A giant of gaming
Nintendo are funding a £1 million gaming retro exhibition that will open later this year and run until 2007 at London's Science museum. This is great news for gamers, who get all teary eyed at even the mention of Space Invaders, never mind a million pound exhibition. Yesterday's London Evening Standard tells us that once this exhibition closes there will be an 'interactive gallery built to inspire aspiring programmers'.
If Nintendo are funding the event they'll no doubt have some of their own classic machines on show. Put your feet up, grab a tissue and browse through some of Nintendo's classic machines that have kept gamers entertained for almost 30 years.
It all started way back in 1975 with the Magnavox Odyssey. Nintendo teamed up with Mitsubishi who manufactured the console on their behalf. The original 'brown box' allowed gamers to take advantage of the light-gun. This add-on could be used alongside the popular 'Shooting Gallery' series.
Magnavox OdysseyIn 1977 Nintendo and Mitsubshi released a joint effort, the Color TV game 6 had 6 built-in games, squash, squash practice, football, tennis, target and shooting. Who remembers the huge switch that allowed you to turn sound on or off - so simple, yet a touch of genius!
After the success of the Color TV game 6 Nintendo released a number of different versions of the bulky console, including the Color TV game 15. In 1980 Nintendo ventured into the handheld market. Their first handheld console was called 'Game and Watch'. This become Nintendo's most popular gaming product to date and provided the foundation for Nintendo's success throughout the 1980's.
1983 saw Nintendo's first cartridge based console, the Famicom. By 1985,and with a few design changes, this console became the Nintendo Entertainment system. The Famicom was a huge success in the U.S even though it retailed at a rather expensive $100. Due to malfunctioning chip problems the Famicom was recalled, but in 1985 Nintendo released the NES world-wide.
