An Ad for the Famicom AV in Japan.
The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, was the first console made by Nintendo. The NES first started because of the plummet of arcade games in 1984 which damaged many game manufacturers, such as Nintendo. The Famicom (FAMIly COMputer) first came out in Japan in 1984 selling over 2.5 million systems. With the sensation in Japan, Nintendo decided to make it available in the United States. They first tried negotiating with Atari to have them release it but Atari rejected the Famicom, so Nintendo determined they would release it themselves in 1985.
Nintendo tried there best to get the System to retailers but it was difficult because the video game market was so feeble, with Atari games in the Bargain Bin and the Intellivision selling for dirt cheap at yard sales. So what Nintendo decided to do was change the name to the Nintendo Entertainment System and designed it to make it fit in with other home appliances such as a VCR. The system was finally released to all retailers in February, 1986.
One of the first games to come out for the NES.
They first released the system so that it had a few games with it already such as Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers. The NES became a huge hit, out selling all other competing systems by a long run. Nintendo promised that they would sell a Disk Drive add-on but they never sold it in the States. It did come out in Japan but it went by unnoticed.
The NES had immense popularity and Nintendo controlled much of the market until the demand for the system dwindled and the popularity of their new system, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, grew. Finally, the NES was discontinued in 1995. The NES had sold over 62 million systems and 500 million games.