Pre-Launch SCES 1985 Nintendo Advanced System, NES Set-Up Crew & Visage party NY Test Market NES Launch Shirts.

Pre-Launch SCES 1985 Nintendo Advanced System, NES Set-Up Crew & Visage party NY Test Market NES Launch Shirts.

The grey short sleeve pictured is indicated to be the Nintendo Launch Set-Up Crew shirt. A crew of 5 members (including Howard Phillips) under the guidance of Don James were responsible for setting up retail displays around New York for the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System. There was also 5 mall tours where employees would have likely worn this shirt. In addition to those in 1986 Howard Phillips did mall tours in Los Angeles. It is speculated but not confirmed that this could have also been used by the West Coast setup crew.

Both white and grey short sleeve shirts have a Hanes fifty-fifty tag. It would make sense that the Set-Up Crew shirts would have been produced many months before the October Launch. It appears the Visage Party PR event might have had its promotional launch shirt produced by a different shop as it has a screen stars tag and a longsleeve.

Gail Tilden was head of marketing and promotions during this time period and all of the above information was obtained directly from her.

Here is a sample photo of the Visage club in Manhattan, NY. There are no documented historical photos of that night, so this is a example from a different night at the club.

On Thursday, October 10, Nintendo threw a launch party for the Nintendo Entertainment System at a trendy club (Bruce Lowry remembers it being at Studio 54, Tilden remembers it being at a place called The Visage). A giant R.O.B. sat in the middle of the club, with silver-plated R.O.B. units around the place as showpieces, and many of the games were set up to play.

We have no paper records for this, but Tilden says she'll never forget the date: it's the same day beloved Broadway actor Yul Brynner died, a PR nightmare for someone trying to launch a new product in New York.

Tilden seems certain that it would have been one of the following Saturdays that she watched the first sale happen: either October 12 or October 19, just one day after Nintendo's official October 18 date.

On Monday, October 14, United Press International distributed a story announcing the NES. The report, which highlights the system's "three dimensional imagery" and "dramatic sounds," was clearly sourced from official Nintendo materials.

That same day, 30 and 60-second television commercials began airing in the New York area, according to AdWeek. The full version is probably lost to time, though the 30-second version is on YouTube.

When I contacted Bruce Lowry and told him what I was trying to find out, he told me, unprompted, that "October 18 was the ship date." When I asked Tilden if it would make sense to put out news statements and air commercials four days before shipment, she said that yes, it did, though she couldn't specifically recall if this is how the NES roll-out happened.

Assuming that Semrad's original newspaper report was somehow misinformed about the system's launch date, that leaves our most likely candidates either Saturday, October 12 or Saturday, October 19. The latter seems more likely, considering that Nintendo's internal date -- and the publication date on many of the games' copyright submissions -- is October 18. Perhaps, as Lowry said, this was the "ship date," meaning the date units arrived in stores, and not the date that the first unit was sold.

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