Has the term "toaster" always referred to the NES front-loader?

[MaximRecoil]

For me, "toaster" as a nickname for a version of the NES is an internet term; I've never heard it in real life. I first got a PC and internet access in 2001, so around that time is when I first saw it. My memory tells me that back then it referred to the top-loader, which made sense, because its cartridge slot is on top, just as a toaster has its bread slots on top. Also, NES cartridges are similar in size to a slice of bread, so inserting one into a top-loader does evoke putting bread into a toaster. I seem to remember people talking about how the "toaster" NES was more reliable but more expensive, and that it has bad picture quality ("jailbars").

 

It seems that now people use the term "toaster" to refer to the front-loader, which doesn't make any sense, unless the comparison is supposed to be to a toaster oven.

[keepdreamin]

you must be a hit at parties

 

and yeah, I know that's a non sequitur.

[+save2600]

Nobody referred to the NES as a "toaster" BITD and never heard the phrase until the days of mass consumer internet access. Or when someone stuffed the guts of one inside a real toaster and coined it the Nintoaster or whatever that thing was called. Should come as no surprise by now, but people are weird.

[keepdreamin]

Nobody referred to the NES as a "toaster" BITD and never heard the phrase until the days of mass consumer internet access. Or when someone stuffed the guts of one inside a real toaster and coined it the Nintoaster or whatever that thing was called. Should come as no surprise by now, but people are weird.

 

You know this thread is bait right? OP is looking for someone to say it is a toaster, so he can then argue for pages it isn't whilst overusing a latin phrase and talking about dictionaries.

[icemanxp300]

The front loader has been referred to as a toaster for as long as I can remember. It is used in that manner because of the tray inside in which you put the cartridge inside and then push down just as you would a toaster.

[MaximRecoil]

Post ignored
This message has been hidden because the poster is in your ignore list: keepdreamin

 

[keepdreamin]

The front loader has been referred to as a toaster for as long as I can remember. It is used in that manner because of the tray inside in which you put the cartridge inside and then push down just as you would a toaster.

 

Don't do it!

[+save2600]

See... I knew this thread was going to be about Millennials and their revisionist history!

 

On the subject of appliances and gaming: the spot to the right of the keyboard and below the cartridge slot on a TI computer... now *that* was always referred to as the "coffee warmer" way back when. lol

[fiddlepaddle]

Thing is, both models are incompatible with bagels.

[Gabriel]

^{I don't know when the term "toaster" for the front loading NES first appeared in common usage, but it was always clearly referring to that model. The top loader was always referred to as "top loader".}

 

^{It was already in common use by the time I first started reading about video game stuff on the intarwebz. So, it came into usage sometime between 1994 and 1999.}

 

^{I doubt it came from the video game magazines of the era. The announcement of the top loader was barely a footnote, and the magazines really didn't care anything about the NES hardware in those years.}

 

I know when I played Ultima Quest of the Avatar with my best friend in 1990 we called the front loader a toaster. It was because we put the game in like a piece of toast and because the system would get hot and overheat. We also called it the "EZ bake oven".

 

the other common thing we called it was the "Blinking Piece of Shit".

[Keatah]

Video Toaster for Amiga from NewTek. It's what Babylon 5 was made with.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Keatah

[Keatah]

I thought the name came about because these models became unreliable hulks at some time and needed specific repair work to fix or replace the connector. Thus associating them with a clunky appliance, all the frapping up and down to get the cartridge to make contact and stuff.

[+save2600]

Video Toaster for Amiga from NewTek. It's what Babylon 5 was made with.

And SeaQuest.

[fiddlepaddle]

And SeaQuest.

 

And Max Headroom too (maybe... I know the Amiga was used). I believe for a time the Video Toaster drove sales of lots of Amigas.

 

But I'm not so sure the NES Toaster moniker was related though. I always personally related the squeaky rattling-tin sound of the push-down lever to the similar sound many toasters make when inserting a slice of bread.

 

By the way, I don't consider it a clunky device at all. A toaster has always been essential, reliable and indispensable in my family, and is probably the first of a long list of stand-alone kitchen appliances designed to make the perfect "xxx".

[Flojomojo]

I wish there were an easy way to do a web search for "oldest known use of phrase ____"

 

I agree that it seems like a retcon word, not something used at the time, but only in retrospect -- also that the front loader doesn't seem very toastery. I don't much like nicknames that are longer than the real name.

[MaximRecoil]

By the way, I don't consider it a clunky device at all. A toaster has always been essential, reliable and indispensable in my family, and is probably the first of a long list of stand-alone kitchen appliances designed to make the perfect "xxx".

 

I never use a toaster (I have one, but it's been collecting dust in the cupboard for so many years that I wouldn't want to use it). On the rare occasions when I want to toast bread, I use my electric oven's broiler, which takes about the same amount of time and is more versatile. For example, you can use the broiler to toast the insides of hamburger buns, or the outsides of a sandwich.

 

As for the NES front-loader, I don't consider it to be a clunky device. It's a rather impressive piece of engineering. Its spring-loaded tray and quasi-ZIF connector is clever, but unfortunately it only works properly when everything is ultra clean. Once everything is clean, it will usually work perfectly for a couple/few years before needing to be cleaned again. The hardware itself is rock-solid. A front-loader that doesn't work for some reason other than dirty connector and/or cartridge contacts is rare. Its composite video output is the best I've ever seen from any console. It does have some "dot crawl", but the overall picture is very sharp by composite standards. Its RF output is the best I've ever seen as well. Its controllers are very responsive and tough as a bag of badgers. Their only weakness is that the rubber membrane switches can start to tear eventually at the flex points ...

 

 

... though that doesn't usually prevent them from working. I bet a lot of people have original NES controllers with torn membranes and don't even know it because they still work fine.

[enoofu]

Pretty sure most people during the day compared it to a Tape player VHS or Music Magnetic Tape Player

[Schizophretard]

For me, "toaster" as a nickname for a version of the NES is an internet term; I've never heard it in real life. I first got a PC and internet access in 2001, so around that time is when I first saw it. My memory tells me that back then it referred to the top-loader, which made sense, because its cartridge slot is on top, just as a toaster has its bread slots on top. Also, NES cartridges are similar in size to a slice of bread, so inserting one into a top-loader does evoke putting bread into a toaster. I seem to remember people talking about how the "toaster" NES was more reliable but more expensive, and that it has bad picture quality ("jailbars").

 

It seems that now people use the term "toaster" to refer to the front-loader, which doesn't make any sense, unless the comparison is supposed to be to a toaster oven.

I remember the NES used to just be the NES until the top-loader came out and then when it did it didn't seem common enough to lead to enough conversations for any of us to need to give it a nickname. We probably just called it NES Junior, NES Mini, new one, just pointed at it, or whatever but didn't stick to one nickname. Neither version we compared to toasters. The NES was like our VCR except on our VCR it loaded from the top but had a similar sliding down motion and then the top-loader was compared to the SNES. Anyway, I assume people had their own localized nicknames and then when they got online toaster and top-loader became the socially accepted ones even though they may have developed prior to being online. It is like SNES and SNEZZ. I didn't hear SNEZZ until being online but the people who say it probably did before being online. At least the ones that were alive when it was new and talked about it back then because I doubt they would change how they say it from getting online. Anyway, I wish they were never called toasters because now what do we call the Switch?

 

[Osgeld]

I never heard the term until the last few years, and I have never had a front loading toaster that required me to push the bread down after placing it in the slot (i mean like I would squish it with my fingers)

Edited November 13, 2016 by Osgeld

[MaximRecoil]

I remember the NES used to just be the NES until the top-loader came out and then when it did it didn't seem common enough to lead to enough conversations for any of us to need to give it a nickname.

 

Exactly.

 

It is like SNES and SNEZZ. I didn't hear SNEZZ until being online but the people who say it probably did before being online. At least the ones that were alive when it was new and talked about it back then because I doubt they would change how they say it from getting online.

 

I never heard "NES", "SNES", and definitely not "Snezz" (or "Nezz"), until the internet. We called the NES: "Nintendo" (some kids said "Ni'tendo") and the SNES: "Super Nintendo", at which point the NES was usually called the "regular" or "original" Nintendo. The initialisms are handy when typing though. Some PAL versions actually said "NES" on them, but our NTSC ones didn't.

Edited November 13, 2016 by MaximRecoil

[Schizophretard]

 

Exactly.

 

 

I never heard "NES", "SNES", and definitely not "Snezz" (or "Nezz"), until the internet. We called the NES: "Nintendo" (some kids said "Ni'tendo") and the SNES: "Super Nintendo", at which point the NES was usually called the "regular" or "original" Nintendo. The initialisms are handy when typing though. Some PAL versions actually said "NES" on them, but our NTSC ones didn't.

 

I think that is a perfect example of it being different based on location because I'm from Indiana and have always called it the NES but not Nezz. That is how they would shorthand it to fit in commercials,"Get it for the NES!". I was young enough that at first I probably wasn't even conscious that I was saying letters and probably at first thought I was saying,"Any S" or didn't even think that deeply about it because it came so naturally. Then the SNES was the Super NES.

[godslabrat]

Sayin NeZ or Snezz is a recent thing. Really recent.

[SuperCool]

I didn't know anyone back in the day who had a top loading NES (though I remember seeing it in stores, and thinking it looked like a lame "junior SNES"). Myself and all my friends had the classic front loading version. No one called it a toaster.

[MaximRecoil]

 

I think that is a perfect example of it being different based on location because I'm from Indiana and have always called it the NES but not Nezz. That is how they would shorthand it to fit in commercials,"Get it for the NES!". I was young enough that at first I probably wasn't even conscious that I was saying letters and probably at first thought I was saying,"Any S" or didn't even think that deeply about it because it came so naturally. Then the SNES was the Super NES.

 

I don't have strong memories of the NES commercials, except for when they first appeared in 1986 (I was 11) around the same time that Sega Master System commercials first appeared. I was amazed by the graphics on both systems, and in those early commercials the voiceover said "Nintendo Entertainment System" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6pW2IYOivA. But like I said, I don't really remember the later commercials, because once the newness wore off I didn't pay much attention to them. I was playing the NES earlier than most people, because my cousin got one about 2 weeks after they were released nationwide in 9/86. They didn't become wildly popular until a couple of years later.

 

But yeah, there are no doubt regional differences (I'm from Maine), and maybe even age group differences. I was 13/14 by the time the NES really took off, and paying more attention to girls and trying to obtain beer and .22 ammo with my friends than video games at the time. I did own an NES briefly in 1988 or 1989 which I bought from a friend for $25, but sold it a few months later to another friend for $25 because I was bored with it. I didn't really value them until I was an adult, and nostalgia set it.

[malducci]

It's always been referred to as the toaster. Have you been living under a rock??? Nintendo even jokingly referred to it a such back in the day.

Edited November 14, 2016 by malducci