hand released Gradius (Konami), Ghosts ‘n Goblins (Capcom), Space Harrier and Hang-on (both Sega), and more. Nintendo, meanwhile, was turning its focus away from the arcades and towards the home console market that now had a significant power vacuum. At the tail end of the year Nintendo would release two highly impactful titles for the Famicom, one of which would go on to define the face of the entire industry for years to come. The less influential of these two was Duck Hunt, a hugely important game by itself, but the other one was, of course, Super Mario
Bros. which probably doesn’t require much of an introduction. On the hardware side of things there were also some important releases. Nintendo would begin a test run in the U.S. with the NES, in preparation for a much wider release the following year. They also released the R.O.B peripheral along with the console in order to attract toy retailers to their console, as video games still carried the unfortunate stigma of the crash with them. By doing this, as well as by naming it the Nintendo Entertainment System, rather than calling it a video game console, Nintendo was hoping to avoid the bad reputation video games had in the U.S. As it would turn out, they were successful with this strategy.
“NINTENDO, MEANWHILE, WAS TURNING ITS FOCUS AWAY FROM THE ARCADES...” However, the NES wasn’t the only notable new piece of hardware in 1985. In Japan, Sega would launch the Sega Mark III, better known today as the Master System. Curiously, the Master System is actually the system with the longest lifespan out of any video game console, as it is still alive in Brazil, over 30 years after its original launch. By the end of the decade the console sold between 10 to 13 million units, which while reputable at the time, fell far short of the NES install base. In addition to these consoles, Commodore would also release the Amiga personal computer the same year.