DCEmu Asks - Nintendo NES / Famicom a History & Whats the greatest NES Game Ever ?

[wraggster]

Hi all this is a network wide feature of sorts ill be doing for just about every console thats emulated and that we own, in time it can be used as a reference point for people to look at what games are the very best on each system

Firstly heres a look at each system and a description to remind you of the history of the console.


http://www.dcemu.co.uk/dcemunes.JPG


Talk about a success story. Nintendo's jump into the console market was a gamble which turned a simple toy company into one of the biggest videogame console manufacturers in the biz.

Nintendo began it's gaming history producing arcade hits like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, and selling the licensing rights to those games for home console use (See Colecovision). Eventually Nintendo decided to take a crack at the home console industry.

The Nintendo Famicom (FAMIly COMputer) videogame system was released in Japan in 1984. The console's great specs, and ports on Nintendo's popular arcade titles, quickly made it a popular favorite in Japan. The Famicom sold 2.5 million systems in that same year. With success achieved in Japan, Nintendo set it's eyes on the American gaming market. They began negotiations with the American videogame console industry leader Atari to bring the Famicom to the U.S.

The "Great Videogame Crash of 1984", and some poor business announcements forced Atari to pull out of the agreement. After the negotiations with Atari to sell the Famicom fell through, Nintendo decided to release the system on their own regardless of the weak videogame market or the recent crash occurring in the States. Nintendo take a chance? You bet, but they were not going to gamble without doing their homework.

They called the US. version of the Famicom the 'Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)', and designed it to look less like a videogame console and more like something that would fit in with other home entertainment appliances. Nintendo took steps to make the system seem like a computer or a VCR. Nintendo even agreed to buy back all unsold inventory in order to get retailers to take a chance on them.

The NES also used 72 pin cartridges (The Famicom used 60 pin). Four of the additional pins were used for Nintendo's patented lockout chip. This initially prevented software developers from producing unlicensed games for the NES. Nintendo used the lockout chip and restrictions on 3rd party software developers to prevent the over saturation of bad games that contributed to the "Videogame Crash".

The system was originally targeted for release in spring of 1985, but the release date was pushed back. After test-marketing in the New York City area in late fall, the system was released nationwide in February of 1986.

The Nintendo NES was an amazing success, and revived the videogame console market in the United States. Nintendo ushered in the 3rd Generation of console gaming.

Nintendo would later debut the NES successor, but would still try to cash in on the remainder of the NES's success. In 1993, Nintendo released a top loading NES model 2. This newer model was scaled down to nearly half the size of the original. The case was a sleeker design (Like a smoother Famicom). The cartridge port was more stable, and used eject & power buttons similar to it's successor the SuperNES. Even the controller had the "bone-like" shape of the SuperNES. This new model sold for $45. The cheaper price came at the loss of the original model's interface and A/V output ports. Nintendo dropped support for this new model a year later. Today, it's a collectors item.

The NES had sold over 62 million systems and over 500 million games, making it the most popular videogame system of it's time.

FACT: Nintendo's success introduced some of the most interesting accessories and conversions. Who could forget the "Power Glove", and "Rob the Robot". Nintendo slapped "NES-like" hardware into an Arcade cabinet and released Nintendo Playchoice to arcades everywhere. In Japan they released a disk drive accessory that allowed gamers to download games from vending machines onto a disk.

Thanks again to Dark Watcher for his info above.

Now heres our question to you - Whats the greatest NES Game Ever ?

[wraggster]

to answer myself the Nes was a fantastic system, my faves included Mario 1, 2 and especially Mario 3, Tecmo World Wrestling was awesome. Nes Open Golf is simply the worlds best Golf game ever. Punch out was a good game also and i cant forget Zelda 1, the RPG that set millions of fans loving the RPG genre

[ReoEagle]

Mario 2, 3 and Captain Skyhawk.
Don't **** with the HAWKMAN EVER. =|
Also Maniac Mansion port was the best of them all

[Eyedunno]

Super Dodge Ball + all three Super Mario games.

