Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

Nintendo launches its entertainment gaming system with seventeen games in the United States. Players can choose from Duck Hunt to Gyromite, and the system is compatible with a handheld Zapper light gun and a Robot to play select games. Nintendo’s first run in the U.S. lacks Super Mario Brothers and the company did not sell as many consoles as it would have liked, but the Japanese company’s introduction to the American market introduces the world for the first time to a viable successor to Atari. Nintendo:

Introduced in 1985, the NES was an instant hit. Over the course of the next two years, it almost single-handedly revitalized the video game industry. Selling over 60 million units, people brought games like Mario and Zelda into their homes for the first time on the NES.