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It’s a miracle the nes sold like hot cakes


johannesmutlu

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It’s a miracle that the nes sold like hot cakes because,

 

1, the nes was not the first game console to be sold as an “entertainment system” because the video entertainment system(later recalled the fairchannel f) and the atari 5200 were also sold as an  advanced Video entertainment system,

2,nintendo games were also on other systems,

3,the nes was not that more powerful and not in everyway from other systems.

4,also from a price point both systems don’t differ that much,

5,while rob the robot somehow triggered consumers to wamna buy a nes among it’s 2 games,but ROB turned out to be very clumsy and unhandy to use(why using double A and see battery’s to run the robot, why could it not run from it’s own power supply instead??

6,also it’s a miracle that supermariobros became a trigger point as well for consumers to wanna buy a nes Considering pac land was eventually ported to the C64,amstrad cpc,m and atari xe etc,,,

also nintendo’s special relation with hudson soft allowed to make games with their ip’s for the pc88 including mariobros special,donkeykong 3,supermariobros special etc,,,

7,all thinks concidered the atari 7800 should,ve be the biggest threat against nintendo’s nes because not only was it slightly more advanced(apart from the infirior soundchip) but it also was backwards compatible with atari 2600 games and it’s controllers (something the nes didn’t have) and it did had good conversions of nintendo games on it as well,

the atari 7800 did had a much much more cooler sleeker design then the nes along with it’s better toploading cartride mechanism(the nes just looks like an giant old concreat brick,

8,also nintendo never sold(unlike in japan) a keyboard with famicom basic,cassette drive and a disk system in the us or eu,let alone coming with a set of it,wich they could,ve tried to convince stock markets and consummers that the nes was also a hybrid system just like the C64 (eventrough they did had a prototype avs nes system)

9,also atati’s 7800 super system did had a lockout chip to preven unautherized crappy games to be on their system as well,

10, the nes was not Z80 based as opposed to the colecovision,SG1000 and SG3000/mark3 (sega master system) but nintendo wanted to be sure that their arcade games could run on it then why opting for a 6502 chip instead? Apart from coleco It should,ve be the other way around ,but even more strange is that despite the nes was made with scrolling in mind,sky skipper was not ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich was never made with scrolling in mind,was it? (Who had ever tout that,a nintendo game on another system but never made it on it’s own system??)

also moon patrol was never ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich i found odd for the same technical reason,

11,sure nintendo did played an unfair monopoly with game developers but not all game developers jumped on board,

 

so these are the reason why i think why it is such miracle that the nes was a huge success,same thing with the gameboy since the game pocket system and microvision came before.

 

09F83780-A4B2-4D65-A2CB-B484A5C626EE.jpeg

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12 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

It’s a miracle that the nes sold like hot cakes because,

 

1, the nes was not the first game console to be sold as an “entertainment system” because the video entertainment system(later recalled the fairchannel f) and the atari 5200 were also sold as an  advanced Video entertainment system,

2,nintendo games were also on other systems,

3,the nes was not that more powerful and not in everyway from other systems.

4,also from a price point both systems don’t differ that much,

5,while rob the robot somehow triggered consumers to wamna buy a nes among it’s 2 games,but ROB turned out to be very clumsy and unhandy to use(why using double A and see battery’s to run the robot, why could it not run from it’s own power supply instead??

6,also it’s a miracle that supermariobros became a trigger point as well for consumers to wanna buy a nes Considering pac land was eventually ported to the C64,amstrad cpc,m and atari xe etc,,,

also nintendo’s special relation with hudson soft allowed to make games with their ip’s for the pc88 including mariobros special,donkeykong 3,supermariobros special etc,,,

7,all thinks concidered the atari 7800 should,ve be the biggest threat against nintendo’s nes because not only was it slightly more advanced(apart from the infirior soundchip) but it also was backwards compatible with atari 2600 games and it’s controllers (something the nes didn’t have) and it did had good conversions of nintendo games on it as well,

the atari 7800 did had a much much more cooler sleeker design then the nes along with it’s better toploading cartride mechanism(the nes just looks like an giant old concreat brick,

8,also nintendo never sold(unlike in japan) a keyboard with famicom basic,cassette drive and a disk system in the us or eu,let alone coming with a set of it,wich they could,ve tried to convince stock markets and consummers that the nes was also a hybrid system just like the C64 (eventrough they did had a prototype avs nes system)

9,also atati’s 7800 super system did had a lockout chip to preven unautherized crappy games to be on their system as well,

10, the nes was not Z80 based as opposed to the colecovision,SG1000 and SG3000/mark3 (sega master system) but nintendo wanted to be sure that their arcade games could run on it then why opting for a 6502 chip instead? Apart from coleco It should,ve be the other way around ,but even more strange is that despite the nes was made with scrolling in mind,sky skipper was not ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich was never made with scrolling in mind,was it? (Who had ever tout that,a nintendo game on another system but never made it on it’s own system??)

also moon patrol was never ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich i found odd for the same technical reason,

11,sure nintendo did played an unfair monopoly with game developers but not all game developers jumped on board,

 

so these are the reason why i think why it is such miracle that the nes was a huge success,same thing with the gameboy since the game pocket system and microvision came before.

 

09F83780-A4B2-4D65-A2CB-B484A5C626EE.jpeg

It’s not really a miracle. What sold the NES were its games. These games established brand-new genres that didn’t exist on the 7800, and looking at the NES’ early game library is proof of this. Tech specs didn’t matter to the consumer back then either, especially where game consoles were concerned. Consoles were still considered toys back then.

 

Edit: the Gameboy succeeded due to all the popular NES games that were ported to it. So its not a matter of who came first; it was a matter of who had the best games to play. And as much as I love my Atari consoles, I’ll have to say it - the Atari 7800 had similar games (i.e. arcade ports like Pole Position, for example) just like its predecessors. The 7800’s software library did contain some variety, but it was nowhere close to matching what the NES and Gameboy offered.

Edited by ColecoGamer
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12 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

2,nintendo games were also on other systems,

Some, yes, but not nearly enough. Remember that Nintendo actually got in trouble for forcing companies to forego releases on other systems. Mario, Zelda, Contra, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, etc. didn't see ports on other systems until well after the NES was the market leader by a wide margin. Super Mario Bros on the PC-8801 is not the same thing as the NES, and scrolling is a huge part of that.

 

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6,also it’s a miracle that supermariobros became a trigger point as well for consumers to wanna buy a nes Considering pac land was eventually ported to the C64,amstrad cpc,m and atari xe etc,,,

Pac Land was no Super Mario World. Not even close.

 

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7,all thinks concidered the atari 7800 should,ve be the biggest threat against nintendo’s nes because not only was it slightly more advanced(apart from the infirior soundchip) but it also was backwards compatible with atari 2600 games and it’s controllers (something the nes didn’t have) and it did had good conversions of nintendo games on it as well,

Look, I like my 7800, but it's primary draw is playing 2600 games and a handful of games that were released at the beginning of the 80s. The market had long moved on. It's "good conversions of nintendo [sic] games" are limited to what, Mario Bros? Where is SMB? SMB2? Zelda? Metroid? Kid Icarus? The NES demolishes the 7800 in sports games, shooters, and platformers. And those Pro-Sticks are garbage. The NES controller is a bit too small for me, but it's infinitely better than the Pro-Stick. Plus the NES had the Advantage, which isn't a bad a joystick.

 

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11,sure nintendo did played an unfair monopoly with game developers but not all game developers jumped on board,

Enough did though, and that's what mattered.

 

There's no miracle here. The NES developed a solid system for the time and won out on games.

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Atari 2600 owning kids (like me) saw Super Mario Brothers, Zelda and others, and were completely blown away.  It was an amazing graphics and sound improvement.  I was even familiar with with Colecovision and Intellivision games, and the Nintendo was way better than all of them.

 

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Yeah,

 

I was thinking of how to respond...And everyone else read my mind haha...

 

I know it was different in Europe,  where (part of it was) computers became the new consoles and SEGA was more popular.  We tried that with C-64, 8 bits, and (for me) ADAM etc.,  and personally,   I think we were ready for consoles to come back.

 

I just kept thinking you're missing something.  And yes, (Monopolies aside) it was GAMES!  And I say this as a Huge fan of the Atari 7800, but mainly for its potential and its homebrews.   You don't see Deadly Towers on 7800,,,Or some would say Zelda (OK,  I guess...If ya must)...And Dragon Warrior and other actual RPGs, ..And where's Faxanadu?   Nothing like it over there...Tetris?  Marios?  Castlevanias?...Arkanoid with that controller was very cool to me.  And Contra...And...Obviously the list goes on...And on.. and on...

 

 

Well,  I've come this far..Speaking my mind and so on...I'll just say it...Maybe if Atari had more games like Jinks,  it would have stood a chance.

 

 

 

Most people will take that as a joke,  but I like unique games with their own style and I thought Jinks was original and fun,  so yeah....I kind of dig it...More Original games would have helped Atari...That and a full-on 1984 release for the 7800   And I stand by my opinion so much  that I guess it should be a damn near secret message buried down below (heh)  Plus then the impact of it as a joke is also less diminished...Hey,  Are you still wasting your time reading down here?  Go do something constructive,  will you?   Like play some video games!   :0)

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It was Jack Tramiel who put the end in Atari's future for video games! He fought tooth and nail with Warner Communications over it in 1984. He made it very clear he DIDN'T want the 7800! "I don't want to pay for it, you pay for it!" he told Warner. IF he wanted the 7800, he would have insisted in getting all rights to Atari Game titles, didn't do that either! Also, the 7800 and games were ready to go on shelves in 1984, but he just let it all sit in a warehouse for 3 years!

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17 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

10, the nes was not Z80 based as opposed to the colecovision,SG1000 and SG3000/mark3 (sega master system) but nintendo wanted to be sure that their arcade games could run on it then why opting for a 6502 chip instead?

In those days arcade ports were not based on arcade code or even graphics/sound assets. The best the programmers would get was an arcade machine to try out and then recreate the game as they saw fit. The choice of CPU was most probably based on availability, price, ease of integration with the planned architecture, etc.

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To all you guys who responded to me,well i must admit that it were eventually those games from game developers on wich nintendo did monopolize on trough contracts and that nintendo also had more ip’s then mario including,metroid,icarius,ice climbers,zelda etc,,,

also those hidden expansion chips inside nes games probably did convince the consumer that the nes was more powerful then the 7800 with games like mario3 and kirby etc,,

but still i think that it was good that jack tramiel delayed the atari 7800 by 2 years(alltrough it was testmarketed in late 1984),why? Because 2 years prior in 1982 they already released their (failed) atari 5200 so why would you actually wanna come too fast with a new console,so that’s why i think he did it right to delay the 7800 nation wide untill 1986,

BTW if atari knew that supermariobros was the hype then they could,ve bought a license for it for their console,also why was pac land never ported to the 7800 as an alternative just in case, makes me sad,

 

also yes i was always a huge nes fan and i still do like it and i also own most accessoireses for it including the powerglove,roll ‘n rocker,u force etc,, 

but since i have discovered and know about the atari 7800 ,i felt loving it more and more,especially with it nintendo ip’s on it,i even consider the atari 7800 as the rolls royce of all atari consoles in wich even the atari jaguar can’t beat,

Also the eu controller for the atari 7800 closely resambles the nes controller,that’s why i consider the atari 7800 as the biggest most greatest threats against nintendo’s nes,

If i only knew about this back in the 90’s, just imagine i saw lots of atari 7800 commercials along with nintendo games on it then i would,ve beg my parants to buy an atari 7800 with all those nintendo games for it and i probably would,ve been probably happy with it to not knowing any better? if so

but off course those nintendo commercials just triggered my mind back then,heck i didn’t even know what nintendo exactly was untill i played with it for the first time in 1991, alltrough i vaguebly remember playing atari games with my causins back in mid-1991 but not much but still i was certainly impressed with it?

