Here's Why The NES Is The Most Important Console Ever Made

The Nintendo Entertainment System was released at a time when video games were at an all time low and considered a passing fad. The Japanese company decided to release a game console anyway and with the help of great games managed to revive a market that had seemingly moved on from games. Today we'll be looking at the legendary console.
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[@nomad4k]

The “expansion slot” at the bottom was actually a port used to test the boards and see metrics on a computer screen before placing it in the casing. They developed a bunch of computers that could be hooked up to these boards and it made testing much easier, saving costs.. you did not have to put a cartridge in, connect the power and do everything else to make sure the board functioned. That part was left to later in the production line, effectively eliminating the possibility of a faulty board making it through all the way to the end with the casing and all, and only then find out that the board itself was faulty to begin with

[@RGT85]

Because it was RGT 85s first system. Without it I may have never got into gaming and then we would have a world without RGT.

[@ggali09]

I could live with that.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

1985 nes launch?

[@CitizenToxie72]

That dude sucks

[@dewinter1411]

And that would suck!!!!

[@pushlive]

'RGT-85, RGT-85' sing a long people lol

[@vuppet5684]

It shaped the face of gaming. It showed what technology can do. It’s not just a console, it was a stepping stone that will most likely continue for decades to come. All because Nintendo showed the world what technology can do

[@myke7613]

Very well said.

[@weaverquest]

@@isturbo1984 It brought home console market back and specifically in the US market. PC gaming genres were quite different than consoles back then.

[@Dovahkiif]

It did shape the face of gaming and saved the American console industry, but Atari and early computers showed the world what technology could do first...

[@Link200767]

remember that Nintendo was doomed even before entering the console market and was destined to fail. also Nintendo doing well equals them failing according to the haters.

[@jonnybiggs1756]

Only in the US you forgot to mention

[@jspike96]

I like this different style video. Good stuff Spawn!

[@818loko]

J. Spike That's Mr. Wave to you.

[@OttawaHunter22]

Old nintendo consoles are amazing, my favorite is the SNES by far!

[@Xnerdz1]

That's my first console! I respect the NES a lot, but the Snes is the very first thing that could plunge me into a virtual world and gave me a passion for gaming as a whole.

[@MalarkeyMan]

All Nintendo consoles are amazing🙂

[@pieta9097]

Mine is N64

[@da_gamers_loft0941]

Agree! But gamecube was way underrated!!

[@DaleKamp]

I remember Christmas of '94, I opened up a present and saw the Nintendo branding thinking I'd be getting an NES as it was all I knew for gaming consoles besides Atari at age 7, but it was an SNES. That system really catapulted my love of gaming.

[@darioodde8590]

If there's a company that is good at preserving the glories of the past for the new generations it's Nintendo. They know how valuable those games and IPs are. My nephews might not like nes games as much as fortnite, but they know about them. I don't see any other company caring that much about keeping their library alive. They even worked gorgeous 2D gameplay and graphics in Mario Odyssey in a way that is both new and vintage. That's a lot of effort, and I think it's paying off.

[@failuresum-watch2757]

Another company that really cares about old ips is thq nordic, they're buying up all of thqs old ips and re releasing them (or planning on it) like destroy all humans and time splitters

[@Kevinb1821]

I have to say in America we never said snez or what ever crap the English say. We said regular Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Or saying each Letter one at time snes or nes sometimes.

[@breadone_]

@@Kevinb1821 who asked

[@bryanx0317]

@@breadone_ lol! Well I'll admit it made me think about it... Did I call it a nes when I was a kid in America?? Then I realized who cares 😂

[@marccaselle8108]

@@Kevinb1821 This was my experience also. We called it Nintendo or Super Nintendo.

[@potatolol4579]

As someone who's now 22 years old and my first ever console being a Sega Master System which was handed down to me by my sister, even I knew how important the Nintendo Entertainment System was. It's an icon of gaming, a symbol. Being in the UK, the NES wasn't really ever a popular console over here, it was mostly home computers and Sega Systems that took the country by storm. But it's undeniable how huge of an impact it had in the States, their clever tactic to bundle it with ROB was essentially their Trojan Horse, if it weren't for that spark of ingenuity from the marketing team, I doubt gaming would've had come back as powerful as it did. Or at least if it did, it'd be by someone else. I'd always wanted to get my hands on an NES to experience it for myself, but since the NES Mini was around, it was the perfect choice for someone like me, I'd much rather let someone who had the system beforehand have the actual console and me to have the Mini. I'm grateful for what Nintendo did back then and revitalised gaming to the mainstream audiences again, I just hope we don't have to suffer another video game crash again, the video game industry has become such a giant success, it's very easy to forget what made it special in the first place.

