Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System first introduced?
Although the company had earlier released Color TV Game and Game & Watch, which were their first and second systems respectfully, they did not achieve worldwide success until the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1983. The NES restarted the video game industry after the video game crash of 1983, and was an international success. In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, which became the first handheld console to sell in large numbers. In the early 1990s, Nintendo's market lead began to decrease; although the 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was a strong seller, the Mega Drive/Genesis was a very strong contender. Nintendo and Sega would both lose a significant portion of the console market towards the end of the 1990s, as Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation became the most popular console, beating the Nintendo 64, though Nintendo managed to sell more than Sega Saturn.
One popular electronic gaming company, Nintendo changed the world of gaming. The founder of Nintendo, Fusajiro Yamauchi, initially created Japanese flower cards. These became a huge hit in the western world. Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. was their first company name, then in 1951, the company changed their name to Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. The company created a laser clay shooting system which many took on as a hobby. Nintendo then developed a 16mm projection system in 1974 which also became a huge hit in the western world. Six years later, Nintendo created “Donkey Kong”, a game in which the “Jumpman” has to rescue his girlfriend from the ape. They later named “Jumpman” to “Mario” after their office landlord. In 1984, the company created split screen multiplayer screens which changed video games forever. As it allowed multiple people to play at time, Super Mario Bros. interested most people in this type of game play. In 1989, the GameBoy was introduced and became the company’s most popular game console. As a result, many of the consoles that came after the Nintendo Gameboy were also very popular like the Nintendo DS, Wii, and DSi. When it comes to gaming consoles, the Nintendo products have been the most versatile systems. While most companies have created stationary systems, not meant to leave the living room, Nintendo has thrived off of mobile gaming systems. Specifically, according to the Nintendo Switch Website, “Nintendo Switch is designed to go wherever you go, transforming from home console to portable system in a snap. So you get more time to play the games you love, however you like.”
Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition, known as Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Australia and in Japan, is a dedicated video game console by Nintendo, which emulates the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It launched on November 10, 2016 in Australia and Japan, and November 11, 2016 in North America and Europe. Aesthetically, the console is a miniature replica of the NES, and it includes a static library of 30 built-in games from the licensed NES library, supporting save states for all of them.
Nintendo produced and sold about 2.3 million NES Classic Editions from November 2016 through April 2017, with shipments selling out nearly immediately. In April 2017, Nintendo announced they were discontinuing the product, leading to consumer confusion, and incidents of greatly increased pricing among private sellers. Due to the demand of the NES Classic, and the success of the Super NES Classic Edition console, Nintendo re-introduced the NES Classic on June 29, 2018. Production was discontinued again, this time permanently, in December 2018.
Nintendo was the last to release a fifth generation console with their Nintendo 64, and when they finally released their console it came with only two launch titles. Partly to curb piracy and partly as a result of Nintendo's failed disc projects with Sony and Phillips, Nintendo used cartridges for their console. The higher cost of cartridges drove many third party developers to the PlayStation. The Nintendo 64 could handle 3D polygons better than any console released before it, but its games often lacked the cut-scenes, soundtracks, and voice-overs that became standard on PlayStation discs. Nintendo released several highly acclaimed titles, such as Super Mario 64 and , and the Nintendo 64 was able to sell tens of millions of units on the strength of first-party titles alone, but its constant struggles against Sony would make the Nintendo 64 the last home console to use cartridges as a medium for game distribution.
The relationship between Sony and Nintendo started when Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi became interested in working with video games after seeing his daughter play games on Nintendo's Famicom video game console. He took on a contract at Sony for developing hardware that would drive the audio subsystem of Nintendo's next console, the Super NES. Kutaragi secretly developed the chip, known as the Sony SPC 700. As Sony was uninterested in the video game business, most of his superiors did not approve of the project, but Kutaragi found support in Sony executive Norio Ohga and the project was allowed to continue. The success of the project spurred Nintendo to enter into a partnership with Sony to develop both a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES and a Sony-branded console that would play both SNES cartridges, as well as titles released for the new Super Disc format.
