NINTENDO FAMICOM

Donkey Kong (1983)

Mario Bros (1983)

Following the initial success of the machine, Nintendo tapped into their experience in the toy market and released a flurry of accessories. First came the Famicom 'Gun', a simple and straightforward plastic revolver, available alongside a dedicated Holster, and the excellent Wild Gunman. Two further gun games (Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley) rapidly followed, marking the debut of the light gun as an essential console accessory.
Less essential was the Famicom BASIC, a valiant attempt at seizing a section of the home computer market. Sold alongside a dedicated keyboard and data cassette recorder, Nintendo's BASIC was just that: very basic. But the peripheral did well nonetheless, attracting a small public of amateur coders and programmers eager to try out their skills on a easy-to-use setup.
Last but not least came the Family Computer Robot, an inventive and eye-catching gizmo that ultimately served next to no real purpose whatsoever, but did a very fine job in pretending it did. The two robot compatible games, Stack-Up and Gyromite, involved the robot opening and closing doors for the player's character to walk through. Nothing special really, but full marks all around in the novelty stakes.
Without a doubt, the main pull of the Famicom remained its software: right from the outset, Nintendo had set out to produce and release only high-class games, thus avoiding the problems that plagued the previous industry leader, Atari.

Nintendo had set up a strict system of regimenting all software output via an in-house 'quality control' test. All third party developers had to submit their games for Nintendo to approve, before then having permission for anything to be released. Nintendo also took a hefty slice of the manufacturing costs and maximizing profits on the cartridges, thus affording to sell their hardware at a low cost. A very viable plan indeed... and who's to know if it would have worked or not, had the games not been, er, so unbelievably good.
Super Mario Bros. (1985) was the final turning point for the Famicom: Nintendo's extraordinary action game went on to sell millions of copies worldwide, establishing the console as the must-have item of the 80s. Sales of the machine went stellar all around the world (where it was marketed as the Nintendo 'NES') and the hugely increased user base attracted even further developers, all eager to publish for the format - and pay Nintendo's fees.
In Japan the machine would get one last accessory: the Disk System (above left) was designed as major a cost-cutting storage device that would not only offer cheaper games to the consumer, but also bypass retail costs: as well as selling Disk games, Nintendo went on to place dedicated 'Disk Writer' machines in hundreds of shopping centres and convenience stores all around Japan, allowing users to choose and pay for a title on the spot.
The format started off well, but suffered from minor hardware faults, and eventually rampant piracy from mainland Asia: bootleg disks became rife, and Nintendo eventually discontinued support of the format in 1991.