# What if: Atari helped sell the NES outside of Japan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-atari-helped-sell-the-nes-outside-of-japan/962214>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 4, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-atari-helped-sell-the-nes-outside-of-japan/962214 "2022-04-04T01:55:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CastletonSnob1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@CastletonSnob1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob1)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-atari-helped-sell-the-nes-outside-of-japan/962214/1 "2022-04-04T01:55:33Z")

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Did you know that back in 1983, Nintendo made a deal with Atari to help them sell the NES outside of Japan, only for the deal to fall through at the last minute?

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2q5_RgSCjBo/maxresdefault.jpg "The Story Of Atari's 1983 Nintendo Console - Featuring Guru Larry") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q5_RgSCjBo)

What would the gaming landscape have been like if the deal had stuck? Would Atari still be making consoles today?

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**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-atari-helped-sell-the-nes-outside-of-japan/962214/2 "2022-04-04T03:17:06Z")

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heh Coleco killed that deal when it released a “super donkey kong” for the adam computer without permission

I think it would have been a deal like atari had with sears … Once it had gotten successful they would of been out on their own and branding their own systems and the atari entertainment system would be moderately/highly collectible

Now the more interesting version I’ve heard a couple of times was in japan Nintendo was going to make a system for atari for japan and atari was going to manufacture a system using Nintendos parts but an atari design (they hated the original NES design and was just going to make it a normal loading system) and they were going to share games between the two

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CastletonSnob1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@CastletonSnob1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob1)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-atari-helped-sell-the-nes-outside-of-japan/962214/3 "2022-04-04T19:38:58Z")

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Given how monstrously incompetent Atari was, I think the NES would have failed if the deal had stuck.