Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, with a less playful and clearly more conservative design, in black and gray, was Nintendo's next big step. The transition to the USA and at a time when the "bubble of video games" of 1983 caused fears for the success of the project. Nintendo's gaming machine was introduced to the American public at CES 1985 and launched in February 1986, along with a list of 18 games (10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew, Mach Rider and Super Mario Bros).

In Europe, the NES passes in October of the same year. While sales outside of Japan aren't as impressive, Nintendo's gaming machine is able to outperform its competitors worldwide. It was still available internationally as of 1995, while in Japan, NES continues to be sold until 2003, bringing total sales closely to 62 million units.

Nintendo's excellent productivity on peripherals has also contributed to NES's huge success. The list is almost endless, including joysticks, game pads, light guns, gloves, an external drive, keyboard, modem, and even a robot!

Famicom, a console that used cartridges, was designed as a toy, which was emphasized in its red and white design. In its first year in Japan, with only 3 titles, but already well-known (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye), its sales did not take off, as it faced technical problems due to a problem circuit in the motherboard of the gaming machine.

After the change of the main board and the recall of the problematic devices, which cost a few million on Nintendo, the commercial success came quickly. By the end of 1984 and before moving to the US and Europe, Famicom in Japan alone recorded 2.5 million sales, displacing Sega's competitive SG-1000. The success is due in part to Nintendo's famous titles, but also to the superiority of the hardware. Famicom manages sprites well and has very smooth scrolling.