[@broken1394]

Love your comment Potato - your right about the NES not being super common in the U.K - the big winner in the 80s with me and a lot's of other peep's were the home computer's (thinking mid 80s here) the Commodore 64 and Spectrum. Happy gaming. 🙋🏻‍♂️

[@zerowing087-2]

When people ask me "How are you so good at jumping puzzles and parkour?" I send them to Super Mario Bros 2.

[@Cubbie410]

Which version tho?

[@LionOfJudah83]

Why would anyone dislike this video? Spawnwave is one of if not the most elite gaming channels on the net. Awesome work Spawn Wave. My 5 and 2 year olds are starting to play the nes and other classics with me and they already care more about gameplay than graphics. Much respect!

[@ElComanche]

Johnny Rosado just hating bitches.

[@ElComanche]

isturbo1984 biased to what exactly. He likes everything about gaming.

[@projectdaaltaran]

Yeah people dont like gaming news hosts to be video game fan boys. Retro fanboy. Modern fanboy. How dare he discuss all gaming platforms and design his studio around all things currently gaming.

[@LionOfJudah83]

@@isturbo1984 News flash everyone had a bias. It's call likes and opinions. Get over yourself.

[@jvgaming4826]

Spawn wave is awesome!!!! It comes nature!!

[@kurisu7885]

The design of the American NES was also meant to resemble something many already had in their homes, a VCR. That's why it was that and not a top loader, the top loader still resembled the older consoles and made retailers wary of it, so they went with a VCR type design

[@MicklowFilms]

Fun fact: The Atari 2600 had the wood veneer in the front to mimic the look of home stereo systems in the 70s and 80s.

[@zabtronics]

I'm pretty sure this is also why they made the cartridges so large despite the board being pretty small

[@JesseAndMike]

Awesome! Another great video! :D

[@John6-40]

How old are you Spawn? I'm 37 and anyone around my age knows you're spot on. The NES saved video gaming after the early 80's crash. It also established the most important gaming IP's ever. Mario. Zelda. Metroid. Megaman. Castlevania. Metal Gear. On and on. It also established the blueprint for the modern controller. Up to that point, we'd had joysticks (Atari) and even a remote (coleco vision). The NES controller sat in your hand the same way current controllers do. They also invented the d-pad. Oddly enough, the NES was even designed to have primitive internet capabilities. There was a service where you could check your stocks from your NES, although I believe that was only available in Japan. Read the book "Game Over: Nintendo's Battle to Dominate Video Games". I learned a lot of interesting info from that book.

[@RunicSigils]

D-pads existed before the NES. Yokoi only came up with the cross design which, depending upon your preferences, may be considered a downgrade because the Intellivision did 16 directions. I own it so I would definitely know. But even for 8 directions it was only the first console to do it. It was on several handheld systems previously, including Nintendo's own Game and Watch which was also not the first one to do it. Nintendo modified and popularized it, they didn't create it.

[@cdlelondon]

By "crash" you mean the US gaming crash , Europe had no such gaming crash

[@geox30x]

@@cdlelondon I am 40yo and been gaming since I was 8.I wasn't even aware of the existence of game consoles until a few years down the road. I started with the CPC 6128 and the Amiga. Home computers were all the rage in Europe.

[@Mundus66]

Metal Gear is not a Nes game. The Nes port of the MSX game Metal Gear is terrible and Kojima had nothing to do with it. In the real game snake swims in like in MGS1, in the NES version he arrives by plane and there are 3 other soldiers with him who are never seen again. Also in the NES version you never fight Metal Gear. The Nes version of Metal Gear is something that should be forgotten by history since its not a good game and never was.

[@opligangaa292]

Deric gregory bullshit the crash only happened in the us and pc gaming was booming at the time

[@arkanoid77]

Good work on spreading a very important piece of gaming history. But I have to say that even if it wasn't specifically a "gaming console", the Commodore 64 was way more important for our generation in Italy (and I'm sure other parts of Europe too). It had similar specs but what I'm most fond of were the AWESOME audio chip (way better for my tastes). The transition that you explain from Atari 2600 (or VCS) was massively passed to Commodore at the time. That was a time when there wasn't any PC gaming so, keyboard or not, all gaming platforms were competing directly. And just a little note, we had D-pads on some of the Nintendo Game&Watch series and they were extremely popular so I wasn't "shocked" at the NES controller (probably 4 directions only tho). But I admit it was an advancement over most of the joysticks.

[@iamnothuman27]

I was born in 1990. So my last memory of this system. I always had a sega. And 64 and ps1. My earliest system. But when i had to go to my grand mothers house in the summer. She had one where my cousin use to live with here. So i have spend many nights over there nothing elese to do running mario all night. Good memories

[@dacohov]

As much as I hate to say it, The Atari was just as important for popularizing the idea of the "home video game console". The Nintendo really saved the day in North America when it came to the crash for sure. I seem to remember somewhere they designed the look of the North America version very specifically to make it seem less like a video game machine are more of a general appliance. Think it was from the Norm guy over at TheGamingHistorian. A lot to take in when considering the importance of each console. Lessons learned from failures and successes alike.

