Others are following suit with musician and producer Mark Ronson who has worked with Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, producing tracks that bear more than a passing reference to the music of NES game, "The Legend of Zelda".

BBC: How computer games are creating new art and music

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the Famicom in Japan (which was known as the NES in the United States), Nintendo is making one NES or Super NES game available each month now through July at the anniversary price of just 30 cents.

ENGADGET: Nintendo Wii U getting two system updates in spring and summer to optimize UI speed

Virtual Console for Wii U: A spring system update will add Virtual Console software to the Nintendo eShop for Wii U. The service will launch right after the spring update and will include a selection of NES and Super NES games, with Game Boy Advance games to be added in the future.

ENGADGET: Nintendo Wii U to get Virtual Console service this spring

The NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy and DS were all big sellers in one way or another, so why would a product come along to give them so much trouble?

FORBES: The Only Problem with Nintendo's 3DS

But when the game was released in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the hard-to-pirate NES cartridges sold much better.

FORBES: Will Wright, Bungeling Bay and Alexey Leonov