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Thread: Nintendo of America's Poor NES Memories. . .

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    Default Nintendo of America's Poor NES Memories. . .

    I'm wondering if Nintendo of America (NOA) has had poor memories as to the exact release date when the NES and Super Mario Bros. was released, as if such milestones don't matter to them anymore in the face of increasing losses caused by the failure of the WiiU and 3DS systems? What I do understand is that the system had had a limited launch, being available only in New York when initially introduced here around October or November 1985, and that the nationwide release wasn't until September 1986, nearly one year after its New York test launch.

    In researching back issues of one of my local newspapers, The Oregonian, the NES didn't go on sale in Portland, OR until June 1986.

    ~Ben
    Last edited by ColecoFan1981; 09-02-2014 at 12:26 AM.

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    It's hardly as if Nintendo's problems over the last two or three years suddenly obliterated their memory. It's simply that back in 1985, no one cared to keep track of these things.

    It's all been flogged to death now, so you can refrain from checking back issues of your local newspaper.
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    Quote Originally Posted by ColecoFan1981 View Post
    I'm wondering if Nintendo of America (NOA) has had poor memories as to the exact release date when the NES and Super Mario Bros. was released, as if such milestones don't matter to them anymore in the face of increasing losses caused by the failure of the WiiU and 3DS systems? What I do understand is that the system had had a limited launch, being available only in New York when initially introduced here around October or November 1985, and that the nationwide release wasn't until September 1986, nearly one year after its New York test launch.

    In researching back issues of one of my local newspapers, The Oregonian, the NES didn't go on sale in Portland, OR until June 1986.

    ~Ben
    The 3DS is actually selling like hot cakes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arkanoid_Katamari View Post
    The 3DS is actually selling like hot cakes.
    Hardly

    It has sold just a small fraction of that of the DS which went up against the PSP which was a huge success for Sony. Not only that, but sales have been declining for a while now for this platform, sales this quarter were way down from the same quarter a year ago, and sales for this year were forecast to merely be stagnant (Which itself will be a difficult task given Q1's poor performance). And it should be added that they didn't even come close to meeting last year's projections when the verdict was read at its conclusion, a situation I predict will be repeated (For the 3DS, I have a hunch they underestimated the Wii U this year).

    An individual at another forum recently didn't like someone's post about Nintendo's handheld performance being on the weak side this generation and countered by stating that it has sold 16 million systems alone in Japan at this point. But at this same point for the DS, after looking it up in Nintendo's own sales history that it keeps updated on the Japanese site, it had sold over 70 million systems in just Japan.

    Sort of says it all...
    Last edited by Leo_A; 09-02-2014 at 01:24 PM.

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    Ehhh that can't tell what year SMB stuff is wrong. My mom bought us the NES in 1985 and picked up Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros for under the Christmas tree later in the year. She had all that stuff hidden away from some point in October or November of 1985. I obviously have no receipt, she wouldn't, nor remember when that was bought 30 years later, but anyone saying the game popped up in 1986 is full of it. I've never lived in New York, ours came from the LA(area) launch in California. Shame they didn't date stuff better or mark it somehow, still have the original cart, sleeve and manual (no box.)

    That piece on gamasutra has enough ammo there to support Oct 1985 too between old Macy ads, an m82 display, the game release date in Smash Bros, and more.
    Last edited by Tanooki; 09-02-2014 at 10:26 AM.

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    They probably didn't have "street dates" the way we do now. There might be a shipping date listed somewhere deep in Nintendo's record archives but I'm assuming stores would just put the stuff out once they got them or when they felt was most economically sensible, possibly with certain retailers getting preferential treatment. That could result in some variation from place to place as to day and date of releases.

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    Exactly. The NES released at different dates across the US, so the only true date really would be to figure out what the earliest release date was.

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    Yeah it's a soft test in 1985, then when they sold most of it out and saw people being interested they started a slow roll out over the next year to get it all over the place. I don't think it was up until maybe 15 years ago that you had solid set dates on a lot of product like DVDs, CDs, and games where they'd ship the prior week, hit the store on a Monday and then if there was not 'set' dates being requested it was on the shelf Tuesday. Before that, stuff just got kind of thrown on a truck and sent out, and again unless there was a requested day (like the old planet mario face thing for SMB3) or Mortal Monday, it just rolled out as it arrived.

