AtariLeaf Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I don't even think Nintendo "saved" video gaming in North America. Part of the problem is so many people equate video games with consoles only. As mentioned, computers thrived throughout the 80's both in Europe and North America. If the NES didn't come along, it's a safe assumption that computers would have continue to roll along and grow in popularity, which they did anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I don't even think Nintendo "saved" video gaming in North America. Part of the problem is so many people equate video games with consoles only. As mentioned, computers thrived throughout the 80's both in Europe and North America. If the NES didn't come along, it's a safe assumption that computers would have continue to roll along and grow in popularity, which they did anyway. Yep, I don't think it saved gaming, but I bet we can all agree that it brought back the same kind of console excitement in the USA that the Atari 2600 had in the early 1980s. When I worked at Toys R Us in 1987, the NES wasn't just hot, it was HOT. Although the NES was ultra-hot in 1987, we also sold a ton of computer games during the same time. Speaking of things that were hot, remote control cars were also selling like crazy back then. I don't remember how hot Captain Power items were, but we had a huge sign up at one time about it: youtube.com/watch?v=iSO_kyDYBng http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSO_kyDYBng 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 True, and I hope people don't read any kind of nintendo bashing in my post. I love the NES (for arcade ports generally) I just think it's savior-ship is over-exaggerated and parroted much the same way that ET and pacman causing the crash in the first place is passed along as fact by the ill informed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Dismissing the NES' effect as being "limited to consoles" seems glib to me. Without consoles, would gaming have been as accessible or as popular? In the 80s, computers were still very expensive compared to consoles. To use myself as an example, prior to 1990, only a handful of people I knew had computers... But I literally can't think of anyone who didn't have either an Atari or a Nintendo. Take consoles out of the equation, and only people with lots of money can play video games. I think putting such a restriction on ownership would have had a VERY significant effect on gaming's popularity. Consoles had a price/performance sweet spot that PCs wouldn't be able to touch for at least a decade. If Nintendo hadn't kept that concept viable, gaming as a whole would have suffered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seob Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 In the Netherlands the MSX and C64 where the big winners in the 80's. Here tape was also loved more. But most people i knew just got copies of games on tape. Who ever had a dual tape deck was very popular. Like Germany, after the 8 bit computers, people shifted to Amiga or St, the Amiga as big winner. Also more and more people where shifting to the pc platform. Like others mentioned, it wasn't until the Playstation hit the market that more and more people shifted to console gaming. Only because it was getting very expensive to keep your pc up to date, to play all games in the highest possible setting. This was for me the reason to buy a Playstation instead of upgrading my pc again. Now i was able to play all the games that came out without having to check the specs to see if i could run a game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 To use myself as an example, prior to 1990, only a handful of people I knew had computers... But I literally can't think of anyone who didn't have either an Atari or a Nintendo. Take consoles out of the equation, and only people with lots of money can play video games. Really? Throughout highschool (1983 - 1987) everyone had a home computer. I think the ones who didn't were definitely in the minority. Most had both consoles and computers. Not that I lived in a rich area, it was strictly middle class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Really? Throughout highschool (1983 - 1987) everyone had a home computer. I think the ones who didn't were definitely in the minority. Most had both consoles and computers. Not that I lived in a rich area, it was strictly middle class. I realize everyone's experience is different, but I do think the cost of gaming on a pc was way lower in the 90s than the 80s, to the point where a $200 console was the only realistic option for many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd30 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 We got a 8088 XT in the 80's because my dad needed it for work. We were lower middle class. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a gaming computer. I still loved it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I used to play "Ancient Art of War" religiously on our old 8088 with a monochrome monitor. Good times. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sega_SHARK Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I remember video games being split into two camps in the late '80s. People had a box of INTV or 2600 games or a C64. Everyone (in my neighborhood growing up) was still playing video games in the US after the crash and pre-NES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd30 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I remember video games being split into two camps in the late '80s. People had a box of INTV or 2600 games or a C64. Everyone (in my neighborhood growing up) was still playing video games in the US after the crash and pre-NES. Around the time of the crash ('83/'84) was when I first got an Atari 2600. My next door neighbor had an Intellivision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlepaddle Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I had a Commodore 64 in 1983 or 84. I think it cost $150. Lots of games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamecat80 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 My older brother would go up the street to play Atari 2600 with one of the neighborhood kids. This was around '84 and '85, I think. We got a C64 around 1986, which was great being our first game system. Then we moved to another neighborhood in the summer of '88, and soon after bought an NES. There was one family in the neighborhood who had a SMS; everyone else had an NES. I dunno about the NES "saving" video gaming in North America, but it sure as heck revived it and created lots of excitement 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I dunno about the NES "saving" video gaming in North America, but it sure as heck revived it and created lots of excitement Exactly. While kids never stopped playing games (either on old consoles or on home computers) the NES gave console gaming a shot in the arm from a retail point of view. Before the NES came along, retail stores were just working to clear all their inventory of old Atari/Coleco/Inty/etc. games, and it took the NES (and more notably Super Mario Bros) to restore the market's faith in console gaming in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I dunno about the NES "saving" video gaming in North America, but it sure as heck revived it and created lots of excitement This is probably a more accurate statement. People still wanted to play video games, liked and enjoyed them, and desired to buy more and try new experiences. Computers in the 80's started to do that too. When the NES came along it too fed that hunger for new and different gaming experiences. I still think Nintendo was "right place at the right time" and that hole would have been filled by another company if they didn't come around. Mario and Zelda weren't created by Nintendo. They were created by Miyamoto. If Nintendo didn't exist are we to believe Mario and Zelda would never have existed? Of course not. He would have joined another company and created virtually the same games. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 (edited) Yes nintendo saved gaming--without them, it would all be gone. D&D, casinos, even board games can thank their lucky stars that nintendo was there to save the day out of the goodness of their widdle hearts. Arcades came back in large part without nintendo, and they crashed harder. Is it too much to think that consoles would have come back too? I also tend to think that while consoles didn't do as well as before, 8-bit computers were exploding during those years. An 8-bit computer is largely just a console with a keyboard and enough ram to load stuff into from magnetic media. Edited December 7, 2013 by Reaperman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd30 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 that's the broad paint brush picture of it, though reality is different. In reality people did want to have something to do with video game consoles, just not every tom dick hary, their parents, grandparents, unborn child and its cousin. Games and systems were still selling, maybe not enough for another 400,000 Xmas party but selling. When I say that "nobody wanted to have anything to do with video game consoles", I was mainly referring to retailers. Of course there were people still playing their Atari 2600, etc. and buying heavily discounted cartridges. But the home game console industry was dead in the US until revived by Nintendo, and they had to work hard at getting the backing of retailers burned by the crash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I still think Nintendo was "right place at the right time" and that hole would have been filled by another company if they didn't come around. Mario and Zelda weren't created by Nintendo. They were created by Miyamoto. If Nintendo didn't exist are we to believe Mario and Zelda would never have existed? Of course not. He would have joined another company and created virtually the same games. I'm very skeptical that, in a world without an NES, Sega or Atari would have cooked up a similar concept. Maybe some hypothetical company that ended up not even trying, but not those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Namco or Konami, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameGirl420 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Reading through this thread,it's funny what some people are so passionate about and how it consumes their time. (And then some people wonder why they are still virgins at the age of 40 years old?) This thread question is about on the same level as asking "Did Nirvana/Grunge Rock Kill Hair Metal and Save Rock Music?" (I guess that is less nerdy than this question but a good example.) It's funny to see how all the hair metal fans get up in arms and react to that one. Like.."ohhh no Nirvana didn't save anything!!! Nirvana was not #1 in so and so country." Anyways I still stand by how I feel and could care less if anybody here is biased towards me,tries to belittle me with their pretentiousness and doesn't agree,simply because I am a woman or just because I don't agree with people who deny NES did not have any influence. And Zelda and Mario appearing on another company if Nintendo didn't exist? Well it didn't happen that way now did it? A videogame world without the innovations of Nintendo during the late 80's would be the same if Jimi Hendrix didn't exist for the guitar/rock world imo. The feeling I get from some people here is that gaming would be the same today worldwide if Nintendo did not ever exist. Wrong! You can't change history. NES ruled the world in the late 80's/early 90's and for better or worse changed the landscape of gaming worldwide whether people deny that or not. And I don't care if alot of people don't agree with that because most people are ignorant anyways. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I agree with the above post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sega_SHARK Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 How is arguing about rock music less nerdy than arguing about video games? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 How is arguing about rock music less nerdy than arguing about video games? Because rock stars are cool. They take drugs and get laid every night, then die of an overdose or go to rehab and regret wasting their lives on drugs and chasing tail. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Reading through this thread,it's funny what some people are so passionate about and how it consumes their time. True. Some people will defend Nintendo like its a cherished family member. Others are more objective. (And then some people wonder why they are still virgins at the age of 40 years old?) Bit of a cheap shot. Sounds like you're belittling people who don't agree with your view Anyways I still stand by how I feel and could care less if anybody here is biased towards me,tries to belittle me with their pretentiousness and doesn't agree, Ironic statement, considering what you wrote above. simply because I am a woman I don't think that matters to anyone here nor is it a factor in the subject at hand. or just because I don't agree with people who deny NES did not have any influence. I don't think anyone said they have NO influence, just that it is extremely overstated. And Zelda and Mario appearing on another company if Nintendo didn't exist? Well it didn't happen that way now did it? No it didn't. That was not the point. Again - Miyamoto and Nintendo are not the same thing. Its not like Bill Gates who founded Microsoft. Miyamoto went to work for Nintendo. He could have gone anywhere and worked with any company. A videogame world without the innovations of Nintendo during the late 80's would be the same if Jimi Hendrix didn't exist for the guitar/rock world imo. The feeling I get from some people here is that gaming would be the same today worldwide if Nintendo did not ever exist. Wrong! You can't change history. NES ruled the world in the late 80's/early 90's and for better or worse changed the landscape of gaming worldwide whether people deny that or not. Of course the video game landscape would be different if Nintendo didn't exist. However I still don't agree with Nintendo "ruling the world". Again, that's an untrue statement. They did not rule Europe unless you consider Europe "not a part of the world". It's a pretty big piece mind you. Ask anyone who lives there. It's pretty vast. And I don't care if alot of people don't agree with that because most people are ignorant anyways. Belittling again. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 (edited) A videogame world without the innovations of Nintendo during the late 80's would be the same if Jimi Hendrix didn't exist for the guitar/rock world imo.Except, you're making the same assumptions... Jimmy borrowed some of his act from The Who and others... Was the rock world better because Jimmy was there.. Yes... But, can I turn that around and say we wouldn't have had those innovations from some other musician(s) if Jimmy hadn't shown up? Of course not... Nintendo was in the right place at the right time, but nothing that they did wasn't partially on someone else's radar. They should be praised for doing what they did... But I think it's likely (IMHO) that someone else would have filled the gap eventually. Technology doesn't wait for people. People just are in the right place/time.... And believe me, some of the Nirvana fans I know are much nerdier than some of the gamers I know.. (And some of the Hair Metal fans I know would argue vehemently about rock being "saved" by Nirvana.. ) desiv Edited December 8, 2013 by desiv 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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