Was the NES actually obscure in the UK?

Jimnymebob · Oct 4, 2018

I don't remember ever seeing a NES, and I only really knew the likes of Mario from the TV shows and the film, and the magazine ads of "Move over Mario, mascot character X is here!"

I do remember seeing SNES things in shops, and they defintely had a lot of N64 stuff, but I feel like Nintendo only really picked up with the Gameboy Colour and Pokemon.

Wez · Oct 4, 2018

I had a NES, so it never felt obscure to me.

sir_crocodile · Oct 4, 2018

Jimnymebob said:
I don't remember ever seeing a NES, and I only really knew the likes of Mario from the TV shows and the film, and the magazine ads of "Move over Mario, mascot character X is here!"

I do remember seeing SNES things in shops, and they defintely had a lot of N64 stuff, but I feel like Nintendo only really picked up with the Gameboy Colour and Pokemon.

That's weird

NES was in Argos, Index, Future Zone, Dixons, Boots, WH Smiths...if a shop sold games, they sold the NES round my way.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

I just remembered, this thread is the best source on the internet really.
https://www./threads/retro-sales-age-thread.981407/

From that we have contemporary sources for UK in 1991:

1993:

This 1997 EA report shows NES and Master System as equal, but Mega Drive clearly pulled away from the SNES:

Mr.Fletcher · Oct 4, 2018

I didn't realise the Mega Drive outsold SNES by that much, though in my little corner of the UK (Lincolnshire to be exact) the former was much more popular so I'm not totally surprised.

It's a pity Sega went through such a torrid time after the Mega Drive. PlayStation obviously changed the landscape...

... but I still have a lot of affection for Sega as a brand. They'll never go back to consoles, but I'd probably take a punt on them if they did.

Ganondolf · Oct 4, 2018

my family had a NES and master system. if you were into gaming the NES was not obscure. Sega had more presence at the time though.

Deleted member 1627 · Oct 4, 2018

The NES was in no way obscure, but it had a hell of a lot more legitimate competition back then.

Jimnymebob · Oct 4, 2018

sir_crocodile said:
That's weird

NES was in Argos, Index, Future Zone, Dixons, Boots, WH Smiths...if a shop sold games, they sold the NES round my way.

It's like, I probably did, but I just don't remember paying attention. That being said, I only really started paying attention to Nintendo when Pokémon launched, so I probably just ignored it lol.

JamboGT · Oct 4, 2018

I had a Spectrum then a Master System but I knew what a NES was. Only knew one person who had one though and all they had game wise was Duck Hunt (which seemed like a poor Safari Hunt to me) and Super Mario Bros which was great. Nintendo became much more of a thing locally when the game boy came out.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

Mr.Fletcher said:
I didn't realise the Mega Drive outsold SNES by that much, though in my little corner of the UK (Lincolnshire to be exact) the former was much more popular so I'm not totally surprised.

It's a pity Sega went through such a torrid time after the Mega Drive. PlayStation obviously changed the landscape...

... but I still have a lot of affection for Sega as a brand. They'll never go back to consoles, but I'd probably take a punt on them if they did.

It's EA estimates, not necessarily hard figures, and other figures conflict with them in some ways.

But it is a lot better than 'all my friends had console X so it sold more' anecdotes.

mrfusticle · Oct 4, 2018

I had a ZX spectrum (dem squidgy keys <3 ) then an Amiga .. no one I knew had a console machine (except a few rich kids with an Atari). I was the only one of my peers to get a snes in the nineties too.

We were the first to be playing Rare games though.. Attic Attack, Sabrewulf, Underwulrde(?) Knight Lore on the Speccy ... They were called Ultimate or something back then.

Penny Royal · Oct 4, 2018

mrfusticle said:
I had a ZX spectrum (dem squidgy keys <3 ) then an Amiga .. no one I knew had a console machine (except a few rich kids with an Atari). I was the only one of my peers to get a snes in the nineties too.

We were the first to be playing Rare games though.. Attic Attack, Sabrewulf, Underwulrde(?) Knight Lore on the Speccy ... They were called Ultimate or something back then.

Ultimate Play The Game. They changed to Rare when they started working on the SNES.

I think the first ad for the NES I saw was on the inside back cover of The Eagle comic, because it was typical of 'computer' related h/ware ads of the time - lots of text, had Duck Hunt & light fun and I think a robot?

sir_crocodile · Oct 4, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Ultimate Play The Game. They changed to Rare when they started working on the SNES.

