Nintendo's first major gaming console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), heralded the birth of video games we know and love today. Here's 10 things you may not have known about it. ★Subscribe for more: / gameranxtv
Don't be hatin' on knitters or knitting, Gameranx. You have no idea how much work and love goes into each project. The knitting machine would have been awesome.
+Duke Jaywalker was totally gonna post this until I saw yours. Almost all of these old school game "trivia" channels, have some glaring issues with their facts. This is NOT that hard people, do your effing homework.
+Duke Jaywalker The reason he didn't mention it is because almost every youtube top 10 is google searched and what I mean by this is: Anyone can make a top 10. step1: think of a concept step2: google facts about that concept step3: take your google search and make a top 10 step4: ???? step5: profit.
Tu Maldita Madre That's because u didn't watch the video u big hat wearing fool. Your seat belt must be on too tight suffocating the air that's suppose to go to your brain allowing u to think logicly lmao
Craig B Checked the exact dates: Simon's Quest was first released Aug. 28 1987, Metroid Aug. 6 1986, and Bubble Bobble Aug. 1986 (date uncertain). Thus, it's very likely Metroid was first!
Craig B As I can't (or rather don't feel like digging deeper to) find a specific date for the release other than "August," it's inconclusive. Additionally, as Metroid was Aug. 6, I find it likely Metroid was earlier.
Each sprite was also a mere 8x8 pixels and could only contain two colors. However, there was a "big" sprite mode where each sprite was 8x16 pixels. The trade off for giving up screen resolution was that each 8x16 pixel sprite could now contain four colors. Barring any sound expansion chips, the NES was capable of producing sound that had five voices - 2 square waves (usually for leads), 1 triangle wave (usually for bass), noise (drums) and PCM (used for sound samples). Each NES game was also programmed using 6502 Assembly because the NES used a modified 6502 Processor. Its graphics were handled by a PPU (Picture Processing Unit).
The NES will always be legend, survived a wave where gaming almost wanished, revolutionised the whole style of gaming with the 2D and the debut of the best game character of all time, Mario!. Bro, SMB3 has a very special place in my heart til this day. I remember dressing up as Mario as a kid with a beret 😅😂🤣. Ah, the nostalgia I wanna go back to those simple times! ;') 😌🤗❤️
+Masik Egede their games don't change much. I just don't understand why they can make the same games every year and no one cares but games like cod can't (cod is shit imo)
Yoshi was rideable on an NES Mario game called Mario's Missing. Although, it wasn't much of a Mario game to begin with. So, the hardware of the NES could've made a rideable Yoshi.
+BarackObamaLikesPoop Also, there's a hack for SMB3 called Super Mario Bros. 3 Mix, and it contains a fully functioning rideable Yoshi, with the same features from SMW.
+BarackObamaLikesPoop Yeah they didn't give much detail in the video. I've heard that the actual reason was the NES controller only had two buttons, and the mario designers (maybe Miyamoto himself) wanted a dedicated button for dismounting Yoshi. I suppose they could've used pressing A and B together or something, but waiting for a controller with more buttons more or less makes sense.
+taylor sharp it would be up and a. at least it makes more sense that way to me. it would be hard to run and jump at the same time while riding yoshi if it was a and b. to many mistakes would be made
I knew about Holy Diver, but only because I saw the James & Mike on it a few days before I saw this video. I've also known about the Nintendo TV thing for quite a while. I remember hearing about the lockout chip controversy as a kid in the late 80s, so I knew about that one way longer than any of the others. I didn't know any of the other stuff, though. Good video!
I wouldn't really label that as an "ending," though. The CVII endings offered different narrative conclusions. Despite being variations of the same sequence, the outcomes are quite different, including menacing implications, including Dracula coming back to life.
Actually, I played the SNES version of Where's Waldo as a kid, #2 I've known about for a while, and #1 I had forgotten about completely until I went to a video game museum in Frisco, Texas.
