Page "History of the Nintendo Entertainment System" Paragraph 7

Bolstered by its success in Japan, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the larger North American market.

As a new console manufacturer, Nintendo had to convince a skeptical public to embrace its system.

To this end, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom as the " Nintendo Enhanced Video System.

" Though the two companies reached a tentative agreement, with final contract papers to be signed at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ), Atari refused to sign at the last minute, after seeing Coleco, one of its main competitors in the market at that time, demonstrating a prototype of Donkey Kong for its forthcoming Coleco Adam home computer system Although the game had been originally produced for the ColecoVision and could thus automatically be played on the backwards compatible Adam computer, Atari took the demonstration as a sign that Nintendo was also dealing with Coleco.

Though the issue was cleared up within a month, by then Atari's financial problems stemming from the North American video game crash of 1983 left the company unable to follow through with the deal.