Console News - Nintendo is about the get the big 2-5

Super Mario isn't the only one with a 25^th birthday this year. October 18^th, 2010, marked the 25^th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System's sale in the United States.

In 1985, Manhattan's FAO Schwarz sold the very first NES that would later begin a nationwide craze. The NES sold for ten years in the United States, ceasing production in 1995 after having sold approximately 50 million consoles.

The first titles released included Excitebike, Duck Hunt, Baseball, and Ice Climber. Within the 10 years the NES was manufactured, amazing franchises such as The Legend of Zelda and Metroid were born, and, of course, who could forget Super Mario's growth and development with the Nintendo Entertainment System?

Most notably, women pieced the first systems themselves together. According to Kotaku, the initial home consoles had Printed Circuit Boards put together by women with magnifying glasses. Quite impressive, ladies!

Imagine the world had the NES not broken through and created such a demand for video gaming. Would we even have Xbox, and PlayStation, or would everyone still be stuck having to go out to shopping malls and local arcades to get their gaming fix? We certainly would not have our Nintendo Wiis or Nintendo 64's to entertain us when hanging out with friends, and perhaps the internationally recognized characters such as Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Link would have no relevance. That would have destroyed the creation of hundreds of Halloween costumes, stationery, and above all, the games themselves and the millions of hours spent total by gamers growing up with the franchises. What a strange concept.

http://kotaku.com/5586558/to-build-a-nintendo-you-needed-cigarettes-robots-and-nice-japanese-ladies

Written by Evil Ambassador Lindsey Olson