[@paranormalskeptic3893]

BG3 The Atari 2600 can never be overlooked, it would be quite a different industry if the Atari 2600 didn’t exist. They were the first to come out with interchangeable games using cartridges. Brilliant system, that I spent a zillion hours on. Extremely important system, and up there with the NES as far as importance, I’d say it’s a tie.

[@fixman88]

@scott rand The Fairchild Channel F was the first console to have interchangeable cartridges, and came out a year earlier. It used a CPU that Fairchild developed themselves (Fairchild Semiconductor was one of the *founding members* of Silicon Valley) and it had a unique controller design, but only about half the power of the VCS. Once the VCS came out it mopped the floor with all comers, the Channel F included. By the time Fairchild quit selling it in 1983 it was regarded as a relic that almost nobody knew about.

[@TheRestartPoint]

Why would you hate to say it? The Atari was equally important of course

[@countingsheeple2428]

@Rooflesoft Games The Atari was definitely important, but near THEIR end, the games were just crappy....the problem was that Atari, and a lot of other companies, didn't know where the gaming industry was headed. And Atari DID NOT gamble in the favor OF the gaming community. Nintendo did. Nintendo stepped in without money or reputation, where Atari and Sega could have... Nintendo raised the bar.

[@RelyeaGaming]

11:10 I can’t tell you how much I blew into my cartridges... I would hate to see the rust buildup now

[@hannahc3317]

People have experimented on it... blow vs no blow. Blowing on the cartridge encourages dust and mold buildup and it rusts.

[@kickthejamz]

That's because you got some people that blow with a gallon of spit everytime and you got some that just use air. I never let anyone else clean mine because of that and more then likely always worked.

[@Sir_Redwood]

Loved the endless repeat of Megaman 2 theme. I could listen to that clip all.day.long. Good vid!

[@kickthejamz]

Thank you for this comment I was trying to figure out which game it was from! Love the old classic 8 bit music

[@budthecyborg4575]

I still count the generations of gaming history starting from the release of the NES. Nintendo single handedly created the industry we have today (a publishing model where the platform holder approves software), and they did it at a time when Videogames had been largely abandoned in the US.

[@alvallac2171]

*video games Two words, not one.

[@gc4408]

I’m 42 yrs old , just got back into collecting, I appreciate the valuable information in these videos ...... I received a NES for Christmas in 1989 , with the recent craziness in America, these are a great escape.... I hope they don’t “cancel” video games. May the Schwartz be with you......

[@ScatterbrainPete]

If the NES was so important to the video game market, then I'd love to see Spawn take apart some old home computers like Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari XE, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, 486 PC, etc., if only so we can see what he has to say about them.

[@Amon_Gus799]

Can you do more videos like this but for Nintendo’s other consoles

[@ericschmidt1987]

Big Bergoglio agree I really love these history videos of my childhood

[@ericschmidt1987]

Big Bergoglio agree I really love these history videos of my childhood. I remember playing the nes in the Philippines with my rich cousin.

[@RhythmGrizz]

Great idea I would love if he did that

[@Fille-lj1qv]

goh,i have a small museum here,think almost 40 retro consoles,and then all handhelds,got a lot of work with them for modding them and maintenance,but they are fully working and maintenaced on the inside,new caps-voltage regulators ect...,love todo it.

[@DG-sf9ei]

It was milestones ahead of anything at the time or before it. I like Atari too, but I remember when the Nintendo NES was released, it was the 1st video game system you could sit down for hours and just play 1 game without getting bored, because so many of the NES games had multiple levels/worlds and hidden hacks.

[@robertoperezjr.1119]

I remember being in awe of the NES. I loved playing Atari and Colecovision at the time. But when I first saw the commercial for the NES I was blown away! I never imagined that video games could be so realistic (heheheheeee).

[@zero9112]

Cannot stress this enough but the big video game crash was something that was mostly impacted only the US. PAL regions was not hurt too much since they had the Master System.

[@blownclutchgaming1726]

I have two OG NES systems one in my game room and the other in living room for the kids to play

[@lain328]

I'm sure someone's already mentioned it but that expansion slot in the back was utilized in Japan for a floppy disc drive

[@mzaratez]

My first console when I was 4 years old in 1989. I’ve been a Mario fanatic ever since and gaming has been an integral part of my life.

[@venommentality]

The fact that so many kids at my school have no idea about anything concerning the NES, SNES, heck even the gamecube makes me kinda sad because there are so many amazing games that are just overlooked for not being current or flashy and popular.

[@beaks527]

While I've heard this story before, loved the format while going with the tear down and talking about not only them bringing back the industry in the US but also the technical details and really putting the whole picture in perspective.

[@susanfit47]

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is the most important console ever made because it's my favorite video game and Nintendo system of all-time and is described as "America's Favorite Home Video Game System" and "The World's Most Popular Home Video Game System". I'm hoping to get more games and accessories for the system soon.

