My Love Affair with the Nintendo Entertainment System

Guest Blog post by Adam @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz

Do you love the NES as much as we do?

I have been a gamer ever since I was four years old. My earliest memories of gaming was back in the early eighties. I was then the proud owner of the Commodore Plus 4 computer. Amongst the games which I can remember playing in those early years of my existence were Fire Ant and a game called Icicle Works (in which you played as Father Christmas) collecting presents to form the main toy or gift you would make at the end of the level.

Following on from that I was then donated a Spectrum 48k and played all of those classics such as Wizball, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy and Daley Thompsons Decathlon. As much as I enjoyed those formative years in gaming. No other console resonated with me as much as the fabled NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).

The NES is and probably will be my favourite console of all time. It could be argued amongst the gaming community that the NES also had the best library of any console that has been released. So much choice, so much variety. What stands out more for me is how many IPs started out on the NES and are still going today. We just need Konami to get a wiggle on and sort themselves out with some of their creations.

Some of the best gaming days and experiences I had with the NES. Back in the late 80’s and very early 90s hardly anyone had a NES or even a games console. Most people I knew had a Spectrum or a Commodore 64. It was a wonderful sight and treat when I was out shopping with my parents and if we ever walked past a Currys, Dixon’s and Toy and Hobby we got to play on a demo NES system which was in these stores.

You could choose a game to play out of five or six I think, then get to play said game for five minutes before it would reset again. Suddenly I started noticing Nintendo everywhere. More shops had the NES in, it was featured more on television adverts and more than anything word of mouth was getting around my school about as we called it. “The Nintendo”.

At Christmas 1990 myself and my brothers received the NES Action Set with the Zapper, Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. My main present that year was a Yamaha Keyboard, it hardly got touched due to the NES. That’s how powerful and addictive it was back then .

​My parents resigned themselves that I was not going to be a world class pianist and I’m pretty sure they ended up either swapping the keyboard back at Dixons for more NES games. As a couple of days after Christmas we had gained Excitebike and Bubble Bobble to our library. What a Christmas.

That's correct Adam, I do own the TMNE NES Console Variant

My birthday is in January and all my hopes were pinned on getting the most talked about game of the time. Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Turtles was at its height in 1990-1991 and the NES game was selling bucket loads. I think Gemma may even have the NES console variant of it. Then as the 16th January 1991 rolled on, I had my worst experience of gaming in my life whilst playing Turtles and I’m not talking about the swimming bomb level.

I had come home from school that day as I normally would. I knew I had the game as I opened it that morning. I was just mega excited to play it. It was my 10th birthday. I headed upstairs with my little brother and we put the game in and started it up. No problems whatsoever. After around ten minutes. I couldn’t see properly. All my vision went blurry. I told my brother this and he was eight. He probably thought I was taking the piss.

Even so. I managed to make my way to our living room using touch and the blurred vision. I shouted to my mum that I couldn’t see. Again she initially thought I was joking. I said again I cannot see properly. That was the last memory I have of that day. The next moment I was waking up on the children’s ward at Wigan Hospital. What had happened to me.

I had collapsed to the floor at home and started convulsing and from stories I got told I was jerking and foaming from the mouth. I had suffered a seizure due to playing video games. I never had a history of epilepsy in my family and had never experienced anything like this at all.

Luckily enough I never had any physical damage as a result of the seizure. I’ve never had one since either. My main concern at ten years old was that I wouldn’t be allowed to play video games again either.

I had the clearance to go home after a couple of days. I was also told that just as a precaution i should get my eyes tested. I did and my family spoke to the relevant people and asked could I continue to play games. The answer was Yes but I had to restrict myself to an hour at a time with twenty minutes break in between. So I ended up with glasses and a new copy of Gradius for being brave. Win win.

Aside from that, the NES has always had the biggest place in my heart. My library grew so much with titles such as Metroid, Castlevania, Digger T Rock, Super Mario Bros 2 and 3 and The very underated Gremlins 2. Even better was that I could trade games and swap with my pals. This opened my eyes to such gems as Mega Man 2, Burai Fighter, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong Classics and many many more.

Unfortunately, I no longer own all my old hardware and software. I got rid of it all to buy more Super Nintendo games. I am lucky enough to have Nintendo Online on the Switch and also through emulation I am still able to relive the classics every now and again.

Here are my top 10 NES Games.

1. Super Mario Brothers 3
2. Mega Man 3
3. Blades of Steel
4. Tecmo World Wrestling
5. Duck Tales
6. Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers
7. The Legend of Zelda
8. Popeye
9. Castlevania
10. Probotector

I hope you enjoyed this piece. I will hopefully be writing more for Gemma over the summer and the remainder of 2023.

In the meantime. Keep Gaming
Adam @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz