Despite the gaming industry's relatively young age, it's interesting that much of its history is subject ot permanent loss. As standards have changed over the years, many games, advertisements, prototypes, and so on, have been lost due to poor efforts to future proof them. A great example of this can be found in the recent preservation of a handful of Satellaview Kirby games that had been previously thought to be gone forever. Now, somebody has finally managed to find the very first advertisement for what would eventually become the NES.
An archivist named Frank Cifaldi managed to find an ancient Consumer Electronics catalogue on eBay for seven bucks a few days ago, after a five year search. Inside, there was an ad for the Advanced Video System, the first prototype of the Western NES, which was going to utilize wireless controllers. Fortunately, this device has properly managed to withstand the test of time, and it is now on display in the Nintendo World Store in New York.
What do you think? Have you ever seen an AVS in person? What are some games that you think have been lost for good? Drop us a comment in the section below.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 23
Its pretty crazy to think that we've barely got many products from 30 years ago. Its fortunate that we can now save things much more easily using The Internet.
The controller looks like a videotape. And the console looks like a king size bed.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Oh. I thought that was one of their prototype cartridges.
I dont think this reads quite right. He means he spent five years looking for the book not the advert. Everyone knows that the CES is the place that all new systems are shown. ive seen all the pics from this catalogue online years ago. if he was actually serching for the first advert he should of just used google.
This is also now the design used for the retro AVS
The is quit awesome, showcasing 2 generations and teasing the future. I doubt that they barely get to do that anymore.
(I wanted to RT him, found I was blocked. More clichéd, amusing and sad, why is it always some hipster from California? Though he may not know that he has me blocked.)
That thing reminds me a lot of a PS4.
They designed the avs to look like a vhs player which was all the rage then. I kind of wish they would have stuck to this design maybe minus the wireless controller. I Had a freedom stick in the late 80's and it was wireless and worked well but I think that would have driven the price of the nes up.
@MitchVogel it does, doesn't it. 😂
I've been enjoying Retrousb's AVS for a few months now, so this is pretty cool to see.
On another note I've been lucky enough to be selected to go to London and see the switch in January and get a plus one as well, massively happy this morning
It looks like a flipping car reveal... oh, wait...
@hendie001 It was more so "make it not look like a game console" rather than "make it look like a vhs player" because of the public perception of games at the time. With the video game crash and all that.
@MitchVogel
This was my first thought before I even clicked on the article!
Also, I mainly clicked to see all the 'looks like a PS4' comments. lol
Put the stripe on the opposite side and it would be.
The constant updates and online only games have made it hard to preserve modern video games. There will come a time when museums will be a thing of the past
Frank's been doing some excellent work.
@Rawb43
Fantastic! Hope you and your plus one enjoy it!
@Rawb43 Awesome! Congrats.
This is pretty cool. While I don't think everything needs to be preserved, stuff like this is important.
@YANDMAN The man himself clearly states "It took five years but I finally found it: the very first advertisement for what became the Nintendo Entertainment System"
The "it" that he found clearly designates the advert. And the design of the RetroAVS may have been inspired by this, but it is not the same at all:
P.S.
It's "should HAVE just used Google" not "should of"...
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I thought it WAS a videotape!
Still way better than the Wii U
Interesting that they have the d-pad on the right and the buttons on the left in that picture. Maybe they just have the controller upside down, but it does make me wonder why it was decided the directional controller should always be on the left.
I think by that time it was a standard layout in the arcades but I wonder if that was chosen for a reason or if it was just a random choice someone made without any real reason that become the de facto standard?
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