The NES and the UK - What really happened?

[Rogue Trooper]

To be clear here (as i know i rant a lot on the Nes and UK press coverage angle).

All i'm asking is that any time the Nes is looked at by UK publication it gets fair, unbiased coverage.Yes i know UK does'nt equal all of Europe, but that's no excuse-if anything all that proves is that so far no-one has had the good sense to write an article offering a new slant on a now very over exposed format, a piece on just why it fared so poorly in UK compared to elsewhere i would of thought would have made for the ideal article-but guess here it's not the sort of thing Nintendo UK would be keen to see in print?

Short of staff writers/people submitting the right articles? sorry, don't buy into that,whilst numerous times i've seen RG magazine editor turn to (various) forums for 'help' with an article be it Nintendo, Atari or whoever based, i've also seen people offering to help: case in point here old Atari Age thread had an offer of help from ThomH to RG, saying he had 3 years exp.as a writer and editor, was a Lynx homebrew coder had done a Mode 7  demo etc etc, seemed the ideal person to do a Lynx feature and yet the editor never even posted back (and later admitted on his forum he honestly was'nt sure what Mode 7 was !), which i found quite sad.

It's basically as easy as eating Pancakes:UK publications:If you insist on printing the same, rose tinted specs, alt history of the Nes and UK, with absurd statements from the writer and industry folk like 'me again' Ste Pickford (seriousily, sure he's a great guy, but F-me am i sick to death of seeing him interviewed, find some new people to interview!!!!), then it's no good moaning or making up claims about people, when we, the paying customer, kick off...


As long as you continue to put out unfactual, fanboy driven pieces (and i don't give a tinkers damn in what manner they are 'presented'), 'we' will continue to post factual corrections backed up with far more research than went into your articles.Ball in soundly in your courts.We are'nt paying for fanzines here, not trolling, not getting personal, just sick of what we are seeing.

Bottom line is:in todays information driven society, mere posters like ourselves should'nt be the ones putting out the facts, correcting glaring errors etc.

If your writing for a publication just because there's no-one else to do it, then ditch the article or feature until you can find the right person, if your just looking for your name in print, try any of the UK talent show crap that's served up on tv these days or Big Brother or anything else but writing for a professional publication.Gamestm used to have superb Retro section and decent mainstream articles, it decided copying Edge was way forward, quality went south.RG i used to love reading (errors and all), now copies sit unread for months more often than not, Edge, yeah reviews up own arse but it's Retro features (Makinfg Of's.....) 2nd to none, yet now stopped.

Give us honesty, fresh slants, new interviews, don't just reheat the same old and have your publisher crow about having world class features (which you won't find anywhere else) as the punters, yes we few, will see straight through it and moan like feck as we're paying for it.

[Rogue Trooper]

Back on topic:

If you took any C64/Speccy/CPC magazine from say 'Winter 1988' you'd see reviews, previews,tips/cheats, adverts etc for the following coin-op conversions:

Buggy Boy, R-Type, Afterburner, Operation Wolf, Roadblasters, Salamander, Thunderblade, Road Runner, Combat School, Gryzor, Bionic Commando, Pac Land, Return Of The Jedi, Tiger Road etc and then there were the clones/inspired by type games (Katakis, Slayer etc copying R-Type, 1st to point where it was withdrawn and re-coded after legal issues, Great Giana Sisters-withdrawn as blatant SMB clone, Overlander-elite's Roadblasters clone again hit by legal battle).These are just the arcade conversions let alone the original games coming out.All could be had for under £10 on tape

Then if you wanted to spend a bit more, compilations with 6 or lot more games on were everywhere and looking at arcade games alone, you'd find Express Raider, Gauntlet, Kung-Fu master, Rygar, Solomons Key, Commando, Ghost's 'N' Goblins, Bomb Jack, 1942 etc etc and compilations started at just under £10, went up to £25, but who was going to pay the price of a single Nes cart for a graphically tarted up, if lucky, 8 Bit version when they finally turned up?.

It just was'nt going to happen.People like myself had picked up the arcade conversions we wanted, played'em to death and moved on.In good few cases we'd still load'em up just for the Rob Hubbard (Commando) or Tim Follin (Bionic Commando) music on C64, but they were pretty much done and dusted.we could'nt believe Nintendo were passing off titles like these as 'new' and exciting releases.

this is why i continue to struggle to read in any publication that the UK was just sat here waiting for Nes to arrive and with it the arcade conversions etc.we already had them and more!.

[DreamcastRIP]

To be clear here (as i know i rant a lot on the Nes and UK press coverage angle).