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    ServBot (Level 11) tom's Avatar
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    Game Over says the NES hit (test market) New York before Christmas 1985 (50.000 out of 100.000 sold) and Los Angeles February 1986 (slow sales due to the time of year). After that was Chicago, San Francisco and some towns in Texas. By end of 86 1 million units sold.
    Last edited by tom; 09-02-2014 at 12:46 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    Ehhh that can't tell what year SMB stuff is wrong. My mom bought us the NES in 1985 and picked up Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros for under the Christmas tree later in the year. She had all that stuff hidden away from some point in October or November of 1985. I obviously have no receipt, she wouldn't, nor remember when that was bought 30 years later, but anyone saying the game popped up in 1986 is full of it. I've never lived in New York, ours came from the LA(area) launch in California. Shame they didn't date stuff better or mark it somehow, still have the original cart, sleeve and manual (no box.)

    That piece on gamasutra has enough ammo there to support Oct 1985 too between old Macy ads, an m82 display, the game release date in Smash Bros, and more.
    If you really had one of those, it would be worth thousands to a collector.

    It was test marketed (as stated above)in NYC only in 1985, and in the LA area in January of 1986.

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    So here is what Nintendo should do. Rerelease the NES, exact same system, just new units. And make some new NES games. Sell the system for $69.99 with Super Mario Bros. 4 packed in.

    Then, 5 years from now, do the same thing with rereleased the SNES, then the N64. To hell with new stuff. And sega could come back with Genesis again too. No actually wait, they could finally come out with the 32X Genesis combo. Ya.

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    To me, a test market date would count because anybody could have flown out to said area and gotten one if they wanted to that badly for the expensive price. If they had a family or friend out there who told them about it over the phone they could have someone pick it up for them and send it in the mail. They could have even spread word to their friends about it and had their New York family buy multiple and reimburse them.

    It probably works the same way with people who used to import Japanese consoles back then. It was rare but people still did it somehow. Usually by making flights to Japan themselves and seeing these things in stores.
    Last edited by Rickstilwell1; 09-02-2014 at 03:22 PM.
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    Look I know what I had when I got it, so if she didn't get it from LA then it was mail ordered and shipped from the east coast.

    Either way, no I don't have the non-marked Deluxe Set anymore, everything of it other than Duck Hunt and manual are gone, I'm even on a second copy of Hogan's Alley, but my SMB is all original and it wasn't a pack-in. I just felt no reason at the time to keep it when an offer popped up. Had this guy come over when I was back in CA just a few years selling stuff off and he bought up some games, but then saw the NES plugged in, I didn't name a price but he offered up 100 for the loose deck, 2 controllers and the wires and given I had a toploader and the sharp nes tv already I saw no reason not to as the kid looked super happy just seeing it. I don't recall the serial number on it well but I'm fairly certain it was in the low 100k level.


    I think kevincal is right, but Nintendo is too short sighted, arrogant, and prideful to do that. They see more good in greed buying new hardware and digital copies shoveled out for $5-10 a pop. Even if they could cheaply reproduce the original systems and games again, I bet you there wouldn't be enough money in it after an initial 'OH SHIT' moment boom for a season or year and it would taper off.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    Nintendo is too short sighted, arrogant, and prideful to do that. They see more good in greed buying new hardware and digital copies shoveled out for $5-10 a pop. Even if they could cheaply reproduce the original systems and games again, I bet you there wouldn't be enough money in it after an initial 'OH SHIT' moment boom for a season or year and it would taper off.
    So they see more good in greed because they don't want to embark on another money-losing venture?
    "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    Look I know what I had when I got it, so if she didn't get it from LA then it was mail ordered and shipped from the east coast.

    Either way, no I don't have the non-marked Deluxe Set anymore, everything of it other than Duck Hunt and manual are gone, I'm even on a second copy of Hogan's Alley, but my SMB is all original and it wasn't a pack-in. I just felt no reason at the time to keep it when an offer popped up. Had this guy come over when I was back in CA just a few years selling stuff off and he bought up some games, but then saw the NES plugged in, I didn't name a price but he offered up 100 for the loose deck, 2 controllers and the wires and given I had a toploader and the sharp nes tv already I saw no reason not to as the kid looked super happy just seeing it. I don't recall the serial number on it well but I'm fairly certain it was in the low 100k level.
    Yeah, you got the set that was brought to the LA area in early 1986. NYC was the only area where the console was available in North America in 1985. Howard Lincoln stated that he was part of the group the worked throughout the fall of 1985 to setup test market displays throughout the NYC area. It's well documented in Game Over and Ultimate History of Videogames, and even when Kent was questioned about it (years later), he talked about his conversations with Lincoln on the subject. There's even some debate about the release of Super Mario Bros. during that test market run in NYC, and it was believed that only a small amount of the title was shipped directly from Japan for the day 1 launch. Lincoln says that the title wasn't officially launched in North America until 1986.

    I had read (Electronic Games) about the Famicom being released in Japan, but really kind of forgot about the console until I saw it in Phoenix during fall of 1986. The only set they had available was the deluxe set selling for $249. I thought the price was pretty outrageous at the time. The 1st time I had seen Super Mario Bros. was in the game room at the local Peter Piper Pizza in 1986.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_OhJ42rS1U

    http://www.retrocollect.com/forum/vi...hp?f=13&t=5937

    Quote Originally Posted by bowserkoop89
    Just gathering interest,got a baby on the way so its time to maybe part with my grail.

    New in box, straight from the New York test market batch,this is the Nintendo set that started video-gaming as we know it!
    only 100,000 of these were sent to N.Y.C. only for a promotional test run of the NES. you wont find another like this,its stunning to see as probably 99.7% of all of the 100,000 were surly opened and used.
    Last edited by Gamevet; 09-02-2014 at 10:23 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jorpho View Post
    So they see more good in greed because they don't want to embark on another money-losing venture?
    Basically yes, and no it wouldn't be money losing if they did it the right way. More like one of those ATGames handhelds and portable TV units that take carts but is emulated like the Retron5. If it was straight hardware, it could work, but it's a big risk, the other would just be as the DS fanboys love to say 'prints money.' They'd rather just rake it in having people buy a console, but clearly given how many don't want to buy that thing, a cheap player that would run their carts/roms would likely work out well for them. You do love to snark and get on people you don't agree with don't ya?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    Basically yes, and no it wouldn't be money losing if they did it the right way.
    I bet the Wii U and 3DS wouldn't be money-losing either if they did it the right way. Clearly their mistake all along was not doing things the right way.

    If it was straight hardware, it could work, but it's a big risk, the other would just be as the DS fanboys love to say 'prints money.' They'd rather just rake it in having people buy a console,
    So, instead of printing money by taking a big risk, they'd rather just rake it in..? And the Retron5 is just going to make all that money instead..?

    You do love to snark and get on people you don't agree with don't ya?
    The things you are writing are deeply puzzling.
    Last edited by Jorpho; 09-03-2014 at 12:22 AM.
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    I base my writings primarily on past experience in the industry with games and media, and more on the current stuff due to my family who still works within. I can't help if it's puzzling that the stuff I spit out here is just repeated information based on things I get put before me in relation to the new systems.

    Also the 3DS isn't a loser in this, it's just not a gainer enough to overcome the stupidity that went into making the WiiU such a flop.

    Nintendo's logic makes little sense, it's self centered and narrowly sighted. Yes, they'd rather rake in money only off a big piece of hardware instead of a Retron5 like emulation box. The have far more controls over their own R&D made hardware and they'd rather shovel roms over that than something else to make money. I never said it was smart, but that's what they do. If they were that concerned in tapping their old stuff in more ways to make cash they would, but they don't and really haven't outside of the VC, the GBA "NES" series a decade ago, Animal Crossing (GC) and little else. Nintendo if they're one thing, they're control freaks and they'll take it to whatever extreme.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanooki View Post
    Nintendo's logic makes little sense, it's self centered and narrowly sighted. Yes, they'd rather rake in money only off a big piece of hardware instead of a Retron5 like emulation box. The have far more controls over their own R&D made hardware and they'd rather shovel roms over that than something else to make money.
    I don't know what your "past expierence" is like, but I honestly can't make the slightest sense of what you are saying. Are you suggesting that if Nintendo made their own "Retron5 like emulation box" – something to use cartridges that haven't been made in twenty years – then despite being their own R&D-made big piece of hardware, they wouldn't have control over it? And somehow they would make larger profits than they currently do from the Virtual Console?

    If they were that concerned in tapping their old stuff in more ways to make cash they would, but they don't and really haven't outside of the VC, the GBA "NES" series a decade ago, Animal Crossing (GC) and little else.
    And because of that, they're "greedy" and "self-centered" for some strange reason? Perhaps you are using these words in some sense that I am not familiar with.
    Last edited by Jorpho; 09-03-2014 at 07:09 PM.
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