The
Nintendo Entertainment System (also abbreviated as
NES or simply called
Nintendo) is an
8-bitThe first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
video game consoleA video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
that was released by
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987. In most of Asia, including Japan (where it was first launched in 1983), China, Vietnam, Singapore, the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, it was released as the , commonly shortened as either the
romanizedThe romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
contractionA contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
, or abbreviated to
FC. In South Korea, it was known as the
Hyundai Comboy (현대 컴보이) and was distributed by
HynixHynix Semiconductor Inc. chips and flash memory chips. Founded in 1983, Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, the largest being Samsung Electronics. Formerly known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the U.S., China and Taiwan...
which then was known as Hyundai Electronics. In Russia, an unlicensed clone was manufactured called
Dendy (Де́нди). A clone that was popular in
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
in the 1990s was the Super Design Ending-Man BS-500 AS, also known as
TerminatorTerminator 2 was a video game console sold in Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, India and Hungary . It was also sold in Spain...
. Similarly, in India, clones by the names of Little Master and Wiz Kid were popular. In Poland, there was a clone produced called
Pegasus, and in Argentina, there was a clone called
Family Game. It was succeeded by the
Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
.
As the
best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983, and set the standard for subsequent consoles of its generation. With the NES, Nintendo introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce and distribute software for Nintendo's platform.
In 2009, the Nintendo Entertainment System was named the single greatest video game console in history by
IGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, out of a field of 25. 2010 marked the system's 25th anniversary, which was officially celebrated by Nintendo of America's magazine
Nintendo PowerNintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
in issue #260 (November 2010) with a special 26-page tribute section. Other video game publications also featured articles looking back at 25 years of the NES, and its impact in the video game console market.
History
Following a series of
arcade gameAn arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce a cartridge-based console.
Masayuki Uemurais a Japanese game hardware designer. Due to the bombing of Japan during World War II, his family was forced to move to Kyoto. Having little money, he was forced to make his own toys. His toys became more and more complex and he wanted to learn more, so he went to industrial college...
designed the system, which was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for
¥The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
14,800 alongside three
portsIn computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
of Nintendo's successful arcade games
Donkey Kongis an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a...
,
Donkey Kong Jr. and
Popeyeis a 1982 arcade game developed and released by Nintendo based on the Popeye cartoon characters licensed from King Features Syndicate. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Popeye....
. The Family Computer (or Famicom) was slow to gather momentum; a bad chip set caused the initial release of the system to
crashA crash in computing is a condition where a computer or a program, either an application or part of the operating system, ceases to function properly, often exiting after encountering errors. Often the offending program may appear to freeze or hang until a crash reporting service documents...
. Following a
product recallA product recall is a request to return to the maker a batch or an entire production run of a product, usually due to the discovery of safety issues. The recall is an effort to limit liability for corporate negligence and to improve or avoid damage to publicity...
and a reissue with a new
motherboardIn personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
, the Famicom’s popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984.
Encouraged by these successes, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the North American market. Nintendo entered into negotiations with
AtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
to release the Famicom under Atari’s name as the name
Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System; however, this deal eventually fell apart when Atari executives discovered that Nintendo had released a port of
Donkey Kong on the
ColecoVisionThe ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware...
, one of Atari's competitors. Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller and a special
BASICBASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never materialized.
In June
1985-Notable releases:* Brøderbund releases Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, the first game of the prolific Carmen Sandiego series* Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. on September 13, 1985, which eventually sells 40 million copies making it the best-selling video game of all time until 2008.*...
, Nintendo unveiled its American version of the Famicom at the
Consumer Electronics ShowThe International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
(CES). It rolled out its first systems to limited American markets starting in New York City on October 18, 1985, following up with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year. Nintendo released 17 launch titles:
10-Yard Fightis a American football arcade game that was developed and published in Japan by Irem and published in the United States by Taito and in Europe by Electrocoin. It is the first slightly realistic American football video game ever developed and released.-Gameplay:...
,
Baseball,
Clu Clu Landis an arcade and Nintendo Entertainment System game released in 1984 and was later released in North America on the Wii Virtual Console on September 1, 2008 and in Europe on March 6, 2009. The game was called Vs. Clu Clu Land in video arcades...
