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NES Works Volume I: 1985
A comprehensive retrospective look back at every game published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S. during 1985.
182 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 24, 2018
As a companion book to his YouTube series by the same name and an updated rerelease of the Good Nintentions book, Parish's NES Works Volume I covers much of the same ground that he has explored in both text and video. Even so, the care and research put into creating retrospectives for all the games that launched on the first Nintendo home console is both astonishing and commendable. In an industry where games that released last year are gutted of some of their biggest draws (Gravity Rush 2's servers were shut down a mere 18 months after its initial release or get pulled from storefronts a week after release (The Culling 2), focusing on games that are decades older than the majority of players of gaming's latest fad is a niche move... but a worthy one.
The 1985 volume of NES Works focuses on the games released for NES in the inaugural year of the system's US debut. Defined by their black boxes, this first batch of games were originally released anywhere between 1981 and 1985. All these titles are put in their respective historical context, drawing lines from similar earlier games to their release on Nintendo's home console. Not only that, but the system itself enjoys a similar historical context, as well as side excursions to related material such as the Zapper peripheral, the Trojan Horse that was the Robot Operating Buddy, and Japanese Famicom's context, as well as that system's 1983 output. Though perhaps a bit obscure for the causal video gaming fan to be aware of already, people with an interest in the kind of history this book has to offer will probably know many of the historical events already. Converting Radar Scope arcade machines and fitting them with Donkey Kong motherboards, the cold shoulder given to the Nintendo Advanced Video System and the NES as a direct result of the Crash of '83, and the manner in which R.O.B. was employed to sell retail stores and consumers on the system are, at this point, nearly as much part of general gaming knowledge as the fact that Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a game by the name of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.
NES Works (and its sister series Game Boy Works and Super NES Works) is a companion piece to the video series, and most of the information found in one can also be found in the other. As a book, however, it can serve to introduce people to the history of video games that they may have played growing up without the need to watch two dozen 10-minute videos. As a coffee table book, NES Works serves its purpose well. As the first in a series of retrospective books on NES software, it is a good start, culminating with the release of Super Mario Bros. It is still only one of multiple avenues one can go to learn more about these games and their history, but in my opinion certainly one of the better ones.
Plus, you know, the book is absolutely gorgeous. That's definitely a mark in its favour.
The 1985 volume of NES Works focuses on the games released for NES in the inaugural year of the system's US debut. Defined by their black boxes, this first batch of games were originally released anywhere between 1981 and 1985. All these titles are put in their respective historical context, drawing lines from similar earlier games to their release on Nintendo's home console. Not only that, but the system itself enjoys a similar historical context, as well as side excursions to related material such as the Zapper peripheral, the Trojan Horse that was the Robot Operating Buddy, and Japanese Famicom's context, as well as that system's 1983 output. Though perhaps a bit obscure for the causal video gaming fan to be aware of already, people with an interest in the kind of history this book has to offer will probably know many of the historical events already. Converting Radar Scope arcade machines and fitting them with Donkey Kong motherboards, the cold shoulder given to the Nintendo Advanced Video System and the NES as a direct result of the Crash of '83, and the manner in which R.O.B. was employed to sell retail stores and consumers on the system are, at this point, nearly as much part of general gaming knowledge as the fact that Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a game by the name of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.
NES Works (and its sister series Game Boy Works and Super NES Works) is a companion piece to the video series, and most of the information found in one can also be found in the other. As a book, however, it can serve to introduce people to the history of video games that they may have played growing up without the need to watch two dozen 10-minute videos. As a coffee table book, NES Works serves its purpose well. As the first in a series of retrospective books on NES software, it is a good start, culminating with the release of Super Mario Bros. It is still only one of multiple avenues one can go to learn more about these games and their history, but in my opinion certainly one of the better ones.
Plus, you know, the book is absolutely gorgeous. That's definitely a mark in its favour.