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3 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

To all you guys who responded to me,well i must admit that it were eventually those games from game developers on wich nintendo did monopolize on trough contracts and that nintendo also had more ip’s then mario including,metroid,icarius,ice climbers,zelda etc,,,

also those hidden expansion chips inside nes games probably did convince the consumer that the nes was more powerful then the 7800 with games like mario3 and kirby etc,,

but still i think that it was good that jack tramiel delayed the atari 7800 by 2 years(alltrough it was testmarketed in late 1984),why? Because 2 years prior in 1982 they already released their (failed) atari 5200 so why would you actually wanna come too fast with a new console,so that’s why i think he did it right to delay the 7800 nation wide untill 1986,

BTW if atari knew that supermariobros was the hype then they could,ve bought a license for it for their console,also why was pac land never ported to the 7800 as an alternative just in case, makes me sad,

 

also yes i was always a huge nes fan and i still do like it and i also own most accessoireses for it including the powerglove,roll ‘n rocker,u force etc,, 

but since i have discovered and know about the atari 7800 ,i felt loving it more and more,especially with it nintendo ip’s on it,i even consider the atari 7800 as the rolls royce of all atari consoles in wich even the atari jaguar can’t beat,

Also the eu controller for the atari 7800 closely resambles the nes controller,that’s why i consider the atari 7800 as the biggest most greatest threats against nintendo’s nes,

If i only knew about this back in the 90’s, just imagine i saw lots of atari 7800 commercials along with nintendo games on it then i would,ve beg my parants to buy an atari 7800 with all those nintendo games for it and i probably would,ve been probably happy with it to not knowing any better? if so

but off course those nintendo commercials just triggered my mind back then,heck i didn’t even know what nintendo exactly was untill i played with it for the first time in 1991, alltrough i vaguebly remember playing atari games with my causins back in mid-1991 but not much but still i was certainly impressed with it?

Nice response! Well.. it’s all speculation whether Capcom or even Konami would have ported their games to the 7800, even if they hadn’t signed exclusive agreements with Nintendo.

 

As someone who grew up during the 1980s (and being very much a hardcore gamer), I can say with conviction that nobody I knew then looked fondly at the Atari 7800. In fact, Atari wasn’t even in their vocabulary. It was mostly Nintendo and Sega (for their Master System console).

 

I believe what put the nail in Atari’s coffin was when they advertised the Atari XE, and the commercial Atari had to promote it. The selling points they made in that ad were ridiculous - “We got REAL joysticks” and “Bug Hunt!”. Duck Hunt was a popular phenomenon at the time, and it was arcade quality. Bug Hunt looked terrible and stiff in the commercial. This proved how out of touch Atari was with modern console gaming at the time.

 

Here’s the commercial (which aired in 1987) as proof of what I said:

 

 

No child who wanted an 8-bit NES was excited about having a floppy drive or a keyboard either. My friends would laugh every time this commercial aired on television.

Edited by ColecoGamer
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1 hour ago, ColecoGamer said:

Nice response! Well.. it’s all speculation whether Capcom or even Konami would have ported their games to the 7800, even if they hadn’t signed exclusive agreements with Nintendo.

 

As someone who grew up during the 1980s (and being very much a hardcore gamer), I can say with conviction that nobody I knew then looked fondly at the Atari 7800. In fact, Atari wasn’t even in their vocabulary. It was mostly Nintendo and Sega (for their Master System console).

 

I believe what put the nail in Atari’s coffin was when they advertised the Atari XE, and the commercial Atari had to promote it. The selling points they made in that ad were ridiculous - “We got REAL joysticks” and “Bug Hunt!”. Duck Hunt was a popular phenomenon at the time, and it was arcade quality. Bug Hunt looked terrible and stiff in the commercial. This proved how out of touch Atari was with modern console gaming at the time.

 

Here’s the commercial (which aired in 1987) as proof of what I said:

 

 

No child who wanted an 8-bit NES was excited about having a floppy drive or a keyboard either. My friends would laugh every time this commercial aired on television.

