CREDIT: NINTENDO
R.O.B the Robot came bundled with the NES Deluxe set. Though he was totally useless for any serious gaming, he still looks kinda cool.

Nintendo was no stranger to video games. Their wunderkid Shigeru Miyamoto had already helped the company establish a degree of arcade success with Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Their hot new video game system, the Famicom, already out in Japan, Nintendo saw the crash as an opportunity to gain foothold in a market that was ready for a new player.

The most ingenious aspect of Nintendo's marketing in America was the avoidance of describing the hardware as a video game. Games WERE, after all, a passé fad that ended in tears and broken promises. No, the Nintendo Entertainment System, with its VCR-like spring-loaded cartridge slot and boxy yet sexy look, was the furthest looking thing from a video game that the average consumer found. It was an “Entertainment System,” one that came bundled with a toy gun and a toy robot, and was even meant to come with a Commodore 64-esque keyboard set that was ultimately scrapped.

Recognizing the failings of their predecessor is what truly made Nintendo strong. Bad games from a lack of QA testing was what killed Atari and video games in general. Buying a $60 game is an investment for the average consumer, and Nintendo realized that.

Pull out your copy of Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt. See the little gold seal on the face? The Nintendo Quality of Assurance was what prevented further embarrassment from unwanted contributors. Using a mechanism called the CIC lockout chip built into the NES console and the cartridge, only developers approved by Nintendo were allowed access to manufacturing specifications. Any sort of bootleg or pirated game had no chance in bypassing the encrypted system. The flow of titles was steady, and if not fun to play, at the very least they were made with some semblance of effort.

It was 1986; games were back on the market, and Nintendo ruled with an iron fist. Nintendo's creation of Nintendo Power, a magazine that more or less was an advertising catalog that required a $30/year subscription, helped bolster a decent rapport with the kids with the right dosage of radi-cool attitude. The control was strong — maybe a bit too strong. Developers were only permitted to create five games per business year, which led companies like Konami to sidestep the issue with the creation of shell corporations like the Ultra Games label.

The ghost of the old didn't fade away just yet. Atari, wanting in on the action, created their own company, Tengen, ready to slide out their own brand of quick-buck video games. Soon enough, however, the reality of the five game a year limit hit them, and they realized they needed to sidestep this. Going completely off the map, Tengen employees impersonated a lawyer in order to contact a U.S. patent office to request specifications on the CIC lockout chip. Reverse engineering the chip finally gave Tengen the free rein to publish as many workable bootleg games as they pleased.

The big N wasn't pleased, and, in 1989, sued Tengen. No match against the video game juggernaut, Tengen was forced to recall their bootleg games, but not before filing a countersuit charging Nintendo with antitrust practices, based on the fact that publishers had to sign exclusivity deals. Although not the first in Atari's history of stupid lawsuits, the losing countersuit did force Nintendo to loosen their grip on the market, establishing more leniency with game developers and publishers.

Creating cracks for a competitor named Sega to slip through...