Nintendo N E S 2

In 1993 a second-generation of the Nintendo Entertainment System was released. This unit was known as the Nintendo Entertainment System 2. When this second release was made available to the North American continent, its retail price was $50.

Internally, the hardware had not changed at all. The major changes in the Nintendo Entertainment System 2 included the removal of the RCA components, as well as the lockout chip. The external appearance, however, was changed drastically. The entire system was more ergonomically designed and included a new cartridge loading system that would not face the same issues as the previous version of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

In order to change game cartridges in this second release, one actually had to open the dust cover to allow the cartridge to slide in. This design change was due in part to the fact that dust was one of the main issues as to the degradation of the Nintendo Entertainment System games. Other than this, there were no major changes done to the remainder of the home gaming console.

Besides the console itself, the Nintendo Entertainment System 2, was released with a more ergonomically designed controller. These controllers were nicknamed the dog bone. The reason for this change in the controllers was due to this excessive stress created by the original rectangle style controllers on the palms of your hands during heavy gameplay.

Although a lot of effort was put into the redesigning of the Nintendo Entertainment System, it was not considered a commercial success for the Nintendo Corporation at all.  The major reason for this was that some of the aftermarket devices developed for the initial Nintendo Entertainment System would not work properly in the second release. There were also several issues with the graphics during the gameplay as well as a higher possibility of the system crashing due to the game cartridges wobbling in the receiver itself.

The Nintendo Corporation then decided to go ahead and remove all production and support for the second release, due to the fact that they were preparing to release their next generation Nintendo Entertainment System.