Why The NES Was An Epic Fail! - The British Story Of The NES 

The main reason I ever wanted a NES as a kid was because it had Ninja Turtles and WWF on it. And I ended up getting a second hand one off a kid at school about a year before the SNES launched. I even had a Mega Drive before a NES. Wasn't too hard to buy cheap games for the NES at that time though, market stalls, boot sales and Woolworth's bargain bins had loads for about a fiver by then.

From what I remember here in Australia most people had the NES, a few had the Master System and literally no one had a micro computer other than the Commodore 64

Being Brazilian, I was shocked when I discovered, in late 90s internet, that Master System was a failure in US and Japan. That console was, for us, the same thing NES was for Americans. Tectoy brought the Master System here using market and distribution strategies that were, by then, unheard of in Brazil. The SEGA console were everywhere: TV commercials, large stores, magazine ads and so on. Meanwhile, the NES scene was restricted to a bunch of clones, each one using a different standard (we had 60-pin Famicom-based clones AND 72-pin NES-based - that market was a real mess). Official Nintendo NES only come here by 1993, along with the SNES. When you hear a Brazilian commenting "I played Nintendo in my childhood", he probably is referring to the Super Nintendo, which was a major success here. We had a microcomputer scene too, but small by European standards. Our government had protectionist laws back then that prohibited imports of any electronic device. Because of that, we only had the MSX, which was an open standard, and some Spectrum clones made by local companies. But they were very expensive, even for the middle class families standards.

I always kinda wondered why the British preferred the Sega Master system over the NES this explains alot. Thank you

In the US, at the time of the supposed 'crash' between '83 and '84, computers did take over for a short time. A friend of mine had a Vic-20, and I got a C64. Atari had computers like the 400 and 800, there were pre-mac Apple IIs, and the x86 PCs were around as well. Game copying rings at school were all the rage here too, especially if you had a disk drive. The entry price for the hardware was a bit steep here, and I think people liked the ease of use of a console like the NES. I myself didn't get one 'till late '89. The first 'post-crash' console I got was a Master System, so I might have what would be considered an odd perspective for a 'Murican.

Thank god microcomputers were more popular in Europe, or the wonderful Demoscene probably wouldn't have happened.

The nes and nes mini might be a failure in Europe but here in America It is a 100 percent successful console.

Here in Sweden, Nintendo actually dominated pretty fucking hard. That's because we had a decent distributor in direct contact with Nintendo of Japan. Commodore 64 dominated until NES came along. Master System did well too, but not NES-good IIRC. It's just you British folk that are a bit weird. :p

'80s UK home video game history: 1980-1982 - Early home computers 1982-1988 - ZX Spectrum era 1988-1990 - Sega Master System era '80s US home video game history: 1980-1983 - Atari era 1983-1985 - Video game crash 1985-1990 - NES era

Born in the UK in 85, I had a NES as my first console as did a good few of my school friends, my cousins were the only people I knew with commodores, I moved to the Netherlands in 1990 and there was no sign of amstrads or amigas it was all nintendo and Sega, though I think Sega had a bit more traction than nintendo over there. I get it the video game crash was heavily localised to the US, but also the home micro culture that you are nostalgic for was just as heavily localised.

Here in Spain the story was similar. No NES to be found. This was a Spectrum territory until Sega came in and dominated pretty hard both with SMS and MD up until the Playstation came along. Completely agree, Nintendo revisionism coming from the USA is quite annoying.

I stole about 8 commodore 64s from my elementary school's dumpsters. They were brilliant fun :D. I desperately wish I would have kept at least one.

I really enjoyed this video. It was interesting to hear how the reception of the NES was so very different to how it was here in the US, and how there was no videogame crash in Europe. Always good to hear a new perspective.

Your videos highlight why we need more non-US people making RU-vid videos on video games. i grew up in New Zealand and later in Australia. We experienced no video games crash. My first gaming machine was an Amstrad 464 in 1988, a Commodore Amiga around 1990 followed by a SNES in 1993. I didn't know anyone here with an NES but Sega Master System and later Mega Drive (Genesis) were much more popular.