The Sega Genesis, known as the in regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit video game console that was developed and sold by Sega. First released in Japan in 1988, in North America in 1989 and in PAL regions in 1990, the Genesis is Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. The system supports a library of more than 700 games created both by Sega and a wide array of third-party publishers and delivered on ROM cartridges. It can also play the complete library of Master System games when the separately sold Power Base Converter is installed. The Sega Genesis also benefited from numerous peripherals, including the Sega CD and Sega 32X, several network services, and multiple first-party and third-party variations of the console that focused on extending its functionality. The console and its games continue to be popular among fans, collectors, video game music fans, and emulation enthusiasts. Licensed third party re-releases of the console are still being produced, and several indie game developers continue to produce games for it. Many games have also been re-released in compilations for newer consoles and offered for download on various digital distribution services, such as Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam.
Ken Kutaragi and Sony continued to develop their own console and released the PlayStation in 1994. The CD-based console successfully competed with Nintendo's cartridge-based Nintendo 64 and other CD-based console systems such as the PC-FX, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and the Sega Saturn. The broken partnership with Sony has often been cited as a mistake on Nintendo's part, effectively creating a formidable rival in the video game market. Nintendo would not release an optical disc based console of its own until the release of the GameCube in 2001.
Released in 1988, the Sega Genesis (known as the Sega Mega Drive in Japan, Europe and Brazil) was Sega's entry into the fourth generation of video game consoles. Selling 30.75 million units worldwide, the Genesis was the most successful console Sega ever released. The successor to the Genesis, the Sega Saturn, was released in Japan in 1994. The Saturn was a CD-ROM-based console that displayed both 2D and 3D computer graphics, but its complex dual-CPU architecture made it more difficult to program for than its chief competitor, the Sony PlayStation. Although the Saturn debuted before the PlayStation in both Japan and the United States, its surprise U.S. launch—which came four months earlier than originally scheduled—was marred by a lack of distribution, which remained a continuing problem for the system. Moreover, Sega's early release was undermined by Sony's simultaneous announcement that the PlayStation would retail for US$299—compared to the Saturn's initial price of $399. Nintendo's long delay in releasing a competing 3D console and the damage done to Sega's reputation by poorly supported add-ons for the Genesis (particularly the Sega 32X) allowed Sony to establish a foothold in the market. The PlayStation was immediately successful in the U.S., in part due to a massive advertising campaign and strong third-party support engendered by Sony's excellent development tools and liberal $10 licensing fee. Sony's success was further aided by a price war in which Sega lowered the price of the Saturn from $399 to $299 and then from $299 to $199 in order to match the price of the PlayStation–even though Saturn hardware was more expensive to manufacture and the PlayStation enjoyed a larger software library. Losses on the Saturn hardware contributed to Sega's financial problems, which saw the company's revenue decline between 1992 and 1995 as part of an industry-wide slowdown. Furthermore, Sega's focus on the Saturn over the Genesis prevented it from fully capitalizing on the continued strength of the 16-bit market.
The list of best-selling Nintendo 64 games consists of 45 titles which have yielded 1 million or more unit sales each. The best-selling video game on the Nintendo 64 is "Super Mario 64". First released in Japan on June 23, 1996, it was a launch title for the system and the first "Super Mario" game to use three-dimensional graphics. The game went on to sell 11.91 million units worldwide. "Mario Kart 64", the second in the "Mario Kart" series, is the second best-selling game on the platform, with sales of more than 9.8 million copies. The console's top five is rounded out by Rare's "GoldenEye 007" at third, with sales of just more than 8 million units, "" in fourth, with 7.6 million units sold worldwide, and "Super Smash Bros." in fifth, with sales of more than 5.5 million units.
Nintendo at this time saw how successful video games were and began to dabble in them. Their first step in that field was to secure the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan in 1975. At the time, home video game consoles were extremely rare—even the seminal Atari Pong console had yet to be produced. After experiencing reasonable success at this, Nintendo began developing its own video games, both for home and for arcades. In the 1970s, Mitsubishi Electric proposed joint development of "Color TV Game Machine". In 1977, they released "Color TV Game 6" and "Color TV Game 15" (6 and 15 indicates the number of games).
In 1975, Nintendo moved into the video arcade game industry with "EVR Race", designed by their first game designer, Genyo Takeda, and several more games followed. Nintendo had some small success with this venture, but the release of "Donkey Kong" in 1981, designed by Miyamoto, changed Nintendo's fortunes dramatically. The success of the game and many licensing opportunities (such as ports on the Atari 2600, Intellivision and ColecoVision) gave Nintendo a huge boost in profit and in addition, the game also introduced an early iteration of Mario, then known in Japan as Jumpman, the eventual company mascot.
