YouTube/Cinemassacre
OG YouTuber James Rolfe, better known by the title character of his hit web series, Angry Video Game Nerd, celebrated his 20th year on the platform by sharing a lost video from 2006.
The Angry Video Game Nerd series was created years ago by James Rolfe. Originally called the Angry Nintendo Nerd, the series featured Rolfe decked out in a white shirt with pens in his pocket protector, reviewing old games for the NES.
The series trademark was James getting increasingly frustrated at the retro titles and swearing uncontrollably, yet creatively, at the games he was playing.
Eventually, the series would evolve into The Angry Video Game Nerd and James would go on to have numerous guest stars, including Macaulay Culkin, Gilbert Gottfried, the metal band GWAR, and, more recently, Scott the Woz. He even directed and released his own movie based on the character long before YouTubers like Chris Stuckman and Markiplier brought films to the big screen.
On April 6, the channel celebrated its 20th year on YouTube by releasing a “lost” episode from the Angry Nintendo Nerd days that never saw the light of day until now.
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Rolfe commemorated the moment in a nostalgic post on X. “Today is officially the 20th anniversary of the JamesNintendoNerd YouTube channel. It was created on April 6, 2006. But we began posting to it on April 8. It definitely makes me feel old, but I’m glad to be one of the originators,” he wrote.
Today is officially the 20th anniversary of the JamesNintendoNerd YouTube channel. It was created on April 6, 2006. But we began posting to it on April 8. It definitely makes me feel old, but I’m glad to be one of the originators. Stay tuned for a little something special.
— Cinemassacre (@cinemassacre) April 6, 2026
Longtime collaborator Mike Matei also chimed in, explaining how he was the one who first made the channel all those years ago, long before the creator had his own line of 8-bit games.
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Today is the 20th anniversary of the JamesNintendoNerd channel. I had no idea when I created it, that we’d still be doing this shit 20 years later. Some special things coming this week. Thank you to @cinemassacre @schottr and most importantly the fans for watching.
— Mike Matei (@Mike_Matei) April 6, 2026
“Today is the 20th anniversary of the JamesNintendoNerd channel. I had no idea when I created it, that we’d still be doing this sh*t 20 years later,” he remarked.
Other creators honored the channel’s success. Pat Contri, also known as Pat The NES Punk, commented: “Crazy accomplishment to not only have a successful YT channel for 20 years, but to create and have a character run for 20 years, in ANY medium.”
“I discovered AVGN in 2008 when I was a middle schooler and forever impacted my life, my channel and so many others wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for James,” YouTuber Conner The Waffle added.
To celebrate, James posted the 2006 video where he reviewed the NES Miracle Piano – a game with a piano controller designed to teach players how to play the piano.
In the description, the YouTuber explained that he didn’t think the episode was good to begin with and it had “only existed as raw footage” for 20 years. He would later go on to review the piano in his NES Accessories episode, thus rendering the original footage obsolete.
“But after all this time has passed, I decided you may want to see it, since it’s a vintage piece of Nerd history. So I finally edited it!” he noted.
It’s definitely easy to see why this one remained “lost” for so many years, as it didn’t feature so much of James’ trademark anger and was largely indifferent to both the piano controller and its accompanying game.
Still, it’s a testament to how much has changed, both in terms of James’ content and technology itself, as the video had that extremely guerrilla filmmaking approach from back in YouTube’s early days.
