what amuses me is the adults that didn't know who the Mario Bros were, or what Nintendo was. Now Super Mario is as well known as Mickey Mouse around the world.

Ha I posted this once on the early days of VGCHARTZ =p.

But it is always nice to see this back.

The thing that always took my attention is what one of the people says...

Mario....Uhmz sound Japanese..... Maybe because I live in Europe but Mario always sounded Italian for me and not Japanese...

Now this is cool. Thanks for posting.

Id love to see a family fun report like this about gears of war

Wow. Things have really changed in 20 years.

Things do really changed but why most of them are kids? And whats the phone for ninty for secrets for? And no one knew the 100 1ups in world 3-1 back then?

I can't decide what the best part of that video is....

1. The host is Fox News host Bill O'Reilly from his Inside Edition days (and he says he had trouble with Lincoln Logs).
 
2. The voiceover about Nintendo "They've got more gadgets, zappers and gizmos than you can shake a joystick at." (Wow. Things have really NOT changed in 20 years.)

3. The guy in the red bowtie's cheeseball speech "They're the nice guys........."

4. Kid Icarus, NES Hockey, Legend of Zelda, ahhh old school gaming bliss. This video is actually pre Tetris. I remember a big legal battle over Tetris between Tengen (part of Atari) and Nintendo who both had aquired rights to sell the game. Tengen had arcade rights and put Tetris out on a gold NES cart about two months before Ninty's scheduled release. Ninty took 'em to court and won. I owned both versions, and have to say the Tengen Tetris to this day is still vastly superior to the Nintendo release. The gold Tengen one was on the market for four weeks only, I purchased it at launch, along with Tengen's Gauntlet console release. The gold cartridge version of Tengen Tetris was worth a lot of coin for quite a while, and is still going for about $90. There is a black cart version that sells for about $40. If you have an NES and ever run into one of these, pick it up, the multiplayer is the best Tetris ever.

From Wikipedia:

"By 1989, half a dozen different companies claimed rights to create and distribute the Tetris software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. Elorg, meanwhile, held that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an arcade version, and signed those rights over to Atari Games, while it signed non-Japanese console and handheld rights over to Nintendo.

Tengen (the console software division of Atari Games), regardless, applied for copyright for their Tetris game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, loosely based on the arcade version, and proceeded to market and distribute it under the name TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game (with faux Cyrillic typography incorporating the Cyrillic letter Ya), disregarding Nintendo's license from Elorg.

Screenshot of the NES version of Tengen's  TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game

Nintendo contacted Atari Games claiming they had stolen rights to Tetris, whereupon Atari Games sued, believing they had the rights. After only four weeks on the shelf, the courts ruled that Nintendo had the rights to Tetris on home game systems, and Tengen's TETЯIS game was recalled, with an unknown number of copies sold.^[19]

Nintendo released their version of Tetris for both the Famicom and the Game Boy (the Game Boy version was developed by Bullet-Proof Software, Inc., who held the Japanese license, despite Nintendo's license to the game) and sold more than three million copies; some players considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it lacked the side-by-side simultaneous play of Tengen's version, but Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris became arguably the most well-known version of Tetris. The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the Famicom/NES version carried on until 1993.

Sega also released a Tetris game for the Mega Drive, however the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn - possibly before it even reached shop shelves. A handful of copies remain, which now change hands for as much as 800,000 yen ($6600) making it probably the most expensive Tetris game in the world.

Pajitnov himself made very little money from the deal even though Nintendo was able to profit from the game handsomely."

100 bucks for a console with 2 controllers and a free game....

This was before guides existed. Nintendo used to have a toll free number you could call about 12 hours a day and get secrets and tips. There was no other way to find out about codes or cheats at that point.

The first guides I ever saw were "special editions" of Nintendo Power. I still have a Ninty Power Super Mario 3 "Special Edition" aka Guide. 

Guides came about from Nintendo Power....

Wikipedia :

Player’s Guide

The first Player’s Guide was simply called The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide, featuring dozens of different NES games. It was followed in the early 1990s by a number of guides which were produced under the slightly different moniker of Nintendo Power Strategy Guides. These were sent between the then bi-monthly magazine issues to subscribers or mailed alongside them. NES games covered by their Strategy Guides included:

• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
• Final Fantasy
• 4-Player Extra, which covered multiple four-player games on the NES

Nintendo ceased production of these bimonthly Strategy Guides due to a lack of important game releases in the pre-holiday seasons of the year.

Player’s Guide

After converting Nintendo Power to a monthly format came the more well-known mainstay of Player’s Guides. Early guides covered groups of games in one book. 

Kind of makes you wonder what people will think about how the news stories that are produced today (about games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Grand Theft Auto) in 20 years?

I HAVE THE OFFICIAL NINTENDO PLAYER'S GUIDE. I just gotta find it. It's so fucking badass.

The Ninja Gaiden II one was particularly awesome, because it also had a bunch of random kickass ninja secrets in the beginning.