Eugene Provenzo

What a Quarter Century Means: The NES Turns 25

NES ad from The New York Times, fall 1985.

Twenty-five years ago, the Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in the United States, while Canada would see the NES four months later.

Nintendo’s little grey box is significant not only for being a catalyst for digital play for many people who still stomp Goombas today, but for resurrecting what had become a broken industry in North America following the 1983 video game market crash.

The NES would eventually sell over sixty million units worldwide, twice as many as the previous dominant hardware, the Atari 2600.

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