On the occasion that such abysmal articles are published on websites and in print publications then they deserve to be flagged up. I don't see it as ranting at all because if such media sources knew their arse from their elbow then there'd be no need for this thread.

Bottom line is:in todays information driven society, mere posters like ourselves should'nt be the ones putting out the facts, correcting glaring errors etc.

Ain't that the truth! I'm no NES 'expert', I'm just a longtime gamer who remembers history as it happened and so I consequently take exception when I see what smacks of a pro-Nintendo revisionist agenda appearing in the videogaming media of today. It has nothing to do with me being 'anti-Nintendo' (an accusation commonly leveled by the hard of thinking) because I'd feel exactly the same way if it were the likes of Atari or Sega instead.

It really does come to something when I as nothing more than a longtime gamer, i.e. not someone who's a games industry veteran, only have to glance through the likes of the many NES articles referenced in this long running thread and can immediately upon first reading pick out so many factual errors, instances of fanboy bias and distortions of historical events. I'm no 'expert authority' but why is it that I so often have a better grasp of gaming history, often without the need to consult verifiable sources to check out facts, than the people who are employed to write the articles highlighted in this thread?

It staggers me that large, well established websites and magazine publishers pay these people for such poor quality work. That such dire articles keep on being published by websites and print publications leads me to deduce that the editorial processes and procedures in place at such organisations must be severely lacking in rigour or that those in charge don't know their arse from their elbow either. It's a sorry state of affairs whatever the explanation.

A good number of people I speak to also see it as a running joke in how certain sections of the gaming media seek to present history in a way it simply never happened. When it can be determined that the mouthpieces who are guilty of peddling such myths also, by happy coincidence,  happen to be on the receiving end of advertising income paid for by the very same corporations that they're seeking to present so very favourably then it's only natural for one to be suspicious of just what kind of agenda is being served.

[Rogue Trooper]

If the recent Nes articles (and i started this thread at start of May this year, yet still they keep coming in at a rate of knots....), then i fully expect to see future articles in publications 'adjusted' to suit....


So, any GBA article will totally gloss over the lack of backlit screen on the original model (which i own), no headphone socket on the SP etc....


The PS3 articles should be a bloody steal:totally ignore any quotes from say Gabe Newell (Valve) where he basically tears the hardware a new one and instead will feature his later quotes (Portal II era) where he gushes with praise about PS3, PSN etc etc, there'll be no mention of Activision threatening to drop PS3 support unless Sony drop hardware price, the PSN hack will get a mention, but mere one..nothing will be said about the internal clock glitches etc etc.

The Xbox 360 will be praised to the nines, not a damn thing about locking away something as basic as  I.E behind a paid for wall, the E74/3 Red Ring fiasco, yeah, it happened, people dealt with it...that'll do.

Game Cube one should be a dozy as well.......

[DreamcastRIP]

... and PS2 will be one day presented by the more 'challenged' elements of the gaming media as having been akin to a golden age of gaming! 

[Rogue Trooper]

... and PS2 will be one day presented by the more 'challenged' elements of the gaming media as having been akin to a golden age of gaming! 

Just remember...66 Million Polys Per Sec...or it did'nt happen.

:-)

[Rogue Trooper]

Thread bump:

Very sorry to who ever wrote the 'Wizards And warriors' article in past issue of RG magazine, but it's honestly a fallacy to claim the games were well recived here in UK, adding the already average at best scores so far in this thread, Zero's review of the 1st game on Nes:

67% 'Levels get very tedious...it's all too easy to be knocked from your perch and fall to your doom...graphics and sound are passable...'

Not exactly a classic in the making in that reviewers eyes.....

[DreamcastRIP]

A new article about ROB, aka Famicom Robot, and the NES that's ripe for mentioning here -

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/432327/features/history-lesson-rob/

Penned for CVG by Matthew Castle, Associate Editor, Official Nintendo Magazine (UK).

The usual fare of 'conveniently worded' NES revisionism that refers to NES in "the West" when what they're actually doing is discussing the console's success in North America alone and doing so in a manner which may well be interpretted by those otherwise ignorant souls to be representative of how Nintendo's console sold in the UK, the Continent of Europe and much of the rest of the world. Precisely the kind of misrepresentation we've noted in numerous other articles quoted and/or linked in this fine thread.

My personal favourite humbug from the article are these two zingers,

...the realisation of the NES' greatness

One can only assume said Official Nintendo Magazine employee is referring to the one man and his dog who actually bothered buying a NES here back in the day.