LOL I remember watching your very early videos. You've come a long way! Great work!

The C64 and Speccy were arguably the most important systems in history since a huge amount of game programmers started off there and meant more games for the consoles.

I started with the 2600 but by '84 I moved to the Commodore 64. Although the NES was kicking butt here in the states, microcomputers were still pretty big here as well, for all the reasons you mentioned, plus telecommunications was starting to catch on. If the Master System did better here (like in the UK), the NES probably would probably be remembered a little different here. One thing about the NES that appealed to the folks here is that although by comparison the NES had fewer games than microcomputers, the NES had more classics and heavy hitters. When I had my "microcomputers vs. NES" arguments with friends, that was their trump card.

The Gameboy was actually the first popular Nintendo system in the UK, the SNES built its UK success on that.

The NES dominated the 8 bit era. Not just in America but also in Japan, the home of modern gaming.

NES apparently sold most in Sweden out of the nordic countries. But SEGA still sold more games because they gave away their consoles for "free" through deals with TV sellers/renters. That's how I got both Master System and Mega Drive. SEGA games were found in more rental stores too and for much longer. Now, it might have been different in other cities and towns but that's what I remember living in Stockholm.

The UK was the place to be in the 80s, we had way more choice but our history never gets spoken of. "From Bedrooms to Billions" was the first real doc to shine a light on our part of the world and how influential it was.

The history is the same in America only change was the names. People had gone the way of the computer for the same reasons as Great Britain. In the mid to late 80's everyone had either a Atari computer,Apple 2 or a Commodore 64.That is what everyone was using to play new games. It was cheap and sometimes free.The schools had all been given Apple computers and we would copy and trade games for free. Love the Ultima series I had on the Apple 2GS. So the NES did well in America against the Master System. People had moved on for a while into the computer market for games. That is what happened. End of story. No crash! Gaming was alive and well in America. Just they went to the computer to play the games.

I saw a heck of alot of c64's and amigas here in the maryland up until the doom era, the amigas were mostly used for video and music editing. They had apples and Macs in public schools which I never learned anything on other than load a disk and play games lol

I think it's worth noting that the NES wasn't even distributed by Nintendo in the UK they subcontracted it out to Mattel of all things

Also I, like many others, did not "experience" anything like the much talked about video game crash. Well, maybe that was the business side of it and kids didnt "feel" it. Gaming was always just fine, only different systems.

I love the NES, don't get me wrong, but I am so tired of hearing how it "saved the industry" when all it did was get popular in North America during a gaming drought that took place no where else in the world. Hell, like you basically said if you were a computer gamer in the states (which was still rare in the 80's but not unheard of) you never felt the crash either.

Europe: our gaming history exists too! Japan:

I could be totally wrong, but the story I heard was that after the American 'crash', a lot of shops wouldn't stock any NEW games systems as they were afraid it was a passing fad or they would be left with piles of worthless crap. NES got into shops by advertising it as a toy (with ROB and all that gubbins), so that is what NES 'saved', making shops more open to stocking new games and machines.

I'm in the UK and I've tried playing games on the NES but a lot of them don't do much for me, I'm not really keen on the graphical style of a lot of those games either, I much prefer the 8 bit micros that I grew up with, like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari 800XL, Acorn Electron, etc. I think I only knew one person who had a NES while I was growing up.

I was aware of the NES but it or other consoles weren't even an option in my mind compared to an Amiga (which was the one everyone wanted). It's only thanks to the internet that I know "gaming" had "crashed"... and that there were great games on the NES. They're just old-school and C64-like enough to make me a little nostalgic despite never actually having touched one.

WHAT'S YOUR INTRO THEME SONG CALLED IT'S SO CATCHY AND I CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD

I've been binging Top Hat Gaming Man videos lately and I have to say, even as a 43 year old American who grew up on Nintendo, this was the most entertaining video I've seen from him so far! I LOVE "heel" Top Hat!!

