???? – 1996retired
32X
“Project Mars never quite landed, but it gave the Genesis a brave, brief boost.”
“Blow on the cartridge one more time, old friend — it'll come back.”
The Nintendo Entertainment System was Nintendo's first programmable home console, an 8-bit machine designed by Masayuki Uemura after president Hiroshi Yamauchi asked for something simple and cheap that could play arcade games from cartridges. Released as the Family Computer in Japan in 1983, it arrived in America as the NES in 1985, dressed up like a VCR so stores would accept it — alongside a light gun called the Za
By August 14, 1995, the NES was discontinued, retiring after a decade that had carried it across Europe, Australia, and Asia and through its rivalry with Sega's Master System in the third generation. It wasn't snuffed out early; it simply finished its game. What it left behind was the very idea of the modern home console — and a reset button that never wore out in our memories.
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“Project Mars never quite landed, but it gave the Genesis a brave, brief boost.”
“Product of the Year 1993, gone by 1996 — even Time can't save you from a price tag.”
“It saw the future in red, briefly, through a visor nobody else wanted to wear.”