Wow! I've been around the "Nintendo Block" since the release of the console and been a gamer ever since. Still, I wasn't aware of over half of these. Thanks guys. Great video.
I taught I really knew everythings about the NES but I'm impress that I still learn and remind me this warm feeling of discovring all these little secret about this mystic console :)
+The Video Game Mixer Does it matter one is a button smaher or not. Bootsy beated Silver Surfer just from doing that... smashing buttons really fast. A game in which AVGN thought it was impossible to beat, yet here is Bootsy whose button smashing won the game. >_> people should soooo stop the obnoxious, stick up their ass attitude towards button smashing... it fucking works, get over it!!!
Actually I dont mash buttons on Where's Waldo. I just know what he looks like and the game is predictable and has recognizable patterns once you figure it out. I beat it as a kid.
Thankfully someone got the DW4 (was technically dragon warrior due to copyright issues of course) size correct, it was only 4 megabits or 1/2 megabyte in size. The true reason reason it became a 1 megabyte cartridge was because early emulators were unable to load the game until someone figured out doubling the size fixed the problem.
Similar thing with Galaxian. Marat Fayzullin, inventor of iNES and thus the iNES mapper system, set ROM bank loads to 16 KB, presumably because he wasn't aware of Galaxian's smaller 8 KB size. As a result, there are no "true" Galxian ROM in general circulation; all are overdumped to compensate for iNES' limitations.
Not to mention if he really wanted to talk about "large NES games' Action 52 would be the top, since it is over 2MB of data, because of that crappy mapper.
"What is the biggest NES game ever made? The largest single NES game that I know of is Dragonquest 4 / Dragon Warrior 4. It has 1 megabyte of program ROM. Also, the Japanese game Metal Slader Glory has 512K of PRG and 512K of CHR ROM, making it also a full megabyte. Several pirate/unlicenced Famicom games are also pretty large." Directly from NESDEV website. This is probably where the guy got much of his information. As far as the DQ4 being doubled in size, it seems there is a wiki that mentions this but that was only updated about 10 days before this video went up on youtube.
bootgod's database has been around for a while, and correctly lists DQ4/DW4 as a 512kb PRG-ROM using chr-ram for video data. It would have been a really simple thing to check up on. I think the game was dumped as a 1MB file at one point causing this misinformation.
I knew about half of these and quite a few things that they didn't mention (for example, the Life Fitness Life Cycle--an actual exercise bike that worked with the NES or the Miracle piano keyboard OR the reason why the light gun isn't grey, anymore or that there was going to be a Gameboy adapter for the NES from Biederman Design Labs) but I have to admit, this was a good video with some really good trivia. Good job, guys!
Another interesting fact about the NES/Famicom family of consoles. The Famicom had an expansion called the Famicom Disk System, which ran on its own proprietary version of a floppy disk(that alone reminds me of the Gamecube's own mini-disks). One of the notable features of the FDS is that it had an additional chip for slightly more complex music.
tv/vcr combos have existed in the 1980s and through the 1990s. the comparison of nes/tv combo to smart tv makes it seem ahead of its time, but it wasn't ahead of its time, that was its time. it was right on time. but it is kinda cool, i never knew that existed.
I had a NES with my brothers but we woke up our dad before a 12 hour night shift multiple times that day. He came into the room yanked the NES out of the wall and made fly out a 3 story building LOL. Soooo as a kid most of my Nintendo time was with the SNES and most of my memories as a kid playing Zelda, Mario Kart, Yoshis Island, Star Fox, Oger Battle, Mario Paint and many more. My fav will always be my SNES and I still have it to this day in working order. Every now and then I will play it for a hour or two.
In the late 80s/early 90s Nintendo had a coin-op bar top system that came with a handful of built in games. I remember Fester's Quest, TMNT, Contra, Super Mario Bros 2 being on it. I've tried finding one but have had no luck.
Number 9 is semi-bullshit. Nintendo did say it was impossible to include Yoshi in an NES Mario due to hardware limitations, but it turned out to be untrue. (Yoshi is rideable in the NES port of either "Mario's Missing" or "Mario's Time Machine".)