,
Donkey Kong Jr. Math,
Duck Huntis a video game for the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan...
,
Excitebikeis a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It first debuted as a game for the Famicom in Japan in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES in 1985. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its direct sequel Excitebike 64, its spiritual successors Excite Truck and...
,
GolfGolf is a sports-simulation video game released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released in Japan in 1984 for the Nintendo Family Computer...
,
GyromiteGyromite is a video game released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, designed for use with the Robotic Operating Buddy. Gyromite is one of two games in Nintendo's Robot Series, the other being Stack-Up. The opening screen of the game shows the title Robot Gyro, the Japanese name of the...
,
Hogan’s Alley,
Ice Climberis a vertical platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for release on the Nintendo Famicom in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985...
,
Kung Fu,
Mach Rideris a futuristic driving video game created by Nintendo. It was first released on October 18, 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, as one of the 18 initial launch games. A month later, on November 21, the title was released in Japan. On March 15, 1987 it was released in Europe and Australia...
,
PinballPinball is a 1984 arcade game created by Nintendo. The game is designed to simulate a game of pinball. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System later that year. In 1985 it reached North America as one of 18 launch titles. The Nintendo Entertainment System version added an alternating...
,
Stack-UpStack-Up is a video game released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, designed for use with R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy. Stack-Up is one of two games in Nintendo's Robot Series, the other being Gyromite . While Gyromite was a pack-in game with the R.O.B...
,
TennisTennis is a sports game released in Japan for the Famicom in 1984, and in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. In North America, Tennis was one of 18 launch games for the NES.-Gameplay:...
,
Wild Gunmanis a light gun shooter game created by Nintendo.-Early version:The original version of Wild Gunman was one of Nintendo's electro-mechanical arcade games created by Gunpei Yokoi and released in 1974. It consisted of a light gun connected to a 16mm projection screen...
and
Wrecking Crewis a action game developed and published by Nintendo. It was designed by Yoshio Sakamoto and released as a launch title for the Nintendo Entertainment System.-Gameplay:...
. Some varieties of these launch games contained Famicom chips with an adapter inside the cartridge so they would play on North American consoles.
The system was originally targeted for release in spring '85, but the release date was pushed back. After test-marketing in the New York City area in late fall, the system was released nationwide in February, 1986.
In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions. One region consisted of most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy), and distribution there was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases. Most of this region saw a 1986 release. Mattel handled distribution for the other region, consisting of the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, starting the following year. Not until the 1990s did Nintendo's newly created European branch direct distribution throughout Europe. Despite the system’s lackluster performance outside of Japan and North America, by 1990 the NES had outsold all previously released consoles worldwide. The Nintendo Entertainment System was not available in the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The slogan for this brand was
It can't be beaten.
As the 1990s dawned, however, renewed competition from technologically superior systems such as the
16-bit-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis marked the end of the NES’s dominance. Eclipsed by Nintendo's own
Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
(SNES), the NES’s user base gradually waned. However, even as developers ceased production for the NES, a number of high-profile video game franchises and series that started on the NES were transitioned to newer consoles and remain popular to this day. Nintendo continued to support the system in North America through the first half of the decade, even releasing a new version of the system's console, the NES-101 model (known as the HVC-101 in Japan), to address many of the design flaws in the original console hardware. The last game released in Japan was
Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV (Adventure Island IV), while in North America,
Wario's Woodsis a puzzle game, developed and published by Nintendo, for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES version was released in Japan on February 19, 1994, and both versions were released simultaneously in North America on December 10, 1994...
was the last licensed game; unlicensed games are still being produced. In the wake of ever decreasing sales and the lack of new software titles, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES by 1995. Despite this, Nintendo of Japan kept producing new Nintendo Famicom units until September 2003, and continued to repair Famicom consoles until October 31, 2007, attributing the decision to discontinue support to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.