I think the first ad for the NES I saw was on the inside back cover of The Eagle comic, because it was typical of 'computer' related h/ware ads of the time - lots of text, had Duck Hunt & light fun and I think a robot?

That would be ROB. My friend had that. I later found out it was a way of convincing the american market that the NES was a computer (which were still selling well there) and not a console (which had crashed). It looked cool but was utter pants

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Ultimate Play The Game. They changed to Rare when they started working on the SNES.

Famicom/NES.

As Rare they developed an utterly ridiculous number of games on the Fami/NES. About 50!

Wiped · Oct 4, 2018

Thinking back to my childhood my best friend in primary school had a Megadrive. My sister had a Commodore 64 and later on her boyfriend also had a Megadrive. Then a few years later we all got PS1s.

I didn't learn about the existence of Nes or Snes until the GameCube era when I started using the internet

Penny Royal · Oct 4, 2018

sir_crocodile said:
That would be ROB. My friend had that. I later found out it was a way of convincing the american market that the NES was a computer (which were still selling well there) and not a console (which had crashed). It looked cool but was utter pants

That explains the layout & as photography then lol

D.Lo said:
Famicom/NES.

As Rare they developed an utterly ridiculous number of games on the Fami/NES. About 50!

I actually thought they went straight from
the 8-bit UK PCs to SNES - interesting to know, thanks!

SteveWD40 · Oct 4, 2018

Really? I am 38 and got my NES at 10 in 1990. Never felt like it was obscure, at my school at least the NES was more common. The Mega Drive was much more common than the SNES here though.

Menome · Oct 4, 2018

My family had a Commodore 64, followed by a Master System and the original PlayStation.

I knew two people with a NES, two others with a SNES and everybody else had Mega Drives before moving onto the PlayStation. (Plus, they were pronounced as "Nez" and "Snez")

And I knew one single person who was a friend of my mother who owned a Saturn.

Deleted member 26372 · Oct 4, 2018

I grew up Atari/Commodore/Sega

My cousin and 1 friend from school had a NES. I remember playing mario, marble madness, duck hunt, mega man and some WWF game. Never felt I was missing out tbh. It was nowhere near as popular as the c64 or master system in my little bubble of the world (Northern Ireland)

Bionic-Boost · Oct 4, 2018

All the cool kids in my school had a NES.

tadaima · Oct 4, 2018

Ctrl+F "a NES" vs. ctrl+F "an NES".

Interesting.

sir_crocodile · Oct 4, 2018

Kyser73 said:
I actually thought they went straight from
the 8-bit UK PCs to SNES - interesting to know, thanks!

Wizards & Warriors 2 in particular was superb.

RPTGB · Oct 4, 2018

Kyser73 said:
Ultimate Play The Game. They changed to Rare when they started working on the SNES.

I think the first ad for the NES I saw was on the inside back cover of The Eagle comic, because it was typical of 'computer' related h/ware ads of the time - lots of text, had Duck Hunt & light fun and I think a robot?

Another bit of Ultimate Play The Game trivia...Neal Boyd, one of the original Tomb Raider team level artists and designer knew the Stamper brothers quite well and designed the "Joystick" logo for them.
What an incestuous little industry the UK Dev scene was/is!

Teh Radge · Oct 4, 2018

I had one friend at school who had an NES. I say friend, but he was more of a "frenemy", you know these rough kids who would be your mates one minute but take the piss out of you the next? We'd go round to his house and spend afternoons in his tiny wee room playing SMB 3 and Snake Rattle & Roll in between watching Mr Bean on his VHS player. I remember he used to have lots of pictures of topless women on his walls, that was interesting for a 13-year-old me.

But in my school I always felt like there were no Amiga owners, we all used to have STs apart from this one kid who had both (and presumably came from a rich family). But these were just my social circles, I'm sure there were others.

JamboGT · Oct 4, 2018

Nemesis2K said:
I grew up Atari/Commodore/Sega

My cousin and 1 friend from school had a NES. I remember playing mario, marble madness, duck hunt, mega man and some WWF game. Never felt I was missing out tbh. It was nowhere near as popular as the c64 or master system in my little bubble of the world (Northern Ireland)

Interestingly the one person I knew who had a NES was originally from England (Northern Irish here as well)

ProstatePuncher · Oct 4, 2018

Never knew anyone with an NES but everyone had Game Boys and Mega Drives when I was growing up.

