# When Nintendo (and Mario) Rescued Video Games

An episode of [HISTORY This Week](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1493453604), 22 Sep 2025, 27 min.

Audio: https://pdst.fm/e/tracking.swap.fm/track/v9Uiw3bGr54f6BVZKSyc/pscrb.fm/rss/p/serve.castfire.com/audio/8247349/8247349_2026-04-14-050749.192.mp3?rssID=6398

September 27, 1986. You’re a kid in the mid-80s. You get home from school, flip on the TV, and see something strange: a commercial where a giant egg hatches behind a family’s console, revealing a toy robot. His name is R.O.B. — the Robotic Operating Buddy — but he's just an accessory. The real product: Nintendo. Today, the Nintendo Entertainment System is launching nationwide. Just a few years earlier, the U.S. video game market had collapsed under the weight of bad games and too many consoles. But Nintendo had a plan — to sell Americans on something that didn’t look like a video game at all. With a plastic robot, a disguised gray box, and a plumber named Mario, how did Nintendo manage to sneak video games back into living rooms—and rescue a dying industry? Special thanks to Jeremy Parish, media curator at Limited Run Games, producer of NES Works, and co-host of the Retronauts podcast. -- Get in touch: historythisweekpodcast@history.com Follow on Instagram: @historythisweek Follow on Facebook: HISTORY This Week Podcast To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-this-week/id1493453604 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2YFm0ezrXmMqLXbxgZpkmd?si=9a84fadee11447d4 Audacy: https://www.audacy.com/podcast/history-this-week-71b4d

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