The '80s Loved the Nintendo Entertainment System Quiz

Answer: Reversed the video game crash of 1983 and became the new industry benchmark in video games

Known in Japan as Atari Shock, the video game industry went from $US3.2 billion in sales in 1983 to less than $US100 million in 1985. The crash almost destroyed a very successful video game industry. Bankruptcy of several major companies producing home computers and video game consoles occurred as home computers were sold mainly to play video games. Business analysts claimed the video games industry was finished. (Certainly arcade games almost disappeared entirely, only regaining interest in a 'retro-fuelled" revitalisation in the second decade of the 21st century). The subsequent revitalisation of the video games industry was due, in no small way to the success of Nintendo's US branding of its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985.

Answer: Famicom

Before the video games crash of 1983 and, due to the success of the Japanese arcade games, Nintendo planned to produce a 16-bit cartridge-based system. This would function as a fully-functional home computer with a keyboard and floppy disk drive. This was to be called the Family Computer, or Famicom.

This was rejected by management who believed keyboards and disks were intimidating to "non-technophiles". Controllers were hardwired to the console. Games were 8-bit cartridge based and the graphics were much smoother than the Atari 2600, its main opposition.

The console was released in 1983 for 18400 Yen (about $US180 in 2020) with three reconfigured successful arcade games - Nintendo's "Donkey Kong", "Donkey Kong Jr.", and "Popeye". By the end of 1984, the Famicom had became Japan's best selling video games by a long margin.

Answer: The cartridge slot was a front loader to resemble a video recorder

In 1983 the video game crash was due in the main part to decreased consumer and commercial confidence in video games. In turn this was due in part, to misrepresentation in video game marketing, where the packaging artwork promised better graphics than was the reality. Also there was a wide variety of sound, graphics, and playability with the same game across different platforms.
In the US, Nintendo took several steps to distance themselves from the troubled video games industry even though that was the market they were engaged in:
1. They made the console a front loader to resemble the now popular video cassette recorder. Associating the hardware with a successful platform instead of a computer was a masterstroke.
2. They removed "Video Game" from its lexicon and replaced it with "Entertainment System". Cartridges were called "Game Packs" not "Video Games".
3. Artwork on packaging reflected the graphics capability of the game itself.
4. Nintendo of America pitched their console at children, ensuring a strict policy of censoring "profanity, sexual, religious, or political content" was enforced. This censorship policy stayed in place until 1994 when the Entertainment Software Rating Board system was implemented due in part to criticism arising from the content cuts made to the Super NES port of "Mortal Kombat" which was very much watered down compared to the Sega Genesis version.
Worldwide distribution of Nintendo games followed the NES system from the US rather than the Japanese Famicom.

Answer: Some games came with additional RAM within the game cartridge

The 8-bit microprocessor was used for the entire lifespan of the NES, though there was a separate chip in its architecture to generate the graphics for the game titles. 16-bit technology first appeared in 1987 and the first console utilising this technology was the Sega Genesis in 1989.
The genius of the NES was that the game packs carried extra RAM if it was needed. Game size requirements ranged from 8 kB to 1 MB for games such as "Metal Slader Glory". Most games required 128 to 384 kB of RAM.

Answer: Replaced joystick functionality

The game controller used for both the NES and the Famicom features rectangular box design with a four button configuration: two round buttons labelled "A" and "B", a "START" button, and a "SELECT" button. As well the designers used joypad functionality first used on the Game and Watch platform.

This was a the cross-shaped button designed by Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi which replaced replace the cumbersome joysticks which featured on earlier gaming controllers. Later in the NES product evolution, Nintendo released two advanced controllers called NES Advantage and the NES Max. Both controllers had a Turbo feature, which featured one press of the button representing multiple automatic rapid presses.

This facilitated faster shooting in some games, for example.

Answer: False

Mario first appeared in the Nintendo arcade game "Donkey Kong" in 1981. At first he was an unnamed carpenter and later he was known as Jumpman as he needed to leap over barrels Donkey Kong threw at him. (In some international games he was known as Mr Video.) However the NES was where Mario earned a game in his own right.

He made his eponymous debut in the NES in a 1985 game called the "Super Mario Bros" along with his taller brother Luigi also a plumber. As the platform game featured many underground scenes, he had changed professions from a carpenter to a plumber.

In general in this game his missions were to defeat all his enemies in each round. Since then he has gone on to star in over 200 Nintendo video games and became the mascot of Nintendo.

Answer: Frogger

A total of 706 games were produced for the NES between 1985-1990.

"The Legend of Zelda" started its life on the Japanese Famicom and was then ported to the NES in 1985 where it sold 6.5 million copies in the US alone. The plot focused on Link who needed to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom so he could rescue Princess Zelda from the antagonist, Ganon.

In a 2020 list of the most successful video games of all time, "Duck Hunt" ranked number 23 with over 28 million games sold. It was a launch game for the NES.

"NES Open Tournament Golf" was the second NES golf game. It was more successful than the original "Golf" which was ported over from the Famicom. The success was, in part, because this was a "Mario" game.

"Frogger" was a Sega product that started life as an arcade game.

Answer: No

In the late '80s some video shops, already massively successful at cashing in on the VCR boom renting movies that showed in cinemas only a few weeks before, started renting NES games. Nintendo argued that they received no profit from rentals other than the initial cost of their game. Additionally a new-released game could be available for rent on the same day the game was released for sale (movie rentals were not available until the movie had done the rounds of the cinemas). Nintendo lost the lawsuit but 'won' a claim of copyright infringement which banned Blockbuster from including original instruction booklets (which was copyrighted) with its rentals. Blockbuster then produced short instructions, usually in the form of a label stuck on the rental case. Video stores continued to rent renting video games with rentals often exceeding video rental income.

Answer: Each third party game had to have a chip that matched the 10NES chip in the NES

In a shrewd marketing move that was probably a major reason why the NES was so successful, Nintendo had prepared for expected involvement of third-party software developers and encouraged the same but on Nintendo's terms. They achieved this by having a 10NES authentication chip is in every console. Each game cartridge, whether Nintendo's or a third party's licensed cartridge, had to have a counterpart chip inside the cartridge. If the NES could not detect the chip, it would not load. Nintendo said it pitched this requirement to protect the console owner against low quality games. For a third party to be granted a licence, they had to use Nintendo manufactured cartridges, a practice that generated resentment from some third parties originally. Nintendo was accused of antitrust behaviour because of the strict licensing requirements which led to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) becoming involved.

This required Nintendo to make some concessions. While these licensing restrictions saved Nintendo's investment in the '80s, less strict requirements by Sony and its PlayStation was in part no small reason why Sony was able to compete with Nintendo and surpass Nintendo in sales by the time the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000.

Answer: Yes

In Japan, over eight million Famicoms had sold by 1990. It had achieved 95% of the home video game market by 1987. In North America, the NES widely outsold its primary competitors, the Atari 7800 and the Sega Master System, combined. The clever marketing and the superior software of the NES allowed Nintendo to absolutely dominate the home video game market for the subsequent years of the '80s. (Atari and Sega made some bad business decisions in the '90s resulting in these two companies ceasing to make consoles). Even when the PlayStation and the Microsoft Xbox were released, Nintendo was able to match the Sony sales and far exceed the Xbox sales. By 1988, a third of Japanese households own a Famicon and 30% of American households owned a NES.
With games, "Super Mario Bros." (1985) was the highest selling video game in history for three years until "Super Mario Bros. 3" was released in 1988 when seven million games were sold in the US and 4 million copies sold in Japan. This made it the most popular and fastest-selling home video game in the 20th century.
The Super NES replaced the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990.