Ben Phillips miyamoto wanted mario to have an animal buddy to ride, but noticed the nes was too weak. when the snes came to be he realised his original idea by creating yoshi, that's how it went
I'm pretty sure it was due to memory & that Luigi & Yoshi were just one character in terms of programming, but I've not seen much gameplay.... So I could be wrong.
There's another tidbit about the NES that most people do not know. If you look on the bottom of the console you will find a section that can be removed exposing an expansion port.The plans for this port were for a future expansion module that would include a dial up modem. Yes, a dial up modem for online game play. In 1985. The modem was never released and there were never any other modules planned to use the expansion port.
i knew this already, mainly i clean the motherboards of my consoles, and had to pin-mod a son of a bitch known as the 72-pin adapter aka the cartridge slot, saw the expansion port, researched, and learned this and that one of the modems would connect to a SEGA GENESIS online. it was to have games that could be cross-played together by people on nes and genesis, this was called teleplay modem, and was discontinued because console war, but more interesting, one of the founders of ATARI, Nolan Bushnell, worked on its prototype but back out, but before that made Chuck E. Cheese's. all that from a single expansion port. there was another with an adult gambling game modem but was stopped for obvious reasons and the famicom (japan) had a disk (notice the k) drive add-on that data could be stored on a floppy disk (marking it the only console to have floppy drive besides the Sega Saturn japan only) which caused the Japanese Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, and Metroid to change for ntsc release (america) giving zelda a battery, and the rest dread password system. hope this was not a bore to you
"Most Nintendo games were pretty darn good"... someone hasn't checked that library. XD Sure they have some brilliant amazing games, but they also had a giant pile of turds to bolster than library.
Um. How? I didn't say the Nintendo library was any different to any others. I just disagreed with the "MOST" part of the original statement. I think MOST Nes games were awful, but there were a few golden gems that have outshone their reputation. For every Metroid, Zelda and Mario game, there were 3 terrible sports games, 2 terrible movie-based joypad-fodder, and 1 collection of 52 disasters. :P So nothing nullified... just me being pedantic at worst.
most nintendo games are trash. a small % (maybe 50 at most out of nearly 800) are good quality and even then 10 of those are masterpieces. that's a terrible % of success.
"Survived a while." Kids and their limited perspective. The Nintendo is my favorite gaming specific console and I still enjoy my top-loader to this day. Definitely looking forward to when they [purportedly] start production of the NES Classic back up later this year.
The mobile market sucks. It's not even real gaming. Tapping a screen while the game basically does everything for you isn't fun. Nintendo invented throwing the controller after spending your 3 lives. Games should be fun but also should feel rewarding when you play and beat the game after getting sweaty palms fighting that boss. Mobile games usually don't require skill but man do they want your money. Spend $2 here, $5 there to "boost" your minions.
***** they are loads of great games on a mobile such as Angry Bird, Death Worm Sheep Launcher and console ports like GTA, COD Zombies, old PC classics like Doom and Railroad Tycoon and carnivores.
+Eugene Johnson They will be for everyone in the future, when the technology is no longer produced and the original hardware is dead (It WILL die, all things die). So the only way to play will be emulators as not everything will get a compilation release. I thought the proper fans of gaming would care about preservation...guess not.
That region control chip in the bonus section is the one that makes NES games to start blinking in a one color screen. You have to remove some pins from it in order to make the NES work again like new. I have my NES working again.
oh my... your own images prove you incorrect instantly, how many names did he get wrong? how many contradictions were made? how was the gamecube dvd console 'not the first time' a console and a tv were combined...seriously, so many facts were mangled, left out, and just aggregated easily without any research. also the google image search images of everything weren't well timed, often stepping on the naration too early. valid critiques only make us better, so i hope you can accept these.