August 22, 2021
The NES introduced me to video games. I'm hardly the only millennial to say that, but reading Jeremy Parish's NES WORKS VOL. 1 put my generation's fandom into a context that let me understand precisely where Nintendo came from and how the NES console's first year of releases drew from Nintendo's history while simultaneously charted a course for its future.
I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I've never had a handle on the NES's "Black Box" games, that first wave of releases that shipped in plain black boxes decorated with an oversized sprite from the game on its cover. I knew what they were, but I didn't know what titles comprised them. In NES WORKS, Parish lays out the historical significance of games like Baseball, Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and, of course, the original Super Mario Bros. by connecting those games to Nintendo's history.
I knew, for instance, that the light gun was a popular peripheral—my youngest sister was obsessed with Duck Hunt after I saved up for an NES—but I didn't know that the Zapper, along with games such as Wild Gunman, were byproducts of Nintendo's failed attempt to open real target-shooting facilities in Japan. That business model failed because of politics, essentially, and that gave me a context for where those primordial games came from.
I also knew that Mario made cameos in numerous NES games, and that he started as Jumpman in Donkey Kong. I didn't know that he was passed around Nintendo like everyone's favorite blue pen. Need to write a puzzle game with a character whose story doesn't affect gameplay at all? Use Mr. Video/Jumpman/Mario; after all, Shigeru Miyamoto didn't codify him until Super Mario Bros. After that game, a cameo from Mario was a huge deal. Before it, he was a tool used to connect pieces of game design.
NES WORKS VOL. 1 is one of the most fascinating books on video game history I've read. Parish gives every game the pages it needs to show you where it came from, why it became what it became, and why it's significant to Nintendo's history overall, and, in the shorter term, what it meant to the launch of the NES, the system that largely defined video games going forward. Recommended for anyone who grew up with the console, and especially for anyone who, like me, depends on knowing as much as possible about the history of the medium to keep writing stories of their own.
I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I've never had a handle on the NES's "Black Box" games, that first wave of releases that shipped in plain black boxes decorated with an oversized sprite from the game on its cover. I knew what they were, but I didn't know what titles comprised them. In NES WORKS, Parish lays out the historical significance of games like Baseball, Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and, of course, the original Super Mario Bros. by connecting those games to Nintendo's history.
I knew, for instance, that the light gun was a popular peripheral—my youngest sister was obsessed with Duck Hunt after I saved up for an NES—but I didn't know that the Zapper, along with games such as Wild Gunman, were byproducts of Nintendo's failed attempt to open real target-shooting facilities in Japan. That business model failed because of politics, essentially, and that gave me a context for where those primordial games came from.
I also knew that Mario made cameos in numerous NES games, and that he started as Jumpman in Donkey Kong. I didn't know that he was passed around Nintendo like everyone's favorite blue pen. Need to write a puzzle game with a character whose story doesn't affect gameplay at all? Use Mr. Video/Jumpman/Mario; after all, Shigeru Miyamoto didn't codify him until Super Mario Bros. After that game, a cameo from Mario was a huge deal. Before it, he was a tool used to connect pieces of game design.
NES WORKS VOL. 1 is one of the most fascinating books on video game history I've read. Parish gives every game the pages it needs to show you where it came from, why it became what it became, and why it's significant to Nintendo's history overall, and, in the shorter term, what it meant to the launch of the NES, the system that largely defined video games going forward. Recommended for anyone who grew up with the console, and especially for anyone who, like me, depends on knowing as much as possible about the history of the medium to keep writing stories of their own.
October 1, 2019
A fantastic romp through the NES' launch year. Jeremy Parish really knocked this out of the park - he covers everything and anything NES with in depth knowledge and gorgeous photographs (both of the hardware and of the games themselves) at a level I've never seen before. An amazing companion to his Youtube NES Works series, and if you have access to NES software, it's fun to play along with the releases, too!
October 13, 2023
Really brilliant and well curated accounting of all the NES games of 1985. A must have for any true collector / fan!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews