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The NES began its rise to power as the Famicom in Japan, where it was released in 1983 for a cost of 9800 yen (about $75). Because Masayuki Uemura, a main decision maker for the Famicom, wanted to make the Famicom an affordable console system, things like a keyboard, modem, and disk slot were dropped. This, though, was countered by the ability of the controler port to be able to handle a great variety of inputs.
When the Famicom was released in 1983 it sold for about $100, a third more than it had been planned to. Nintendo soon attempted to achieve production in the US but, due to the end of the 'Golden Age' of gaming by Atari's crash in 1984, Nintendo was unable to until late in 1985, when they were able to find a distributer in New York that agreed to try selling the NES.
By February, 1986 the NES had already sold almost thirty million copies in the United States alone. It achieved in a short time ninety percent of the video game market. Nintendo had brought the Fourth Age of gaming to the United States.
Nintendo sold various versions of their gaming system as well. The Original Set sold for $249, consisting of the control deck, two controllers, the Zapper, and ROB, the Robotic Operating Buddy. It also included two games - Duck Hunt and Gyromite.
There were two other major sets, as well. The Action Set did away with ROB and Gyromite and added Super Mario Bros. This set became the most popular of any. The third set, the Power Set, was like the Action Set but added in the Power Pad and another game - World Class Track Meet.
During 1990 and 1991 Nintendo released two other sets. They sold two different sets - the Basic Set and Sport Set. The Basic set had only the control deck and two controllers but the Sport Set had all of the Basic Set plus the NES Satellite and a dual gamepak that contained Super Spike V'Ball and World Cup Soccer.
In 1993 Nintendo released a redesigned Famicom and NES. The new version sold around one million copies but was eventually abandoned when Nintendo released the final offical game for the NES ever created - Wario's Woods.
Since then the NES has preservered on the Internet in the form of emulation. Nintendo, at various times, has striked out against these sites and people, but overall it has been left on its own. For awhile the NES Community was a large and wonderous place but it eventually degraded into chaos and small sites. The NES 'Scene' is now small groups of people and sites, never again to regain its former glory.
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