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The Video Game Crash of 1983 was brutal.  In fact, so brutal that it nearly caused the death of the video game industry.  Many video game companies went bankrupt, and the popularity of video games was rapidly declining.  Most retailers thought that home computers would replace video games and make them obsolete.  However, this turned out to not be the case, as the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 quickly revived the industry.  The joysticks which had been used as the controllers for the older game systems such as the atari had been placed by game pads-which were simpler versions of the controllers used with video games today.  This generation marked the debut of some of the most popular gaming franchises of all time, including Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy.  Also, in 1989, the first popular hanheld gaming system-the Nintendo Game Boy-was released.

The same year the Game Boy was released, Sega released the Genesis-which quickly gained popularity due to its advanced graphics, and the debut of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.  Although the system was far more advanced than the NES, Nintendo released a new system-the Super Nintendo (SNES) in 1991.  The system featured technology on par with the Genesis, which it ended up outselling.