[@Robbo1900]

My first console I had as a child. Fell in love with Nintendo after that to where I now own every single console.

[@gamecubeguy01]

I have only been alive for 17 years, and I also completely agree with this! I love the NES!

[@ritoion5120]

The expansion port was for the Famicom Disc system in Japan, which they had plans to take to the west but didnt

[@PetriDishB]

I'm 13 and i like the nes a lot and lot of people my age don't even care

[@PetriDishB]

@Vegito Charmara one of my teachers in my nursery had a SNES and she used to lend it to my aunt with a couple of games. I loved that thing whenever I went to my grandma's I hoped they had it because all I had was flash games that took 20 minutes to load because I lived in a village. Super Mario world and donkey Kong country were my favourites. In August when we did go to Hungary we borrowed it to play on and it sure was fun

[@TheMindOfThomas]

Also 13 here. And yeah same thing here.

[@attackofthetheeyecreatures3472]

As old and clunky as the NES is, the good games that are on the console are STILL good. Some games are just timeless.

[@budthecyborg4575]

It's good to appreciate it but really, as someone who grew up with the NES, I'm glad the 8 bit era is over. Now the 16 bit era, that is where gaming really came into its own. To this day Super Metroid is still worth playing.

[@karnagefails333]

That says you're not into "instant gratification" or getting a reward and "exp" for losing. Your reward for gaming is the playing the game and defeating the game itself. It says something about your character. You're old school. And that is a good thing these days.

[@jh6025]

Spawn wave has moved up to number one on my list of people I'd love to meet. The guy is like a walking encyclopedia. It would be fascinating to talk with him for hours and hours about the past 30 years in gaming. I got my NES in 1990. I was four.

[@Beavernator]

I'm 39 and have saved all my games and systems over the years... I have 3 teen kids, and what we have always done since they were little, is that they play modern games but also play what I was playing at their age and time of release... It's been a REALLY fun experiment for them, and gives them great context and appreciation...

[@mathewsoltan8487]

Such an amazing system. Castlevania is still my favourite NES game

[@Tony......]

Thanks for linking to my icon episode. "Most important system ever made"? Highly contentious but, perhaps it's personal nostalgia talking, I'd almost have to agree since it's one of the most highly influential systems. They did many things right and what's often not talked about is how well they knew and catered to their real market, the kids. You could write in and they'd respond and go to good lengths to help you out if you were stuck in a game. And of course they had their own official magazine, Nintendo Power, that entertained and spoke to their real customer base and at least superficially pretend to listen to your criticisms when writing in. They also gave you the opportunity with Power Points, I think it was called, collected by maintaining an NP subscription, that allowed you to get free stuff as I once did such as a N64 shirt. Nintendo understood the business aspect pretty well and that the "magic", or the immaterial such as the culture surrounding their product, was just as much the material product. I think that customer catering is seen manifested to this day by the many loyal 30+ adults that still look highly to Nintendo and buy their products. Very informative channel, btw.

[@paranormalskeptic3893]

I agree, not only did it re-energize the gaming industry, it save it from the dead. It created a gaming frenzy. And gave people arcade like play. Which was important because the arcade never crashed like home consoles did. I’m an old time gamer, my first system was Pong, and then the Atari 2600, so I had quit games due to the crash, the NES brought me back to gaming, and I’m still playing games at 56.

[@MrLion1]

G4 Icons!! Deep cut. That show was the bomb. I was majorly into Metal Gear Solid at the time and I remember hugging my TV during the Hideo Kojima episode bc I loved him that much..

[@adamgardner28]

There was an accessory that, I believe, used the bottom expansion called the "Telstar Command" if I remember correctly. I saw it advertised in EGM, but never saw it in action, or reviewed. I think it was a modem accessory that would allow multiplayer over the phone lines. Nowadays, you kids call it online multiplayer.

[@mrniceguy7168]

It’s funny how a video where Spawn Wave is extremely passionate about something gets relatively low views but a GameStop unboxing gets a million, lol. Appreciate the work, good video.

[@koffinkat666]

This man cranks out a constant flow of amazing well researched content is he even HUMAN!!!! So glad I subbed!!

[@karnagefails333]

I think I just puked in my mouth reading that.

[@Awesome_Force]

I still have my original NES and I think 26 games. Ice Hockey is still my favorite hockey game to this day.

[@JonathanTash]

I grew up with the Nintendo 64, Gameboy Advance, DS, Wii, and a little bit of SNES (we didn't own a SNES). In my teens, I bought A Gamecube and a Wii U, so I got to play both the original version Wind Waker, and the HD Remake. I really appreciate you showing us how revolutionary the original NES was.

[@jessepatterson8897]

you can never go wrong with mega man 2 music. ever. at weddings. funerals, inaugurations. it's the best.

