Nitrome Enjoyment System

"NES" redirects here. For the skin, see NES (skin).

For the arena, see Nitrome Enjoyment System (arena).

The Nitrome Enjoyment System

The Nitrome Enjoyment System (NES) is a fake video game console idea created by Nitrome. The idea was created as a parody of Nintendo's NES and SNES video game consoles, and used as a tie-in and foreshadowing of the games Super Treadmill, The Bucket, Mega Mash, and the NES skin.

Fictional history

The Nitrome Enjoyment System was planned to be released in 1984. Later, in November 2010, Nitrome employees found the old console when moving to a new location.

Games

There are eighteen Nitrome Enjoyment System games, twelve if Mega Mash is counted as one game (and not seven), and nineteen if Mega Mash is counted along with its seven games.

Super Treadmill The Bucket Silly Sausage Mega Mash Balloon Nitrometris Ninja Xolstar 3 Blast-Man Joe Carrot Story Smash

Maths Fighting game (unofficial name) Cuboy game (unofficial name) Sky Serpents game (unofficial name) Medieval RPG game (unofficial name) Shoot 52 in 6 Pop Bros. (also called Pixel Bros.)

Gallery

Super Treadmill (Promotional Poster 2) Super Treadmill (NES skin) Super Treadmill (2.0 icon) The Bucket (Promotional Poster 1) The Bucket (NES skin) The Bucket (2.0 icon) Mega Mash (2.0 icon) Carrot Story Balloon (Promotional Poster 1) Balloon (NES skin) Balloon Ninja (Promotional Poster 2) Ninja (NES skin) Ninja Xolstar 3 Blast-Man Joe Nitrometris (NES skin) Nitrometris Smash Pop Bros. (Promotional Poster 1) Pop Bros. (NES skin) Shoot (Promotional Poster 1) Shoot (NES skin) 52 in 6 (Nitrome Enjoyment System box) Maths (Nitrome Enjoyment System box) Maths (NES skin) Sky Serpents (NES skin) Cuboy game (NES skin) Medieval RPG game (NES skin) Fighting game (NES skin)

Hardware

Console

The animated NES, as seen as the startups for NES games

The Nitrome Enjoyment System is square shaped with the back and front end curving downwards. Under the Nitrome Enjoyment System is grey plastic. At the top of the Nitrome Enjoyment System, placed in the top middle, is a grey horizontal bar, the top of the inside of the bar reading "Nitrome Enjoyment System", under these words being a small horizontal bar with a red, yellow, green, and blue line going across it.

Placed at the sides of this bar are several small horizontal grey bars placed vertically with spaces between each bar. Below the middle horizontal grey bar is a light grey horizontal oval that has two black bars placed horizontally on this oval, these bars separated by a black line. To the left of this oval is a thin white vertical oval structure that has a black line running down it and at the bottom of this line having a grey prism shaped object. Below this oval is the words "8-BIT", and above the oval is the words "16-BIT".

Below the light grey horizontal oval are a light grey and dark grey button, both buttons parallel to each other and their non parallel side being curved. The lighy grey button is the left button, this button having words underneath it that read "EJECT". The right button is the dark grey button, and has words underneath it reading "RESET". To the right of the right button is a large light grey circular button that has a dark grey "P" on it; to the top right of this button is a raised white circle that has transparent plastic in the middle of it, this circle turning blue when the Nitrome Enjoyment System is on.

Below the front side of the Nitrome Enjoyment System, where it curves down, are two game controller cords that are attached to the Nitrome Enjoyment System. At the very back of the Nitrome Enjoyment System are two black cords.

Features

The slot in the middle of the Nitrome Enjoyment System allows for game cartridges to be input. Once a game cartridge is input, the Ⓟ button is pressed to play the game, and if the light near the Ⓟ button turns blue and stays on, then the game will be played.

Below the cartridge area are two buttons labelled "EJECT" and "RESET". The eject button likely allowed for the cartridge to be safely taken out, while the reset button turned the game off then back on. The right-side line with a short grey rectangle on it would have likely been used to change the current played game's graphics from 8 bit to 16 bit, and vice versa.

Specifications

The system had several specifications mentioned on the back of the box.

POW-Based 1up core Up to 16 bit graphics 3 1/2 channel sound Blast processing (sold separately)

Two turbo controller ports (box contains one controller) Compatible with Nitrome Disk System Requires 15 "AA" batteries (not included) Wall plug compatible (not included)

Notably, most of these specifications are either a parody of other Nintendo material (primarily other Nintendo console) or a parody of general specifications for products at that time. The "POW-Based 1up core" is a reference to the Mario series' Pow Block and 1-Up Mushroom, while the FX Chip is a reference to the Super FX chip for the SNES.

The Nitrome Disk System is a reference to the Family Computer Disk System for the Nintendo Family Computer (Japanese name for the Nintendo Entertainment System). The "Requires 15 "AA" batteries" feature is a reference to how handhelds prior to the Nintendo DS were powered by regular batteries, though the inclusion of this feature on the box is meant to be humorous, as the Nitrome Enjoyment System being a home console, it would not need batteries as it would be powered by a wall plug, the fact a wall plug is not included with the Nitrome Enjoyment System and the wall plug being treated as an accessory being another instance of humour.

Games

Nitrome Enjoyment System games are programmed in INTERCAL, being programmed in this language being humourous, as INTERCAL is a highly impractical programming language.