North American bundle packages
For its complete North American release, the NES was released in four different bundles: the Deluxe Set, the Control Deck, the Action Set and the Power Set. The Deluxe Set, retailing at US$199.99, included R.O.B., a light zapper, two controllers, and two game paks: Gyromite, and Duck Hunt. The Control Deck was the barebone set, retailing at US$89.99 with no game, and US$99.99 bundled with "Super Mario Bros." The control deck consisted of the console itself, and two game controllers. The Action Set, however, was released in 1988 was sold for US$149.99 and came with the console, two game controllers, a
NES Zapper, and a dual game pak containing
Super Mario Bros. and
Duck Hunt. In 1989, the Power Set was released, which came with the console, two game controlers, a
NES Zapper, a
Power Pad, and triple game pack containing
Super Mario Bros,
Duck Hunt, and
World Class Track Meet.
In 1990, a Sports Set bundle was released, including the console, an
NES SatelliteThe NES Satellite is a Nintendo Entertainment System accessory created by Nintendo, and released in 1989.The Satellite allows up to four players to play the NES anywhere in the room without the necessity of wires running from the NES to the players' controllers. To use, a small infrared receiver...
infrared wireless
multitapA multitap is a video game console peripheral that increases the number of controller ports available to the player, allowing additional controllers to be used in play...
adapter, four game controllers, and a
Super Spike V'BallU.S. Championship V'Ball, also known simply as V'Ball, is a 1988 beach volleyball sports game released for the arcades by Technōs Japan Corporation. The arcade version was distributed in North America by Taito...
/
Nintendo World CupNintendo World Cup is a soccer video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, developed by Technōs Japan and released in 1990. The NES version is a localization of , the fourth Kunio-kun game released for the Family Computer. Ports for the PC-Engine and Sega Mega Drive were also...
game pak.
Two more bundle packages were released using the original model NES console. The Challenge Set included the console, two controllers, and a
Super Mario Bros. 3, also referred to as Super Mario 3 and SMB3, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System , and is the third game in the Super Mario series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, in the United States in 1990, and in Europe in 1991...
game pak released in 1990. The Basic Set, first released in 1987, included only the console and two controllers with no pack-in cartridge. Instead, it contained a book called the
Official Nintendo Player's GuideThe Nintendo Player’s Guides are a series of video game strategy guides from Nintendo based on Nintendo Power magazine.-Original format:The first Player’s Guide was simply called The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide, featuring dozens of different NES games...
, which contained detailed information for every NES game made up to that point. Finally, the console was redesigned for both the North American and Japanese markets as part of the final Nintendo-released bundle package. The package included the new style NES-101 console and one redesigned "dogbone" game controller. Released in October 1993 in North America, this final bundle retailed for US$49.99 and remained in production until the discontinuation of the NES in 1995.
Regional differences
Although the Japanese Famicom, North American and European NES versions included essentially the same hardware, there were certain key differences among the systems.
Different case design
The Famicom featured a top-loading cartridge slot, a 15-
pinA pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together.Pin may also refer to:* Award pin, a small piece of metal or plastic with a pin attached given as an award for some achievement...
expansion port located on the unit’s front panel for accessories (as the controllers were hard-wired to the back of the console) and a red and white color scheme. The NES featured a front-loading cartridge slot and a more subdued gray, black and red color scheme. An expansion port was found on the bottom of the unit and the cartridge connector
pinoutIn electronics, a pinout is a cross-reference between the contacts, or pins, of an electrical connector or electronic component, and their functions.- Purpose :...
was changed.
60-pin vs. 72-pin cartridges
The original Famicom and the re-released AV Family Computer both utilized a 60-pin cartridge design, which resulted in smaller cartridges than the NES, which utilized a 72-pin design. Four pins were used for the
10NESThe 10NES system is a lock-out system designed for the American version of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Various companies found ways to bypass the authorization chip.-Design:...
lockout chip. Ten pins were added that connected a cartridge directly to the expansion port on the bottom of the unit. Finally, two pins that allowed cartridges to provide their own sound expansion chips were removed. Some early games released in North America were simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter (such as the
T89 Cartridge ConverterThe T89 cartridge converter is a 60 to 72 pin adapter that allows NES owners to plug a 60-pin Famicom game into a 72-pin-based NES.-History:...
