Famicom T-Shirt

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1985 was the western model of the Japanese Famicom video game console which launched two years earlier in 1983. A line-up of exceptional quality titles such as Super Mario Bros.,The Legend of Zelda and Duck Hunt helped the system achieve enormous success in Asia and North America, consequently shaping the home video game industry.

The NES and Famicom joypads had four buttons labelled START, SELECT, B, A and used cross shaped D-pads similar to those of Nintendo's Game & Watch systems. The NES had two identical pads that plugged into the front of the console, whereas the Famicom pads were hard wired to the console itself and the second controller featured a built-in microphone and volume slider instead of the START and SELECT buttons.

The popularity of the NES and Famicom lead to the joypad replacing the joystick as the standard input method which influenced the design of future controllers. Now, the consoles' controllers themselves have become icons in their own right.