Outside of budget lines, video game box and disc art these days is a unique and varied art. No two games' presentation looks the same. But for a short time, right back at the beginning of their days in the home console market, Nintendo bucked this trend. And it's a shame they never stuck with it.
China and video games have a long and ridiculous history, but in the age of the internet, it's a story that's yet to be completely put together. And so, here at Kotaku, we will try to make sense of the history of consoles in China. Stay awhile, and read?
I have a weakness for the Famicom colour scheme. That bold crimson, the slightly tacky gold, it's an 80s Chinese restaurant, bad hotel lobby and classic Nintendo console, all rolled into two tones.
If you're the type to fear Windows 8 and seek solace in the arms of something older, you can always go left field and not only step back to Windows XP, but do it on a Nintendo console from the 1980s.
Pacific Rim never got an 8-bit Nintendo game. Why? Because Guillermo Del Toro wasn't making big Hollywood movies during the 1980s, that's why. But what if he were...
So, the Famicom turned 30 today
Your carefree 20s are over, Famicom. No more gallivanting. It's time to settle down—find a nice wife, get a stable job, maybe put a down payment on a house. You're 30 now.
The Famicom is an iconic game console. It established Nintendo as a gaming powerhouse. So! How would you like to own, oh, a thousand Famicoms?
The Famicom Test Cart was used to, well, test Nintendo's Family Computer. It might be rare, but it's certainly not exciting.
The Twin Famicom is an interesting game console. Produced by Sharp, it was Nintendo's Famicom console and Disk System melded into a single console. While it looked nice enough, there is a way to make it look better: Lots and lots of gloss.
It's my favourite time of the year. The time when, like clockwork, Japanese indie gaming store Meteor holds its annual Famicase exhibition, which brings together artists from all over the world and asks them to design fake Nintendo games.
Ever wonder why the Famicom (née Family Computer) was red, gold and white? It was glorious color scheme, but the story goes that cheap plastics were responsible for the console's iconic hue. That story, says one of the console's main designers, is wrong.
Sometimes I think the internet was invented just for sites like NES Title Screens. Places where you can make a cup of tea, sit down and just click through images that are equal parts fantastic art and pure nostalgia.
Flickr user CK Tsang has, with great patience and attention to detail, rebuilt Nintendo's first two serious home consoles - the Japanese Famicom and Western NES - into teeny tiny LEGO models.
The Famicom was once a magnificent beast, but its time in the sun has long gone. Unless you're a collector, you probably don't have much need for one. These guys didn't. So they turned it into an RC car, which is driven by the console's control pad.
As Americans prepare to head to the polls, it's worth noting that one of the most important events on the planet is barely represented in the world of video games. Sure, you get the odd social or joke game released every four years to cash in on the hype surrounding a Presidential election, but on the whole, politics…
"Arigato Nintendo" is a meme in Japan. It first appeared on popular Japanese game site Sinobi in 2009 in a piece that detailed the staggering first day sales of New Super…
Four very fake, very awesome Adventure Time labels for old Famicom cartridges, for those dreams where you're running through Super Potato with a basket under your arm, $500 in your pocket and a need to play a 1980s game based on a 21st century cartoon.
In 1984, Nintendo released Family BASIC, a programming suite for its Famicom (NES) console. Including a swish keyboard and data recording unit, it was designed to allow consumers to, with a little teaching, program their own basic games for the system.