) to allow them to fit inside the NES hardware. Nintendo did this to reduce costs and inventory by using the same cartridge boards in North America and Japan. The cartridge dimensions of the original Famicom measured in at 5.3 × 3 inches, compared with 4.1 × 5.5 inches for its North American redesign.
Peripherals
A number of
peripheral devicesA peripheral is a device attached to a host computer, but not part of it, and is more or less dependent on the host. It expands the host's capabilities, but does not form part of the core computer architecture....
and
softwareComputer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
packages were released for the Famicom. Few of these devices were ever released outside of Japan.
- Family BASIC is an implementation of BASIC for the Famicom that came with a keyboard. It allowed the user to program their own games. It was considered for release in the United States, but ultimately rejected.
Famicom MODEM
The
Famicom ModemThe is a video game peripheral for Family Computer released only in Japan in 1988. It allowed the user access to a server that provided game cheats, jokes, weather forecasts, and a small amount of downloadable content. It could also be used to make live stock trades. Unlike the NES Teleplay Modem,...
is a
modemA modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
that allowed connection to a network which provided content such as financial services, but it was only available in Japan. A modem was, however, tested in the United States, by the
Minnesota State LotteryThe Minnesota Lottery is the official lottery association in Minnesota. The minimum age to purchase Minnesota Lottery tickets is 18.As a result of the 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown, sales of Minnesota Lottery tickets were suspended on July 1, 2011...
. It would have allowed players to buy
scratchcardA scratchcard is a small card, often made of thin paper-based card for competitions and plastic to conceal PINs, where one or more areas contain concealed information which can...
s and play the lottery with their NES. It was not released in the United States because some parents and legislators voiced concern that minors might learn to play the lottery illegally and anonymously, despite assurances from Nintendo to the contrary.
External sound chips
The Famicom had two cartridge pins that were originally intended to facilitate the Famicom Disk System’s external sound chip, but were also used by cartridge games to provide
sound enhancementsA sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...
. These pins were removed from the cartridge port of the NES and relocated to the bottom expansion port. As a result, individual cartridges could not make use of this functionality and many NES
localizationsIn computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market...
suffered from technologically inferior sound compared to their equivalent Famicom versions.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse-Reception and legacy:Nintendo Power listed it as the ninth best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, praising it for its strong improvements over previous entries in the series.A 1991 Captain N episode was based on this game....
is a notable example of this problem.
Hardwired controllers
The Famicom’s original design includes hardwired, non-removable controllers. In addition, the second controller featured an internal
microphoneA microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
for use with certain games and lacked SELECT and START buttons. Both the controllers and the microphone were subsequently dropped from the redesigned AV Famicom in favor of the two seven-pin controller ports on the front panel used in the NES from its inception.
Lockout circuitry
The Famicom contained no lockout hardware and, as a result, unlicensed cartridges (both legitimate and bootleg) were extremely common throughout Japan and the Far East. The original NES (but not the top-loading NES-101) contained the
10NESThe 10NES system is a lock-out system designed for the American version of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Various companies found ways to bypass the authorization chip.-Design:...
lockout chip, which significantly increased the challenges faced by unlicensed developers. Tinkerers at home in later years discovered that disassembling the NES and cutting the fourth pin of the lockout chip would change the chip’s mode of operation from "lock" to "key", removing all effects and greatly improving the console’s ability to play legal games, as well as bootlegs and converted imports. NES consoles sold in different regions had different lockout chips, so games marketed in one region would not work on consoles from another region. Known regions are: USA/Canada (3193 lockout chip), most of Europe (3195), Asia (3196) and UK, Italy and Australia (3197). Since two types of lockout chip were used in Europe, European NES game boxes often had an "A" or "B" letter on the front, indicating whether the game is compatible with UK/Italian/Australian consoles (A), or the rest of Europe (B). Rest-of-Europe games typically had text on the box stating "This game is not compatible with the Mattel or NES versions of the Nintendo Entertainment System". Similarly, UK/Italy/Australia games stated "This game is only compatible with the Mattel or NES versions of the Nintendo Entertainment System".