Evidence against its existence

Despite being treated as though real, the Nitrome Enjoyment System is in fact fake, this easily recognizable from various aspects of the Nitrome Enjoyment System, Nitrome's history contradicting the Nitrome Enjoyment System, and the presence of much content related to the Nitrome Enjoyment System that is impractical, absurd, or mimics other content release after the console's alleged release.

Nitrome's history

Nitrome's history clearly contradicts the NES, as Mat Annal states he started up Nitrome during a discussion with Heather Stancliffe.

Box

See also: Nitrome Enjoyment System#Specifications

• The box for the Nitrome Enjoyment System reads on the upper flap:

For Ages 30 and Downwards!
1984 Nitrome Inc. MADE IN CHINA
All rights reserved. Nitrome and associated trademarks
and trade dress owned my nitrome inc. all games are made up on the spot by
a Nitrome artist and probably do not actually exist.
Man this is a small font, don't strain your eyes trying to read this. It's just as BORING as it looks.

• The box reads "ULTIMATE ENTERTAINMENT VIDEO SYSTEM", without mentioning "game". The absence of "game" would make the Nitrome Enjoyment System seem as though it was some sort of videocassette recorder that played videocassettes.
• The right flap of the box reads "The most challenging and advanced video game system of all time, in your hand today!", implying that the Nitrome Enjoyment System is a handheld, when it is in fact a home console.

General

• The Nitrome Enjoyment System is irregular in that batteries are required for in to run and the wall plug is treated as an unnecessary accessory (in that it is not bundled with the console), when all other gaming consoles at the time supported a wall plug and were bundled with one.

The NES logo seen on the skin of the same name bears a strong resemblance to the Nintendo 64 logo

• The Nitrome Enjoyment System's startup image (which would presumably be viewed if the Nitrome Enjoyment System is started up but does not have a game loaded into it) reads close to the bottom "© nitrome ltd 1984 (www.nitrome.com)", which is irregular as the internet was not developed enough at the time to support website pages. Furthermore, the Nitrome Enjoyment System logo strongly resembles the logo of the Nintendo 64.
• Programmatically, INTERCAL would not be used to program a console game at the time. C, a low-level language, or a scripting language would most likely be used instead. Also, it should have taken a longer period of time to port games from INTERCAL to ActionScript.
• It is extremely improbable a third-party company would make a hacking device (the Game Muscle) for a console which was not even being sold. It is also improbable that Nitrome would port the game with the hack options from the Game Muscle, and some of the Game Muscle's codes would not be found on a normal cheating device.
• The Type-B Nitrome Enjoyment System controller scheme is rather impractical in that the B button (the lower button) is mapped to the "Power Off" button, which would turn the Nitrome Enjoyment System off when pushed.

The Type-B Nitrome Enjoyment System controller scheme

• There seems to be no record of the Nitrome Enjoyment system ever being released to the public. Before it was revealed in 2010, it was not even known it existed.

Games

• All the Nitrome Enjoyment System games are copyrighted 2011/2012 instead of the year the year they are supposed to have been released (1984 or prior).
• In Super Treadmill, a game said to be ported from the Nitrome Enjoyment System, has platforms based off the blue Troll Square, Magneboy, a cable car, and a double decker bus reading "Skywire" on it. All of these cameos are from games created by Nitrome long after 1984.
• In Super Treadmill, several consoles and handhelds appear as platforms. Two of the consoles being the Game Boy and Nintendo DS. The Game Boy was not released until 1989 in Japan, and 1990 to the rest of the world. The Nintendo DS also was not revealed to the public until 2003.
• The credits section for each Nitrome Enjoyment System credits Nitrome employees who in 1984 would have been too young to work. Also, all of these Nitrome employees did not start working until many years after the alleged release of the Nitrome Enjoyment System.

Appearances in other Nitrome media

Incomplete section This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.

Ever since it was revealed, it has appeared in other Nitrome media.

Skin

A Skin called NES was released alongside The Bucket on January 24th 2011. The skin revealed several previously unknown Nitrome Enjoyment System games, along with other images about the Nitrome Enjoyment System.

Games

Incomplete section This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.

The Nitrome Enjoyment System has made cameos in other Nitrome games.

• Office Trap - The Nitrome Enjoyment System's first cameo. It appears with the 8-bit Trap, and pixilates the entire area between the bottom platform and upper platform.
• Super Stock Take - The Nitrome Enjoyment System cameos as a ware, two of these appearing on level twelve. When obtaining this item, the sound of the lightning bolt impacting the word "Mega Mash" is heard (this sound heard every time Mega Mash is loaded, the sound heard prior to the menu coming up).
• Bump Battle Royale - The Nitrome Enjoyment System appears as a stage.

In Super Stock Take

Nitrome Enjoyment System appearing in Bump Battle Royale as a stage

Promotion

The Nitrome Enjoyment System had two posters created for it to advertise the console prior to its fake 1984 release. Promotional Poster 1 showed a very early version of Balloon, a version of The Bucket that lacked a HUD, a picture of Ninja, a picture of Super Treadmill, a picture of Shoot, and a picture of Pop Bros. (named "Pixel Bros."). The poster contains a picture and short description of both Ninja and Super Treadmill.

Promotional Poster 1

Promotional Poster 2

Gallery

The logo for the NES skin

Trivia

• Surface drawn in wire-frame graphics appears in the NES skin, inserted as a tongue-in-cheek joke.
•  The Game Muscle is most likely a parody of GameShark or Game Genie.