[@retrosoul8770]

17:28 Not *entirely* true actually Spawn. The Snes has unbalanced hardware between graphical power and processing power. In order to cut costs, the Snes uses an underclocked Ricoh chip running mostly at a paltry 2.68 mhz to 3.68 mhz and in some games it runs even slower, this resulted in alot of slowdown in early games like Gradius 3, Super R-Type, Castlevania 4. Even Lttp, MMX, Contra 3, and Super Metroid etc struggle with slowdown occasionally when there isn't even that much happening on screen. As a result, despite releasing 2 YEARS after the Genesis, it can't hold as many sprites, render as smooth animation or scroll as much parallax as the Gen can. The Snes's lack of processing power is something that ppl in their personal love/bias towards it, ignore. It does host some beautiful graphics however, and possess the Mode 7 ability however, which is a neat advantage. N64, has power on paper but the 64s architecture has a memory contention problem which bottlenecks cpu performance. Basically the cpu and gpu both compete for ram and only one can access it at a time, very stupid design decision, hence most N64 games run at low or poor frame rates ala Goldeneye, Zelda and many others. Ps1 runs more consistently and has more 60fps games despite having a much lower cpu clock speed. (Forsaken 60fps on Ps1, 30 on 64) for ex. The Gamecube and the Nes were really the only Nintendo home consoles that were well engineered, powerful and balanced between graphics and performance for their respective eras. Despite their shortcomings, the Snes and 64 still did push the industry forward in their own unique way.

[@brainglick9768]

"Not entirely true" is not a phrase worth saying

[@retrosoul8770]

Opps, sorry I hope I didn't hurt your precious image of the "almighty Snes or N64". But facts are facts mate. The consoles are still great despite their shortcomings though.

[@lyconxero457]

You should probably have labeled this as a techwave video for the search results. Otherwise, a very good outing. I definitely remember this console from back in the day.

[@Neoptolemus]

I always wonder what would have been Nintendo without Miyamoto

[@noneofyourbusiness1998]

They would probably still be a toy company.

[@thebravegallade731]

@hartfoundation99 And Sonic would not have been a thing if Mario didn't exist.

[@karnagefails333]

It wouldn't have.

[@karnagefails333]

@@thebravegallade731 Horseshit.

[@soullessliving9075]

They still would have had Metroid...

[@pushlive]

Here in the UK we called it a NEZ and SNEZ dor the super NES - never really known 2 consoles be called so many different names lol, we and a NES , and an Atari, ZX Spectrum, and an Amiga 500/600/1200 :) I love the old consoles that people just never even think about, i was addicted to so many games on the Amiga as they had a lot of the sega mega drive games that i didn't have that console - awesome video :)

[@otaquid]

My first console ever, lovin it. Tennis was my first game. Glad to see it again in Switch

[@enriquepinero707]

You never cease to amaze with your analysis. knowledge and experience. Excellent video.

[@FloatingSunfish]

I'm so proud that this legendary console was my childhood. 🥲 Most games still hold up to this day!

[@jweissy]

i dont understand why the subscriber count is so low.. This channel is the only source for gaming and news i look too. Great quality and always ontop of the news ASAP

[@MiniBeas]

Check out the video game historian. The port on the bottom was used for the famicon design. There was a disk addition where you could go and insert a floppy disk drive. You could take the disk and swap out games because catridges were expensive

[@ktsubasa5645]

great video, a little of history lessons will make us appreciate what we have now.

[@Spokavriel]

the expansion port is system bus access, there are connectors for every non video connection. there was an adapter a fan made to break out the famicom functionality disabled in the NES to restore the controller port microphone and stereo audio functions. I'd link but youtube doesn't like them and the project is no longer sold.

[@Spokavriel]

Project ENIO by Chykn80 he only ever posted 2 videos. I bought one but didn't try to get the cpu board.

[@stevecozzens5023]

Have you heard about the "Blinking Red Light Win" Kit? It is the best solution to permanently fix the 72 pin socket failure. What the kit does is replace the original 72 pin ZIF socket with a conventional 72 pin cartridge socket. After the install, you don't even have to push down the cartridge, the only disadvantage is the cartridge can be difficult to pull out, but still that is better than the failing ZIF socket.

[@betacrest10]

Now if we trace it all the way back to Japan. It's known as the Nintendo's Family Computer. Nice little top loader with the wired controller fixed with the console at the sides. So yes, the NES was supposed to be a top loader originally and got a top loader model later on.

[@teddyv2874]

In my country, there was two model of NES (Nintendo & Spica). NES the original ones from Japan and Spica were a clone of NES and produced in Taiwan. Back then the NES prices was so expensive (at least in my country) and yeah, the cartrige back then was expensive as hell. One game is half the price on the actual console itself. Damn, I missed my childhood. Seeing NES in this video makes me feel young again.