[NightRaven]

I would say the best is awfully close between these 3 - Mario games, Zelda games, and Donkey Kong games. They even have spinoffs that are still around.

[matt2k]

Mega Man 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Blaster Master
Ninja Gaiden 2
Bionic Commando

too many to name, so many great games.

[NightRaven]

Yeah so many great games! I completely forgot about Mega Man another great game with many spinoffs.

Edit: LOL Powerglove and Rob the robot >_<. I had both powerglove was interesting, but Rob didnt make it after I got squashed for the 100th time by a pole it should have raised :p

[steve520]

of course all 3 mario's easily and probably galaga i played that like crazy i did play a little donkeykong though ahhh nintendo days.....

[ZeakStarwind]

There's too many freakin favorites and bests for this system...so I'll just go with what I believe was great for it.

RockMan Series (MegaMan)
Duck Tales
Metroid
Zelda
Final Fantasy
Snake Rattle n Roll

There's too many so I'll go with these.

[walliester]

i think that, this were the best games

1.super mario bros
2.contra
3.the legend of zelda
4.exitebike
5.kid-icarus
6.rygar
7.mike tysons punch-out
8.tecmo bowl
9.ninja gaiden
10.blaster master

[walliester]

i for got one of my favorites metroid...

[Kramer]

California Games was the best:thumbup:

[jamotto]

Skyshark
Spy Hunter
Tecmo Super Bowl
Uchuu Keibitai SDF
Ice Hockey
Monopoly
Heavy Barrel
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
Batman
Bill Elliott's Nascar Challenge
Air Fortress
RC Pro-Am 2
Section Z
Super Mario Bros.
tmnt 1-3

[Joe88]

mario 3 probably

[Safari Al]

mario bros 1,2,3

zelda

[Aryn]

The Guardian Legend, Captain Skyhawk, Super Mario 3, Bionic Commando, Shadow Of The Ninja...There are too many for me to name.

[PSP150]

I remember the "Now You're playing with Power" commercials on TV in 1985 or 1986. I got my NES as a gift from my grandmother in 1989, she had got us an Atari around 1980 and it broke several years later and we hardly played it after our father passed Mar. 8, 1986. Me and my younger brother played Pac-Man and other games on it. I was born 1/14/74 and my brother 6/17/78. Then, I got a Sega Genesis, CD, Super Nintendo as a gift Dec. 1991, Sega Saturn in spring 1995, Sony PS, N64, Dreamcast, Xbox original, TurboDuo, Nintendo GB Advance, Nintendo DS, PS2 and PSP. I owned almost every system released in the US since 1980 except Intellivision, Atari ST, etc.

[BelmontSlayer]

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Mega Man II
Gauntlet
Zelda II: Link's Awakening

I like most NES sequels better than the originals for some reason...

[mike_jmg]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
Mario Bros 3

My brother thinks is one called China Dragon, or that was the translation I got (cause I had the jap version), but I found out it was called "Jackie Chan Adventures" or something like that, although Jackie Chan had nothing to do with it, it's pretty cool, you should look for it

[garion]

best... such an empty word in situations like these. opinions are like... well... anyway... it's gotta be SMB3. no other game has such replay value. MTPO comes close tho.

[Duobix]

Rad Racer. It's RAD RACER! It's not cool they didn't made ever a sequel.

[MrPeanut]

River City Motherf**kin' Ransom!!!

Even crash and the boys street challenge was fun. River city ransom is the game that stands out the most to me. But like everyone else says, there are way too many to name.

A couple of the oddball ones... wrecking crew, where you could build your own levels. I remember challenging my dad on hogan's alley and other lightgun games.

It was all good.... wait I have to edit this now that I remember how much time I spent on tetris and Dr mario... and Q-bert.
The one thing about the NES that I really hold dear is the music... yeah I may be a nerd, so?