It's interesting that the NES vs SMS history in Holland is so much different than the UK's. 1990 - While in other parts of the world sales of Sega's consoles as the SC-3000 and Master System already started in the Netherlands remains relatively calm. The Master System is sold but is actually only found in the toy stores. Nintendo's NES and Game Boy systems is flying off the shelves. Conversely, however the success of SEGA's arcade games. SEGA's Hang-on and Outrun are found in almost all Dutch arcades. www.segaonline.nl/blog/2009/04/04/nederlandse-sega-geschiedenis-1990-2008-deel-1/

Such a great video,thanks. I agree with you almost 100% I am from Germany. I can only tell from my personal experience during that time, but i feel like videogaming is inimaginable without microcomputers in the 80s. The Commodore 64 was BIG in Germany, so was the Amiga (and others). I owned a C128. Of course 95% of the time it was in C64 mode to play c64 games... the NES was/is great though.

Never saw a NES in the wild and only one SNES. Everyone with a console seemed to have the SMS or MD in the NW. Spectrum was huge before that. I remember rotating stands full of Spectrum tapes in places like the Post Office.

Pretty coincidential that Ashens was just talking about the same thing some days ago. I think I recall first seeing a NES in a Currys in '92 where I tried out Duck Hunt & Tetris. I do sorta remember the Microcomputer era where we got a BBC Micro. I remember being terrified of 'Granny's Garden'. Then we got an Amstrad PC and I recall spending my days in the early to mid 90's playing 'Captain Comic' & 'Moraff's World'.

You know what I have to say to you as an American gamer, Top Hat Gamer? I tip my hat to you and your awesome channel. You've won over a new subscriber! Weren't expecting that, were ya?

Great video :D very well edited too! #AmstradCPCFTW

NES was the biggest system in Sweden as well, our official Nintendo distributor Bergsala ( Norway and Denmark distributor too ) started selling NES's in 1986 and it was a huge success, they sold 800 000 in just a couple of months and before that the Game & Watch series of handhelds had sold 2 million. Not every European country was like the UK, the NES was insanely popular outside of the states as well in various countries, not to mention the whole of America like Central America ( have family in El Salvador as well ) and Canada, not just the USA and Japan.

Awesome video, I grew up with the MSX before the NES back in late 1980s.

Fuck the NES...Long live the Amiga

The thing is it is referred to as the “North American Gaming Crash”. I just think it comes off as the be all end all because a majority of game reviewers are US based and obviously thats where their experiences came from. As far as the NES goes, despite a plethora of other gaming platforms at the time that were arguably better you have to admit they did pave the way when it came to standardizing the industry, UK presence or not. That being said I do agree that the NES does get a lot of hype for what it was. Thankfully I had a father that was into computers in the 80’s so I got to enjoy PC gaming like the 130XE and the Amiga 500/2000. I also got to witness the glory of non NES gaming having lived in Europe for a couple years during that era.

Even here in North America, the video game crash was falsely named. It wasn't a "video game industry crash" it was a home console market crash. Arcades were still doing well, and people were still buying computers like the C64.

I don't know why, but I cannot find much information online on how well the Nintendo entertainment system did in the United Kingdom. The best I could find were a few TV ads and a gaming forum that someone stated many Nintendo consoles at the time were collecting dust at boots as no one was interested. That's all I've been able to find so far as every single piece of information that I've found on the NES has always been from the American perspective. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. BTW, great video mate, keep it up!

Good point about the so-called crash being a great time to be a gamer. We forget sometimes how much we let corporate narratives stand unchallenged. My main memory is being able to get many more games for my 2600 than I used to due to all the price drops. And the idea that we'd all be living in some kind of video game-less nightmare version of 2016 if it wasn't for Super Mario Bros. and the NES is insane. If Nintendo hadn't been the next big thing here, something else would have been. Dark ages? Only for U.S. industry pros and game company investors.

