Nintendo Entertainment System
It's from 1985, before you were born.
- Maker
- Nintendo
- Type
- Game console
- Debuted
- 1985
- Note
- Blow on the cartridge
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About
As of 2026, it's 41 years old.
After a video-game crash left American retailers allergic to consoles, Nintendo disguised the NES as a non-threatening 'Entertainment System' in 1985, complete with a toy robot, and quietly resurrected the entire industry.
It gave the world Mario, Zelda, and the time-honored ritual of blowing into a cartridge as if the game ran on breath. The gray box single-handedly convinced parents that video games were here to stay, and kids that bedtime was negotiable.
The console that saved gaming, minted a plumber as the world's most famous Italian, and taught us all to gently exhale into plastic.
Nintendo Entertainment System through the years
Famicom in Japan
Nintendo launches the Family Computer at home before going west.
NES in America
The redesigned console revives a collapsed U.S. game market.
Super Mario Bros.
The pack-in hit defines side-scrolling platformers forever.
