Well, the NES was the first console the USA got which wasn't simply RF. It was being sold as a premium toy, and you would have expected all wires to be included. That said, most high priced AV equipment like cameras and VCR's didn't come with composite cables either. I believe that eventually Nintendo may have stopped including them in NES sets. However, the SNES, at least in the first couple years, also came with the Nintendo branded multi-out composite cables AND the RF adapter. Mine went unused, as I didn't have a TV that even offered composite hookups until around 1993. That was in the living room and too much of a pain to get behind so in reality I played RF-exclusive until the N64 came out.