>They literally saved the home console industry after the
>crash. No NES, then chances are great that we wouldn't be
>talking about game playing outside of an arcade nowadays....or
>at least it would've been a grip of time before interest
>would've come back towards implementing home consoles.
>
>I even gotta give the title to the NES over the PS1. Yes, the
>PS1 was a game changer in its own right with aiming at an
>older crowd but one of the main reasons it was able to do that
>is because the NES had primed the older crowd to become gamers
>when they were younger. By the time the PS1 came out, NES
>consumers had grown up and were used to the idea of playing
>games. I doubt the PS1 would've had as much impact if it had
>came out years earlier and had tried to appeal to the adults
>who didn't grow up with or had limited exposure to video
>games.
>
>
>Since 1976

I love this thread. It has haunted me since I saw it. I just couldn't decide which console I wanted to vouch for.

I turn 40 later this year and that pretty clearly influences me. So, I was just about too young to really get all up into Atari 2600. My folks knew I had luv for games tho so they got me the 5200 instead of the 2600 when the could. I had Pac Man, QBert, Pacman, and I think Galaga.

Later on, I got a 'Intendo along with a color TV in my room (13") and it was curtains. My first six games over the first year or so were: Mario/Duck Hunt, Tag Team Wrestling, Mike Tyson's Punch Out (I went straight broke to get it). Then I got Double Dribble and Pro Wrestling that Christmas and I felt like I had a COLLECTION!

And you know a brother lived up on the scene renting games. Damn...renting games. It's been a long ass time since I did that.

It might be greedy to say, but NES might've saved video games period.

I try to think about the world if that lame ass cartridge glitch had ruined it all, NES died off, and there was no big money put down on home consoles.

Would gamers be off in caves? Would they paying like crazy to play games in arcades? Would there be Neo Geo-style memory cards for everyone to 'float' around their cities with their saved progress? Or would video games just kinda be over with?

I just can't call it. But if NES hadn't been a big money thing, then there almost certainly would be no Sony or Microsoft consoles. Maybe PC gaming would be the thing and everyone would be playing on their PC rigs?