The NES and the UK - What really happened?

[Rogue Trooper]

Oh yes, you are going to bloody love this!

I was just going through some old issues of C&VG from around the time of the NES launch in the UK and first of all I found this in the news section at the front of mag:



Just after this was a 2 page advert for the machine, I can put this up if you like too!

But scrolling on through the magazine I found this in the hot gossip section, an absolutely rave review of the 7800 literally begging Atari to release the machine in the UK:



Also read the bottom part that gives a nice over view of the then current console scene in the UK!

Is it the 2-Page ad where Nintendo talk of NEs 52 colours. 3D graphics feel etc?

[Rogue Trooper]

Here's something from Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) which I suspect is precisely the kind of retarded revisionist crap Nintendo would like to have us in the UK believe,

* "It's very likely that had Nintendo not created the NES, you wouldn't be playing games today."

- Comical! All those 8-bit and 16-bit home computers plus the PC must have not existed in Nintendo's view of the world then. 
First off, the crash was a North America thing which had next to no effect on Europe, much less the UK, where the gaming industry powered on regardless.
Secondly, the crash in North America only really affected the console-based games industry (plus the arcades) - the gaming scene in the USA for computers still did okay.
Thirdly, E.T. may have had far too many cartridges of it manufactured but the fact that hardly ever gets pointed out is that it was still one of the top selling Atari VCS/2600 titles regardless of its poor quality.
Finally, Atari itself never went "bankrupt" as the article would seem to imply.


*"No one bought games because there was nothing good to buy, and videogaming was about to be dismissed as a passing fad."

- Yes, that's right folks, because the console games industry went belly up in North America alone that meant that every single game you played on your 8-bit home computers from 1983 onwards was indeed rubbish 


*"the Famicom was released in the US and Europe as the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it took the world by storm."

- Wrong again. Firstly, when Nintendo first tried launching it in a test market in the USA the system (as it then was) was totally dismissed. Only later once Nintendo had got their act together did it take off. Secondly, NES did not take "the world by storm" - Japan and North America are not "the world" last time I checked. 


"by 1987 the company was at the forefront of the videogames industry, easily seeing off competitors such as Sega's Master System."

- Disingenuous once again. The Sega Master System utterly destroyed NES in places such as the UK and Brazil.


"Nowadays, videogames are not only still alive, they're stronger than ever, and have continued to go from strength to strength. But had it not been for the NES, gaming would have died out with the Cabbage Patch dolls."

- Where will this revisionist the-world-acording-to-Nintendo claptrap ever end?  :24:


Source: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co. ... tendo-nes/

Outstanding find there, you've countered the claims well, so i've nothing to add other than it's the kinda work i expect to find in a Nintendo publication.

[Rogue Trooper]

Looked through my Zzap 64 mag scans, found 2 NES related articles (Laird, you may well have them on PC, not sure if you copied them off the DVD i sent), but for a C64 focused magazine, NES fared very well:

1st piece, Arcade Machine In Your Home.....(which i think also featured in Crash?) you see Mattel claiming existing NES games only used 20% of machines capabilities, but since these are not from developers, i've no idea how much water these claims hold, but the staff members comments give an honest an favorable response to the NES.

Michael Dunn, Paul Summer, David Thompson all praised the NES graphics and animation, colourful, high res etc, all bar Paul Summer liked the sound chip,David Thompson hated the controllers (dreadful), Julian Riginall's opening comment-I'm Very, Very impressed.

Gary Penn-A worthy investment if your looking for virtually flawless arcade conversions.

General feelings seem to be they liked the hardware, but had concerns over what sort of game support it'd get and just how many original games it'd see, other than arcade conversions, plus high price of software and limited choice.


Much later piece:Are You console Ker-razy? NES features under Golden Oldies, hardware said to be 'graphically much better than the C64 on the Whole'-Main disadvantages listed were price and limited selection, in terms of software (only 40 or so games out at that time) and games lacked the depth of many C64 games, console seen as ideal for younger gamers.

[DreamcastRIP]

Sorry, I'll post again once I've regained my composure from reading Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) having stated,

It's very likely that had Nintendo not created the NES, you wouldn't be playing games today.

 :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24:

[Rogue Trooper]

Sorry, I'll post again once I've regained my composure from reading Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) having stated,

It's very likely that had Nintendo not created the NES, you wouldn't be playing games today.

 :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24: :24:

Here's my personal thoughts:

Despite Nintendo creating the NES, thankfully i'm still playing games today......

Seriousily those NES pads were so not made for my hands......