The infamous 'videogames crash' saw consumers fall out of love with the many shoddy titles flooding the market, leading to a flat-lining of game sales.

Deary me, it's straight from the Adam Buchanan school of NES revisionion ('NES Collector's Guide' article, Retro Gamer magazine issue 101) with that flatout wrong description of the UK gaming scene having been in a parlous state back in 1986/87 and how the sainted NES apparently rescued us all from such woe and misery.  :-

[Rogue Trooper]

I read this C+VG article with my 'heavy-bias' filter firmly engaged, as soon as i saw who wrote it, i knew it was going to be heading just 1 way and 1 way only and in fairness, writer has done it with a sense of humour etc but even so....

It just makes far, far too many sweeping statements and reads as if it's aimed at the USA not Europe in any form, so i'm guessing it's done too please certain quarters.....

ROB did not 'massively affect the course of history', let alone gaming history, if it had, why has'nt the concept been dragged up again using newer technology the way motio control, 3D, Home V.R etc have been? why did'nt others like Sega, Sony or Atari come out with their own versions? (after all as the Nintendo faithful would have us believe, Nintendo invented everything gaming wise for others to copy...)

'Gaming in the 80's was hovering around the 2 mark'...was it? was it really?.No, of course it was'nt as we've covered to point of stagnation on here time and time again, yet here's that myth rolled out yet again to a generation who've no idea what a bit is, let alone 8 bits..that 80's gaming was a dark, desolate wasteland, much wailing and gnashing of teeth, who would save us? then Nes arrives and behold! we are saved.


Turtles, SMB 3 and Rare probably did a damn sight more to affect the history of the Nes here in UK and elsewhere than a mere novelty robot, but that does'nt make for such a good story to filler a web page does it?.No angle for them to run with there....

And is the writer honestly saying that by putting in a robot toy like ROB, your average consumer was suddenly 'blinded' to fact it was, gasp, a video games console?.

'Gee look mom! look at that cool Nintendo console, it has a control pad, games are on cartridge, it plugs into the TV, it has a light gun, just like every other games console out there, can we buy it? please mom, please!!!'


'Don't be silly Tommy, why that's no console, look there's a robot in with it, we've bought you countless robots in the past, you never said they were consoles and you don't play with them any more, no, you just left them on the floor, now they are in the closet along with your other toys (and ironically where Tommy ended up as he struggled with his sexuality.....too much? ) your far too old for toys now Tommy'.


Not my most serious post, i'll grant you, but it's got to such absurd levels the way the history of the Nes is now reported, only way to counter it is to talk as much cobblers as they are claiming.

[DreamcastRIP]

Top post there, RT! 

[Rogue Trooper]

Top post there, RT! 

I know i tend to 'bang the same drum' each time the Nes/UK gets mentioned in todays press, but it's really little more than a frustrated cry about how poor UK reporting has become.

Sure, it's reaching a global market thanks to the internet, so was BBC World service thanks to the radio broadcasting system, i did'nt hear them thinking, f**K it, lets put out any old shite, did you?

Basically UK Press:grow a pair will you?

There's no shame in admitting that you know what? over here Nes arrived delivering too little, too late.Am i supposed to believe we, as a nation are ashamed now to say that whilst USA suffered a crash, good old blighty etc was in it's prime as an industry, churning out classics from so many software houses, now sadly no more.

Yes, the UK was actually bloody good at making original, innovaitive games once, hard as that may be to accept in todays market place, but like sh*t, it happened!!!!

When i look back at Japanese press, things like 'Game Labo' and it's editor, Suzuki Norimichi, being so proud of his original and editorially independant magazine (no idea if it still exists, but i'm going to mention it for what it stood for), which did not rely on P.R releases, adverts from companies and was'nt afraid to cover taboo subjects like how to modify hardware (High Res mode for the SNES anyone? over-clocked GB?) for fear of adverts dissapearing like snow before the sun or exclusives no longer being offered...


His mantra:If a project is feasible-we publish it.If it's a reality-we'll show it.


Why is'nt there more about the reality of the UK gaming scene during the 80's., rather than looking at novelty crap for a console that made little impact over here?.

[zapiy]

I love this thread, very informative if not a tad to factual for me lol.. I am a dreamer more than most and have never believed the NES to be what some of the press state.. BUT regardless of all that we should embrass a system that clearly was very successful around the globe.. 

[Crusto]

Why? It was shit

[zapiy]

Perhaps, but thats not everyone's opinion and obviously we want to cater for all to have their own opinions..

 

[TL]

Oh dear!

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218152-so-the-nes-did-all-these-to-save-gaming/