Audio/video output
The original Famicom featured an
RF modulatorAn RF modulator is a device that takes a baseband input signal and outputs a radio frequency-modulated signal....
plug for audio/video output, while its redesign, the AV Famicom, featured only RCA composite output. On the other hand, the original NES featured both an RF modulator and
RCAAn RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
compositeComposite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
output cables, but the top-loading NES 2 featured only RF modulator output. The original North American NES was the first and one of the only game consoles to feature direct composite video output, and thus having the ability to be connected to a
composite monitorA composite monitor is any analog video display that receives input in the form of an analog composite video signal through a single cable — in contrast to multiple-cable or multiple-wire video sources such as VGA cable...
.
The French NES, model (FRA) featured an unique "RGB audio/video Output", a proprietary output connector similar to the SNES connector. With the help of an additional PAL-to-RGB chip, it allow this model of NES to output RGB video signal. A specific cable was given with every unit, using the
SCARTSCART is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment together...
plug to connect it to the TV set.
Third-party cartridge manufacturing
In Japan, several companies, namely Nintendo,
Konamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
,
Capcomis a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
,
Namcois a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
,
Bandaiis a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
,
TaitoTaito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa...
, IREM,
Jalecois a Japanese video game publisher and developer established in 2006.The original Jaleco Ltd was founded in 1974. In 2006, it decided to become a pure holding company by renaming itself Jaleco Holding and splitting its video game operations into a newly created subsdiary that took its former name...
, Sunsoft and
Hudson Soft, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
, manufactured the cartridges for the Famicom. This allowed these companies to develop their own customized chips designed for specific purposes, such as Konami's VRC 6 and VRC 7 sound chips that increased the quality of sound in their games.
European "Mattel" and "NES" Versions
In the UK, am Italy and Australia which share the PAL A region, two versions of the NES were released; the "Mattel Version" and "NES Version". When the NES was first released within those countries, it was distributed by Mattel and Nintendo decided to use a lockout chip specific to those countries, different from the chip used in other European countries. When Nintendo took over European distribution in 1990, they produced consoles that were then labelled "NES Version", therefore the only differences between the two are the text on the front flap.
Game controllers
The
game controllerA game controller is a device used with games or entertainment systems used to control a playable character or object, or otherwise provide input in a computer game. A controller is typically connected to a game console or computer by means of a wire, cord or nowadays, by means of wireless connection...
used for both the NES and the Famicom featured an oblong brick-like design with a simple four button layout: two round buttons labeled "A" and "B", a "START" button and a "SELECT" button. Additionally, the controllers utilized the cross-shaped
joypadA D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
, designed by Nintendo employee
Gunpei Yokoi for Nintendo
Game & Watchis a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from to . Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock and an alarm ....
systems, to replace the bulkier
joystickA joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
s on earlier gaming consoles’ controllers.
The original model Famicom featured two game controllers, both of which were hardwired to the back of the console. The second controller lacked the START and SELECT buttons, but featured a small
microphoneA microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
. Relatively few games made use of this feature. The earliest produced Famicom units initially had square A and B buttons. This was changed to the circular designs because of the square buttons being caught in the controller casing when pressed down and glitches within the hardware causing the system to freeze occasionally while playing a game.
The NES dropped the hardwired controllers, instead featuring two custom 7-pin ports on the front of the console. Also in contrast to the Famicom, the controllers included with the NES were identical to each other—the second controller lacked the microphone that was present on the Famicom model and possessed the same START and SELECT buttons as the primary controller. Some NES localizations of games, such as
The Legend of Zelda, which required the use of the Famicom microphone in order to kill certain enemies, suffered from a lack of a hardware to do so.
A number of special controllers designed for use with specific games were released for the system, though very few such devices proved particularly popular. Such devices included, but were not limited to, the
NES ZapperThe NES Zapper, also known as the Beam Gun in Japan, is an electronic light gun accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Famicom. It was released in Japan for the Famicom on and alongside the launch of the NES in North America in October 1985...
(a
light gunA light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
), the
R.O.B.R.O.B. , released in Japan as the , is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in July 1985 in Japan and later that year in North America. It had a short product lifespan, with support for only two games which comprised the "Robot Series"; Gyromite and Stack-Up. R.O.B...
