This week has brought us the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which has been particularly light on gaming goods. It's an opportunity for companies big and small to show off their technology, ranging from expensive high-end gear to slightly quirky or silly 'innovations'. For tech-heads, it's certainly interesting.
Before Nintendo made its big break in the West, though, it attended CES with an early prototype for a home computer - in 1984 it showed off the "Advance Video System" (AVS), below.
Those of you that know your Nintendo history may find this design puzzling, as it was shown a year after the rather cute Famicom design, below, was released in Japan.
The Famicom (which was short for family computer) did eventually have a disc drive extension and a keyboard in Japan, but Nintendo's approach with the AVS was an attempt to connect with Western audiences; the perception was that consumers in the US would be more impressed with a 'techie' product. That first image reinforces that, matching and exceeding the setup of competing systems of the era - tape playing media, a full keyboard, advanced controllers (which were apparently wireless) and a light gun. The reception to it was poor, however, and Nintendo ditched the product having no doubt figured out that following trends elsewhere in the market wasn't the right move.
It's interesting that the NES name - Nintendo Entertainment System - was still an attempt to portray the machine as more than a mere games console. Conceptually the AVS was more of an 'entertainment system', in that sense, but as history's taught us the branding of the NES was a resounding success; it launched Nintendo to the very top of the home console market. History is full of what-ifs, of course, another being what would have happened had Nintendo and Atari done a deal to release a system together before the NES took shape.
It can be fun to speculate what would have been if Nintendo had opted for an 'advanced' and no doubt expensive product in place of the NES - though the home console was pricey in its own way. It's highly likely that the AVS would have done anything but take off in the manner of the NES, so we should probably be relieved that Nintendo made the decision it did.
Image 1 credit: Kotaku
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 16
I knew about this - glad it wasn't released and we got the NES instead lol
Man I miss my Famicom. The next time we go home, I'll visit my brother's house and I'm gonna force take it from my nephew. I doubt it's still functioning but I want it back regardless (I think it just needs a power supply/adapter). I just hope they haven't thrown it yet. LOL.
Beautiful.
It could have been revolutionary,but to innovative for the time.
The wireless controllers would have sunk this thing IMO.
The AVS looks an awful lot like some of the cancelled Atari prototypes at the time, like the 3200.
I agree that NES was ultimately the better choice, because of the simplicity, even though this thing looks pretty awesome. It makes me think of like what the Atari and Commodore 64 were doing.
I'm glad we didn't get that ugly design, as much as I like a top loader with keypads, I would much rather play my games with proper wired controllers whether with joystick or pads and buttons.
I remember reading about this in David Sheffs book. Good to see a photo. Nintendo definitely made the right decision to change tack
Having wireless control pads was kinda cool.
http://wii.mmgn.com/Lib/Images/News/Normal/The-NES-was-almost-the-39-Advanced-Video-System-39-1090619.jpg
Also; here's a much better quality image of the system: http://oi59.tinypic.com/29ykzgg.jpg
Although that image doesn't actually show you the main console, which you can see in this image: http://killerraptorsfromouterspace.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/7/9/16799692/7644955_orig.jpg
Thank God they went with the much more elegant single box design solutions of both the Famicom and NES
Although; that Nintendo Advanced System does sound pretty cool: http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7005/61699227970187213532920.jpg
NES + Commordore 64 = Nintendo Commordore 64
I think the history of the games industry is fascinating.
@Kirk Interestingly, in the brochure you linked to, it makes it look like the keyboard is an optional extra, with the machine proper housed inside the console case. But in the photos from the CES exhibition, there is no separate console, suggesting it is a slightly different prototype where the CPU etc would be inside the keyboard unit, a la the Commodore 64 or Atari 800. Curious!
@ThomasBW84 "another being what would have happened had Nintendo and Atari done a deal to release a system together before the NES took shape." Wait, what? Was this a possibility at one point? I know nothing about this - please tell!
I love how the stand has a display of a deck of Hanufuda cards and what looks like some Napoleon decks.
@antonvaltaz
Yeah; it's pretty obvious they weren't exactly sure of what they wanted at that point, which is obviously why we ended up with the final NES product that was just much simpler and more elegant than their early prototypes.
@TripleGamer3K
I don't think it would have been very revolutionary. There were other similar concepts that came out around this time, or earlier, like the Commodore64, ZX Spectrum, and Magnavox Odyssey2 that never had the market impact of the NES. Although, the Commodore64 had it's own truly massive game library and fanbase.
The NES was vastly more revolutionary, particularly in the sleek, simplified controller and really the first D-Pad in gaming.
@antonvaltaz The story is that Nintendo approached Atari to distribute the NES Stateside, but Atari declined, due to the market crash at the time.
@Quorthon That's a very US-centric perspective. Here in the UK, the ZX Spectrum (and the Commodore 64 for that matter) had much more impact than the NES.
@Asaki Oh, well that's a bit less exciting than the article sounded. Both Sega and Nintendo used other companies for distribution of their 8-bit consoles in the 1980s in the West (or at least in Europe, where Mattel distributed the NES and Virgin Mastertronic distributed the Master System).
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