The NES Encyclopedia: Every Game Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Chris ScullionMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
With The NES Encyclopedia, author and retro-gamer Chris Scullion has released a compendium of all 714 licensed videogames ever released for the original 1980s Nintendo Entertainment System – as well as a huge chunk of unlicensed games that are still being created today.
The encyclopedia opens with a quick author introduction and history of the Kyoto, Japan, based Nintendo company, which was founded in 1889 (yes, 1889!) and got its start manufacturing toys and playing cards. The intro also has plenty of vintage advertisements that were originally found in the backs of comic books or in the Sears catalog, including several for R.O.B. (robotic operating buddy), the console accessory who looked strikingly similar to #5 from the Short Circuit movies.
Of course, the bulk of the book consists of all the videogames themselves. From the games you’ve probably never heard of – Banana Prince, The Trolls in Crazyland, Panic Restaurant – to the classics you and all your friends owned – Tetris, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros. – this encyclopedia does a detailed job of including game cover art and screenshots, release dates, software developers, and seemingly unknowable facts for each and every title. The entries also delve into each games’ gimmicks, player reception, innovations, and any controversy resulting from the release of the game.
This blast from the past is recommended for any level of gamer or collector, young or old, that holds a fascination for the beginnings of videogame history.
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