"how was the gamecube dvd console 'not the first time' a console and a tv were combined" Because the My Computer TV-C1 was released in Japan in 1983, and the Super Famicom version was released in 1990. The Gamecube DVD Console was released in 2001. Simple chronological order will tell you why the Gamecube version wasn't first.
The reason you can't shoot the dog in Duck Hunt is because they are programmatically part of the background as far as the NES hardware is concerned. Only the ducks themselves are treated as sprites. That Nintendo was already able to do layered backgrounds even back then was a mindjob of itself, but that's beside the point. The point is that unfortunately, the dog was never programmed with any collision in mind. That is, until Vs. Duck Hunt that was primarily only in arcades. In that game, you could enter a bonus round where you could shoot other flying debris for points, but you'd also see the dog running around to chase it. And here, he does have collision, and it will count as a hit. Pretty sure anyone that had the opportunity to play the game on the period-correct arcade cabinets played at least to the point where they could finally nail him. PETA jokes aside, that Duck Hunt dog is infamous for making anyone and everyone hate him earlier and easier than the kind of terrible people that your garden variety celebrity media outlet won't shut up about.
Should have mentioned Atari lied to obtain the NES lockout chip code and released their own NES games. Like just imagine today SONY making Xbox exclusive games or Microsoft making only sony games
+Ted E Bear They actually produced good games. It was the CEO that didn't like its terms (For example, if you release a game on NES it must be exclusive for that platform for 2 years) and used that chip after a chip shortage.
Kaminishi Atari also produced licensed Nintendo games eventually. Nintendo was greedy though you had to buy the cartridge cases from them if you make a game and you had to buy something like 30000 making it hard for indy dev teams
+Ted E Bear If you are referring to Atari's TenGen line of nes games, the licensed version of those games (such as Gauntlet and RBI Baseball) were out before their unlicensed versions.
+Ted E Bear even bigger news Nintendo went to ATARI in 1984 to produce the Famicom under the ATARI name, believing American would want to buy them instead of a Japanese-named product!! True story, look it up, but Atari passed in favor of their upcoming 7800.
+Jude Law No, Atari passed on it because of Coleco. Coleco put a version of Donkey Kong on it's Adam computer, Atari had the home computer rights to Donkey Kong so Atari was pissed thinking Nintendo was trying to screw them and talks broke down about Atari bringing the Famicom to the west.
The NES used the same 8 bit processor MOS6502 as the Commodore64, Atari 2600 as well as the Apple II & III and I believe the Tandy TRS-80 machines. That processor was used for many years and formed the computer industry for many years.
groenekever No. It sould be a gift to children or a very low price. Nintendo wouldn't vanished by this move. And how many pieces you think there where be?
Metroid and Kid Icarus were both released prior to Castlevania 2. The ending of Metroid also relied on the speed in which you completed the game while the ending of Kid Icarus was determined by the strength of Pit's arrows. (Power ups for the arrow were earned by entering certain rooms after reaching a predetermined score.)
Lets get one thing straight , the NES SYSTEM was not "a good" console..... it was/ IS a wonderful lil console that saved the gaming industries and should be held in the highest regards and be put in museums . Yes I am being serious . Sadly my original NES broke when my 3 yr old cousin spilled his drink over it and it fried . 20 yrs of fun gone in seconds . A moment of silence , please .
The NES did not save the gaming industry in Europe or Japan. Americans need to stop spreading this myth. Europe had a billion dollar gaming industry which was nothing to do with Nintendo.
Love the 12 year olds in the comments... "N64 was my fav" "I don't remember the NES, but I consider myself a gaming expert" The internet and online gaming needs to remove these annoying shits and put them back in the nursery. They ruin GTA V.
I consider myself a gaming buff and im 18 so i werent present when the NES was released, and i never had one either however my first games console was a SEGA megadrive, (Genesis in the US) I've had the SNES, and pretty much every console onwards.. I don't think you need to have had the NES to be a gaming "Buff" you just have to appreciate it.