Stuart Gipp · Oct 4, 2018

I lived in a fairly wealthy area (snoot snoot) and a fair few kids had a NES system. Couple of SNES systems knocking about too. Most common sight was Mega Drive, everyone had that.

Metalix · Oct 4, 2018

John Menzies on Princes Street, crikey that's going back. Back when you could actually drive down there, too.

I recall Tony Robinson discussing the Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles re-branding on an episode of Stay Tooned, as well. Pretty sure Michaelangelo kept his nun-chucks in the NES game.

Only knew 2 people with a NES back in the day (although it was slightly before my time anyway), there were a smattering of Master Systems here & there. SNES v Megadrive turned the playground into a battlefield, although weirdly it seemed my friends all had Megadrives and the SNES skewed towards older kids - the complete opposite of the norm.

Robin64 said:
It was horrible. At least with the SNES, even if the gameplay was slower the music at least wasn't because of the SPC chip. Not so with the Mega Drive, even the music ran slower.

Hah, first time I heard 60hz Green Hill Zone I thought "wtf why would anybody speed this up?" <3.

lowlifelenny · Oct 4, 2018

Obscure wouldn't be the right word, you'd see it around. Display units were common in electrical retailers and people were well aware of Mario. The Mario 3 release was a pretty big event with a mad rush to secure copies.

But if you were to ask UK gamers what their platform of choice was around the late '80s/early '90s, it wouldn't be the NES. It'd be the Master System, Mega Drive, SNES, C64, Amiga, Game Boy, Spectrum, Atari ST or PC. NES was able to make a lot of noise for itself because the games industry was so small back then, but it never actually gained significant mindshare in the UK. It was niche.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

lowlifelenny said:
Obscure wouldn't be the right word, you'd see it around. Display units were common in electrical retailers and people were well aware of Mario. The Mario 3 release was a pretty big event with a mad rush to secure copies.

But if you were to ask UK gamers what their platform of choice was around the late '80s/early '90s, it wouldn't be the NES. It'd be the Master System, Mega Drive, SNES, C64, Amiga, Game Boy, Spectrum, Atari ST or PC. NES was able to make a lot of noise for itself because the games industry was so small back then, but it never actually gained significant mindshare in the UK. It was niche.

Calverz said:
I wouldnt say obscure, but not as big as the master system and the ZX spectrum.

I've already posted sales figures on this same page showing this is incorrect.

Calverz · Oct 4, 2018

I wouldnt say obscure, but not as big as the master system and the ZX spectrum.

Alent · Oct 4, 2018

I didn't know a single person with a NES. I had a Master System and my friend had a Mega Drive (and i was super jelly she had The Lion King game lol).

Shahed · Oct 4, 2018

From my experience, Nintendo was for Gameboy more than anything else. The figures may (and probably do) paint a different picture, but it was Master System, then Mega Drive, then PlayStation. Yes people knew of Nintendo and Mario, but it was mainly for the Gameboy and Pokemon

lowlifelenny · Oct 4, 2018

D.Lo said:
I've already posted sales figures on this same page showing this is incorrect.

I was careful not to cite sales, my observations and memories are based solely on what people in my gaming circles and friends of friends preferred to play on. What was 'cool', basically.

Who can explain where all those NES's went? I can't. But someone bought them.

Deleted member 31873 · Oct 4, 2018

carlosrox said:
How so? If a region missed any console at large I'd say the same thing. If I read that the PS1 for example basically went unnoticed in Mexico or something I'd say the same thing. Would you call me a fanboy then too?

Well the Speccy and C64 similarly barely registered as gaming platforms in the US, so poor US right?

I didn't know of the NES until British TV shows like GamesMaster started showing it in the early 90's, by which time I already had an Amiga 500. Prior to that, I grew up with the C64 and I don't feel like I "missed" out on the NES. Gaming on C64 had some pretty significant advantages.

Switch · Oct 4, 2018

Red Liquorice said:
Well you have the stats can't argue with that, I was just speaking anecdotally from personal experience and what I saw as a kid. I was a SEGA kid, I loved the SMS and MD and they're still my favourite systems from back then - but once the SNES came out on import it was over for the MD for everyone I knew. Everyone wanted a SNES and scrambled to get one asap, even more after SF2 was announced for it.