, the
Power PadThe Power Pad is a floor mat game controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a gray mat with twelve pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic...
, the
Power GloveThe Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the first peripheral interface controller to recreate human hand movements on a television or computer screen in real time. The Power Glove was not popular and was criticized for its imprecise and difficult-to-use...
, and the
LaserScopeThe Konami LaserScope is a head-mounted light gun used with and licensed for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Konami originally released the peripheral in 1990, in Japan for the Famicom under the name Gun Sight...
. The original Famicom featured a deepened
DA-15The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smaller connectors used on computer systems....
expansion port on the front of the unit, which was used to connect most auxiliary devices. On the NES, these special controllers were generally connected to one of the two control ports on the front of the unit.
Nintendo also made two turbo controllers for the NES called
NES AdvantageThe NES Advantage is an arcade style controller released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. The device is meant to rest on a flat surface at a comfortable level, such as a tabletop or the floor, with the player seated behind it...
and the
NES MaxThe NES Max is a gamepad that was released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. Like many later controllers , it has "wings": handles that extend from the edges of the pad.- Design :...
. Both controllers had a Turbo feature, a feature where one tap of the button represented multiple taps. The NES Advantage had two knobs that adjusted the firing rate of the turbo button from quick to Turbo, as well as a "Slow" button that slowed down the game by rapidly pausing the game. The "Slow" button did not work with games that had a pause menu or pause screen and can interfere with jumping and shooting. The NES Max also had the Turbo Feature, but it was not adjustable, in contrast with the Advantage. It also did not have the "Slow" button. Its wing-like shape made it easier to hold than the Advantage and it also improved on the joystick. Turbo features were also featured on the
NES SatelliteThe NES Satellite is a Nintendo Entertainment System accessory created by Nintendo, and released in 1989.The Satellite allows up to four players to play the NES anywhere in the room without the necessity of wires running from the NES to the players' controllers. To use, a small infrared receiver...
, the
NES Four ScoreThe NES Four Score is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System created by Nintendo. It allows four-player gameplay on games that supported it. The Four Score was released in 1990....
, and the
U-ForceThe U-Force was a game controller made by Brøderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It employed a pair of perpendicular infrared sensor panels to translate the user's hand movements into controller signals.From a print advertisement circa 1989:...
.
Near the end of the NES's lifespan, upon the release of the AV Famicom and the top-loading NES 2, the design of the game controllers was modified slightly. Though the original button layout was retained, the redesigned device abandoned the brick shell in favor of a dog bone shape. In addition, the AV Famicom joined its international counterpart and dropped the hardwired controllers in favor of detachable controller ports. However, the controllers included with the Famicom AV had cables which were a three-feet long, as opposed to the standard six-feet of NES controllers.
In recent years, the original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the console. Nintendo has mimicked the look of the controller in several recent products, from promotional merchandise to limited edition versions of the Game Boy Advance.
Hardware design flaws
When Nintendo released the NES in the U.S., the design styling was deliberately different from that of other game consoles. Nintendo wanted to distinguish its product from those of competitors and to avoid the generally poor reputation that game consoles had acquired following the video game crash of 1983. One result of this philosophy was to disguise the cartridge slot design as a front-loading zero insertion force (ZIF) cartridge socket, designed to resemble the front-loading mechanism of a
VCRThe videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
. The newly designed connector worked quite well when both the connector and the cartridges were clean and the pins on the connector were new. Unfortunately, the
ZIF connector was not truly zero insertion force. When a user inserted the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge down and into place bent the contact pins slightly, as well as pressing the cartridge’s ROM board back into the cartridge itself. Frequent insertion and removal of cartridges caused the pins to wear out from repeated usage over the years and the ZIF design proved more prone to interference by dirt and dust than an industry-standard card edge connector. These design issues were not alleviated by Nintendo’s choice of materials; the console slot nickel connector springs would wear due to design and the game cartridge copper connectors were also prone to tarnishing.