[TL]

Gary Penn - A worthy investment if your looking for virtually flawless arcade conversions.

How much crack had he smoked that day exactly? 

Did you read those scans I posted on the previous page? There is some incredibly interesting stuff there!

[DreamcastRIP]

Another story that sprung to mind:

When I used to post a lot on Atari Age we had a thread about console sales figures and the NES came up in the discussion. I started talking about how badly it did here and how the SMS kicked its arse etc. and a big argument ended up breaking out because several Americans accused me of lying! They just wouldn't have it that the NES sold badly over here. Another member then joined in to back me up and started posting magazine scans that talked about NES sales in comparison to the SMS and these same few people just dismissed them as lies. No matter what evidence we put in front of them they just wouldn't accept that NES was anything but a global success story. It really was totally unbelievable.

I suspect ROB the robot emitted hypnotic mind waves that brainwashed an entire generation of North American and Japanese gamers (plus a few dozen Brits) into believing NES was akin to the Second Coming of Christ. 

... if certain publications continue to push this myth that we brits really took to the NES, it's going to become 'established' fact and soon as anyone say's hang on guys and girls, it was'nt quite like that, it arrived too late over here, that ship had sailed and we were bombarded by new systems (Konix, STe, Lynx, PC Eng, MD, MS Sam Coupe etc) in the news each and every month, you end facing a wall of pain as pro-Nintendo fans might 'struggle' to accept that and could end up using UK publications to back up thier view of history.

That's the real issue of concern. History being rewritten. There was quite a backlash to the aforemenioned 'NES Collector's Guide' article in RG by many folk who do actually know their gaming history. I'd like to think said publication won't commit such a disastrous faux pas again in the future. It certainly never published any sort of apology in the following issue to put things right. I'd imagine much of the core readership in the UK lost a lot of respect for the magazine following that debacle and it's certainly lost a huge amount of credibility in my eyes.

[Rogue Trooper]

Gary Penn - A worthy investment if your looking for virtually flawless arcade conversions.

How much crack had he smoked that day exactly? 

Did you read those scans I posted on the previous page? There is some incredibly interesting stuff there!

Think the arcade conversions he's talking of are the golden oldie types plus those of Nintendo's play10 coin-op's.They cannot have been later coin-op's as Nes versions, no matter how playable, were cut down versions.

Been going through my mag scans on DVD tonight,well ones still here, lol, just come across something that raised an eyebrow or 2, but i'll post on that in a moment...

[Rogue Trooper]

Had a look at last few issues of TGM, looking to see how the NES had matured in terms of games released, now bearing in mind point i was trying to get across earlier that NES owners were paying a lot of money for conversions of games that had appeared on C64/Speccy etc good while before they appeared on NES, i was expecting to see a lot more original or NES exclusive games appearing at review, was'nt dissapointed in that regard, but...i was shocked by a good few games i saw reviewed:

Solomons Key 80%, going for £34-95!!!!! Reviewer said: 'Phew, this game is old-Nes version just as playable as the CPC version, reviewed 31 issues ago'.

Then there was 'Skate Or Die' (originally reviewed on C64 in issue 18, appears on NES for review in issue 32!), scores 80%, but asking price of £24-95!

But those prices looked like great VFM compared to NES only games like:

Zelda II-Adventures Of Link.Score's 65%, reviewer said 'At £40, it could, just have enough content to justify the price'.

Simons Quest scored 55%, asking price of £39-95, reviewer said 'May not have enough content to justify price'

TMHT, scored 86% cheaper at £34.95 but when i think of what i was paying for ST games which offered far more depth, those NES prices are bat shit crazy for 8 Bit games.

[Rogue Trooper]

Last lot from TGM reviews:

All these were down as £29.99 games:

Robo Warrior 47%
Wizards And warriors 70%
Track And field 2 91% (Have to say looks very impressive in still shots).
Metal Gear 70%
Life Force 88%
Double Dribble 79%
Cobra Triangle 80%
Mega Man 83%

then there were reviews of:Ikari Warriors 57% (no price listed), reviewr says 'Long, long after the home conversions, NES I.W is too little, too late, conversion has ugly graphics and is too expensive for what it offers'.

Trojan (£24.95) 48% 'Game is 1 big cliche'

Gunsmoke £24.95 'Good conversion, highly playable'

so, based on UK mag coverage so far, i would'nt say NES saved anything or convinced anyone to stay in gaming....