+Julianus Maximianus _I don't remember the NES, but I consider myself a gaming expert_ Are you referring to the guy who said "I didn't know any of these, and I consider myself a game buff" ? The title of the video says, 10 FACTS you probably didn't know. When he says I don't any of these, it implies he wasn't aware of the FACTS presented in the video. Nowhere does he imply he doesn't remember the NES. I remember my NES, I still even have my NES but I didn't know most of these facts in the video. I'm pretty sure everyone who grew up with the NES do not remember or even knew about all these facts in this video.
Most of these "Facts You Probably Don't Know" videos about video games are usually facts that gaming nerds like me already knew. This time you actually found a lot that I didn't know. Good job.
Dragon Warrior 2 unknown fact: One time I prevented Hargon's attack on Moonbrook Castle and took on the king as the main character. The traditional castle music played throughout Moonbrook, the princess was the one who saved your game, the guards were the merchants and innkeepers, however you still had to fight battles within the castle walls, leading to usually an instant death, unless lucky enough to flee battle. I was also able to walk the character on the walls, water and mountains. Unfortunately, the quest was short because when I turned the console off and later went to play, it was all erased and I couldn't figure out how to do it again. This happened in 1992.
FYI: Duck Hunt Arcade version has a bonus round where you can actually shoot the dog. His face turns burnt black then later hobbles onto the forground with a crutch and cast all pissed off.
Something I figured out early on in Duck Hunt: If you hold the gun to the screen and shoot, then you could hit the targets every time. IDK why, but it worked on mine.
When I was a kid I used to shoot my Nintendo zapper at pop cans that were nearby and I never missed a duck doing that. I used to think I was just making really great ricochet shots but after hearing the explanation of how the zapper worked I realized that the shine of the can was confusing the zapper into thinking it was aimed at the white part that appears during that single frame. This whole time I thought I was increasing the difficulty but I was actually using a cheat hack...a cheat hack that I invented on my own.
Intro correction- Pong was the first console "hit" but you could argue that the Atari VCS "2600" was the first hit. 10- Metroid that came before it had different endings. 9. There is a statement given from Nintendo that said that they weren't able to put Yoshi in the Mario NES games due to limitations, but it was an excuse. Mario is Missing fro the NES had Luigi riding Yoshi throughout the game in platforming stages. An unlicensed pirate port of Super Mario World does a decent job of having Yoshi in the game for the NES. 8. Yes I did know about that game, and there were many exclusive games for the Japanese Famicom that didn't make it to the U.S. and vice versa. 7. Dragon Quest IV is not the largest, larger games include Metal Slader Glory and Kirby's Adventure. 6. I did know about the hands free controller, but most people didn't, so that's a good one for the list. 5. There's actually 2 Waldo games on the NES, and the fact that there is a Waldo game on the NES is common knowledge. 4. This was widely publicized on the internet when it happened. 3. "We don't have any tvs today that have consoles built in!" Yes there are, Sony makes tvs that have built in Playstation 3 systems. 2. Good note, it was more advanced than previous light guns. 1. Cool fact! (Do some research before releasing one of these "FACTS" videos that half a million people will watch and take as "fact.")
The part of the NES that actually read the contacts of your game cartridge was a standardized part. If you know the model number and have tinkered inside PCs for a while, you have all the tools you need to fix the #1 NES hardware failure problem.
He forgot to mention that the DRM chip in the NES was faulty and is the reason most of us had so much trouble getting the damn system to work, and was removed in the NES-02 (the top loading model) because of that.
yeah, apparently that technology thing with older tvs makes Duck Hunt unplayable on new tvs because those 2 frames will not play on newer tvs, I have a giant screen tv that's old so we use it for our older consoles and I couldn't hit a thing with it on Duck Hunt
Here's one: You can actually play original nintendo games in VR using 3dnes. It's actually really cool. You can also play a couple of gamecube games in VR with dolphin VR... This is actually really promising stuff because it turns out that a lot of Nintendo stuff translates into VR really well.. Something to do with those cell shaded looking, simple graphics makes it easier.