Problems with the
10NESThe 10NES system is a lock-out system designed for the American version of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Various companies found ways to bypass the authorization chip.-Design:...
lockout chip frequently resulted in the console's most infamous problem: the blinking red power light, in which the system appears to turn itself on and off repeatedly because the 10NES would reset the console once per second. The lockout chip required constant communication with the chip in the game to work. Dirty, aging and bent connectors would often disrupt the communication, resulting in the blink effect. Alternatively, the console would turn on but only show a solid white, gray, or green screen. Users attempted to solve this problem by blowing air onto the cartridge connectors, licking the edge connector, slapping the side of the system after inserting a cartridge, shifting the cartridge from side to side after insertion, pushing the ZIF up and down repeatedly, holding the ZIF down lower than it should have been and/or cleaning the connectors with alcohol after observing on the back of the cartridge that this action was warned against by Nintendo. Many of the most frequent attempts to fix this problem instead ran the risk of damaging the cartridge and/or system. In 1989, Nintendo released an official NES Cleaning Kit to help users clean malfunctioning cartridges and consoles.
With the release of the top-loading NES-101 (NES 2) toward the end of the NES's lifespan, Nintendo resolved the problems by switching to a standard card edge connector and eliminating the lockout chip. All of the Famicom systems used standard card edge connectors, as did Nintendo’s subsequent game consoles, the
Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and the
Nintendo 64The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
.
In response to these hardware flaws, "Nintendo Authorized Repair Centers" sprang up across the U.S. According to Nintendo, the authorization program was designed to ensure that the machines were properly repaired. Nintendo would ship the necessary replacement parts only to shops that had enrolled in the authorization program. In practice, the authorization process consisted of nothing more than paying a fee to Nintendo for the privilege. In a recent trend, many sites have sprung up to offer Nintendo repair parts, guides, and services that replace those formerly offered by the authorized repair centers.
Third-party licensing
Nintendo's near
monopolyA monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on the home video game market left it with a degree of influence over the industry exceeding even that of
AtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
during Atari's heyday in the early 1980s. Unlike Atari, which never actively courted third-party developers (and even went to court in an attempt to force
ActivisionActivision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
to cease production of
Atari 2600The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
games), Nintendo had anticipated and encouraged the involvement of third-party software developers—but strictly on Nintendo's terms. To this end, a 10NES authentication chip was placed in every console and another was placed in every officially licensed cartridge. If the console's chip could not detect a counterpart chip inside the cartridge, the game would not load. Because Nintendo controlled the production of all cartridges, it was able to enforce strict rules on its third-party developers, which were required to sign a contract by Nintendo that would obligate these parties to develop exclusively for the system, order at least 10,000 cartridges, and only make five games per year.
Unlicensed games
Several companies, refusing to pay the licensing fee or having been rejected by Nintendo, found ways to circumvent the console's authentication system. Most of these companies created circuits that used a voltage spike to temporarily disable the 10NES chip in the NES. A few unlicensed games released in Europe and Australia came in the form of a
dongleA software protection dongle is a small piece of hardware that plugs into an electrical connector on a computer and serves as an electronic "key" for a piece of software; the program will only run when the dongle is plugged in...
that would be connected to a licensed game, in order to use the licensed game's 10NES chip for authentication.
Atari GamesAtari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari, Inc..-History:When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc...
created a line of NES products under the name
TengenTengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created by arcade game manufacturer Atari Games.-History:Atari had been split into two distinct companies. Atari Corporation was responsible for computer and console games and hardware and owned the rights to the Atari brand for these domains...
and took a different approach. The company attempted to
reverse engineerReverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
the lockout chip to develop its own "Rabbit" chip. However, Tengen also obtained a description of the lockout chip from the
United States Patent and Trademark OfficeThe United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
by falsely claiming that it was required to defend against present infringement claims in a legal case. Nintendo sued Tengen for
copyrightCopyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
infringement, which Tengen lost as it could not prove that the legally obtained patent documents had not been used by the reverse engineering team. Tengen's
antitrustCompetition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, is law that promotes or maintains market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies....
claims against Nintendo were never finally decided.