The video is BULLSHIT. The NES a failure? Wow you're a first who ever made that statement. Lets see... In the 1980's the most popular micro-computers in the UK and Germany where the BBC Micro,Timex 2048, ZX81,ZX Spectrum (including its clones) and the Amstrad/Schneider. Combined they had a worldwide sale record of over 12 million units. The NES on the other hand sold over 60 MILLION UNITS worldwide. Yes truly a failure.... The video game crash of 1983 happend in North America and not in the UK. But back then the US and Japan where the two largest consumption markets in the world And where pretty much running the global economy. While the UK was still recovering of a recession. So they're consumption market with video games had little effect in the industry back then. Yes micro-computers had many games but the massive majority of them was low quality garbage. Nintendo and its NES deserve ALL the honor for making what the gaming industry is today. A video game fan that dislike the NES is like a music fan that dislikes the Beetles.

In a way we did have a bit of a crash here in the UK around 84/85 when a number of manufacturers of computers just folded. After that, you had the imports, Commodore 64 (and the what were they thinking 16 and +4) , Atari XL/XE and MSX., and the home created machines (Apple remained so niche here that they were invisible), Sinclair Spectrum, Acorns BBC Micro/Electron and Amstrad. And by 89 it was effectively Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and Sega that ruled the market. Gone was Oric, Dragon and the other machines that used to crowd the display counters at retailers. Also consoles, try playing Zork or Snowball on one? No Keyboard you see, so no text adventures, and I liked those a lot at the time. Still, 24,000 games on the ZX Spectrum, I reckon only about 2,400 were really any good and only about 240 have stood the test of time, but still, hunting for them if rather fun. Me? A Happy ZX Spectrum, Atari XL/XE and Amiga/CD32 owner, still.

Love this video. I've always wanted to know what gaming was like in the UK in the age of retro gaming that I grew up in. Thank you! Side note. AVGN is actually doing exactly what you talk about on purpose. The theme is "take you back to the past, to play the shitty games that suck ass" James is only playing a character (The Nerd) displaying in full force our crazy American nostalgic views of themes games and systems in a over the top hyperbolic fashion. Sorry for the long post. So glad I found your channel. Cheers from a crazy Yank friend.

Video starts at 5:04 everything before that is incoherent ramblings of some guy in a top hat.

In Brazil people love the NES until this day people look for one, One of the favorite games of Brazillian is Battletoads

as someone who was born in the early-mid ninties and only learned about retro gaming stuff as youtube grew in the past 5 years or so and I've always thought it was weird how much different the gaming world was in europe, versus the usa so thanks for talking bout' it

I'm 30 years old (born in 1986) and my first console was the NES, which I received as a present when I turned 4 years old. I have so many great memories of the system, and I'm certainly nostalgic for it, but I'm not ignorant about its limited impact here in the UK. It was, like you rightly suggested, mostly available for sale in Boots pharmacy and the games were difficult to find, particularly in dedicated game and computer shops and especially so where I live in Northern Ireland. Those very shops tended to focus solely on 8-bit microcomputer games and Amiga titles, with a peppering of Sega Master System titles. As an aside, I received a Commodore 64 shortly afterwards and loved playing it as a child as it had thousands of games at a relatively inexpensive cost. However, as soon as the SNES came along, it was a game changer for Nintendo in the UK and in Europe. So, to cut a long story short: my main loves are Nintendo and Commodore (particularly the Amiga) and I'm not delusional of the American-centric 'revisionist' history of the Nintendo being the 'saviour of gaming'. It may have been true for the American gaming industry sphere, but in the UK and Europe we enjoyed a boon of games and unique systems that was completely immune to any perceived 'stateside market crash'.

I have to say I agree with you to some degree anyway. I realize (as far as big company home consoles go anyway) Sega had a much larger impact in the UK, and hardware like the C64 definitely had a bigger impact. But, yes the NES certainly had a stranglehold on the US and American culture in general. As an adult (through personal discovery through the advent of the internet) discovering the amount of good "stuff" that we missed as a result of Nintendo's stranglehold only leaves me befuddled. However, even if it's only for reasons of nostalgia, I will always regard the NES as one of the greatest systems of all time though there are certainly some contenders for the number one spot.

