"The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States on 18 October 1985: about a year after I was born, and 40 years ago today. It's as if the company sensed that a sucker who'd spend thousands of dollars on plastic toys and electronic games had just entered the world. Actually, it's as if the company had sensed that an entire generation of fools like me was about to enter the world. Which is true. That was the time to strike."
"We were about to be drained of every dollar we received for birthdays, Christmases and all those times our dad didn't want us to tell our mom about something. (Maybe that last one's just me.) Despite being slightly older than the NES, a horror I'm only now forced to face as I write this, it felt like that console had always existed in my life."
"Yes, the Nintendo Entertainment System was advertised in the US as an advanced piece of technology despite looking like a rejected design for a VHS cassette player, but we all knew it was meant to be played with. Whereas touching my dad's home theater resulted in a lot of yelling, this was finally an electronic device that we children were allowed to use."
The Nintendo Entertainment System launched in the United States on 18 October 1985. Its release coincided with a generation that funneled birthdays, holiday money, and secret allowances into cartridges and accessories. Parents more often feared the financial burden than moral corruption at that early stage. The console was marketed as advanced technology despite resembling a rejected VHS design. Its library and accessibility made Nintendo synonymous with video games for many households. The NES offered an electronic device children were permitted to use, distinguishing it from off-limits home electronics and cementing its role in childhood play and consumer habits.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]