[@Kay-ml4ij]

28 here, I will always love the glory days of nes SNES Sega n64 Dreamcast PlayStation. Amazing video spawn. One of the best content creators by far!

[@Raphtor13]

It's funny...I never got into console gaming until the original Xbox although I was definitely around early enough having graduated from Grad school in 1983. Til that point my focus was on more PC/Apple II gaming - remember Space Quest and Police Quest and Karateka. I did own one of the original Pong consoles...that only played Pong. I do remember my college boyfriend buying his kid brother an Atari 2600. I wanted an N64 when it came out but it was always sold out so I never got one til years later.

[@kobaltblueknight]

I assume that in the two years since you published this video, you learned what that expansion port on the bottom was for; but if you haven't, there was a planned floppy disk drive attachment that the NES would sit atop of. This was planned when chips were getting more and more expensive with each passing day, while floppies were a reasonably cheap way to store a large amount of game data. The drive was actually released in Japan, and many of the more popular games for the NES were actually released on it originally; including Castlevania and Metroid. By the time they were ready to launch the attachment in the US, chip costs had started going down to levels where it made more sense to just release the games on cart instead; and the attachment was quietly axed. Many of the games originally released for the Famicon disk system were remade for cartridges, and even rereleased in Japan on carts. I almost wish they had released the drive in the US, as Japan had kiosks in retail stores where you could write a new game to your existing disk.

[@Cubelightfilms]

Embarrassing (but true) story: so, from 1984-1987 I lived in Japan. And in 1985, I passed by a countertop store display featuring Super Mario Bros. and the Famicom hooked up to a television. I picked up controller one, and I played with it for a while, but my attention wandered (I was 13-it happens), and concluded it wasn't for me. Eighteen years later, I buy my first Nintendo for unrelated reasons-the GameCube.

[@TheRavenArchon]

Such a timeless console. There are a lot of consoles and computers from the time, many fondly remembered and important land marks in tech development. What makes the NES so special, however, is that, to this day, it is still so playable. Much of its pixel-art has a visual appeal that stands the test of time, and so many of its games are just as fun today as they ever were. Nintendo has always had such a focus on gameplay and style and NES games show off both in spades.

[@Cee_Nelly]

Dude this is awesome!!!! More of these, please. Oh, and I LOVED icons! I think I may have some of the episodes ripped from my replayTV. Lol

[@AxleMyths]

According to the gaming historian, A disc drive for the NES was originally planned, because of the FamiCom DD. But chip memory expanded before America could get a NES DD. The chip expansion even Made Nintendo in Japan switch back to carts.

[@tonymcneill7779]

Man I miss G4. I would watch it all day. Icons was one of my fave. Electric Playground as well. Glad that show has a KZbin channel now. New content for the channel as well as old G4 content can be found there.

[@PokeDeses]

Well, the Famicom DID have an attachable disc system. Many popular games were actually designed for its enhanced capabilities and had to be adapted for a western disc-less release. Some (Zelda) did it more grecefully than others (Metroid).

[@QueenParity]

The expansion port was used! There was a module that was used for gambling iirc

[@AaronHerbst]

I love this new format going in-depth. I'm a daily watcher of the spawnwave 🌊. Thanks for your channel!

[@thecowboyofscience]

Dude! I’m sure it was much more work than normal, but this is the best console break-down I’ve ever seen.

[@rollingstart_90s]

The NES might be the most important gaming system in the USA, but most European countries for example, have a very very different opinion on that.

[@MorrisseyMuse]

What's their opinion on it? :)

[@Draggobuttboi]

Pc gaming was pretty popular outside of the USA, infact in the UK nintendo was pretty much ignored throughout the entire NES era

[@John6-40]

Meh. It isn't just the USA that views the NES that way. The Famicom was a smash hit in Japan, and I'm sure plenty of other countries viewed the NES as a pioneer for modern gaming. Europe is the minority. Also, as much as Europeans hate to admit it, America has far more influence on the industry than those smaller countries.

[@FallicIdol]

M J but euro gaming was inferior until the 2000s. Zool vs Mario and Sonic? Forget about it.

[@Fattydeposit]

Nintendo only started giving a shit about the European continent once the Mega Drive started cleaning up. We got the SNES with Mario 4 before Super Mario 3 on the NES appeared, that's how reluctant Nintendo were to do business here and partly why the Sega Master System trounced the NES here.

[@matthewboler9061]

Well, if you didn't live through the nes era then you just can't imagine how awesome it was. I know games have come a long way but when something is new and breaking new ground it's magical. So many all nighters playing Mario brothers and Several others like Rygar, Gyruss, Zelda, Contra...damn I wish I could feel like I did back in those days again.

[@OppenedDark]

Ok, so spawn never sleeps, and is somehow at least 40 years old while looking in his mid to late 20's. He's a vampire confirmed.

[@chungusmogus8832]

I love when you make these type of videos! I love your gaming news videos as well but these are a nice change every now and then!!!

