THE IMMERSION INTO VIDEO GAMES:

HOW TO SET UP THE NINTENDO

ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (NES) GAME
CONSOLE
Juliana Marie Z. Gaballo 2. Gaming Consoles and The Rise of the Nintendo
Department of Chemistry, Ateneo de Manila Entertainment System (NES)
University Atari Inc. helped make gaming consoles
Manila, Philippines popular due to its inspiration from the Magnavox
Juliana.gaballo@obf.ateneo.edu Odyssey, which made video games more accessible
to the public. Before 1972, consoles needed
I. Introduction computers, which were still uncommon devices in
households. Due to the Odyssey, it was made possible
1. Brief Early Background of Video Games to play video games through television, a more
Video games emerged in the 1960s, as a common device found in homes. The first consoles
result of the rise of computers during the 1940s - were preloaded with the game it was purchased with,
1950s. The first video game was considered to be but then companies made it possible to add games
'Tennis for Two', which was programmed purely for instead through cartridges over time. They were of
entertainment in 1958. However, the game that the second generation, produced between 1976 and
kickstarted the phenomenon of video games was 1983.
called 'Spacewar!', created by a group of MIT In 1983, however, the supply was greater
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students that than the demand, which caused the industry into a
sparked interest among college students and the small recession. Due to the many gaming consoles being
programming community at the time. released by several companies, the choices for it
From the idea of 'Spacewar!', Nolan seemed endless. Furthermore, the games during that
Bushnell executed the concept of arcade video time were of bad quality, resulting in less interest in
games. He released the 'Pong' machine in June 1972, video games. But Nintendo soon transformed and
which he published under his company, Atari Inc., dominated the market with their Famicom gaming
along with business partner, Ted Dabney. It was system, also known as their Nintendo Entertainment
considered to be the first commercial video game. System (NES), in 1985.
'Pong' was heavily inspired by a table tennis The reason for Nintendo's overwhelming
game made for the Magnavox Odyssey game success with the NES was due to the strict quality
console. An engineer named Ralph Baer invented and regulations when it came to game releases, and
released the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, which he forbidding their developers to work for other
licensed under the Sanders Associates Inc. He saw an companies on their consoles. As a result, their games
innovation for video games on television. Despite not were of high quality and even made one of the most
being a big commercial success like 'Pong', his memorable video game characters, Mario from Super
invention of the Magnavox game console created the Smash Bros. It became one of the best-selling
video game industry for companies such as Nintendo, consoles of all time, selling over 61 million consoles
a Japanese company that took the American market [8]
by storm despite the industry crash that followed in
the 1980s. II. Theoretical Background
 Video games are a relatively modern media
that was popularized through gaming consoles.
Gaming consoles work similarly to computers, where
they also have their central processing unit (CPU),
memory (RAM/ROM), and graphics processing unit
(GPU). The NES was modified for western audiences
and is now considered to be an older model, but it
helped rebounded the video game industry with a
new generation of technological advancements [4].
As a result, video games continue to evolve to reach
their fullest potential and have now become a subject
of study, where it applies the Game Theory.
Game Theory acts as a tool that
mathematically explores human behaviors in games,
where situations and interactions have to be
considered for the best strategy to get the desired
result. It serves as a model of interactive situations
among involved players, where their choices and
actions will result in various outcomes that will affect
each other's fate and different payoffs. Once an
outcome is reached, it means that no one can change
the payoff that they reached [2]. The limitations of
this theory are the lack of consideration for players'
emotions and the assumption that all players already
know how the game works, which does not apply to
many video games [7]. Those 2 limitations are what
this research considers to be the prominent faults of
this theory, but the research also believes that this
theory is what made the NES game console
successful as Nintendo most likely incorporated it to
make high-quality games. Present games now
integrated it into their game design, but Nintendo
showed the results of it through their strict quality
control and advanced technology, making themselves
a beloved company among gamers.

III. Discussion

(Figure 1. Flowchart of the NES Gaming System)

The flowchart shows how to set up the NES

gaming system in modern-day television. As
mentioned before, gaming consoles share similar
components to computers such as the central
processing unit (CPU), memory (RAM/ROM), and
graphics processing unit (GPU). Video games are
processed into the console through cartridges, where processed by the console systems to provide the
the game data is stored and connected to the game output that can be played by the player.
console through its cartridge connector located in a
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