Super Mario Bros. and the NES revive the industry
Nintendo's console launches in North America and gaming climbs out of the crash
Quick facts
- Console
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
- US test launch
- 18 October 1985, New York City
- Mario designer
- Shigeru Miyamoto
- Initial US shipment
- 100,000 Deluxe Set units
What happened
Nintendo test-launched its Famicom console in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System in New York City on 18 October 1985, shipping an initial 100,000 Deluxe Set units before a wider national rollout, at a moment when American retailers still remembered the 1983 crash and were wary of stocking any game console. Launch titles included Super Mario Bros., designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, a side-scrolling platformer starring the character introduced in Donkey Kong, in which Mario runs and jumps through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. Nintendo built the console with a gray, VCR-like front-loading cartridge slot and a lockout chip to control which games could run on it, both direct responses to the quality problems of the crash era.
Why it matters
Super Mario Bros. became the best-selling game of its era and turned Mario into gaming's signature character, while the NES itself demonstrated to skeptical retailers and consumers that a well-controlled console business could work again after the crash had convinced many that the home video game was a fad.
How we know
The Video Game History Foundation, a nonprofit archive founded by games historian Frank Cifaldi, holds original 1985 launch documents and covers the test-market rollout and console redesign directly; the Smithsonian's own object record for the NES confirms the 1985 US launch and the console's role in popularizing Super Mario Bros.
Sources
- Video Game History Foundation. The NES Launch Collection · General sourcegamehistory.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Smithsonian Institution. Nintendo Entertainment System Video Game Console · Reputable sourcesi.edu · The domain "si.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineHistory of Video Games32 events · From a radar-lab curiosity to the biggest entertainment medium on EarthView all →