[@davidpellman8157]

The expansion port was utilized by a bank in Minnesota. They released a module for their customers to do their banking on their Nintendos. I saw a video documenting it. I believe Kelsey (the woman who hangs with Metal Jesus) has a video about it. Nintendo themselves had planned to release a disk drive for it. However when they started using the chips in the cartridges they realized they didn't need it.

[@shawshort6917]

The Mattel Intellivision was the only competition that Atari had back in the days. The Intellivision loaded cartridge on the side of the system, while you slide a card on to the controller. Each game had it's own card for the controller, it was a good system at the time not many left around anymore.

[@Michirin9801]

There actually were Atari games that scrolled the screen, usually shooters, but there's also Pitfall 2 which has vertical scrolling, and Jungle Hunt which has horizontal scrolling and even parallax scrolling, and of course, scrolling games already existed in the arcade before the NES came out... Also, I understand the NES being the most important console in North America, and maybe even Japan, but unfortunately, it didn't make much of a difference in the rest of the world, Europe for example didn't have a video game crash, people were gaming on micro computers at the time, and the games, although not nearly as good as what was on offer on the NES, were significantly cheaper, easier to find, and of course, easier to pirate, so when the NES finally arrived in the continent, it actually had competition, unlike in North America, so they kinda failed to grab the European audience, especially with Sega offering games with better graphics for cheaper... Although I think the praise Nintendo gets for the NES is earned, the reason why they were so successful in North America is because they arrived at the right time with the right product, and took advantage of that to enforce business practises that screwed everyone else over, and potentially robbed Sega, NEC and Atari of a fair shot against Nintendo in the region...

[@jefferdbimble3093]

"although not nearly as good as what was on offer on the NES" You think that you're the autority of fun? like, how the fuck can you objectively gaudge a completely subjective form of entertainment that is video games? Grew up with the NES myself, but I can't see myself comparing the NES library with that of the C64. Each to their own.

[@mickeydee3595]

I remember being a little kid me and my cousin thrashed out NES's to the point where they wouldnt read the carts anymore. We figuiered out that if we wedged a hotwheels/matchbox car between the cart and the top of the console inside it would read the carts 😂🤣 Ohh man those were the days! Just found you on the youtubes and love your work. Keep it up!

[@megamatt1915]

Your videos are seriously so entertaining and quite analytical. Keep it up!

[@AmandaWspoon]

I was born in late 1989. My family was lower middle class so we were just getting a NES in 91 or so we were always a console behind. I remember duck hunt and my brother making fun of me for walking up to the tv and pressing the gun to shoot ducks. I was very little. I remember the gameboy and SNES much more. We even hooked up our dads 2600 and I remember froger being my favorite. Now 25 years later i have nothing but respect for the NES and I don't know where the US will be gaming wise without it. We may not have had the franchise that dominated my generation...Pokemon.

[@TheDMLink]

Wasn't the bottom connector for the modem that was never released in USA. Only in Japan which was used for horse racing up till just a few years ago.

[@MissFuzzbottom]

I still have mine! Me and my twin brother got it one fateful Christmas day. It came packaged with Mario 1 and Duck Hunt, and the orange Zapper. Still, works too. Had to clean the controllers recently, but that was a thankfully simple task. 16:37 Wait, do you not know about the Famicom Disk System? It's a disk add-on that released in Japan. A lot of games released for it, until more capable cartridges made the disks obsolete. Like the first Zelda was a disk game, to save your progress (the disks were rewritable). But then battery backups happened.

[@TANKTREAD]

Wow, I am only 46 and NOT a grandparent but I sure as HELL remember the Atari. I remember when there was NO home gaming systems around. Everything was in the arcade. My first, sad home computer and gaming system was the Mattel's Aquarius(played Tron: Deadly Discs and Utopia)and then I finally got a Colecovision(which had the best version of Donkey Kong, even better than the Intellivision)and then off to the world of Nintendo. Everyone had a Nintendo in school. However, my friend had a SEGA Master System and that was really cool as hell to play(big fan of Black Belt and Alex Kidd in Miracle World).

[@ericschmidt1987]

You need to do more of these history of video games videos. Thumbs up I enjoyed it.

[@jacidstorm2592]

As someone born 22 year later I don't get how someone could think it wasn't. Buttttt really it should be the Magnavox Odyssey as it was the first.

[@Mangia1432]

I know this isn't a "how to fix your NES video" but I'm surprised you missed the NES 10 chip. Basically the blinking screen we would get after powering up the system was programmed into the hardware for anti-piracy and it would force us to press reset over and over. Unfortunately it affected licensed games as well. Disabling that is a must and it's easy. Anyway you know your stuff so I'm surprised you missed it or forgot to mention it here when bringing up the board. Also I agree the NES is basically why we have consoles today. I had Atari 2600 and when it was sunny out I forgot about it real quick and went outside and played. When I got my NES and it was sunny outside, oh you bet yo ass them shades went down and I played the NES instead.

