I was a North American kid who grew up without an NES, and for this reason, I have a different perspective on retro video games.
The common narrative in retro gaming circles is that the NES was everywhere—that it was totally dominant, and if you didn’t own one, you missed out. But when you look at the sales numbers, the story changes.
In North America, 30 million NES units were sold between 1985 and 1995. At the time, this was the most a video game console had ever sold—no question, it was huge. But compared to later systems like the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, or even the Nintendo Wii, it’s not that much. In fact, if you combine Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo sales, the NES didn’t outsell them.
So what did everyone else play? Because I guarantee that just because you didn’t own an NES didn’t mean you weren’t playing video games at home. I’m just going to talk about what I played, because I don’t think I was unique in this regard.
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My first video game console, the one I got when I was three years old, was an Atari 2600. I got it in 1984, and it was my only console for a few years. By no means was it as good as an NES in terms of graphics or sound—I mean, come on, the 2600 hardware came out in 1977, and even then, it was underpowered. But it had a lot of great games that kept me busy: Asteroids, Missile Command, Pac-Man (even though it wasn’t as good as the arcade version), Frostbite, Frogger—you name it.
It was easy to enjoy these games at the time because arcades were still huge in the ‘80s, and the Atari 2600 had a great selection of arcade ports. I remember wanting an NES because it was clearly better than the 2600, but my parents said they couldn’t afford one. And that was that.
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Sometime in the late ‘80s, though, my mom got me a Commodore 64. The funny thing is, she didn’t see it as a gaming machine—she thought it would help me with schoolwork, that I’d be using it for highly educational purposes. Little did she know.
Someone we knew found out I had a Commodore 64 and gave us a huge stack of floppy disks. My mom was thrilled, thinking it would help with my studies. What she didn’t realize was that those floppies were packed with pirated games. I had no idea at first—I’d just put in a random floppy, load it up, and see what was on it. Most of them weren’t labeled well, so it was always a surprise.
One day, I loaded up a floppy and saw “OutRun.” I was blown away. I remember thinking, “Okay, this thing is going to keep me busy for a long time.” And it did. I played Ultima, Lode Runner, Donkey Kong (which, believe it or not, was officially released on the Commodore 64), Ghosts ‘n Goblins—you name it. The amount of time I spent on that machine was insane.
What a lot of people don’t realize about the Commodore 64 is that many NES games were also released on it—Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, and while Super Mario Bros. wasn’t there, The Great Giana Sisters was. That game was basically Super Mario Bros., and I actually grew to like it more. The music, composed by Chris Hülsbeck, was amazing. I remember stumbling across a symphony orchestra playing the theme music on YouTube one day, which just confirmed that other people appreciated it as much as I did.
But the game that truly made me feel like I had something legendary on my hands? Turrican. Man, Turrican was magical. I have never had an experience quite like it. How people feel about Contra—that’s how I feel about Turrican.
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In the early ‘90s, I got a 286 PC, which introduced me to the world of shareware. I wanted the big games everyone was talking about, like Wing Commander, but my machine couldn’t handle it. Instead, I played stuff like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem, mostly games from Apogee and id Software. In some ways, it felt like a downgrade from my Commodore 64, so I still played on that, but my mom was pretty intent on us “keeping up with the times.”
Still, PC gaming had its advantages. Games were cheap—you could literally walk into a dollar store, pick up a shareware title for a buck, and go to town. I had so many variations of Tetris on my 286, it was ridiculous. A little later, we upgraded to a 386, and I finally got to experience Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. By then, the NES era was ending, and at that point, I felt like I didn’t need a console—PC gaming had everything I wanted. And 30 years later, I’m still playing Wolfenstein and Doom.
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Eventually, my mom did try to get me an NES. It was Christmas 1991, and I was overjoyed when I unwrapped my gift—finally, I had something to replace my old Atari 2600. But the NES was broken. My mom felt bad and told me, “We’ll return this, and you can pick out whatever console you want.”