Importing isn't a good gage ;). In my import shop, everyone I knew was importing the Saturn, yet at retail in the UK, the PS was by far and away the clear winner.
EDGE magazine used to print stats in the very early issues and so did MEGA mag now and again and in those, it showed the Amiga and Zx Spectrum had lifetimes sales of over 3 million each, the MD over 3.5 million and the Snes just over 1.5 million in the UK. It really wasn't even a close battle between SEGA and Nintendo in the UK for the 8 bit and 16 bit consoles and even the 8 Bit and 16 Bit Micro computers sold better in the UK.

kitsuneyo · Oct 4, 2018

Switch said:
The Mega Drive killed the Snes for sales in the UK. SEGA sold over 3 and half million systems in the UK the SNES didnt hit 2 million, even the Zx Spectrum and Amiga sold better in the UK to that of the Snes. SEGA also did well in Germany and Holland, it was France where Nintendo did best in the 8bit and 16-bit era.

SNES arrived in the UK late though. MD came out 1990, SNES not until 1992. It's no wonder Sega won that battle.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

lowlifelenny said:
I was careful not to cite sales, my observations and memories are based solely on what people in my gaming circles and friends of friends preferred to play on. What was 'cool', basically.

Who can explain where all those NES's went? I can't. But someone bought them.

You don't need to post figures, you pretty explicitly said for 'UK gamers' it was significantly less popular. 'niche' means 'a very small part of a market'.

The three separate sources I posted all said it was at the very least in the same ballpark as the Master System, or even ahead.

Switch said:
It really wasn't even a close battle between SEGA and Nintendo in the UK for the 8 bit and 16 bit consoles and even the 8 Bit and 16 Bit Micro computers sold better in the UK.

And again, read this page, the actual data says no. It was evidently VERY close on 8-bit.

sir_crocodile · Oct 4, 2018

D.Lo said:
You don't need to post figures, you pretty explicitly said for 'UK gamers' it was significantly less popular. 'niche' means 'a very small part of a market'.

The three separate sources I posted all said it was at the very least in the same ballpark as the Master System, or even ahead.

And again, read this page, the actual data says no. It was evidently VERY close on 8-bit.

Makes sense to me. I always questioned that if the MS was doing so much better then the NES, why did Argos always have more NES games in their catalogue? They're not going to heavily feature something that no-ones buying

PenultimateFantasy · Oct 4, 2018

I had a NES here - it was more spectrum and c64 that people had than Maste rsystem - easier to convice parents to buy a computer for 'school work' rather than a console

people had them thoug and games weren't hard to get. Toys r us was the cheapest for the games.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

sir_crocodile said:
Makes sense to me. I always questioned that if the MS was doing so much better then the NES, why did Argos always have more NES games in their catalogue? They're not going to heavily feature something that no-ones buying

From the data it looks like the Mega Drive really pulled away from the SNES in the UK, but that it's an outright myth that the Master System 'destroyed' the NES.

wiiucollector · Oct 4, 2018

Not obscure, rare or uncommon. The Master System just happened to do better. The turtles bundle gave it some meaningful, if rather belated, momentum. The SNES would be out very soon though.

Red Liquorice · Oct 4, 2018

I remember that Turtles bundle and it had me all excited and set to get a NES that Christmas purely for that. Then the Mega Drive came out :)

Switch said:
Importing isn't a good gage ;). In my import shop, everyone I knew was importing the Saturn, yet at retail in the UK, the PS was by far and away the clear winner.
EDGE magazine used to print stats in the very early issues and so did MEGA mag now and again and in those, it showed the Amiga and Zx Spectrum had lifetimes sales of over 3 million each, the MD over 3.5 million and the Snes just over 1.5 million in the UK. It really wasn't even a close battle between SEGA and Nintendo in the UK for the 8 bit and 16 bit consoles and even the 8 Bit and 16 Bit Micro computers sold better in the UK.

Hmmm, I guess so. We were all import-heads at the time even if we couldn't really afford it. But still, it was all SNES, SNES, SNES in my school once it was available and released over here.

