The history of the NES: learn your roots

by Ross Miller on Oct 24th 2005 5:30PM

The new week-long set of features for 1up is a celebration of the Nintendo Entertainment System, as its 20th birthday was just last week. Today's feature chronicles the history of the console and its rise to power, stripping the game dominance from Atari and creating a cult of personality for all things Mario and Link. The write-up is very thorough, and has a few tidbits that even the most hardcore of gamers might have forgotten (remember NES-rival Action Max? me neither).

Wednesday's feature will discuss the top 15 games as chosen by its readers, but in the meantime, what are/were some NES games that you could not live without?

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Reader Comments (56)

blaster master. all the way

Flashback: in the movie "the wizard" when Christian Slater's father asks what game he's playing, and Slater answer (with his trademark slow voice) "teenage..mutant..ninja..turtles".

it was then that I knew Nintendo entered the world of Pop Culture and a place in history.

Bionic Commando!!!!

ninja turtles 2, ultima: exodus, super mario bros. 3, kid icarus, bird week (i dont care what people think, it was a fun game), rad racer 2, ikari wariors, ninja gaiden 2, and RC Pro Am

to name a few

Super Mario World III - Omgtehpurepwnagelol
Hammer suit, what was the raccoon suit called again? Damn that was fun.

Final Fantasy 1 - omgod

DOUBLE DRAGON!!!

GAUNTLET - Days strait no food or sleep.

lol @ Joust. still fun.

NINJA GAIDEN - Gotta love it

Err, possibly the best title in gaming history *Super Mario Bros + Duck Hunt* 2 in 1.

Thats it!

contra, double dragon, megaman, zeldas, rc pro am, tecmo bowls, mike tysons punch out, track n field with the power pad, super marios, paper boy
all FTW!!!!!

Mega Man II. That is all.

Double Dragon baby, and did anyone ever play River City Ransom? So much fun...

How can you guys forget battletoads? Best game EVA'!

river city ransom was the shiznit hahahaha i loved that game and just until recently i remembered the name of it too i had long forgotten it.....

EVery single original RPG ever concieved. We have FF 1000000 and all kinds of RPG's that have been shifted over from system to system and these titles have been played by multiple generations. Pretty sick concept. Here is a Dragon Warrior 1 song I recreated with my brother using drums and guitar. You might remember this lil tune http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/13493/finalbout.mp3
Enjoy ;)

"Bionic Commando!!!!"
Hell yes. I'm still amazed there hasn't been some kind of remake of it.

---------------------------------------------
Posted Oct 24, 2005, 5:38 PM ET by chrs w

blaster master. all the way"
---------------------------------------------

That seriously made my heart beat faster... Oh the hours spent on blaster master, those stage boss battles were difficult! What a fulfilling game wow.

River City Ransom, Kid Icarus, Legend of Zelda.

Oh, and of course Zelda (first, not so much the second) and Metroid.

I loved the NES...

Mario 1,2,& 3.
Link
Zelda
Double Dragon
Final Fantasy
Dragon Warrior I
Super Spike Vollyball
Crystalis
Star Tropics
Mega Man 2
Super Tecmo Bowl
Base Wars
Skate or Die

I'm sure there are others, but those are some absolute favorites of mine... Seriously, the NES was the best system ever (with SNES a close second).

Holy crap, how could I forget Metroid, Battletoads, Kid Icarus, and Street Fighter 2010!

Never, ever, ever, forget Kid Icarus, Ice Hockey, Street Fighter 2010, or Duck Hunt. Never.

Final Fantasy! >_<

Mario bros 1, 2, 3

The Legend of Zelda... Classics...

Bionic Commando, Bionic Commando, Bionic Commando.

Metal Gear even in its ported version was a particular obsession of mine even as a child. Funny how crude it plays now. Kojima on his blog should take note and fix that key card crap!

How Capcom could let that and Strider remain stagnant but keep pushing Mega Man like it was crack is beyond me. Imagine a Ninja Gaiden quality Strider or a God of War quality Bionic Commando.

