Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985.
The console had first appeared in Japan as the Family Computer, or Famicom, in 1983. Nintendo redesigned the hardware and packaging for the North American market, where it debuted in New York City in 1985 before expanding across the United States and Canada in 1986.
The NES helped revive the North American console market after the video game crash of 1983. Its library included Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. Nintendo also introduced licensing rules and the 10NES lockout system to control which cartridges could run on the console, shaping the company’s tightly managed software ecosystem.