Twenty-five years ago, Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (lovingly known as the NES) in the United States. The iconic gray-and-black 8-bit console (which sold 61.9 million units worldwide) pushed boundaries in both hardware and software design and served as a rallying point for the suffering video game industry in the post-Atari era.

In honor of this anniversary, let's take a peek inside the console that first brought Mario, Zelda, and Metroid to life.