{"id":611,"date":"2009-11-23T20:26:44","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T01:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=611"},"modified":"2013-11-27T07:55:45","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T12:55:45","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-the-nes-action-set-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/611\/retro-scan-of-the-week-the-nes-action-set-family","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> The NES Action Set Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/nesfamily_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/nesfamily_small.jpg\" alt=\"Nintendo Entertainment System NES Action Set Box Family - 1988\" class=\"centered\" \/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>The Euro-American family in its native habitat.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Just in time for Thanksgiving &#8212; and the ritual practice of family togetherness &#8212; comes this wonderful vintage photo from the back of the NES Action Set box.  In it, we see a four-person white American nuclear family utterly consumed by a game of <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This scene looks nice at first glance, but imagine having to play through a whole game with mom and dad hanging off of your shoulders.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Hey son.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Father gets in close, whispering into son&#8217;s ear.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Want to play some Super Mario Brothers?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m already playing, Dad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Father squeezes son&#8217;s shoulder tighter.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My uncle&#8217;s name is Mario.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"linebreak\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/nesfamily_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/nesfamily_3_small.jpg\" alt=\"Nintendo Entertainment System NES Action Set Box Family - 1988\" class=\"centered\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"linebreak\"><\/div>\n<p>Luckily, the scenario I&#8217;ve concocted above appears nowhere on the box.  Still, a few amusing things about this photo jump out at me:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mario is gleefully flying to his death.<\/li>\n<li>The family apparently owns two copies of <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em> because one is on the table, and they&#8217;re playing one in the NES.<\/li>\n<li>The two kids are both playing a one player game at the same time.  Or maybe the older brother (player 1) on the right is screwing up the little brother&#8217;s game by hitting pause at random intervals.<\/li>\n<li>The mother and the son on the right aren&#8217;t looking at the TV set.  Actually, I don&#8217;t think any of them are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve included an extra-large scan this time (when you click on the image), so you might be able to turn it into a desktop background.<\/p>\n<p>For more vintage family madness, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2009\/11\/22\/a-1980s-home-computer-family-celebration\/\" target=\"_blank\">my latest slideshow<\/a> on Technologizer.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n<p><center><em><small>[ From Nintendo Entertainment System Action Set Box (reverse), 1988 ]<\/small><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> Have you ever played a video game with your entire immediate family rapturously engaged in the action on screen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Euro-American family in its native habitat. Just in time for Thanksgiving &#8212; and the ritual practice of family togetherness &#8212; comes this wonderful vintage photo from the back of the NES Action Set box. In it, we see a four-person white American nuclear family utterly consumed by a game of Super Mario Bros. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,24,22,21,27,26,9],"tags":[181,695,184,691,124,143,60,694,682],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-humor","category-nes-famicom","category-news-current-events","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-retrogaming","tag-181","tag-action-set","tag-box-art","tag-family","tag-nes","tag-nintendo","tag-retro-scan","tag-super-mario-bros","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}