Nintendo Entertainment System
History
At June 1985's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nintendo unveiled the American version of its Famicom, with a new case redesigned by Lance Barr and featuring a "zero insertion force" cartridge slot. The change from a top-loader in the Famicom to a front-loader was to make the new console more like a video cassette recorder, which had grown in popularity by 1985, and differentiate the unit from past video game consoles. Additionally Nintendo developers feared that static charges might potentially cause some electric hazards in the driest American states such as Arizona and Texas, and a front-loading design would be safer for children who handled carelessly the console, as explained by Uemura himself.
Nintendo Entertainment System-12