15 Insanely Cool Video Game Trivia Facts To Impress Your Friends

1. Nintendo's NES Single-Handedly Saved The Western Gaming Industry

Nintendo may have waxed and waned in quality over the years, experimenting with motion-controls and choosing to barely promote their latest machines before releasing them out of sync with the competition, but they actually single-handedly saved the entire game industry.

See, back in 1983, the release of Atari's E.T. was the straw that broke the camel's back after years of terrible 'games' being churned out by as many companies who could afford to do so. The lowest bar of quality arriving in increasingly high quantities resulted in a complete crash of the industry, with consumers resigning the medium to something worse than dirt.

Following 881 copies of E.T. being buried in the Nevada Desert just to shift the remaining stock, gaming as you know it was literally dead and buried. Two years passed... until Nintendo released the NES in 1985, and with its simplistic charms and the likes of Super Mario heading up the marketing materials, the public en masse realised there was something inherently loveable about video games overall.

If not for that potent mix of charm and mechanical perfection though... you could've kissed the industry and all its escapist charms goodbye.

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