Book excerpt: A comprehensive, colorful guide to every game ever released on the classic Nintendo Entertainment System. One of the most iconic video game systems, the NES is credited with saving the American video games industry in the early 1980s. The NES Encyclopedia is the first ever complete reference guide to every game released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo’s first industry-defining video game system. As well as covering all 714 officially licensed NES games, the book also includes more than 160 unlicensed games released during its lifespan, giving for the first time a definitive history of this important console's full library. Written by a retro gaming expert with 30 years of gaming experience and a penchant for bad jokes, TheNES Encyclopedia promises to be both informative and entertaining. The NES continues to enjoy a strong cult following among Nintendo fans and gamers in general with wide varieties of officially licensed merchandise proving ever popular. Nintendo’s most recent console, the Switch, is the fastest selling video game console of all time in the United States and Japan. Nintendo launched a variety of classic NES games for download on the system, meaning a new audience of gamers is due to discover the NES for the first time if they have not already. Praise for The NES Encyclopedia “As a catalog of all 876 NES games, this work is unique in its breadth of coverage and will be of great interest to old-school video gamers and collectors.” —Booklist “A definitive resource that is more than worthy of the title ‘Encyclopedia.’ ” —Nintendo World Report