The Toploader NES: Why did
it fail? --------------------------------------------
As any modern NES collector knows, one of the consistently
hot (and expensive) items on the market (or at least eBay)
today is the Nintendo's NES 2. Short supply and newly-mustered
high demand make this a $100+ item on eBay nowadays, but many
know that the system was more or less a failure in its launch
days of 1993. What happened? Why did this functional update
fail to take hold in the US, where the NES is the most common
video game system available?
Though this article is based on speculation
on my part, I believe that there are some answers here that
can calm the questions of individuals who ask themselves why
a system that sells easily for twice as much as it did ten
years ago sold poorly back in 1993. This article also assumes
that the reader has knowledge about the specifics of the NES
2.
A basic overview of the toploader is
as follows: released in 1993, the NES 2 was an update to the
highly popular box design of the NES. The toploader had a
smaller, sleeker look, a relatively low price tag ($50 for
the system and two newly-designed "dog bone" controllers),
and much more solid game support. The idea was simple: make
it cheap, make it look cool, and make it play games without
requiring time-consuming cart blowing, cleaning, or repair.
The NES 2 accomplished all of these, but things didn't work
out in the end. Why was this?
To start with, the game support, while
much better than the "zero-force" design of the
original, did not allow for Game Genie support. This was not
a huge deal, since Game Genies were best suited for making
the connection to the NES (box) much more solid (and allowing
games to actually run on the system), and the cheat-code feature
was a disposable novelty in the first place (though many people
liked it, including myself). The NES 2 lacked a lockout chip,
so support for unlicensed games was not a problem. At times,
carts would wobble out of place (they were designed for horizontal
loading, after all), causing lines on the screen or the lack
of function altogether. Propping the cart straight up or putting
the system at a slight angle (to allow the cart to be straight
on the pin connector) fixed this. The game support wasn't
that big of an issue.
The NES 2's television connections,
however, left a lot to be desired. In an attempt to cut costs,
Nintendo did not include the optional RCA cable connection,
like they did with the gray box. This would not have been
so bad if it weren't for the fact that the RF feature on the
NES 2 wasn't up to snuff. The display was terrible compared
to the box's own RF, with washed-out colors, static, a darkened
display, and scan lines abound. Nintendo's shoddy construction
of the system's A/V capabilities likely didn't bode well with
consumers of the time, and perfectionists today (like myself)
find this laziness inexcusable and offensive.
The biggest reason that the toploader
failed, however, was simply bad timing. By 1993, consumers
were abandoning the 8-bit market in favor of the superior
16-bit line. There simply wasn't enough interest in the NES
by that time to sell NES 2s, despite the established nature
of the system. It didn't matter that the ship was given a
new look and was more functional, it was still too old to
stay afloat.
Which leaves the toploader as a collectable
today, was well as a functional, yet low-quality, NES unit.
Whether or not to buy one remains entirely up to the purpose
it will serve and the overlooking of shortcomings. The point
is that some light was shed on an issue that has perplexed
some about this interesting chapter in NES history, a light
that will educate those who care to ask "Why?"