This was 1991. The options were NES, Super NES, or Sega Genesis. I looked at the Genesis box and saw Sonic the Hedgehog, and to me, the choice was clear—I needed Sonic. By then, I was 10 years old, and Mario felt like it was for babies. Sonic had attitude, and being a kid in the early ‘90s, I obviously wanted the character with attitude.
I loved my Sega Genesis—it was like rock and roll to me. It did what my Commodore 64 and 286 couldn’t: display lots of colors, lots of sprites, with parallax scrolling to boot. I had so many games: Earthworm Jim, NHL ‘94, Sonic Spinball, and eventually Street Fighter II: Championship Edition. At that point, I didn’t want an NES—most people didn’t in 1991.
I became a full-blown Sega fan. Around this time, I found a Sega Master System in a pawn shop for $35. It wasn’t sold in stores anymore, but I grabbed it, and luckily, my local video store still rented and sold Master System games cheap. I got Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Space Harrier—hell, I even rented Sonic the Hedgehog for it.
It’s funny—when people think “8-bit console,” they immediately think NES, but my mind goes to Sega. And in places like Brazil, Australia, and Europe, plenty of people had similar experiences. But in North America, I was the only person I knew with a Master System. Still, it had an incredible library—Phantasy Star is one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
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I did own one Nintendo system—a Game Boy, which I got near launch in 1989. So it’s not like I was completely without Nintendo hardware, but it was handheld, not a home console. I played Super Mario Land, Tetris (obviously), Super Mario Land 2, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was about it, until I lost it. My mom was furious, but I had it for two years and played those games to death.
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And finally, there were the Tiger Electronics handhelds. People don’t really talk about them now, but they were a big deal. While an NES game might cost $60, a Tiger handheld was $20-$30, and they were everywhere. They weren’t great, but they amused me, and kids would trade them at school.
So, while I missed out on the “NES experience,” I never felt deprived. Between the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Sega consoles, PC gaming, and handhelds, I had plenty to play. And honestly? I wouldn’t trade my gaming history for anything.
I never had an nes either. To be fair to the nes, my first console was the wii, which I was living with my husband at the time and bought it with him. So no childhood consoles at all except a single Gameboy color cause I could save the 90 for that. I couldn’t save enough for a console (or was told No consoles, it’s been awhile)
I had an Atari 800XL as my first PC with 2 5.25’’ floppy drives and a cartridge slot for which I had only 2 games: Pengo and Galaxian. On the floppy drive I was able to play a ton of games including Ultima 4, which really got me into fantasy RPGs.
Never had a console growing up. Played Atari at a friend’s place, but most of us had C64 as our main, and we pirated the shit out of everything we could get our hands on. By the time NES was everywhere, the most fun stuff for me was in BBS door games. Trade Wars 2002, Modern Warfare (yes this is what I think of when I hear the full name, though MW is always Mechwarrior to me lol), Pimp Wars, and Max Headroom were some of the popular ones in my neck of the woods.
Someone on Lemmy is hosting a Trade Wars 2002 BBS, I think I’ve got the post saved if you’re interested.
Everyone that says the NES was dominant only say that because they came of gaming age after Atari gloriously footgunned themselves, leaving the field open for Japanese companies since the prominent American one basically killed itself. They’re basically two different eras of gaming (80’s vs 90’s), though the lines are more blurred than defined.
You and I are both alike! Atari 2600 was the bee’s knees. The wood finish is such a classic now, too. Super classy. It didn’t matter what I had; it was fun and I had no other games consoles to compare it to.
@atomicpoet @retrogaming By far the format that the largest percentage of North American folks would have been exposed to was arcade games. No contest. Videogame consoles and home computers were relatively pricey items, but everyone ran across arcade games here and there.
After that, Sears had display units of their branded Atari VCS running Air Sea Battle.
After that, school computers, which explains exposure to Apple ][ and TRS-80 games despite relatively low sales compared to C64 etc.
@atomicpoet @retrogaming After that, Radio Shack, as a lot of them would have a game running on their display computer (for example, the PC compatible Tandy 1000 might be showing King’s Quest, or later Prince of Persia).
Between arcades, Sears, school computers, and Radio Shack, there were a lot of chances to be exposed to video games without convincing your parents to spend a lot of money on a “Nintendo” or home computer.