Well, I grew up with russian famiclones and that is why I am nostalgic with the NES... did I mention that happened in the 90's when the SNES was out? Eh anyway, the NES classic edition had 0 nostalgic value for me though since my NES consoles looked like famicoms.

I'm from Poland. In the eighties, the Polish scene was dominated by Commodore 64 and Atari home computers. The next polular computer was also ZX spectrum. It was at the beginning of the 1990s when the Polish company Bobmark began importing Chinese NES console clones to Poland ( Pegasus was the name of this system). The official distribution of Nintendo consoles started very late, when most of people had 16 bit Amiga 500/600 or Sega Megadrive consoles (Genesis). The prices of the original Nintendo consoles (Nes and Snes) were much higher than the Sega consoles. I think all Eastern Europe, at best experienced Nintendo classic games in the form of clones, with an approximately eight-year delay. I owned and played Mario Bros and Contra in 1993 for the first time - and it was awesome. :)

I do find it fascinating with all the talk of the "great video game crash" in the US. At that time here in the UK, gaming was thriving. In my home the first computer we had was a ZX Spectrum, we loved it even if it was a gamble as to if the game would actually load correctly or not. The excitement building during the screeches and squeels of the epilepsy inducing flashing load screen and then seeing the load screen art work draw line by line or just flash up on screen always brought a huge grin to my face. Games for the system were very cheap even in their period, even cheaper if bought from the market, copied to a cassette tape then returned and exchanged multiple times. At that time my friend had a commodore 64, another had an Atari ST, another had an Amiga, in fact among my friends and family no one had a NES. My very first console was the Atari 2600, well I say "my" losely, it was my brothers really and he made me watch as he played for hours and would not let me touch it :/ Later I got my very own console off a friend, the Sega MAster system, I was able to purchase games using my paper round money for £5-10, I loved that thing on my black and white tv XD The first time I ever saw a Nes I was in my mid teens, after many years I made contact with my father who had 3 kids with his wife, up stairs they had a Nes. I liked it but still prefered my Master System for Sonic, Alex Kid and Mortal Kombat (they were my favourites). I later got a Megadrive, so completely skipped the Nes. Anyway long story told I`ll shut up now.....PS I have my old Dreamcast packed away in a box with hundreds of games and a fair few accessories in my house cupboard somewhere, the Master System and Megadrive were sold to god knows who, lost track of when :)

'Bout time someone stood up and said this! Bravo.

Great video... the yanks will hate it :D

Thank you so much dude for having the global approach when reviewing gaming systems, nice to see someone care about the availability of games in Europe.

To be fair, we DID get Dragon Warrior for free with a Nintendo Power subscription back in the day.

OK, while you are speaking some truth to a certain extent, you can't equate the NES's lack of success in the UK to a grand over exaggeration of the console's worldwide success. The UK is, and always has been, a relatively small market; I think you're grossly overstating its importance. I mean, look at your title... you're basically saying the NES was an "epic fail" because it flopped in the UK! I agree that it was a case of being in the right place at the right time for Nintendo in America, and that probably any other company could have had similar success if only they were a bit quicker. But the fact is it WAS Nintendo who took the initiative, and they deserve credit for that. America is now the dominant force in the video game industry and I think it's fair to say that if it wasn't for Nintendo's intervention that may not have been the case, meaning that we would have missed out on many classic games that have emerged from the country over the years. The Spectrum was a great system, sure, but you also conveniently fail to mention that a good portion of the games were both unobtainable and pretty shit. Also, some of your comments are very condescending towards both American and younger gamers - "for those who are too young and maybe just a little too simple!" Come on, who do you think you are? The majority of gamers don't understand (or need to understand) the workings of any computer, and I wonder whether you yourself could define what a microprocessor is. I also find it rather ironic that you go out of your way to belittle American RU-vidrs, despite the fact that you've clearly taken inspiration from their production and presentation style (and I say this as a fellow Brit). You have an impressive knowledge (and collection, from what I can see) of video games, but your attitude smacks of someone who is saying whatever they can to set themselves apart from the "rest". Let me just say that in general I like your videos, but this one was poorly judged on several levels.

Nintendo beats anything you had in the 80's.

I was born in 1996, and the first game I played was Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive, so that's where my nostalgia goes to an extent. Although it's mostly to the PS1.

At 5:20, love me some old Jurassic Park tunes, killed so many hours as a kid replaying the Game Boy version to find everything in the game.

I'm sure you have great memories with ZX Spectrum but being someone that grew up with an NES, I think the graphics on the Spectrum look awful. No disrespect to all of Britain's childhoods but I'd take an NES any day.

U said something bad about Nintendo, deaththreats incoming in 5...4...3...2...1...

How many of those examples still produce hardware to this day?

Love the channel bruv, long may it continue

Makes me laugh when people say modern gaming is heading towards another gaming crash. 1# The modern gaming industry is HUGE, it's not going anywhere. 2# There wasn't even one in the first place.

Please, who are you kidding? The NES had the best games of the era. Period.

Top Hat Gaming Man, if you could go back to the 80's would you choose a micro computer over a Sega Master System? I know this video is about the NES in Britain but I'm just curious to know what you would choose.

The Micro Computers where amazing! I have always had fond memories of loading up the C64, then going to have lunch while it loaded...

I grew up in the US and had a Texas Instruments TI99, then an Atari 800XL, then eventually a PC. I never bothered with the NES as I had so many free (pirated) games, plus I had learned to program on the TI and started making my own games. Most of my friends had Atari, Commodore or Apple computers in the mid 80s. You are right there never was a video game crash in the US, it's total revisionist history by Nintendo fanboys, the computer game industry was thriving in the US in the mid to late 80s. Although sadly the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga computers never really caught on as they did in Europe, which is a shame. In any event, the NES was basically a toy for kids in my eyes as a sophisticated 15 year old in 1985 ;)

More the story of how America catapulted Nintendo to where it is. Though I would argue success also comes with sustain ability, and the things that made all those options fly into households in the UK didn't buffer them for long time stability. "Easily copied and shared" is a players dream but a companies success nightmare. Why buy milk if I have a cow. Even if its impact is over exaggerated, the idea to prioritize the biggest spenders in the world TO build an empire was definitely a win (no offense to my UK friends) The crash was pretty real here and our market for alternatives was not well defined and kinda a mess. Nintendo monopolized it and with that win they did what all histories winners do, write history the way the wanted, its the true mark of success ;P

Im Scottish, NES was huge and the first console amongst most I knew as a kid. Those other systems were for older geeks, NES made it mainstream.

In the UK during the 8 bit era , I didn't have an NES or a Master System. I had an Amstrad CPC 464. My first games console was infact a Mega Drive. I never missed loading levels by tape cassette after that .... lol ...

This video needs more views!

Nintendo considered only the USA and Japan as important markets in the 80s. To be honest it's true we had a lot of microcomputers at the time and that games were cheap for them but until 1987, when Amiga and Atari ST started to become popular we had to play with C64 if we were lucky and C16 or ZX in most cases and the games were so bad on these computers I wouldn't even try to compare them to a NES.

You are a mad man, and I find it delightful. Don't ever change, Top Hat.

My 1st introduction to Nintendo was their game & watch games. I loved them and they were my favourite portable games. Spectrum was my home gaming. I did have a NES but very few games for it.

The Spectrum had 24,000 games...23,990 of which were complete rubbish.

Couldn't agree more. Nintendo only had mario, mega man going for it. Most of theirs games were shit. Sega had a wide variety of games. Here in England it was Atari, amstrad, commodore Sega. Nintendo was only really known for gameboy then snes

24,000 + pong, adventure and break out.... wait I think i will keep my NES

The video game crash in America was something that plenty of folks were aware of at the time. I was a child and my friends and I were certainly aware of it. There were a few years where video games were treated as a fad, like hula hoops.

