I was a North American kid who grew up without an NES, and for this reason, I have a different perspective on retro video games.
The common narrative in retro gaming circles is that the NES was everywhere—that it was totally dominant, and if you didn’t own one, you missed out. But when you look at the sales numbers, the story changes.
In North America, 30 million NES units were sold between 1985 and 1995. At the time, this was the most a video game console had ever sold—no question, it was huge. But compared to later systems like the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, or even the Nintendo Wii, it’s not that much. In fact, if you combine Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo sales, the NES didn’t outsell them.
So what did everyone else play? Because I guarantee that just because you didn’t own an NES didn’t mean you weren’t playing video games at home. I’m just going to talk about what I played, because I don’t think I was unique in this regard.
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My first video game console, the one I got when I was three years old, was an Atari 2600. I got it in 1984, and it was my only console for a few years. By no means was it as good as an NES in terms of graphics or sound—I mean, come on, the 2600 hardware came out in 1977, and even then, it was underpowered. But it had a lot of great games that kept me busy: Asteroids, Missile Command, Pac-Man (even though it wasn’t as good as the arcade version), Frostbite, Frogger—you name it.
It was easy to enjoy these games at the time because arcades were still huge in the ‘80s, and the Atari 2600 had a great selection of arcade ports. I remember wanting an NES because it was clearly better than the 2600, but my parents said they couldn’t afford one. And that was that.
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Sometime in the late ‘80s, though, my mom got me a Commodore 64. The funny thing is, she didn’t see it as a gaming machine—she thought it would help me with schoolwork, that I’d be using it for highly educational purposes. Little did she know.
Someone we knew found out I had a Commodore 64 and gave us a huge stack of floppy disks. My mom was thrilled, thinking it would help with my studies. What she didn’t realize was that those floppies were packed with pirated games. I had no idea at first—I’d just put in a random floppy, load it up, and see what was on it. Most of them weren’t labeled well, so it was always a surprise.
One day, I loaded up a floppy and saw “OutRun.” I was blown away. I remember thinking, “Okay, this thing is going to keep me busy for a long time.” And it did. I played Ultima, Lode Runner, Donkey Kong (which, believe it or not, was officially released on the Commodore 64), Ghosts ‘n Goblins—you name it. The amount of time I spent on that machine was insane.
What a lot of people don’t realize about the Commodore 64 is that many NES games were also released on it—Bubble Bobble, Castlevania, and while Super Mario Bros. wasn’t there, The Great Giana Sisters was. That game was basically Super Mario Bros., and I actually grew to like it more. The music, composed by Chris Hülsbeck, was amazing. I remember stumbling across a symphony orchestra playing the theme music on YouTube one day, which just confirmed that other people appreciated it as much as I did.
But the game that truly made me feel like I had something legendary on my hands? Turrican. Man, Turrican was magical. I have never had an experience quite like it. How people feel about Contra—that’s how I feel about Turrican.
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In the early ‘90s, I got a 286 PC, which introduced me to the world of shareware. I wanted the big games everyone was talking about, like Wing Commander, but my machine couldn’t handle it. Instead, I played stuff like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem, mostly games from Apogee and id Software. In some ways, it felt like a downgrade from my Commodore 64, so I still played on that, but my mom was pretty intent on us “keeping up with the times.”
Still, PC gaming had its advantages. Games were cheap—you could literally walk into a dollar store, pick up a shareware title for a buck, and go to town. I had so many variations of Tetris on my 286, it was ridiculous. A little later, we upgraded to a 386, and I finally got to experience Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. By then, the NES era was ending, and at that point, I felt like I didn’t need a console—PC gaming had everything I wanted. And 30 years later, I’m still playing Wolfenstein and Doom.
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Eventually, my mom did try to get me an NES. It was Christmas 1991, and I was overjoyed when I unwrapped my gift—finally, I had something to replace my old Atari 2600. But the NES was broken. My mom felt bad and told me, “We’ll return this, and you can pick out whatever console you want.”
This was 1991. The options were NES, Super NES, or Sega Genesis. I looked at the Genesis box and saw Sonic the Hedgehog, and to me, the choice was clear—I needed Sonic. By then, I was 10 years old, and Mario felt like it was for babies. Sonic had attitude, and being a kid in the early ‘90s, I obviously wanted the character with attitude.
I loved my Sega Genesis—it was like rock and roll to me. It did what my Commodore 64 and 286 couldn’t: display lots of colors, lots of sprites, with parallax scrolling to boot. I had so many games: Earthworm Jim, NHL ‘94, Sonic Spinball, and eventually Street Fighter II: Championship Edition. At that point, I didn’t want an NES—most people didn’t in 1991.
I became a full-blown Sega fan. Around this time, I found a Sega Master System in a pawn shop for $35. It wasn’t sold in stores anymore, but I grabbed it, and luckily, my local video store still rented and sold Master System games cheap. I got Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Space Harrier—hell, I even rented Sonic the Hedgehog for it.
It’s funny—when people think “8-bit console,” they immediately think NES, but my mind goes to Sega. And in places like Brazil, Australia, and Europe, plenty of people had similar experiences. But in North America, I was the only person I knew with a Master System. Still, it had an incredible library—Phantasy Star is one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
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I did own one Nintendo system—a Game Boy, which I got near launch in 1989. So it’s not like I was completely without Nintendo hardware, but it was handheld, not a home console. I played Super Mario Land, Tetris (obviously), Super Mario Land 2, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was about it, until I lost it. My mom was furious, but I had it for two years and played those games to death.
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And finally, there were the Tiger Electronics handhelds. People don’t really talk about them now, but they were a big deal. While an NES game might cost $60, a Tiger handheld was $20-$30, and they were everywhere. They weren’t great, but they amused me, and kids would trade them at school.
So, while I missed out on the “NES experience,” I never felt deprived. Between the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Sega consoles, PC gaming, and handhelds, I had plenty to play. And honestly? I wouldn’t trade my gaming history for anything.