The Nintendo Entertainment System turned 30 years old on Sunday, and though it no longer leads the console pack the entire video game industry owes a lot to its three decades of development.
Its predecessor, introduced in Japan two years earlier as the Famicom, or Family Computer, was massively successful there. However, retailers in North America were leery of introducing a new gaming console following the video game crash that resulted from poor sales and lackluster new titles for the Atari 2600.
Nintendo executives decided to introduce the system to America in 1985, at the January Consumer Electronics Show. It debuted as the Advanced Video System highlighting the video part of the system and downplaying the gaming aspect. From a small booth in the corner of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the system caught a few eyes. However, retailers attending CES still were not convinced that consumers would be interested in a new video game machine.
Nintendo tried a new strategy at the CES held that summer in Chicago. To further downplay the gameplay it added a robot that could be controlled by the system, dubbing it Robot Operating Buddy or ROB. More importantly, the company renamed the entire system. From then on it was known as the "Nintendo Entertainment System or NES. Nintendo officially released it to the public on Oct. 18, 1985.