8-Bit Phenomenon

Can we all agree that the Famicom and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) are huge phenomena that still continue to capture our hearts even after four decades?

More things that are better than Internet Censorship

Author's Note: Once again, I give you another comic about things that are better than Internet Censorship. Only this time, it's about Nintendo-related products that I would rather be than to be someone who censors the Internet for any reason whatsoever.

The Game Boy Micro may have been a commercial failure, but it was the very definition of the super compact handheld console.

The Game Boy Light was basically a Game Boy Pocket with an electroluminescent backlight. Despite being confined to the Japanese market, this handheld console paved the way for the backlight version of the Game Boy Advance SP.

The mediocre sales of the GameCube meant this Nintendo console got almost no love from video game history. However, it managed to sell more units than the Sega Dreamcast. Even the Wii U's sales figures do not go anywhere near the GameCube.

Famicom consoles (Both the original and the redesign) are definitely something I would rather be not because they do not censor the Internet at all, but they have never failed to capture our imagination, even if you have never owned one before.

As the main controllers for the Wii, Wiimotes are definitely good, that's for sure.

Of course I would be better off being a Four-Ball Tee from Animal Crossing. In fact, it became one of Villager's alternate costumes in the Super Smash Bros series.

Pyra's Tiny Shorts are actually very comfy, and they would go well with a pantyhose.

Discount Sale Items that are hard to find

When it comes to discount sales in 2024, great items from yesteryear are now hard to find. Some good examples would be discontinued consoles from Atari and Sega, as well as Plug & Play consoles, HVC-101 Famicoms and even Eastern European Famiclones such as Poland's Pegasus. Then again, console redesign models such as the Atari 2600 Jr, HVC-101 Nintendo Famicom, New-Style Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis 3 are going to be easier to find in a discount sale due to being late in the market. So if you do not mind buying redesigned consoles at a discount sale, now may be your last chance to do so, and time is running out.

Famicom 40th Anniversary Tribute

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of Nintendo's Family Computer, better known as the Famicom, the original Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Who would have thought that 40 years after launching in 1983, the Famicom's legacy is still making a huge impact to this day? If Masayuki Uemura was still alive today, he would definitely be impressed by the legacy of the Famicom's cultural impact for sure.

On a related note, Spelunker, which also turns 40 this year, only had its popularity skyrocket when its Famicom port was released in 1985, and later released on the NES two years later. That's why Spelunker (as he appeared in the Famicom/NES version) is featured alongside both the original 1983 design Famicom and the 1993 redesign Famicom.

Happy 40th Anniversary, Famicom! You transformed Nintendo into the major icon of Japanese pop culture we know today!

The King of (Pre-Famicom) Kong

If there is any home console the Famicom and the NES had to owe their creation and success to, it's the ColecoVision. In fact, the ColecoVision version of Nintendo's Donkey Kong was the first home console version of the arcade game that transformed Nintendo into the video game industry powerhouse it is today, thanks to the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong being a pack-in game that came with the ColecoVision, which obviously cemented Donkey Kong's place as the best-selling ColecoVision title.

Sadly, Coleco exited video games in 1985 amid the Video Game Crash of 1983, and eventually closed shop in 1989. Their legacy, however, was that the ColecoVision influenced the design of Nintendo's Famicom and NES consoles, which may have been the reason behind their runaway success. For a short-lived console like the ColecoVision to leave behind a long legacy is incredible indeed. A legacy that became a footnote in Nintendo's history.

Donkey Kong © Nintendo.

In Memory of Masayuki Uemura

It is with deep sadness that Masayuki Uemura's obituary was announced yesterday. Uemura passed away on the 6th of December, 2021. And the 6th of December was formerly the birthday of the late Satoru Iwata. 2021 has seen many major obituaries, including Kentaro Miura, Koichi Sugiyama, and Sir Clive Sinclair.

Masayuki Uemura was known for creating the Famicom, Super Famicom, and their international counterparts, the NES and SNES. He was also one of the co-creators of Nintendo's very first video game hardware, the Color TV Game, as well as the Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom. He retired from Nintendo in 2004 and became a professor in Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

Rest In Peace, Masayuki Uemura. Your legacy will live on in all the Nintendo hardware that you created from 1977 to the mid-1990s.

35 Years of Stomped Goombas

Today marks 35 years to the day Nintendo released Super Mario Bros in Japan. Super Mario Bros was often considered the most influential video game of the 1980s, and its legacy lives on to this day.

Super Mario Bros introduced players to a lot of Nintendo icons, such as Super Mushrooms, Goombas, Piranha Plants, and many, many more. Speaking of Goombas, Super Mario Bros was also the game that introduced us to Goomba stomping. Yes, these anthropomorphic shiitake mushrooms turned traitorous and became minor villains, but the reason for the villains' villainy could be justified by the possibility of the Toads harbouring a parasite that would be capable of killing off most of humanity if not for the Toads' incompetence or the villains' villainy.

Happy 35th Anniversary, Super Mario Bros! Nintendo would not be where they are today and video gaming would not have experienced a renaissance without you!

Super Mario Bros © Nintendo.

Shared Anniversary

Author's Note: This was supposed to be my tribute to the 30th Anniversary of the Famicom and SG-1000, but multiple delays mean it will have to be my tribute to the 35th Anniversary of the Famicom and SG-1000 instead.

Was it a coincidence that Sega launched the SG-1000 on the same day Nintendo launched the Famicom? Because these two video game consoles both came out in Japan on the 15th of July, 1983, like Konata just said in the last panel.

These two consoles, however took different paths. The Famicom ended up being more successful than the SG-1000, resulting in the SG-1000 being discontinued when the Master System came out in Japan, while the Famicom continued being in production until 2003, 2 years after Sega went third-party after they discontinued production of the Dreamcast.

Anyway, like Konata said in the second panel of this comic, Happy 35th Anniversary, Famicom and SG-1000.

Up In Flames

Please avoid running or jumping into campfires. Getting burnt alive is not funny when your clothes get burnt up.

You have to give Hudson Soft credit for censoring private parts by making Master Higgins cover them when he gets burnt by a campfire. Especially when indecent exposure in video games can get any game designer into trouble with customers and game software rating organisations.

Nichitsu's Forgotten Consoles and Computers

A sad fate for these great gaming consoles and computers...

Nobody knows if the abandoned consoles and computers left behind in Nichitsu belonged to the last group of people who left the town for the last time or people who came to the ghost town and stayed there for a while.

Perhaps somebody will claim these retro treasures and give them a new home.