How the Nintendo Entertainment System was created

It all started when Nintendo released the Family Computer on July 15, 1983. Most people called the console by its nickname, the Famicom. It was a small rectangular console with a white body and red accents. It had two rectangular red, gold, and black controllers wired directly into the system with controller slots on both sides of the console. The system retailed for 7,980 Japanese yen or the equivalent to about $60 in U.S. money. Then in 1983, the U.S. video game market faced a problem. So many video games and video game consoles were getting released to the market. Some of them were good, but the majority of them were not at all quality. This caused the North American video game crash of 1983. Leading up to the crash, video games had become a big deal with Atari bringing video games to the home market. So many companies wanted to get into the video game market that bad games flooded the market like crazy. The North American market was still interested in video games, they just wanted quality games and they weren't getting them. With the success of the Famicom, Nintendo saw an opportunity. They could try and release a North American Famicom. Nintendo knew about the video game crash and didn't think the Famicom would sell that well in the U.S. They knew if they wanted to sell their video game system in North America, they would have to have a redesign, a major redesign. During that time, Personal Computers or Pc for short were on the rise. People saw that PCs could do more than just play video games and many people saw them as a better buy then a dedicated game system. Nintendo knew they had to design a console that looked sleek like a computer, but that played games like a console. Then in 1984 at the Consumer Electronics Show, Nintendo showed off their new system. It was called the Advanced Video System or AVS for short. It had a top-loading cartridge slot, keyboard, joystick, tape deck, ROB the robot, and more. It even sported wireless inferred controllers. It had a light gray and black color scheme. Consumers loved it, except for one reason, it cost way too much. It seemed too good to be true and it was. the AVS never left the prototype stage and Nintendo went back to the drawing board. They needed to lower prices to appeal to North American consumers. They wanted the system to appeal to U.S. consumers so they designed it to look like a VCR, a device North Americans loved. Along with the physical redesign, Nintendo also changed the name from Advanced Video System to Nintendo Entertainment System. Finally, in 1985 the NES launched in North America. Along with Super Mario, Duck Hunt, and more. It was a huge success for Nintendo and it put video games back on top. The Nintendo became the system to have and it was thanks to Nintendo's creative and innovative thinking that saved the North American video game market after the crash of 1983.