[Rogue Trooper]

Curious new piece in Zero magazine-It was reporting industry fears that Nintendo was looking at ways to secure exclusive rights to all the key future Coin-Op conversions, thus ensuring the only way to play home conversions would be on the NES, they'd insist the game was'nt converted to any other console or micro.

Looked at their review of Rush'n ' Attack, 80% score but said character animation was jerky and only had 2 animation frames for running, so hardly arcade perfect conversion time, lol.

UPDATE:Hmmn, would seem NES fared fine in Zero magazine, but no more coverage than say the MS.Other reviews were:

Life Force 91%, ranks among the elite of NES games, who cares it's taken so long to arrive?.

Ghosts 'N' Goblins 89%-Although G'N'G has been avaiable for a very long time in the states and indeed on other formats in this country, it's only just been released on UK Nintendo format.But why must Britian always be the last to get such goodies?

Bayou Billy 87%

The Simpsons:Bart Vs The Space Mutants 91%

Capt.Skyhawk 67% Gameplay lets things down badly..

Shadow warriors 87% (mentions States just about to get sequel, whilst UK only just gotten 1st game).

Gauntlet 2 (£39.99!) 83% It's all good playable fun....to be honest (it's) a rather old game.

Mega Man II 96% A dream of a game.

Robo warrior 61% In short, it's tired and worn.

TMHT Console Classic award,93%


So, after scanning reviews in 2, UK multi-format mags so far, NES:Great if you don't mind waiting ages and paying lot more for...conversions of arcade/C64 games and/or are a TMHT fan or like platformers like Mega Man seems the general gist.


Has to be said i've also seen another 8 Bit console praised in Zero, the Amstrad GX4000:

'The GX4000 is unquestionably more powerful than the 8-Bit Nintendo and Sega, but that's about it.At £100 all in, Amstrads console is going to sell and sell.Software houses are familar with the CPC format, so there'll be no shortage of good titles.It's got a good future methinks'.

Burning Rubber reviewed, score of 79%

Disclaimer:Anyone from the States reading the above GX4000 piece, NO, we did NOT embrace it, nor did it sell and sell or have a good future.Have to get this in here and now in case future Retro publications try and revise it's history as well.

:-)

[TL]

It's nice to see that my memory isn't failing me and the UK mags of the time didn't drool and rave over the likes of Castlevania, Mario, Zelda, Mega Man and Metal Gear. They quite rightly pointed out there were better games around on the home computers. It's not just the hardware that people are being revisionist about these days, it's the software too.

[Rogue Trooper]

It's nice to see that my memory isn't failing me and the UK mags of the time didn't drool and rave over the likes of Castlevania, Mario, Zelda, Mega Man and Metal Gear. They quite rightly pointed out there were better games around on the home computers. It's not just the hardware that people are being revisionist about these days, it's the software too.

Just updated my orig.post and future proofed it with end piece, lol

The thing that stands out in the NES reviews, for myself so far, reviewers asking time and time again just why UK was only just getting this conversion and paying more for it.

[Rogue Trooper]

It's nice to see that my memory isn't failing me and the UK mags of the time didn't drool and rave over the likes of Castlevania, Mario, Zelda, Mega Man and Metal Gear. They quite rightly pointed out there were better games around on the home computers. It's not just the hardware that people are being revisionist about these days, it's the software too.

UK mags seemingly did not rave or drool, onto my 3rd Multi-Format mag, for NES reviews, it's RAZE:

Batman 82%
TMHT 87%
Supersprint 92%
Gauntlet 70%-You've probably played this somewhere before.
Bad Dudes 83%-Dated beat-em-up fun
Double Dragon 89%
Vindicators 65%
Spy Vs Spy 60% (seriousily? they were asking £19.99 for something i 1st played on A8?)
Days Of Thunder 81%
720 64%
Gauntlet 2 74%
Bubble Bobble 74%-Just is'nt fast enough to be playable.
Duck Tales 83% (Amiga version reviewed on same page, that gets 76%)
Super Off-Road 77%-Responsiveness of trucks very poor.
Gremlins 2 82%
Dr Mario 90% (GB version reviewd same time gets 92%)


So, no, not exactly singing to the great god Nintendo for delivering the second coming of gaming, is it?.

[Rogue Trooper]

Onto what, 4th? UK Multi-Format mag now, still no sign of all-our Rave scores for NES games.Publication this time:ACE

Mach Rider 636
Pro Wrestling 794
Punch Out 792
Baseball 624
Top Gun 808
Castlevania 857
Goonies 673
Gradius 874
Life Force 740
Double Dribble 719
Track And Field II 813