The following is part of our 25-day Holiday Countdown Calendar! Every day from December 1st through the 25th, we’re posting a cool game history treat, daily updates from the VGHF, giveaways, and more! To make sure you don’t miss a day, sign up for our email list:
This is all part of our annual Winter Fundraiser donation drive, where we ask those who are able to generously give what they can so that we can continue thriving. If you’re able to make an additional one-time charitable contribution, this really is the best time to do so, as your donations will be DOUBLED thanks to a generous group of sponsors! Head on over to gamehistory.org/donate to learn more and give today.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American video game history knows that Nintendo revitalized the market with the debut of its Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, but few have ever seen the NES’ unrealized predecessor: the AVS!
The Nintendo Advanced Video System was demonstrated at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January of 1985, and was never seen again, being quietly replaced by the NES we all know mere months later.
The main unit was functionally the same as the NES, though its sleek design and optional accessories seemed aimed at more of a high-tech market. It even promised what every game console of this era promised: an affordable gateway into the world of home computing! Buy the (relatively) inexpensive game machine, and down the road, merely buy the tape drive and keyboard add-ons to become a part of the home computer revolution!
The VGHF archives includes an extremely rare specimen: a fold-out brochure from the AVS’ only public appearance, way back in 1985 (though it would be temporarily displayed under glass decades later at the Nintendo World Store). We have heard tales of another copy existing in Nintendo’s archives, but other than that, ours is the only one we know of! We scanned the whole thing way back when we launched in 2017, but a lot of people may have missed it. It’s in a gallery below, for convenience!
If you appreciate preservation work like this and want to see more, we’re in the middle of our annual Winter Fundraiser, which is what we use to determine what projects we can tackle next year – projects just like this one! If you’re able to give right now, our sponsors are matching every dollar, which means your contributions are DOUBLED.
Today’s Sponsor
Today’s sponsor is iam8bit! Based in Los Angeles, iam8bit makes incredibly cool video game merch, soundtracks, and other premium goodies.
They’ve offered to DOUBLE every dollar put toward our goal this year, up to $3,000! So your $5 becomes $10! Your $10 becomes $20! Your $3,000 becomes $6,000! (you can’t knock us for trying…)
Come back tomorrow to see a look at retro gaming…in the PS1 era.
You can see tomorrow’s post right now!
Members of our Patreon who support us at $5 or more per month get to travel through time and see our daily calendar entries one day early! Christmas comes early for our beloved team of time bandits! Memberships at higher tiers also include access to our Discord community, monthly hangout calls with VGHF staff, and more!
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