The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer (FC),[note 1] commonly known as the Famicom.[note 2] The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American test markets on October 18, 1985, before becoming widely available in North America and other countries.

After developing a series of successful arcade games in the early 1980s, Nintendo planned to create a home video game console. Rejecting more complex proposals, the Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that ran games stored on cartridges. The controller design was reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch games. Nintendo released several add-ons, such as a light gun for shooting games.

The NES was one of the best-selling consoles of its time, and helped revitalize the US game industry following the video game crash of 1983.[13][d] It introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers to produce and distribute games.[15] The NES featured a number of groundbreaking games, such as the 1985 platform game Super Mario Bros. and the 1986 action-adventure games The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, which became long-running franchises. It was succeeded in 1990 by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2011, IGN named the NES the greatest video game console of all time.[16]

source: Wikipedia 

In this episode I explore why this is one of my favorite systems of all time ...