[kojiro7]

Super Mario Bros for sure.It was every kid's dream

[Silas]

1st- Super Mario Bros. 3
2nd-Super Mario Bros.
3trd-Legend of Zelda
4th- Mega Man 6
5th- Quattro Arcade (codemasters)
6th- Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy

[702egold]

no one even mentioned punch out

[aTomIC]

ah, memories (again) :) Wraggster, you made my day

My fav. was/are Super Mario Bros. serie, Kirbys Adventure, Bubble Bobble, Zelda 1 and Bucky o Hare...

[Pavlik]

Little Nemo Dream Master from Capcom

[booradley1212]

Ice Hockey
Mike Tyson's Punchout!
Super Mario Bros 2
Maniac Mansion <- of course it was better on the PC but at my age at the time, having MM on a console was a dream come true!
Metroid
RC Pro Am
Dragon Warrior
Tetris <- there's 1000 different versions at this point but nobody can touch the perfection of the NES version!

[gutbub]

Super Mario Bros 3, best Mario ever.

Mega Man 2, best Mega Man ever, although the 64 version was sweet too.

And, I just forgot what I was gonna put for #3, but who cares, with those two, why even bother playing another?

[matprogramix]

For me are best :
Super Mario 1 & 3. Super platform games.
the Legend of Zelda : perfect adventure and great world for discovering
and Final Fantasy : basicaly first of RGPs of this style

and if i should chose one, it will be Super Mario 1 & 3

[bosanova_x]

Megaman 2, Super mario 3, Castlevania 3, Punch out.

Thats just to name a few

[WhizzBang]

I never owned a NES and so have only tried it through emulation long after it's day had come and gone. Because of this, I have never warmed to it or found many decent games for it. They may have seemed great at the time but I do not think they have stood the test of time as well as the Master System, Mega Drive or SNES's best games. The NES Zelda games are terrible, while the sequels that came after are all still very playable.

The only games that I do like on the NES are Super Mario Bros 1 and Elite.

[ekolimits]

here are my favs:
hogan's alley
all super marios
punchout
Basewars (this one is GREAT!)
Ducktales one
the ninja gidens

Man this system rocked HARD!!!

[Gold Line]

Super Mario 1, 2 & 3
Contra
Super Contra
Megaman 1, 2 & 3
Zelda 1

Theres just too many great nes games it would take all day to name them all


I never owned a NES and so have only tried it through emulation long after it's day had come and gone. Because of this, I have never warmed to it or found many decent games for it. They may have seemed great at the time but I do not think they have stood the test of time as well as the Master System, Mega Drive or SNES's best games. The NES Zelda games are terrible, while the sequels that came after are all still very playable.

The only games that I do like on the NES are Super Mario Bros 1 and Elite.

You fail.
Everyone knows that the nes is one of the best systems of all time it kicks the crap out of the ps3, wii and 360 thats for sure.

[Cerepol]

Super Mario Bros. 3
Contra
LoZ
Punch Out
Ninja Gaiden
there's so many mmore im forgetting...

[JKKDARK]

Final Fantasy

[Necro-M]

1. Megaman 2
2. Super Mario 3
3. Legend of Zelda
4. Castlevania 3
5. Contra
6. Tetris
7. Super Mario 2
8. Super Mario 1
9. Kirby
10. Zelda 2

[lightningquickguy14]

The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3, Final Fantasy, Contra, and definitely Punch-Out.

Good times.

[rabidchild]

Really? No one loved Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) 3 and 4? Final Fantasy so often gets the focus for RPGs of that time period. But the Dragon Warrior games were amazing and HUGE.

[danonano420]

Kung Fu, i cant believe noone mentioned this one.

[ataribob]

Super Mario 3
Final Fantasy 1
Dragon Warrior 4

[robman84]

I have to add my thoughts for

* SMB3
* Castellian (although not the best port of Nebulus)
* MTPO
* Excite bike
* Bomberman 2
* Ghosts and Goblins
* RC Pro-AM

Overall has to be SMB3 for me. Didn't get into Zelda until the Gameboy version.

[armyStrong]

I've got to go with SMB3 and Link's Adventure...I gave up a significant portion of my childhood to these games...

[myuusmeow]

Mike Tyson's Punch-out!!
Super Mario Bros. 3
Contra

[idapimp]

1. castlevania 3
2. mario 3
3. megaman 3
4. super contra
5. contra
6. castlevania (the original was difficult, and that made it awesome)
7. bionic commando
8. megaman 2
9. LoZ
10.pinbot

there are others that i loved, such as rescue rangers, mario 1, wrecking crew, and kirby. but those are the top 10. and yes i like megaman 3 more than 2.

[Vega]

Mario Bros 3

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (still as challenging today as it ever was)

Ninja Gaiden

[Poem58]

Rad Racer. It's RAD RACER! It's not cool they didn't made ever a sequel.

Funny, Rad Racer II was one of the few games we actually owned...we occasionally got to rent games from a store up the road.
We had Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt, Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, and Rad Racer II.

I'd have to go with the Mario's being the best. But then a gain I never played the original Zelda...and don't remember the others...I still liked my Atari at that point so after Mario, I'd go back to that.

[`The0n3]

Metroid
Zombie Hunter (J)
Final Fantasy 2 (J)
Ghost & Goblins
Super Mario Bros 3
Contra
Spy Hunter
The Legend of Zelda
Castlevania

MC Kids .......NOT! :rofl:

But Really MC Kids wasnt as bad as you would think, since it came out of a kids meal:thumbup:

[jp1]

I had to register just for this thread. I cannot believe these two have not been mentioned.

Shadowgate
Crystalis

Other than those...I loved

Final Fantasy
River City Ransom
Silver Surfer...even though it was super hard.

[lightningquickguy14]

I had to register just for this thread. I cannot believe these two have not been mentioned.

Shadowgate
Crystalis

Other than those...I loved

Final Fantasy
River City Ransom
Silver Surfer...even though it was super hard.

Oooh, crap, Crystalis was on NES. I only had it on Game Boy Color, but it sure was an awesome game, yo.

[cse1320]

You guys forgot:

battletoads
double dragon series
gradius
life force
abadox
kid icarus
tecmo bowl

[VampDude]

Faxanadu + Megaman 2

[Eviltaco64]

Somari xD

[Smurph]

Battletoads
River City Ransom

Also, Somari is a romhack that was created long after the console's life ended.

[Eviltaco64]

Also, Somari is a romhack that was created long after the console's life ended.

Yes, I am aware of that. I think it was from China or Hong Kong, not sure. But it was definitely a joke.

Id say Mario 3, Megaman 2, Little Nemo Dream Master, or Tetris.

[alanparker05]

it's either super mario 1 or 3, i play 1 most but enjoy 3 more, i think playing 1 is more of an obsessive perfectionist thing just wanting to improve my time and score every time

[gumgod]

Final Fantasy
Metroid
Zelda
Zelda II

In that order

There were many others that were great, but those stand out in my memory as the one's I played the most.

[ahmedwali]

Super MArio is good specially in 3D love to play over NES :o

[technoshock11]

If I had to choose one, I'd go for Tetris, but the Tengen version. I sometimes consider this version of Tetris as my favourite video game of all time.

Also I love : Adventure Island, Balloon Fight, Super Mario Bros., Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxy 5000, Dr. Mario, Snake Rattle & Roll, Pin Bot, Rad Racer, Gauntlet 1 & 2, Adventures of Lolo, Galaga, Mach Rider, and a lot more.

The NES is my second favourite system, after the Amiga. ;)

[freestile]

Such a good system. I'd have to say these are my favs and in no particular order really.

Metorid
Ninja Gaiden 1
Mario Bros 3
Double Dragon 2 and 3.
Pinbot
Super Dodgeball
Jackie Chans Adventure
Blaster Master
Tecmo Bowl
Battle Toads
River City Ransom
Kid Nikki

Etc etc. Too Many Classics.

[psyfirefly]

My favourite game on this system was SMB3. I also really liked Zelda 2, that was a real challenge.

[JGreen7]

Zelda Zelda Zelda. How can it not be??