Whooaah are you serious about this? Because the atari xe was a promising system and it sounded good on paper.

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1 hour ago, ColecoGamer said:

As someone who grew up during the 1980s (and being very much a hardcore gamer), I can say with conviction that nobody I knew then looked fondly at the Atari 7800.

 

Lol.  I have a nephew who's only 4 years younger than me.  I remember being at his birthday party when he was turning 13.  He was expecting an NES, but my sister and brother-in-law cheaped out* and bought got him a 7800 instead.

The look on his face was priceless when he unwrapped it.  He was always a super nice kid and it was one of those deals where he was trying his best to look excited and appreciative while not crying at the same time.  His friends' smiles turned to instant frowns as the giftwrap came off.

Sorry, no SMB for you, you get Pole Position II instead woohoo!  

 

I felt so bad, the next day I gave him about a dozen of my 2600 games so he'd at least have something to get him started.

On the bright side, I think he did end up getting an NES for Christmas.

 

*my brother-in-law was a manager at a grocery store where I worked after school.  There was a contest where one of the prizes was a 7800. The rep (from whatever company, maybe Doritos?) gave my brother-in-law a free 7800 as a perk. He figured it would be just as good as an NES. :lol:   

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8 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

but still i think that it was good that jack tramiel delayed the atari 7800 by 2 years(alltrough it was testmarketed in late 1984),why? Because 2 years prior in 1982 they already released their (failed) atari 5200 so why would you actually wanna come too fast with a new console,so that’s why i think he did it right to delay the 7800 nation wide untill 1986,

 

I have to do a wall of text here.

 

You have your timeline wrong for the Test Market. The 7800 was test marketed in June of 1984, not late 1984. Late 1984 was supposed to be the national launch date, not the test market date before Jack Tramiel came into the picture.

 

Jack Tramiel did not complete the deal to buy the consumer division assets of Atari before July 1st, 1984. Tramiel ended the 1984 test market because Warner did not pay GCC for working on the 7800 game console and that meant Tramiel inherited it. There was an argument between Tramiel and Warner for who was going to pay GCC for developing the 7800 game console and GCC was not paid till May of 1985 for the Game Console. Tramiel had to do additional negotiations to GCC for paying them for the launch titles. The 3rd thing is Tramiel got a rid of a lot of people in 1984 when he bought the assets of the consumer division and that meant Tramiel had to hire a person to run the video game department.

 

Before you question me on Tramiel hiring a person for the video game department, what you have to understand Tramiel renamed Tramel Technology LTD to Atari Corporation after the purchase of the assets of Atari Consumer division. Tramiel founded Tramel Technology on May17th, 1984 with the plans of releasing a new computer after Jack left Commodore in January of 1984.  Tramel Technology LTD did not have a video game division before the purchase and that companies focus was on Computers. What Tramiel was doing was selling left over inventory of anything before the Atari ST came out and that meant he could do that without having a person in charge of a video game division since there was no new video games Atari Corporation was releasing before 1986. Additional proof Tramiel being interest in computers first is Tramiel not buying the Arcade division of Atari.

 

You also are ignoring huge flaw with Tramiel waiting till 1986 to release the 7800. The huge flaw is a good number of 7800 launch titles were somewhat dated in 1984 and became even more dated by releasing them in 1986. Having those titles go against the SMS and the NES in 1986 is going to look outdated due to what the SMS and the NES had in 1986.

 

I called the 1984 launch titles somewhat dated in 1984 because Joust, Ms. Pac-man, Robotron, Dig Dug, Centipede, and Asteroids were already released on other Atari game consoles. What 7800 could've had in 1986 was games like Marble Madness and Paperboy if the 7800 was released in 1984 and the arcade division was not split. Paperboy and Marble Madness in 1986 7800 releases wouldn't have been labeled as dated. Some of the 7800's computer ports in 1987 also could've been released before 1987.

