The NES at 40: Seven ways it changed the gaming world forever
Bonus: Nintendo’s “10NES” lock-out chip authentication chip is also the reason why you sometimes had to “blow” into a cartridge, as if the contact between the chip and the console wasn’t perfect it would stop the game from booting. That’s, perhaps, another long-lasting legacy we’re glad to see the back of.’s legacy speaks for itself, but its debut on the NES came with a feature that changed everything: game saves.
While games on disk-based computers had been deploying saves for a couple of years, consoles didn’t have internal storage, so players were stuck with workarounds like codes or passwords. Unlike a proper save, which would include things like current weapons and power-ups, a password would usually just start you off at the beginning of the last level you were on. This was practical for things like racing games or platformers, but problematic for things like RPGs and sims.
The technology wasn’t perfect of course. If the battery died or somehow lost contact, you would lose all your saves. But it was a good enough system to last into the 2000’s with some form of on-cartridge saves being used right up until the 3DS. There was, of course, a free, time-honored alternative way to “save” games, usually when you had to go down for dinner: pause and switch off the TV .Nintendo without a nod to the world’s most famous plumber.
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