Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Reserved for classic gaming discussions.
envytomdead
Posts: 55
Joined: October 27th, 2015, 11:56 am

Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby envytomdead » August 27th, 2018, 11:17 pm

Back in the 80's I never owned a NES. I owned a 7800 and then a SMS. The 7800 was first because I foolishly believed my friend that the NES was more expensive and the only plus it had was better graphics. I came to find this was incorrect. Fast forward 1 and half later I am trying to decide between a SMS and a NES. After making such an uninformed decision last time, I played both systems at various friends houses. Ultimately I chose the SMS for the following reasons

1. I liked Alex Kidd in Miracle World better than Super Mario
2. I liked Zillion better than Metroid
3. I Loved Sega's arcade games.


That's my story. My question is why did you go against the grain and not get a NES?

Luigi & Peach
Posts: 343
Joined: August 19th, 2015, 9:30 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby Luigi & Peach » August 28th, 2018, 9:12 am

I'd like to say I made a rational and informed decision, but the 7800 is just what my parents got me. Honestly, I didn't even know it existed prior to owning one. I assumed that when I hinted at a video game system for Christmas that I'd end up with an NES. I don't regret it though since every one of my friends had a NES (never saw a SMS) I still played it plenty.

bluenote
Posts: 290
Joined: August 14th, 2015, 5:16 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby bluenote » August 28th, 2018, 10:14 am

My older brother had a 2600 and in '86, he bought me a Master System for Christmas. This was my first console just for me. I really enjoyed it and I still have it to this day.

All my friends had a NES, except I had 1 friend who also had a master system and we would trade games and play it together. We were definately outliers! He was always saying the the Master System was better than the NES, but I never quite believed that.
Back in those days, you only had 1 console per generation, so I was stuck with the Master system. However, I do remember renting a NES with some games over a weekend. I finally bought a NES about 15 years ago, and I absolutely love it. I much prefer the NES over the Master system. I have a weird nostalgia for it, even though I never owned one back in the day. I will say it's my favourite system of all time. It's been a blast discovering all the games on the NES that I missed all these years.

User avatar
Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby Retro STrife » August 28th, 2018, 11:53 am

In the 80s, we had a 7800 and then an NES. Personally I wasn't even aware the Master System existed back then. I wonder if it was just me, or if most kids weren't aware of the Master System back then... The first time I ever heard of Sega was when I played a Genesis at my uncle's house sometime around 1992. I was pretty young at the time, so the only way I learned of systems back then was from seeing them when over someone's house.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby ptdebate » August 28th, 2018, 12:10 pm

I was born in 1990 so obviously I couldn't have owned an NES before then. My parents bought an NES for my 5-year-old brother and myself in 1993. We mainly used it for Duck Hunt. We got Zelda in 1994 and, with a little help and advice from the guy at the game store (my mom was tired of us asking her how to play the game), we made good headway in it but I don't think we ever beat it. Later that year for Christmas we got a Super Nintendo, which marked the beginning of my serious gaming. Aladdin and The Lion King were the first two games I ever beat with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest coming the next year. I also played A Link to the Past when I was 5 but it was still a little too obtuse for me. Many of my favorite games at the time were actually on the Sega Game Gear, with Sonic Triple Trouble (secret best Sonic game) and Bubble Bobble being standouts.


In 1996 we got the N64 the day it came out. Hype for this system was unreal. The 3D graphics impressed me - of course - but most of all they terrified me. Even some of the levels in Mario 64 were too much for me to play alone simply because of the notion that not everything within range of the character is visible (as is the case with 2D games). The idea that some monster might be sneaking up behind me at any time deterred me from spending a lot of time with this system until a few years later.

Sut
Posts: 845
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 4:23 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby Sut » August 28th, 2018, 3:17 pm

Disclaimer - I’m from the UK.

Americans tend to find it hard to believe that the NES wasn’t a thing in Europe because it was so massive over there and in Japan.

I knew one kid who had an NES everyone else had Master Systems, ST’s or Amiga’s at this point so the NES looked positively archaic. The SNES performed much better over here but Nintendo has never had a great foothold here.

User avatar
scotland
Posts: 2561
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:33 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby scotland » August 28th, 2018, 3:37 pm

Sut wrote:Disclaimer - I’m from the UK.

Americans tend to find it hard to believe that the NES wasn’t a thing in Europe because it was so massive over there and in Japan.


We have had similar conversations before on the success of the NES in America.

I had a Commodore C64 during the mid and late 1980s. My experiences earlier in the 2nd generation had taught me that cartridges were both expensive and often disappointing. When you can only buy a few games a year, that's a stinging lesson that I was in no mood to repeat. The classic "Nintendo drought" was not new to Nintendo, except back the it was hard to have an honest review of the game ahead of time. Owning a family computer had a lot of perqs, once you made the investment in the hardware.

In the US, the NES sold about 34 million units over its lifespan. Commodore sold about 10 million C64 units in the US, plus there were several million Apple II, Atari and other 8 bit family computers. So, not including IBM PCs or clones, there was probably still one family computer playing comparable games for every 2 NES units in America in the late 1980s.

User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18104
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 28th, 2018, 5:02 pm

During the late 80's I was heavily into computers. Running my own BBS, programming games, and earning my CS degree in college. While I enjoyed playing games on my Atari computers I didn't purchase any consoles at that time. I did however play the NES over several friend's houses, and always LOVED it. Especially Super Mario and Bases Loaded. There was something about the simplicity of those games I found far more appealing than the more sophisticated computer games.

SpiceWare
Posts: 149
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 7:04 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby SpiceWare » August 28th, 2018, 5:30 pm

Not me.

Family xmas gift in 1980 was an Atari 2600 with Space Invaders and a number of other games.

The following Xmas I got a Commodore VIC-20. I gamed on it as well as wrote & ran my BBS, The Dragon's Lair. Over time I ported my BBS to a 64, then 128. Over time my BBS & custom terminal software developed some slick features such as realtime music at 300 baud, play online games with your joystick, BBS controllable fonts, sprites, etc (more info here). I discovered the internet while porting the BBS to my Amiga, and soon after lost interest in the BBS scene.

In the late 90s coworker's Playstation had stopped working, so he bought a new one on his lunch break. After work he hooked it up in one of the meeting rooms and showed off some of the games. The demo disc had Spyro the Dragon, which resulted in me buying a Playstation of my own.

User avatar
zetax
Posts: 235
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:37 pm

Re: Who didn't own a NES in the 80's?

Postby zetax » August 28th, 2018, 11:58 pm

I think my experience is similar to Dave's, Pong (clone) in the late 70's, 2600 in the early 80's, Atari 800XL about 1985...which lasted through college (gotta love a VT52 terminal emulator running through a 300 baud modem!) No new video game hardware until getting a Game Gear in about 1993.

Needless to say, no great sentimental attachment to the NES, though I do have one now, as well as the classic/mini.


Return to “Classic Gaming”