 

What I am painting is the 7800 had games released later than they should've been due to when the system itself was released. Nintendo's contracts did play a role, but not for all games that were released on the 7800 such as Midnight Mutants. Games like Midnight Mutants would've been release in 1987, 1988 or even 1989 instead of 1990 if the 7800 was released in 1984.

Edited by 8th lutz
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Well that’s a Pretty interesting fact,but i still wonder that if that atari 7800 was released in november/december of 1984,while it had been a success or would consumers just did had low interests in it as well?

also what would,ve happen had atari released their atari 5200 jr instead along with games such as donkeykong and donkeykong jr and pac land for it and possibly bundled just in case,would it had been a success? And would it had saved the 5200 from it’s grace?

we would probably never know but if atari did it, i might have bought the atari 5200 jr with all it’s nintendo games plus pac man and pac land for it on ebay instead,also since the 5200 has a pokey soundchip unlike the 7800,shame.

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10 minutes ago, ColecoGamer said:

Sounding good on paper didn’t excite children who wanted an NES. Lol

Well believe me, if i saw atari commercials with these games or if i saw nintendo commercials while still getting just an atari 7800 and discover that many nintendo games were also on that system,i garantee i would,ve been happy as well,even if i saw an nes by a friends house,then i only would,ve wanted to skip to nintendo or sega once i saw their 16bit systems later on.

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3 hours ago, Turbo-Torch said:

 

Lol.  I have a nephew who's only 4 years younger than me.  I remember being at his birthday party when he was turning 13.  He was expecting an NES, but my sister and brother-in-law cheaped out* and bought got him a 7800 instead.

The look on his face was priceless when he unwrapped it.  He was always a super nice kid and it was one of those deals where he was trying his best to look excited and appreciative while not crying at the same time.  His friends' smiles turned to instant frowns as the giftwrap came off.

Sorry, no SMB for you, you get Pole Position II instead woohoo!  

 

I felt so bad, the next day I gave him about a dozen of my 2600 games so he'd at least have something to get him started.

On the bright side, I think he did end up getting an NES for Christmas.

 

*my brother-in-law was a manager at a grocery store where I worked after school.  There was a contest where one of the prizes was a 7800. The rep (from whatever company, maybe Doritos?) gave my brother-in-law a free 7800 as a perk. He figured it would be just as good as an NES. :lol:   

Poor kid! :lol: You’re a good uncle for giving those 2600 cartridges to him.

 

You know, I wasn’t a big fan of the 7800 until I found AA and the homebrew scene. The homebrew developers in the Atari community have released games that prove what a good console the a7800 really is.  

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1 hour ago, johannesmutlu said:

Well believe me, if i saw atari commercials with these games or if i saw nintendo commercials while still getting just an atari 7800 and discover that many nintendo games were also on that system,i garantee i would,ve been happy as well,even if i saw an nes by a friends house,then i only would,ve wanted to skip to nintendo or sega once i saw their 16bit systems later on.

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That may be true for you, and that’s fine by me. Unfortunately, the best games the NES had to offer were not only numerous, but Nintendo itself would never (and still won’t even today) allow their Super Mario franchise on competing hardware. The Mario Bros game in that poster wasn’t even on most kid’s radars back then. In fact, it’s not even related to the Super Mario Bro. franchise. Sure, the game has Mario and Luigi in it, but its nothing like Super Mario Bros on the NES.

 

Someone has said this already, but Nintendo had tremendous marketing prowess in the 80s. Even ‘if’ the 7800 had every NES game in its library, Nintendo’s marketing still would have attracted 80s kids to the NES system. Remember Robbie the Robot? Robots were big back then as most know. Robbie was just one of many reasons kids wanted the system. Well, until it was discovered that Robbie could cause health issues in children.

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1 hour ago, ColecoGamer said:

That may be true for you, and that’s fine by me. Unfortunately, the best games the NES had to offer were not only numerous, but Nintendo itself would never (and still won’t even today) allow their Super Mario franchise on competing hardware. The Mario Bros game in that poster wasn’t even on most kid’s radars back then. In fact, it’s not even related to the Super Mario Bro. franchise. Sure, the game has Mario and Luigi in it, but its nothing like Super Mario Bros on the NES.