I'd like to backup and give props to the original Castlevania, Contra, Goonies II, Gradius (damn Konami was on fire), Kid Icarus, Metroid, and Karnov for being the most awesomely awful game ever made.

Don't forget Punch Out.

Zelda is on a platform so high it need not be mentioned.

Goonies II will always have a special place in my heart. Stinger was great.

EXCITE BIKE !!!

Remember Gumshoe?

Contra
Punch-Out
Skate-or-Die 2
Kung Fu
Top Gun

and I still play Tecmo Super Bowl.

Baseball Stars, anyone? WAY ahead of it's time when it came out. I spent many a night with friends building up cash to max out my players. Friggin' ridiculously fun.

The original Mario Bros is why I'm here today STILL addicted to these damn games! It was like the first time I picked that game up the pad welded itself to my hands and still has no intention of letting go.

I am the king of Duck Hunt, I can sit 20 feet away from the TV and still hit those bastards like a sniper.

Babu - the racoon suit? I think it was the tanuki suit. Imagine that in 3D Mario! And the frog suit. Take note Nintendo! We want these in Mario 128, if it's EVER going to come out!

Master Blaster
Double Dragon
Zelda

Sqoon & Ice Climber are my favorite NES titles. :P

River City Ransom, Kid Icarus, Legend of Zelda

---

Kid Icarus.. holiness.. It's coming to Revo you know?

;)

My brother and I played a lot of Spy vs Spy. I also really liked Solomon's Key.

Anyone remember trying to play someone on the track and field pad. I would try to race my friend and ultimately just drop to my knees and start pounding the "pad" with my hands.

just because of this comentry i now have to play the zeldas,metroid and ff all over again *just cant get over those*

There was a Bionic Commando sequal on Game Boy, but it sucked. That game was fairly unique for a platformer.

I mean, hell, you couldn't even jump.

Oh, neat! I wrote the first of these articles for 1UP.com a couple of weeks ago. I hope you all enjoyed it.

JR

BLASTER MASTER!!! What the hell is wrong with you people...didn't you guys play that game? lol

I wish the game would have received proper updates b/c the Genesis (and I think there was a PSOne version) were crap.

Hmm i spent all my time playing the following:

Skate Or Die
Mario+Duckhunt
TMNT (best game EVER)
Zelda
Topgun

Holy shit i never got that many games thank god for the revos back catalogue *drool*

Obviously, Metroid, Kid Icarus, SMB3, zelda, castlevania, contra, metal gear, ninja gaiden (damn they removed umlimited continues in NG III making it nearly Impossible!)

But dont forget these rare gems!
Shadowgate (what would you call this genre?)
Swords -n- Serpents (awesome RPG!)
Dragon Warrior (Duh!)
Ghosts -n- Goblins (this game was crazy hard!)
And one that few people mention but I think it was fantastic.......Super Mario Bros. II

@J

Mad holy mother of all mega hella props to the guy who made the guitar version of the Dragon warrior theme. That was so F(*^&ing AWESOME!

Thanks bro,

You made my day!

P.S. Can you send me tab for it?

The Legend of Zelda
any Mario game
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Bionic Commando
River City Ransom
Shadowgate
Deja Vu
Blaster Master
Gauntlet
Bubble Bobble
Mega Man II
3-D Worldrunner
Goonies II

When the revolution comes out, these games had better be available for download. I want my Castlevania II and I want it badly.

Swords -n- Serpents (awesome RPG!)

--

I think we had that.. F-ing hard !!!!!!! I couldn't play it.. wow..

Well thanks man. It was the first video game song I ever played. I have learned a couple since then including a bad ass version of wizards and warriors. The Mini Bosses did the song before I did but I play it at the video games speed and its pretty fast and hard to keep up (the intro song before you press start). I learned the 4th board music from blaster master b/c the burpin frog is the shiz. But any one can get tabs for any video song. All you need is the guitar pro software, a copy of the midis from the game, and you import it into the software and voila, instant video game tabs for any song. Not to easy some of those old school video game songs. All the space fighter games on rails always have the fastest music. I try to play the harder songs. Gradius is still pretty hard to get a hang of. You could tap it if you want. Anyhow I am glad you liked it. Thanks for the compliment.

