 1985’s Consumer Electronics Show, Nintendo unveiled a redesigned Famicom for the North American market. They changed the system to have a front-loading cartridge slot, to give a tape cassette player look since they were so popular at the time. It would also be able to withstand kids messing around with the slot. It ditched the red and white design for a gray box with a black strip running down its right side. It was also rebranded as the Nintendo Entertainment System. While it did raise some eyebrows due to its advanced 8-bit and colorful graphics, retailers didn’t want anything to do with it.
We have to remember something, this was still a time when retail was king and the stores knew it. They held a lot of power over what was sold in their stores. Big box stores weren’t at their peak yet and department stores were where people shopped for big-ticket items. Retailers lost money when the video game console market crashed and they wanted no part in some Japanese company’s box. Realizing this, Arakawa was forced to make some gambles.
First, he specifically focused on marketing the system as an entertainment system, NOT a video game system. This led to the packaging of R.O.B. the robot in the higher tier unit. R.O.B. was essentially a premium toy.
“Nintendo really needed to come up with a point of difference, and some way of getting the retailer to believe that the consumer would embrace this as a different and newer form of entertainment. ... We spent a lot of energy not calling it a video game in any way” - Nintendo of America Marketing Manager Gail Tilden
Arakawa decided on his biggest gamble, he would aim to sell the system first in New York. He pitched it to his father-in-law using the old Frank Sinatra adage “If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere”. The company swarmed all their major marketing heads and executives to convince retailers across New York and New Jersey to sell the system. This included future Nintendo of America President Howard Lincoln. The biggest gamble was a commitment to retail partners that they would buy back any systems that didn’t sell, something Arakawa didn’t tell his father-in-law he was going to do. Finally, they were able to lock up one of New York City’s most important retailers at the time - FAO Schwarz. When retailers signed up after being told it was no risk on their part, they supposedly told Nintendo, “It’s your funeral”.
On October 18, 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System launched. The initial launch system was branded the “Deluxe Set” and included R.O.B. the robot, the Zapper lightgun, and Duck Hunt. Launch titles sold separately included 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Excitebike, Golf, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew, and a game called Super Mario Bros.
Through the holiday season, the company operated out of a warehouse. It was tough work and they had to endure bullying from neighbors who hated they were a Japanese company. See, as Japanese companies began to have so much success in the electronics and tech industry across America, it created an easy thing for some Americans to point at following the economic malaise of the 70s, and the start of issues with the middle class in the 80s. Younger generations don’t realize that there were many Americans that refused to buy Japanese products and there was a rise in hate crimes towards all Asians, not just Japanese. People like Howard Lincoln and Gail Tilden would be told “I hope your Jap company fails!”. Enduring this and the working conditions which included rats, they had a slow but solid holiday with enough systems sold to show promise.
NES Arrives
1986 would be a big year for the NES. Nintendo launched the system across more major markets in the country including Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They also got deals done with many popular stores across America, like Worlds of Wonder. The biggest get for the company would come in time for the 1986 Christmas season when they locked down two powerhouses - Sears and Kmart. Throughout the year, they sold the previously mentioned Deluxe Set unit ($159 - $449 in 2024 dollars) and the newly launched Control Deck unit which came with the system, two controllers, and Super Mario Bros. ($99 - $279 in 2024 dollars). It became obvious by the end of the year that Nintendo had a hit and it would only grow as the 80s continued. Now the same retailers that didn’t want to sell the NES, were begging for more units. So much for that funeral…
Nintendo also launched across Europe, but did it without any real plan. It was Scandanavia who got it first. Countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand got it later in 1987. Spain wouldn’t receive the system until 1988. In some of these countries, Mattel would distribute the system in partnership with Nintendo. The system never really got the reception they wanted in Europe. It was successful towards the end, but its rival the Sega Master System outsold the NES in the UK. To this day, the United Kingdom is a market Nintendo tends to have to work harder for success, as PlayStation is king there.
The Nintendo Entertainment System revived the North American video game market. By the time 1990 came around, video games were not only popular again, but they were now bringing out iconic characters that still stand the test of time. One of these characters was Mario, who has gone on to become the most famous video game character ever. It was his first platform adventure game that showed what the modern video game landscape would be.
It’s A Me
Following the success of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto was now a full-blown game developer and one that was seen as the company’s most important. In 1983, he created the game Mario Bros. and gave Jumpman a brother - Luigi. The game was dubbed an “athletic game” by Miyamoto as you would get points by taking down turtles that we now call Koopas. The young developer decided he wanted to create a side-scrolling and colorful game that would take the aspects of an “athletic game” to create a story and world. This would go on to be called the platform genre.
Miyamoto teamed up with Takashi Tezuka to make this dream come true. They took their experiences from working on games like Excitebike, which showed them how to do sidescrolling. He used the same engine as Excitebike for the new project and he wanted the player to have control over how fast they went through the game’s levels. Now it was time to pick a protagonist. Miyamoto was convinced by Tezuka to choose Mario after the success of Mario Bros. and they collaborated on the antagonist, the King of the Koopas who would go on to be called Bowser, now one of the most famous villains in all of entertainment media.
The team worked on implementing Miyamoto’s vision, with items like POW blocks, enemies, sprites, and music. They almost gave Mario and Luigi rockets to fly around and shoot at enemies, but cut the idea out. Instead, they added power-ups and liked the idea of Mario trying to get big to deal more damage against his enemies. The use of mushrooms and the world’s name of the Mushroom Kingdom was based on Japanese folktales. To make up for memory limitations in the cartridge they carefully recycled sprites such as bushes and clouds being the same, just colored differently. Super Mario Bros. was ready and its impact was felt the moment you booted the game up.
World 1-1 is not only the most iconic level in a video game or the most famous music score, but it’s a perfect example of the genius of Shigeru Miyamoto. It acts as a tutorial without explaining it to the player. When you start Mario can move, but a Goomba immediately makes its way towards you. After you touch it, you realize it hurts you and you learn to jump away or on top of it. With this lesson, you see a shiny box with a question mark, and hitting it leads to your first powerup which makes you bigger. Later in the level you bump into a pipe that leads you underground, falling pits, the flower powerup, and the star that makes you invincible. It all leads to a flagpole for the end. It’s a master class in design and creativity on how to guide a player without telling them what to do. This is possibly the most played level in video game history.
Another consequential factor in Super Mario Bros. came in the music. Koji Kondo decided he didn’t just want to make typical video game sound effects. He sought to make music to convey emotion to the player and give the world some character. He followed the progress of the game’s development and would adjust his music to fit the gameplay. After this game, video game music focused on becoming part of the game rather than just enhancing the experience. This was only the beginning of Kondo’s talents, as he would go on to compose many of the most influential and memorable themes in Nintendo.
Super Mario Bros. became a must-play title and is among the top 5 most consequential games of all time. Its level design, philosophies, characters, and music set the stage for the dominance of the NES and the iconic worlds that Nintendo still provides to the industry. The original NES release has sold over 40 million units, one of the best-selling games ever.
The 8-Bit Era
With the modern video game console model created, Nintendo opened the floodgates. In the next part, we will look at the iconic games and franchises created under the NES. Plus, a new contender rises as Sega looks to take on Nintendo with its 8-bit system. When that didn’t work in their favor, Sega began work on another influential console - the Mega Drive, or as Americans know it - the Sega Genesis.
SOURCES
Wikipedia (Super Mario Bros., The History of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Hiroshi Yamauchi)
YouTube (The Gaming Historian - Nintendo’s Advanced Video System)
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