After 22 years of glory, Nintendo has finally decided to retire their beloved NES. Wait, you didn’t know that it wasn’t retired yet? Me neither. I wouldn’t have ever guessed that Nintendo was still supporting a system that’s been out of their big picture for quite some time now. Not to say that there aren’t plenty of NES fans and users out there, because there are, but it’s just hard to believe that they were still offering hardware support for a product that debuted back in 1985. I’m assuming I’m not the only one that wasn’t aware of this, and now that it’s been made public that support will end on October 31st, I could see people digging their NES consoles out and sending them in to Nintendo for repairs before it’s too late.
Nintendo’s NES isn’t the only console that they are dropping support for. Also on the list is Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Pocket lines. Apparently NES was the lucky one to get an extra long support life, because Nintendo 64 has only been around for about half the time – since March 1st, 1997 in North America. As you can imagine, there’s a lot that people have to say around the web regarding this. Over at Digg, their users had plenty to say:
- “Nintendo supported the NES till now?????????? Why haven’t I known this????” by doshindude
- “As long as my Commodore 64 is still supported by Commodore International, I can live.” by andrewcsayer
- “In other news: Nintendo sees a 2300% peak in broken NES’s being sent in for repair after digg users realize they are still supported until the 31st. Numerous repair techs dead after blowing in nearly 10,000 cartridge slots.” by ChromaVita
- “I just know the second they stop supporting it mine will stop working.” by rivalius
How many of you out there are still playing your ole’ NES and just hoping nothing goes wrong with it after October 31st?
Destructoid [via Digg]
I still play my SNES, believe it or not. I’m kind of challenged in the video game department, and I like the slower pace/simpler graphics of the SNES. I could never get a handle on anything more modern than my SNES or my old Sega Genesis.
I play a lot of those classic games as well, but not on an NES. Unfortunately I don’t have my system anymore, but I have an emulator to use on my Xbox.
Whoa, I had no idea it was supported. So that means you could send any broken NES in and it must be fixed?! That’s a 22 year warranty. I doubt someone with a broken PS2 right now could send it to Sony for repairs.
I think it means that they could get it fixed, but they would have to pay for it. I had no idea that anyone supported a product that long.
Aha, that makes a lot more sense.
I don’t own an NES or SNES, but I’ve played tons and tons of NES and SNES games that were ported or remade for the GBA or DS, in classic gaming rooms at anime conventions, on the Virtual Console on the Wii, or at my friends’ houses, or via ROMS.
I really love those games….old skool Mario, Zelda, Metroid, old RPGs, so on and so forth.
Personally, most of the classics kick the crap out of new games, it’s just too damn hard to get ahold of them….
I loved the old NES games simply because they were simple and fun. Now most games these days seem so complicated (not to mention how many more buttons have been added to controllers!) that I just avoid them all together.
I still break out the NES every once and awhile to relive my childhood memories. Glad to see Nintendo still keeping there games relativity simple compared to the other consoles.
Nintendo is definitely smart for catering to families rather than just the hardcore gamers. The Wii makes for a great party system.