Editing Nintendo VS. System (section)

==Background==
In 1980, [[Data East]] had introduced the concept of a convertible [[arcade system board]], or [[arcade conversion]] system, with the [[DECO Cassette System]], but it was not a major success. The first successful arcade conversion system is [[Sega]]'s [[List of Sega arcade system boards|Convert-a-Game]] system in the early 1980s. Its success led to several other arcade manufacturers introducing their own arcade conversion systems by the mid-1980s, including the Nintendo VS. System in 1984.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Replay Years: Video Systems |magazine=RePlay |date=November 1985 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=128, 130 |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-11-issue-no.-2-november-1985-600DPI/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2011%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201985/page/128}}</ref>

The Nintendo VS. System is important in the [[history of the Nintendo Entertainment System]] (NES). The VS. System is the first version of the Family Computer (Famicom) hardware to debut in North America during 1984, the success of which proved the market for the official release of the [[NES]] console.<ref name="Horowitz">{{cite book |last1=Horowitz |first1=Ken |chapter=The Vs. System (1984) |title=Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games |date=July 30, 2020 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-1-4766-4176-8 |pages=119–28 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3D0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA119}}</ref><ref name="mashable">{{cite news |last1=Stark |first1=Chelsea |title=30 years later, Nintendo looks back at when NES came to America |url=https://mashable.com/2015/10/19/nintendo-nes-launch-atari |access-date=April 13, 2021 |work=[[Mashable]] |date=October 19, 2015}}</ref> Following the [[video game crash of 1983]], the North American home video game market had collapsed. Nintendo's negotiations with [[Atari, Inc.|Atari]] to introduce the Famicom in North America failed due to Atari's collapse, and [[Nintendo of America]]'s market research garnered warnings from retailers and distributors to stay away from home consoles, with US retailers refusing to stock game consoles. Meanwhile, the [[arcade game]] industry also had a slump as the [[golden age of arcade video games]] ended, but the arcade industry recovered and stabilized with the help of software conversion kit systems, such as Sega's Convert-a-Game system, the [[Atari System 1]], and the Nintendo-Pak system. [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]] realized there was still a market for video games in North America, where players were gradually returning to arcades in significant numbers. Yamauchi still had faith there was a market for the Famicom, so he introduced it to North America through the arcade industry.<ref name="Horowitz" />

Nintendo based the VS. System hardware on the Famicom, and introduced it as the successor to its Nintendo-Pak arcade system, which had been used for games such as ''[[Mario Bros.]]'' and ''[[Donkey Kong 3]]''. Though technologically weaker than Nintendo's ''[[Punch-Out!! (arcade game)|Punch-Out!!]]'' arcade hardware, the VS. System was relatively inexpensive. The Nintendo-Pak and ''Punch-Out!!'' hardware also have a limited game library, whereas the VS. System accessed a wider variety of games, by easily converting Famicom games. [[Nintendo of America]] hired Jeff Walker from [[Bally Manufacturing|Bally]] to help market the VS. System in North America, where it debuted at the 1984 ASI show along with ''Punch-Out!!'' in February.<ref name="Horowitz" />