@Mike
Swords -n- Serpents
....I think we had that.. F-ing hard !!!!!!! I couldn't play it.. wow......

Yeah, its was a mutha. Lots of people didnt notice, but there were mini blank graph papers in the back of the manual. You literally had to map out every level by hand if you wanted to stand a chance. I think there were like 15 levels in all. Incredibly painstaking. They just dont make games like that anymore. None of my nephews would ever put that kind of energy into beating a game these days. Is that sad? Or was I?

hehe

mario 1, 2 & 3
megaman 2 & 3
ducktales
castlevania
gauntlet
Mike Tyson's Punch OUT! not the edited one.
Star Tropics
that 7up tictactoe game cant remember the name...
Battletoads (could never pass those bike levels)
Contra, where's are new sequels?
Ninja Gaiden, which sucks on the xbox by the way. Could bring it upto Ninja Gaiden Status. also those anime story segments rocked!!
ADVENTURE ISLAND, which happens to be the hardest game ever (could never pass those skateboard levels)
Little Nemo which is one of my #1 memories with the Marios
Dr. Mario which I carry on my cellphone... Try making something like this for the mophun java games SONY!
Golgo 13
TMNT which I remember so much for hating it. Those didn't even looked like the turtles!!
Nintendo World Cup Soccer which used the river city ransom guys for players, How can Elctronic Arts or Konami top Tha Banana shot!!!

by the way in case you need some memory tears, try listening to what this guy did to the Super Mario World Soundtrack. Can game soundtrack gen Emmys?

http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collection=opensource_audio&collectionid=xoc_SMW

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: The Arcade Game, ahh the memories.... Also, Ninja Gaiden, 1942, Gradius, Contra, Chip and Dale, and Mario of course.

To celebrate, I imported a kick ass Gameboy Micro Famicom Version.
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=47&products_id=7466&lsaid=268343

Highly recommended for any Mario or Nintendo fan. Or just wait for the inevitable "NES Special Edition" Gameboy Micro that will probably come out next year to go with the SP's they released last year.

"Shadowgate (what would you call this genre?)"

Most people call it Macventure. That's the name of the engine that drove Shadowgate when it was released on the mac (well before the NES remake).

Contra! Double Dragon! Suer Mario Bros 1,2,3! and Bubble Bobble! and to think that next year I will be able to play these again on my new Revolution!

Faxanadu!!
Rygar!

everyone already mentioned the other good games like Goonies II, Kid Icarus, and Castlevania. someone else mentioned Baseball Stars, which is still my favorit baseball game of all time, as i'm not a big baseball fan.

i remember my first game was ghosts and goblins. seriously, that is one of the most difficult games in the world. i'm surprised i didn't give up on the NES and gaming after a week of getting nowhere. it also took me a while to get past the first few vertical levels of Kid Icarus and strangely enough, the game gets like 20x better after those.

You guys are all forgeting Batman! I lost way too much of my childhood to that game. Another game that hasn't been pointed out is zelda 2, hard like crazy, but awesome!

I feel you Soco,

Rygar was fantastic. I can't believe I forgot it. I would love an update on Revo where you punch in the air to use his "weapon". What the hell kind of weapon was that anyway?! I loved finding the green rooms with the powerups and the huge guys meditating. Great atmosphere. Oh and the swamp level where the things come flying up out of the water. Sweet.

As for ghosts and goblins, I was late for school everyday for about a month because of that game. Made it to the last level but could never get anywhere with the cross. as a weapon. Why didn't they drop a dagger on that level!?!?

And of course Kid Icarus was incredible. I hated the robber barons when they took your bow!!!!

Super Mario Bros.
Ultima: Exodus
Captain Skyhawk
Klax

Maniac Mansion

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The history of the NES: learn your roots

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