[@jango8752]

I don't know what the expansion slot was originally intended for by Nintendo, but there was a modem built but never officially released for use with the NES through the underside expansion slot. atariage.com/forums/uploads/post-1218-1077073475.jpg

[@johneygd]

Yeah indeed, the nes was actually only designed with old arcade games in mind, hence why it only had 2 KB of video ram to store 2 screens, what supermariobros did was refreshing that 2K ram chip to allow scrolling,but since the game itself did not had ram in it, you could NOT go back to the previous screen, metroid did use a mmc1 chip to allow multi scrolling at points and it also added extra ram to allow you walk back to previous sections of those levels. Supermariobros 3 allowed multi directional scrolling diagonally all atonce thanks the mmc3 chip wich also included extra ram to store items or to remember previous parts of a level. Those mmc chips also allowed bankswitching to increase the size of games from 40K to 1MB wich allowed extending the game length,add more graphics and dpcm sound effects to the game, bankswitch was also used for tile updates to simulate multi scrolling backgrounds,before that,40k games had to recycle the same graphics in clever way’s to fake new graphics. So the nes turned out to be a very very weak system but those mmc chip radically extended the capability’s of the nes to be close to a 16bit system, so a stack 8bit cpu was not enough, with another 8bit mmc chip on top of it (thus 2 X8)the nes could MIMMICK to be a 16bitter. Battle touds etc,,proves it.

[@aritonsalihu9841]

Im 16 and this might sound very weird but the nes was my very first video game console well technically cause it was a plug n play console with a billion nes games and i loved it and i played it like crazy so yeah i have nostalgia for these games

[@skyplaysgames2292]

Man I wish my dad knew about boiling it before he had to throw away his nes because the cartridge slot wasnt working right when he was younger

[@dansolo6417]

This is definitely the most important system personally i never owned one but i played it at my friends house and instantly i was hooked on super mario bros and from then on my parents brought me a gameboy as my first system with the megadrive as my first home system and this is still my favorite hobby and owe it to this system.

[@kidwajagstang]

I’m actually surprised you are either unaware or forgot to put the information in, but it’s US design was also changed from a top-loader to more resemble a VCR to make it look good in an entertainment center next to people’s other home entertainment electronics, once again emphasizing the “entertainment” in NES.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

Spawn Wave mentioned LJN!!!!!!!!!!!!! they did an amazing game on the Dreamcast called Spirit of Speed. All gamers and Dreamcast lovers need to get that game

[@Brond.]

My mom had an atari 2600. She told me she could only watch tv or play Atari on weekends for like an hour. But I really want an og nes

[@MrPoeGhost]

Hard to deny the influence the NES had... at least in the states. Too bad I was born too late for it and had my first experiences be on the N64 and PS1. There's not much going back after that. Hitting up those old NES games, ehh... they don't hold up too well for me.

[@TheMindOfThomas]

I'm a teenager and I think a lot of NES games have held up very well. Take SMB3 for example, it's old but it feels just as good to play as modern 2D Marios and platformers in general.

[@MrPoeGhost]

Eh. Not my cup of tea. I'd take SNES over NES without hesitation.

[@thebravegallade731]

@@TheMindOfThomas Not really. There are very few NES games that I think aged well. Not even SMB1. The only real game from the original NES that holds out well in my opinion is Mario 3... Now the SNES I can play that shit all day. The SNES has everything, kinda like the GameCube actually. Both are the refinements of the first systems of 2d/3d games as we know them now. I only think the reason the Wii U/360/ps3 are clunky is because they are the first forays into HD. The DS is wierd since it was both a souped up 2d machine as well as a early 3d machine... But because they already had experience in both it holds out well enough.

[@Jono1874]

The problem is that Nintendo keep rereleasing the shit that doesnt hold up at all. Take the Nintendo Online games for instance. Over half of them failed to hold up before the NES era even ended Tennis, Baseball, Pro Wrestling, Soccer, Ice Climber, Ghost and Goblins, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, which are trash compared to the arcade versions. People see these games that we didn't even like back then and decide thats the whole damn console. If they'd just be able to see things like Shatterhand, or Chip and Dale, or anything post 1987 they'd probably enjoy it more.

[@therealbladepacino07]

Bro when this thing hit Puerto Rico where I live at the South a town called Salinas I had the Atari and I used to play in a black n white TV cause the Atari use to mess up color TV's in those days so my grandma didn't want me playing in the main TV we had at home but when Nintendo drop the NES it change the way games were mentioning to be play graphics sound mechanics bro and that R.O.B was the go beyond thing a robot that play with u gyromite for the 80's that was beyond times bro

[@ElComanche]

I had an Atari first. When the NES came out, I got one and it changed my life. I have it to thank for my love of gaming and Nintendo!