For context: I was very young around the NES & SNES era, but a lot of kids back then went to play at other kids’ houses. Not every household had one, but one of my friends would and I’d want to go play at their house because they had one. In this way, 30 million NES’ could reach far more million people (kids), leading to modern nostalgia.
Personally, my grandpa had a NES and I ALWAYS wanted to go to his house to play Duck Hunt.
Yeah, we never had an NES, but several friends did and I always loved playing on their systems (especially Duck Hunt)
It’s interesting just how much Nintendo bias there is in retro circles these days.
People will swear the N64 invented 3D graphics and analogue controls.
You might find it interesting to know that the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and Nintendo Entertainment System (aka Famicom) all used variants of the MOS Technology 6502 CPU. (The bottom of the Computers and games section on that page pictures more devices that used it.)
I expect this is part of why so many games were ported between those systems, even at a time when most games were written in (non-portable) assembly code. These machines all support the same CPU instructions.
The NES was extremely dominant among the gamer population with home consoles at the time, which was pretty small. Some gamers may have already owned an Atari, or ColecoVision, or MagnaVox, or other console and did not feel the need to buy an NES. However, the NES was so popular that people rushing to buy it for their children were disappointed that it was sold out. You never read or heard about this phenomenon happening with any other video game console at the time, because it did not happen at the same scale as the NES.
Of course the NES did not sell as well as the PS2 or Wii, because by the time those consoles released, the general population of gamers had greatly increased, naturally more people would buy those consoles. The same goes for the Switch outselling the Wii and WiiU, the general population of gamers has increased. It would not be entirely surprising to see the Switch 2 outsell the Switch for this very same reason, assuming the global economy improves enough to encourage luxury spending on the same level of when the Switch released.
Personally, my gaming began with a Super Nintendo. I never had SEGA or Sony consoles growing up. Nintendo up until the Xbox came out, then I had Nintendo and Xbox. And PC. Then the Switch released and it collected dust for so much time I decided to sell it and just keep my PC and Xbox.
I don’t feel like I missed out growing up, but I do enjoy being able to play games on those platforms I did not play. Some of them were good, but I find a lot of them are subpar compared to what Nintendo and Xbox had.
Great Giana Sisters was sweet, it was my first Mario too
Same here. I have never owned and NES. We went Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Sega Master System, Amiga, Sega Genesis, Saturn, PC, Dreamcast, GameCube and Playstation 2. (I wasn’t a kid by the last few of course). I’ve played some Nintendo console games in emulation but have never owned one aside from the GameCube. And agreed, Phantasy Star is awesome.
Some of us played both Atari and computer games. Most of the retro games I still play are DOS games and there was quite a following. My very first game console was the PS2 (technically the Atari 2600 belonged to my dad). My first Nintendo system was the Switch. I’ve played the NES, SNES, PS1, game cube, and Sega consoles but usually at a friend or relatives house, so none of those games were ones I got particularly invested in or otherwise attached to. We also had arcades back then and I spent a lot of time there as a small child with my older brothers. We went to computer shows, and there were demos and shareware and freeware games all over the place.
Just because some systems had the advantage of being widespread doesn’t mean they were the only way to play.
I remember my sister had a master system over the nes, so i got to use that a lot. I actually loved it more
I’m the same in that I was in elementary school when the NES was “the thing to have”… but I don’t think we could afford it at the time.
When I asked my parents for an NES for my seventh birthday in 1989, I got a 2600 and 40-ish games instead. Years later my mom told me she bought the whole thing at a yard sale for about $40.
It wasn’t the latest and greatest… but I didn’t care. I loved it. I had a great time exploring the cartridges, most of them had manuals to go with them, and playing with my dad.
An uncle would later give us an old 386 PC and I played DOS games on it.
I did get a SNES around 1992, so I did have my fair share of Nintendo as a kid. But I certainly didn’t start there and knew that there was more to video games than Nintendo.
I was still playing my 2600 and SNES when I graduated from high school, along with playing CRPGs on the family computer too.