Same for me with regards to the Saturn. The PS1 seemed nice enough with Ridge Racer and such, but most people I knew wanted a Saturn because of the better ports of Capcom/SNK games. Probably not the best strawpoll given we were all arcade goers.

lowlifelenny · Oct 4, 2018

D.Lo said:
You don't need to post figures, you pretty explicitly said for 'UK gamers' it was significantly less popular. 'niche' means 'a very small part of a market'.

And yet, 'I didn't know anyone who owned a NES' is common among UK gamers. I actually know five people who owned one including myself, but I would consider that niche among the dozens and dozens of fellow UK gamers I've spoken to over the years (I'm 43).

We may be deep into some kind of Mandela Effect event horizon here, but it's always been a (perhaps erroneously) established sentiment that the NES wasn't a prominent part of UK gaming culture. Simply because nobody can ever remember anyone owning them, or playing them, or talking about the games, due to them being hoarded by subterranean crab people for all we know.

Game Boy and SNES though? Totally different story.

Switch · Oct 4, 2018

D.Lo said:
And again, read this page, the actual data says no. It was evidently VERY close on 8-bit.

I have. The ZX Spectrum sold over 3 million units in the UK, the NES or SNES never came close to those figs in the UK.

This is one of the early sets of figs from the likes of EDGE

Qasiel · Oct 4, 2018

I had a Master System, but the neighbour kid across the road had a NES. We'd visit each others houses so he could play Sonic and I could play Mario and Zelda. I knew a few other kids in my school who had a NES but it seemed to be an equal split between that and the Master System.

sir_crocodile · Oct 4, 2018

Red Liquorice said:
Hmmm, I guess so. We were all import-heads at the time even if we couldn't really afford it. But still, it was all SNES, SNES, SNES in my school once it was available and released over here.

Same for me with regards to the Saturn. The PS1 seemed nice enough with Ridge Racer and such, but most people I knew wanted a Saturn because of the better ports of Capcom/SNK games. Probably not the best strawpoll given we were all arcade goers.

A large amount of people who bought PSX never had a previous console. Plus the very fact we had to use the Pro Action Replay on the SNES and the Action Replay 4M Auto Plus on the Saturn was probably a part of why those consoles were the less popular ones - a lot of the best games just never turned up here. :/

andymcc · Oct 4, 2018

D.Lo said:
Famicom/NES.

As Rare they developed an utterly ridiculous number of games on the Fami/NES. About 50!

I don't think people would like to know that Rare developed such classics as: Beetlejuice, Taboo, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Nightmare on Elm Street, every bad NES game show adaptation, etc.

D.Lo · Oct 4, 2018

lowlifelenny said:
We may be deep into some kind of Mandela Effect event horizon here, but it's always been a (perhaps erroneously) established sentiment that the NES wasn't a prominent part of UK gaming culture. Simply because nobody can ever remember anyone owning them, or playing them, or talking about the games, due to them being hoarded by subterranean crab people for all we know.

The plural of anecdote is not data.

What data do you have on 'I didn't know anyone who owned a NES' being a common opinion? You've actually just multiplied anecdotes on top of each other to 'Everyone I know says they didn't know anyone who owned a NES'.

You have to accept that if your personal experiences do not match the data it's your experience (and that of 'everyone I've talked to') that's simply not representative of the facts. Ironically, the data here says SNES actually did not do well against the Mega Drive, so your SNES experience of it being more competitive is not representative either.

Switch said:
I have. The ZX Spectrum sold over 3 million units in the UK, the NES or SNES never came close to those figs in the UK.

This is one of the early sets of figs from the likes of EDGE

Pay attention. I specifically and explicitly addressed your comments in relation to 8-bit sales.
Direct quote, again:

Switch said:
It really wasn't even a close battle between SEGA and Nintendo in the UK for the 8 bit

D.Lo said:
And again, read this page, the actual data says no. It was evidently VERY close on 8-bit.

Switch · Oct 4, 2018

Red Liquorice said:
Same for me with regards to the Saturn. The PS1 seemed nice enough with Ridge Racer and such, but most people I knew wanted a Saturn because of the better ports of Capcom/SNK games. Probably not the best strawpoll given we were all arcade goers.

For my import shop, it was NEC PC Eng, Saturn and the Mega Drive. The rest didn't come close. I was always for the Saturn, but even the biggest Saturn fan would know in the shops and mail order in the UK, the PS was killing the Saturn for sales.

Was the NES actually obscure in the UK?

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