Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

The NES was released in 1985, a redesign of the Famicom which was released in Japan in 1983. Nintendo had been successful in designing a series of arcade games in the early 80's, and wanted to capitalise on this success by releasing a cheap, simply designed home console that ran games stored on a cartridge (a unique idea at the time). One of the best-selling consoles of the 8-bit era, the NES featured a number of ground breaking games, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, all of which have become long-running, beloved Nintendo franchises.