Their first video arcade game was 1975's "EVR Race"; a handful of others followed in the next several years, "Radar Scope" and "Donkey Kong" being among the most famous of these. The early 1980s saw Nintendo's video game division (led by Yokoi) creating some of its most famous arcade titles. The massively popular "Donkey Kong" was created in 1981, with Shigeru Miyamoto as its mastermind, and released in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems (although Nintendo themselves generally had no involvement with these early console ports). This release method would be used on several later Nintendo arcade games of this same period, including the original "Mario Bros." (not to be confused with the later "Super Mario Bros.") In addition to this arcade and dedicated console game activity, Nintendo was testing the consumer handheld video game waters with the Game & Watch.
Kondo was the third person hired by Nintendo to create music and sound effects for their games, joining Hirokazu Tanaka and Yukio Kaneoka. However, he was the first at Nintendo to actually specialize in musical composition. The first game he worked on was the arcade game "Punch-Out!!", although it was before he had officially joined Nintendo. Despite creating mostly jingles and sound effects, he was able to overcome the challenges of early arcade sound hardware. As the Famicom had become highly popular in Japan, Kondo was assigned to compose music for the console's subsequent games at Nintendo's new development team, Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD). Kondo also wrote an instruction manual on how to program Japanese popular music into the Famicom using the peripheral "Family BASIC". To conclude his first year at Nintendo, he created the music to "Devil World" alongside Akito Nakatsuka. In 1985, Nintendo started marketing the Famicom abroad under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to capitalize on the 1983 video game crash that devastated Atari, Inc. He composed the music for the hit releases "Super Mario Bros." (1985) and "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), which helped the system to sell 60 million copies in total and established some of the most well-known melodies in the video game industry.
"The Legend of Zelda" was a bestseller for Nintendo, selling over 6.5 million copies; it was the first NES title to sell over 1 million. It was reissued in 1992 as part of Nintendo's "Classic Series" and featured a grey cartridge. The game placed first in the player's poll "Top 30" in "Nintendo Power"s first issue and continued to dominate the list into the early 1990s. "The Legend of Zelda" was also voted by "Nintendo Power" readers as the "Best Challenge" in the Nintendo Power Awards '88. The magazine also listed it as the best Nintendo Entertainment System video game ever created, stating that it was fun despite its age and it showed them new ways to do things in the genre such as hidden dungeons and its various weapons. GamesRadar ranked it the third best NES game ever made. The staff praised its "mix of complexity, open world design, and timeless graphics".
In 1972, the first commercially available video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, had a light gun accessory, the Shooting Gallery. This was the first involvement of Nintendo in video games. According to Martin Picard in the "International Journal of Computer Game Research": "in 1971, Nintendo had -- even before the marketing of the first home console in the United States -- an alliance with the American pioneer Magnavox to develop and produce optoelectronic guns for the Odyssey (released in 1972), since it was similar to what Nintendo was able to offer in the Japanese toy market in 1970s".
"The Legend of Zelda" is a video game series created by game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is developed and published by Nintendo. The series debuted in Japan with "The Legend of Zelda" (known in Japan as "The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu") on February 21, 1986, and was later released in North America (August 22, 1987) and Europe (November 27, 1987). "The Legend of Zelda" video games have been developed exclusively for Nintendo video game consoles and handhelds, dating from the Family Computer Disk System to the current generation of video game consoles. Spin-off titles, however, have been released on non-Nintendo systems. The franchise consists of 27 video games, including original titles, ports, and remakes. Over 52 million copies have been sold since the release of the first game. The franchise also includes a cartoon adaptation, multiple comic book adaptations, and soundtracks.
In 2001, Nintendo introduced the redesigned Game Boy Advance. The same year, Nintendo also released the GameCube to lukewarm sales, and it ultimately failed to regain the market share lost by the Nintendo 64. When Yamauchi, company president since 1949, retired on 24 May 2002, Satoru Iwata became first Nintendo president who was unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage since its founding in 1889.
Nintendo's Game Boy handheld was first released in 1989. The gaming device was the brainchild of long-time Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi, who was the person behind the "Ultra Hand", an expanding arm toy created and produced by Nintendo in 1970, long before Nintendo would enter the video game market. Yokoi was also responsible for the Game & Watch series of handhelds when Nintendo made the move from toys to video games.
The Sega Genesis, known as the in regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit home video game console developed and sold by Sega. The Genesis was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released the console as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988, followed by North America as the Genesis in 1989. In 1990, the console was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, Ozisoft in Australasia, and Tec Toy in Brazil. In South Korea, the systems were distributed by Samsung as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy.
The series revolves around Yoshi, a green dinosaur-like character. He was first introduced in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game released in 1990, "Super Mario World", where Mario and Luigi can ride on him. The antagonists of the series are Baby Bowser, the young king of Koopas, and Kamek, a Magikoopa who was Bowser's caretaker as a child. The first Yoshi game was the Nintendo Entertainment System puzzle game released in 1991, "Yoshi", which was developed by Game Freak. The first game in what is considered the main series, as well as the first to feature Yoshi in a playable main-character role, is the game released in 1995, "", which introduces the universe staples which are used in many following games. These staples include colorful storybook graphics, and several gameplay elements. One of the earlier games in the series, "Yoshi's Safari", differs heavily from the rest, as it is a Light gun shooter game. The latest game in the series is "Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World", a port of the Wii U game "Yoshi's Woolly World", released in 2017 for the Nintendo 3DS. An upcoming title, "Yoshi's Crafted World" is set to be released for the Nintendo Switch on March 29, 2019.
The Nintendo DSi (abbreviated to DSi) is a dual-screen handheld game console released by Nintendo. The console launched in Japan on November 1, 2008, and worldwide beginning in April 2009. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP). Development of the DSi began in late 2006, and the handheld was unveiled during an October 2008 Nintendo conference in Tokyo. Consumer demand convinced Nintendo to produce a slimmer handheld with larger screens than the DS Lite. Consequently, Nintendo removed the Game Boy Advance (GBA) cartridge slot to improve portability without sacrificing durability.
In October 1993, Nintendo redesigned the NES to follow many of the same design cues as the newly introduced Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Super Famicom. Like the SNES, the NES-101 model loaded cartridges through a covered slot on top of the unit replacing the complicated mechanism of the earlier design. For this reason the NES-101 is known informally as the "top-loader" among Nintendo fans.
is a series of go-kart-style racing video games primarily developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development. The first in the series, "Super Mario Kart", was launched in 1992 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System to critical and commercial success. In the "Mario Kart" series, players compete in go-kart races, controlling one of a selection of characters from the "Mario" franchise. One of the features of the series is the use of various power-up items obtained by driving into item boxes laid out on the course. These power-ups include Super Mushrooms to give players a speed boost, Koopa Shells to be thrown at opponents, and banana peels that can be laid on the track as hazards.
There have been 5 "Mario Kart" games released for home consoles, 3 portable games, and 3 Namco co-developed arcade spin-off games, for a total of 11. As the series has progressed, each new game has introduced new elements in order to keep the gameplay fresh such as new courses, new items, and new playable characters. In 1996 and 1997, "Mario Kart 64" for the Nintendo 64 introduced 4-player racing and 3D graphics. In 2001, "" for the Game Boy Advance introduced the ability to unlock retro tracks from previous installments. In 2003, "" for the GameCube introduced co-operative LAN multiplayer and two-player karts. In 2005, "Mario Kart DS" for the Nintendo DS introduced dual-screen play and online multiplayer via Wi-Fi. In 2008, "Mario Kart Wii" introduced motion controls, 12-player racing, motorbikes and playable Mii characters., as well as three new items: the POW Block, Mega Mushroom, and Thunder Cloud. In 2011, "Mario Kart 7" for the Nintendo 3DS featured optional stereoscopic graphics, introduced hang gliding and submersible karts, an alternate first-person perspective, and kart customization. In 2014, "Mario Kart 8" for the Wii U introduced anti-gravity racing, ATVs, uploading highlights to YouTube via Mario Kart TV, up to 4 local players in Grand Prix races, downloadable content, and is the first in the series to boast HD graphics.
Possibly the most popular spin-off series in the franchise, the "Mario Kart" series began in 1992 and is currently the most successful and longest-running kart racing series, having sold over 100,000,000 copies worldwide.
Nintendo's 8-bit video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the or , was introduced after the video game crash of 1983 in North America. It enjoyed a long lifespan and dominated the North American video game market during the late 80's. Facing obsolescence in 1989 with the advent of 16-bit consoles, it was later supplanted by its successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but support and production continued until 1995. After its discontinuation, interest in the NES has since been renewed by collectors and emulators, including Nintendo's own Virtual Console platform.
Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for $199 (). It began shipping in limited quantities on August 23, 1991, with an official nationwide release date of September 9, 1991. The SNES was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992 for £150 (), with a German release following a few weeks later.