 

Someone has said this already, but Nintendo had tremendous marketing prowess in the 80s. Even ‘if’ the 7800 had every NES game in its library, Nintendo’s marketing still would have attracted 80s kids to the NES system. Remember Robbie the Robot? Robots were big back then as most know. Robbie was just one of many reasons kids wanted the system. Well, until it was discovered that Robbie could cause health issues in children.

True that bob whoooaaah could robby really cause health to childrens? Well i can imagine that you never ever put 3 year old childrens next to robbie as they could stick those blocks into their mouth

also i hearth that in 1988 there was a newspapers stating with cow letters “NINTENDO KILLED MY SON” as a son died from an epileptical attack after playing nintendo games several times and so his father used a lawsuit against nintendo and after the court had judged nintendo put since then warning instructions that flashing light in their games or from whether game could cause epileptical seasures,even if somebody never had experienced this before,nit sure if nintendo pay the father of that died son tons of money but i wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

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2 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

True that bob whoooaaah could robby really cause health to childrens? Well i can imagine that you never ever put 3 year old childrens next to robbie as they could stick those blocks into their mouth

also i hearth that in 1988 there was a newspapers stating with cow letters “NINTENDO KILLED MY SON” as a son died from an epileptical attack after playing nintendo games several times and so his father used a lawsuit against nintendo and after the court had judged nintendo put since then warning instructions that flashing light in their games or from whether game could cause epileptical seasures,even if somebody never had experienced this before,nit sure if nintendo pay the father of that died son tons of money but i wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

 

I'll bite.  What are COW Letters?

 

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On 4/23/2022 at 11:12 AM, johannesmutlu said:

It’s a miracle that the nes sold like hot cakes because,

 

1, the nes was not the first game console to be sold as an “entertainment system” because the video entertainment system(later recalled the fairchannel f) and the atari 5200 were also sold as an  advanced Video entertainment system,

2,nintendo games were also on other systems,

3,the nes was not that more powerful and not in everyway from other systems.

4,also from a price point both systems don’t differ that much,

5,while rob the robot somehow triggered consumers to wamna buy a nes among it’s 2 games,but ROB turned out to be very clumsy and unhandy to use(why using double A and see battery’s to run the robot, why could it not run from it’s own power supply instead??

6,also it’s a miracle that supermariobros became a trigger point as well for consumers to wanna buy a nes Considering pac land was eventually ported to the C64,amstrad cpc,m and atari xe etc,,,

also nintendo’s special relation with hudson soft allowed to make games with their ip’s for the pc88 including mariobros special,donkeykong 3,supermariobros special etc,,,

7,all thinks concidered the atari 7800 should,ve be the biggest threat against nintendo’s nes because not only was it slightly more advanced(apart from the infirior soundchip) but it also was backwards compatible with atari 2600 games and it’s controllers (something the nes didn’t have) and it did had good conversions of nintendo games on it as well,

the atari 7800 did had a much much more cooler sleeker design then the nes along with it’s better toploading cartride mechanism(the nes just looks like an giant old concreat brick,

8,also nintendo never sold(unlike in japan) a keyboard with famicom basic,cassette drive and a disk system in the us or eu,let alone coming with a set of it,wich they could,ve tried to convince stock markets and consummers that the nes was also a hybrid system just like the C64 (eventrough they did had a prototype avs nes system)

9,also atati’s 7800 super system did had a lockout chip to preven unautherized crappy games to be on their system as well,

10, the nes was not Z80 based as opposed to the colecovision,SG1000 and SG3000/mark3 (sega master system) but nintendo wanted to be sure that their arcade games could run on it then why opting for a 6502 chip instead? Apart from coleco It should,ve be the other way around ,but even more strange is that despite the nes was made with scrolling in mind,sky skipper was not ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich was never made with scrolling in mind,was it? (Who had ever tout that,a nintendo game on another system but never made it on it’s own system??)

also moon patrol was never ported to the nes but it was ported to the atari 2600 wich i found odd for the same technical reason,

11,sure nintendo did played an unfair monopoly with game developers but not all game developers jumped on board,

 

so these are the reason why i think why it is such miracle that the nes was a huge success,same thing with the gameboy since the game pocket system and microvision came before.

