Tag Archives: Nintendo Entertainment System

A gold seal on the box. A lock inside the console. Five games a year, and a contract that could keep those games away from the competition. Nintendo’s happiest era had a remarkably ugly business side. In 1989, two very different versions of Tetris became part of Nintendo Entertainment System history. One came from Nintendo. The other came from Tengen, in a black cartridge that looked slightly wrong beside the familiar gray… Read more

Lucas Barton opens the case as though he is about to show everybody a weapon. Inside is a gray glove, a black wrist console, and the sort of plastic armor a kid in 1989 would happily have worn to school. He puts it on, plays Rad Racer, and delivers the line that outlived almost everything else in The Wizard: “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.” He means bad in the… Read more