Nintendo didn't give a shit about the European market before releasing the Snes

The NES flopped in the UK, but on a grand scale the NES sold more units in Japan alone then the Sega Master System did in the entirety of Europe. (Europe being where Sega was most dominent with the Mega System). Also, for a person who bashes Americans for viewing things only through an American filter, you seem to be doing the exact same thing but through a UK filter. You're not even spouting anything revolutionary either, for how grand you make your statements appear. That the 83 crash only effected America for the most part? That the arcade and pc gaming were relatively untouched by the crash? That's something anyone with a computer can find with only 10 minutes of research can find out. For a person who seems to put out some pretty good content as a whole, this was an extremely dissapointing video.

I like the new intro just as much :D

Love your channel subbed!

So our nostalgia is invalid because we were born in America?

Everything you said is true but America had a much more vibrant arcade scene and got a ton of exclusive games England never even heard about 😁

6:45 - get you someone who looks at you the way Top Hat Gaming Man looks at the ZX Spectrum! 👏🏽

I think one point that's missing from this video is the fact that when the NES was released in 1987, both the Atari ST and the Amiga A500 were already on the market. It was an 8 bit system launched into an increasingly 16 bit world. The Megadrive launching in 1990 really made the NES look old. It would only have stood a chance at the budget end of the market. Actually it did end up selling OK in the 90s when the prices were slashed, and came close to Master System sales in the end.

I'm an American and I was a proud SMS and Genesis owner. I was laughing at Zelda while playing the original Phantasy Star. The hardware on the SMS was superior and it was held back in the USA do to unscrupulous monopolistic licensing practices.

NES failed in the UK because it had smaller and more flickery sprites than a C64 (which with hi-res overlays could actually replicate NES sprite definition perfectly), shit plasticy controllers (with dumb weirdo controller ports so no Zipstick/Competition Pro or Sega 6 button Megadrive superior choices for you....but then Ninbendo were always anti-consumer choice), a sound chip that is embarrassed by a musical doorbell in comparison to the SID chip and massively overpriced and inferior games to a C64 (go and play Rocket Ranger and Defender of the Crown on both then...one is amazing 8 bit computer bliss the other is console crap skip worthy hardware trying to keep up with cutting edge game design/presentation of superior home computers). Yeah those 80s yank consumers were the dumbest pricks in the world, they were playing foreign NES and driving a shitty squared off asthmatic 5.0L automatic 'town car' with the handling of a leaky boat vs the UK with superior (hardware and games library) home computers and BMW 325i Sport/Golf GTi manual cars .....yeeaaahhhh

The crash of '84 threw the future of gaming in the US into turmoil. There was very little quality control done and game review magazines didn't exist yet, causing the market to be flooded with cheaply made games that were terrible for the Atari 2600. Carts were returned to stores in droves, causing a huge backlash against the industry from US retailers who had lost money. Nintendo came along and pulled us out of the mire, offering games that were a whole new level of complexity over what the Atari 2600 or Colecovision could handle. That is why most people who were in the 8-12 year old range when the NES came out think of it as the best system ever. The crash wasn't 'mythical'. I clearly remember a giant discount bin full of video games in my local mall that were being sold for insanely low prices. After that, I remember asking the store employee where all the video games went and he told me they weren't selling them anymore. That was absolutely devastating for an 8 year old who wanted more games for his Colecovision.

I still have my Vic-20, C64, Apple2e, IBM PC Jr, Atari 400/800/XLE and XE computers and I too made ton of copys on floppy and tapes and I grew up in the 70s and 80s.

many Americans thinks the us is the only place on the planet, only one nes game i love and thats super mario bros but like the GBC port far better

America, Nintendo, Bieber... ROASTED!

Do a video on the bedroom coders please, and how quite a few went on to become developers/programmers for good and well known games for snes and more modern systems that most people don't even know came from the UK.

I wouldn't say it flopped entirley in the uk, sales did pick up in 1990/1991 when Nintendo took over distribution from Mattel and also bought out the Turtles bundle during the craze and film release so sales picked up, eventually it became a budget console alongside the master system once the 16 bit machines were out.