 

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I love the 7800 but even I, as a child, preferred NES. I was the only kid that had both a 7800 and NES that I personally knew and I was the only kid that didn't get to play my NES that much, that I knew. NES was in the living room because my mom would play it a lot, when we got off school and dad got home he would rarely let us play on the living room TV so we played the 7800 in the kids room. But let's check out your arguments

1. Everybody knew what it was (a videogame despite the entertainment system thing) maybe this effected retailers but kids called video games Nintendo

2. Not the ones we wanted to play.  I used to wish that super Mario, Castlevania, Zelda and more would hit my 7800.  I don't agree with this point sorry

3. I don't remember any arguing about power until the 16 bits and beyond. Us as kids didn't care if SMS or 7800 was more powerful

4. 7800 was cheaper in the beginning but it didn't have the games

5. I didn't know anybody who had rob so idk

6.Super Mario Bros was a cultural phenomenon.  Pac man fever at least among the people I knew was over with. I also can't recall anybody who knew or played pac land

7.i agree the 7800 looks sleaker but Atari eroded it's place in the market. When I brought up Atari to friends they reacted that it was old and boring. 

8.people in the us were slow to adapt to computers. In the sense that dedicated consoles were bigger here. Nobody I knew wanted keyboards or cassette loaders

9.idk I agree that it should've been big for developers and retailers. I think in 1984 that would've given retail confidence but in 1986 I'm not sure what it meant. I was too young to understand and haven't done research

10. I'm not sure about this either, similar to the last point

11. Nintendo locked down the biggest developers of the time and had the best games. This was probably the biggest contribution to the NES success for a lot of reasons 

 

I really think the 7800 could've been more of a competitor if things had been different and I love what people are doing today. I think if we had games like Rikki and Vikki in its day than it could've at least done better. I would've killed for a game like that. But the truth is that Nintendo succeeded partially on luck, and also due to a lot of planning, market penetration and taking huge risks on their part. I don't think it was a miracle, but a lot of planning, a market that was hungry for quality games and a pinch of luck. 

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I really like all the 8 bit game systems from that period, and I must say that the 7800 would be my "historical favourite", but I have to acknowledge that the NES design is faster due to separate CPU and video memory bus architecture.  Although both systems CPUs start out at 1.79 Mhz, the MARIA chip chews away the available cycles from the CPU as the graphic demands increase.  'CPU available throughput' vs 'screen detail' is a compromise of the 7800, and this would affect game implementation capacity.  Most commercial games used the more colourful, but chunky graphics mode on the 7800.  As titles were released for it in the late 80's, it really looked more like a C=64 variant for its chunky graphics (compared to the NES).  In the higher resolution mode on the 7800, the colour capacity is more like the Colecovision, making it look more like "spot colour".  Were any 80's games released in that mode, Ballblazer?  (btw, my favourite 7800 game is Astro Blaster.  Thanks Bob!  Thanks Bob!!).    Bottom line is I think the NES was a more capable games playing hardware platform.

 

A reference was made previous about Pac Land as a Super Mario Bros competitor.  It wasn't and could not be.  It is a game of the same category, but no where near the broad 'enjoyableness' of Super Mario Bros .  Sales and cultural phenomena status bears that out.  'Same category' does not imply 'same success potential'.

 

Finally, Nintendo curated a wall of fine games from Japan to North America.  These games were created for, and due to, existing success in Japan. They would have been available whether or not they had the degree of success they eventually had with the NES in North America.  An earlier released 7800 may have helped its later support and sales, but the NES was going to be a big success due to its software line up regardless.

 

I do wonder if a bigger push towards the 7800 earlier would have bankrupted the cash strapped Atari Corp of 84/85, leaving the 7800 worse off than what is eventually became.

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