The Archive Opens

Nintendo announced that when the Revolution launches—sometime between late 2006 and early 2007—every game they ever released for the NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 would be available to download. First-party titles for free; older third-party games for a few dollars. The console would also play GameCube discs, so nothing from the recent past gets stranded.

That’s the entire Nintendo back catalogue on one machine. Every Mario, every Zelda, Ocarina of Time sitting alongside Metroid and F-Zero and whatever obscure SNES RPG you never finished as a kid. The idea that you could just have all of it—no cartridge hunting, no dragging out old hardware—felt genuinely new. I want the Revolution in my hands immediately.