Happy birthday to the NES, companion to millions of Nintendo childhoods

Forty years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US – and a generation of kids were sucked into video games for lifeThe 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. I don’t have many memories from my baby years because I was too busy learning how to use my hands and eyes, but as far back as I can actually remember, “Nintendo” was a word synonymous with video games. Friends would ask if you had Nintendo (no “the”, no “a”) at your house the same way they might ask if you had Coca-Cola in the fridge. Continue reading…Technology | The GuardianRead More