NEC

Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto says PCs were once "held in higher regard than consoles," so the NES was made to bridge "the gap" – "It wasn't just a toy"

Nintendo fellow and Mario's dad Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the company felt the NES – known as the Family Computer or Famicom in Japan – challenged the perception that home consoles were "just toys." Originally released in 1983, it was officially part of the third generation of home consoles, but broke away from the pack with its innovative games. In an interview with Famitsu, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Miyamoto speaks on Nintendo's move from creating arcade cabinets to home consoles. "At the arcades people can't just spend money like water, so the idea for the Famicom came from the thought that 'they'd be able to play as many times as they wanted if they had this game at home,'" he says. The NES wasn't part of the original wave of home consoles, but previous hardware like the Magnavox Odyssey and the Atari 2600 wasn't as sophisticated.