G4 Icons Season 4 Episode 10 - History of the NES (2005)

The history of the system that made me and many others kids at the time realize that gaming was something more than dots on a screen (looking at you, Atari 2600) and that Nintendo was more than just your average company. Back then, if you were frustrated with a game, you could write in to Nintendo and game play counselors like Kirk Starr would write back and give you advice. I wrote in to Nintendo in 1994 and got back this well-written and helpful letter from Kirk: i.imgur.com/OWE...
The above, deservedly, is partly why Nintendo made such an impression on young gamers in my day and why I always wish them well in their console ventures even though I don't own any recent Nintendo consoles.

[@triad79]

Miss watching Icons from G4

[@princegroove]

Yep, so much nostalgia.

[@KSWAN1287]

Spawn wave sent me to relive my very first video game console! The memories to be part of that generation of gaming is awesome to reflect back on!

[@zaydencolt4352]

Sorry to be offtopic but does any of you know a method to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost my account password. I would love any tricks you can give me.

[@clayjohnathan6734]

@Zayden Colt instablaster ;)

[@randywatson1982]

i just seen that spawn wave video, now im here...back in the 80s where it all started for me

[@BenJabituya]

I still have my NES original, NES Top-loader and Japanese Famicom. It still holds up for me. Even after all these decades. I remember showing my one cousin who was 6 at the time how to play Duck Hunt. She enjoyed it, whenever she came over. Now, she still thinks of those times.

[@MrLion1]

Loving the old school DVR interface for the commercials. Shoulda left them in! Pure nostalgia..

[@MetalPersonJ]

18:15 Snooping as usual I see.

[@benitosierrajr3958]

This was officially the last great episode of G4 Icons because the King Kong episode that came after this episode would change the format of this series completely and cause the original video games centric episodes in Icons to be rebranded as Game Makers

[@MMZERO9]

To think the eventual design of the NES was conceptualized within an hour. 😳🤓😀

[@davoid96]

9:45 Actual footage of Mario and Luigi buying an NES

[@BautistaGod-r1q]

Wait What is that my parents mario and luigi?!

[@adamhovey407]

To be fair, if you're Brazilian Sega Master System is still alive and well.

[@SkitBitProduction]

Adam Hovey this is just in America they mean

[@ryandevan2793]

True the master system did do better in Brazil

[@BavarianM]

@@ryandevan2793 Better? it totally dominated the Nes

[@ryandevan2793]

@@BavarianM in Brazil the master system did better not in the us

[@timothymckann9415]

I also like the story of this system,I usually find NES units at Flea Markets,and repair them to get them in good working order,and one time I bought a damaged unit and took 3 Hours of work on it to get it running.I do have the fixing gene. And next year this consoles celebrates the 40th anniversary.

[@ericschmidt1987]

Spawn wave referred me to the video lol.

[@PinoyBowlerGS92]

I like the year of 2006 and 2012 when Nintendo is #1 in the gaming industry and showing there love and knowledge of gaming to everyone. And 3 geniuses did everything Mr. Iwata, Mr. Miyamoto and Reggie

[@susanfit47]

I love collecting NES consoles and playing them, Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Star Voyager, Jaws, R.C. Pro-Am, Pac-Man (Tengen unlicensed version), R.B.I. Baseball, Mickey Mousecapade, Paperboy, Goal!, Tetris, RoadBlasters, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Spot: The Video Game, The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Dr. Mario, Ski or Die, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Blue Marlin. I should have got the Black Box games Super Mario Bros. (standalone version), Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Golf, Kung-Fu, Wild Gunman, Ice Climber, Donkey Kong 3, Popeye, Mario Bros., Balloon Fight, and Slalom, Tag Team Wrestling, Karate Champ, 1942, Commando, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Gradius, Burger Time, Metroid, the Castlevania series, Solomon's Key, Tiger-Heli, Red Racer, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Punch-Out!! (1990 version), Side Pocket, the Mega Man series, Karnov, Renegade, Contra, Super C, Major League Baseball, Donkey Kong, City Connection, the Bases Loaded series, Double Dragon, Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normany, Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, Galaga, Adventure Island, Milon's Secret Castle, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Pac-Man (Tengen licensed version), Pac-Man (1993 Namco Hometek licensed version), Ghostbusters, 1943: The Battle of Midway, Bubble Bobble, Bubble Bobble Part 2, Cobra Command, Platoon, Bump 'n' Jump, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Blades of Steel, Rampage, Skate or Die!, Bomberman, Tecmo Bowl, Bandai Golf Challenge Pebble Beach, Friday the 13th, Q*Bert, Kung-Fu Heroes, Ninja Gaiden, RoboWarrior, Marble Madness, Operation Wolf, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project, DuckTales, DuckTales 2, Back to the Future, RoboCop, RoboCop 2, Heavy Barrel, Double Dare, Mechanized Attack, Cabal, Mission: Impossible, Rollergames, Super Glove Ball, The Punisher, StarTropics, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, Digger T. Rock: The Legend of the Lost City, Arch Rivals, Qix, Metal Storm, Power Blade, Whomp 'Em, The Simpsons: Bart Vs. the Space Mutants, Videomation, Battletoads, Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, Where's Waldo?, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Smash T.V., Tecmo Super Bowl, Shatterhand, Super Spy Hunter, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Safari, Paperboy 2, Toxic Crusaders, Yoshi, Felix the Cat, Joe & Mac, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, R.C. Pro-Am II, Yoshi's Cookie, Kirby’s Adventure, Mighty Final Fight, The Flintstones: The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak!, Wayne's World, The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckeroo$!, Ms. Pac-Man (Namco Hometek version), Mario is Missing!, The Jungle Book, and Wario’s Woods, etc. I also like the accessories, including Bandai’s Super Controller, Beeshu’s Ultimate Superstick (licensed version), Zinger Joystick (licensed version), Zipper Controller, Zoomer (licensed version), Jazz Stick, Remote Ultimate Wireless Superstick, Hot Stuff Joysitck, Viper Joystick, Joystick, Gizmo Joystick, Data East’s Wing Commander joystick, the NES Max, the Four Score, Mattel’s the Power Glove, Hudson Soft’s the Hudson Joycard Sansui SSS, Bandai/Shinsei‘s Hyper Controller and Hyperstick Variable Super Controller, LJN’s Roll & Rocker, Brøderbund’s the U-Force Forcefield Controller, Camerica’s Freedom Connection (Camerica licensed version), BDL Enterprises’ Turbo Blaster, Suncom's Mothership (Suncom licensed version), Nexoft’s the Dominator MasterControl and Dominator ProBeam, Bondwell's Quickshot Joystick (Bondwell licensed version), Maverick 2 Joystick (Bondwell licensed version), Flightgrip 2 (Bondwell licensed version), Phyton 2 Deluxe (Bondwell licensed version), QuickShot QS-126 Joypad (Bondwell licensed version), Konami’s LaserScope, Pressman’s Speedboard, LightWave Technologies' GameSounds Receiver, the Triton Pad, Innovation Entertainment’s Innovation Joypad (Called “Innovation 8-Bit Controller” on box), IMN Control’s The Game Hander, the NES Controller 2 (Basic, the Super NES styled NES controller created for the NES-101), but I want to get them next. I still own the original NES model, the NES controller, the Zapper, the NES Advantage (an arcade style joystick), and I love it, and I also love the NES2 top loader, too. I used to own Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Jackal, NFL Football, Sesame Street 1-2-3, Double Dribble, Batman: The Video Game, Donkey Kong Classics, Silent Service, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Back to the Future Part II & III, The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy, Quickshot’s Joystick controller, but I don’t know more. I will get them. I also love playing the unreleased games Makai Island, Titan Warriors, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The California Raisins: The Grape Escape, U-Force Power Games, Taro's Quest, Drac’s Night Out, Happily Ever After, HeroQuest, the NES port of SimCity, Squashed, Bio Force Ape, U-Four-ia: The Saga, Time Diver: Eon Man, Hit the Ice, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, The Legend of Robin Hood, RoboCop Versus The Terminator, and Beauty and the Beast. Too bad they didn’t release it back in the late 1980’s/early/mid 1990’s.

[@KaNawogirusa]

I came from spawn wave 😁 is that guy ign peer in the video?

[@kevinramirez3134]

What is the name of the theme playing at the 15:04 mark?

[@deltakid0]

Shazam could recognize it I think

[@kevinramirez3134]

@@deltakid0, Shazam?

[@deltakid0]

@@kevinramirez3134 it's an Android app that recognize songs

[@susanfit47]

Mario and Luigi buying an NES for themselves to play at home.

[@Friendly_Neigborhood_Astolfo]

What are the names of the BGMs in this documentary?

[@cvbabc]

The home video gaming market crashed in 1980? More like '83-'84. That's when we got our 2600 and had no problem getting games for it. Talk about lazy research...

[@dxg5659]

I actually did NOT know that Super Mario Bros was in the arcade.

[@dapperfan44]

The first two Sonic games had machines too. The first game had some major alterations in the arcade, levels were cut and you have a strict time limit.

[@ryandevan2793]

It was. that in fact there was two versions Of Super Mario Bros available in the arcades, V.S. Super Mario Bros which was made for the Vs duel and unisystem which had harder gameplay, different coin numbers to get an extra life (depending on the dip switch settings), fewer warp zones and power-ups, more enemies, and 6 new levels that were eventually be incorporated into the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, and a version on Nintendo’s Playchoice 10 which was essentially an arcade NES with a timer.

[@dimarysbrito6660]

WOW ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[@SonicTheHedgeRat]

Remembering G4 bought me here not some lame ass KZbinr!

[@princegroove]

Too bad Nintendo’s Love Hotels didn’t make it to the States. 😂

[@EnchWraits]

"Nintendo's biggest problem was legal battles." hmm... sounds kinda familiar... * cough * cough... joycon * cough dri * cough ft * cough

[@RhythmGrizz]

I mean They're doing fine It doesn't actually seem to be a problem for them at all. Still profitable and successful

[@matthewwilton7778]

All the games on atari sucked. How many times could a normal person play pac man?The sports games sucked....compared to kung fu?, mfng metroid....rbi baseball, that's why nes was popular.....it doesn't take professors to figure this out

[@nonanimeprofilepic]

we need another video game crash

[@ryandevan2793]

No we don’t!