Following the introduction of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo began to face real competition in the industry and in the early 1990s was forced to reevaluate its stance towards its developers, many of whom had begun to defect to other systems. When the console was reissued as the NES 2, the
10NESThe 10NES system is a lock-out system designed for the American version of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Various companies found ways to bypass the authorization chip.-Design:...
chip was omitted as a cost-saving measure. Games marketed for the NES after that point still included a
10NESThe 10NES system is a lock-out system designed for the American version of the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. Various companies found ways to bypass the authorization chip.-Design:...
chip in order to work with the large installed base of original NES consoles.
Hardware clones
A thriving market of unlicensed NES hardware clones emerged during the heyday of the console's popularity. Initially, such clones were popular in markets where Nintendo never issued a legitimate version of the console. In particular, the Dendy , an unlicensed hardware clone produced in Taiwan and sold in the former
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, emerged as the most popular video game console of its time in that setting and it enjoyed a degree of fame roughly equivalent to that experienced by the NES/Famicom in North America and Japan. The Family Game was marketed in Argentina, resembling the original hardware design. The
Micro GeniusMicro Genius is a brand name used for Famicom clone consoles marketed in several countries around the world, particularly areas where Nintendo did not have an official presence, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, South Africa and East Asian countries...
(Simplified Chinese: 小天才) was marketed in Southeast Asia as an alternative to the Famicom, Samurai was the popular
PALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
alternative to the NES and in Central Europe, especially Poland, the Pegasus was available. Samurai was also available in India in early 90s which was the first instance of console gaming in India.
The unlicensed clone market has flourished following Nintendo's discontinuation of the NES. Some of the more exotic of these resulting systems have gone beyond the functionality of the original hardware and have included variations such as a portable system with a color LCD (e.g.
PocketFamiThe Pocket Fami, also known as Pocket Famicom and Pokefami is an unlicensed handheld hardware clone of the Nintendo Entertainment System produced by GameTech and released in 2004.The PocketFami features a...
). Others have been produced with certain specialized markets in mind, such as an NES clone that functions as a rather primitive
personal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, which includes a keyboard and basic word processing software. These unauthorized clones have been helped by the invention of the so-called NES-on-a-chip.
As was the case with unlicensed software titles, Nintendo has typically gone to the courts to prohibit the manufacture and sale of unlicensed cloned hardware. Many of the clone vendors have included built-in copies of licensed Nintendo software, which constitutes copyright infringement in most countries.
Although most hardware clones were not produced under license by Nintendo, certain companies were granted licenses to produce NES-compatible devices. The
Sharp Corporationis a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...
produced at least two such clones: the
Twin FamicomThe was produced by Sharp Corporation in 1986, and was only released in Japan. It is a licensed Nintendo product, and is basically the Family Computer and the Family Computer Disk System which have been combined into a single piece of hardware....
and the
SHARP 19SC111The is a television produced by Sharp Corporation with a built-in licensed Nintendo Entertainment System. Originally released in Japan, the unit was released in the US in 1989 as the Sharp Nintendo Television...
television. The Twin Famicom was compatible with both Famicom cartridges and Famicom Disk System disks. It was available in two colors (red and black) and used hardwired controllers (as did the original Famicom), but it featured a different case design. The SHARP 19SC111 television was a television which included a built-in Famicom. A similar licensing deal was reached with
Hyundai ElectronicsHynix Semiconductor Inc. chips and flash memory chips. Founded in 1983, Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, the largest being Samsung Electronics. Formerly known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the U.S., China and Taiwan...
, who licensed the system under the name Comboy in the South Korean market. This deal with Hyundai was made necessary because of the South Korean government's wide ban on all Japanese "cultural products", which remained in effect until 1998 and ensured that the only way Japanese products could legally enter the South Korean market was through licensing to a third-party (non-Japanese) distributor (see also Japan–Korea disputes).
More recently, in 2010, Hyperkin developed the RetroN3, which, besides NES carts, also runs
SNESThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and Genesis carts, as well as their Japanese counterparts Famicom, Super Famicom and Mega Drive.
Original chassis/casing
The original Japanese Famicom was predominantly white plastic, with dark red trim. It featured a top-loading cartridge slot and grooves on both sides of the deck in which the hardwired game controllers could be placed when not in use.
The original version of the North American NES used a radically different design. The NES's color scheme was two different shades of gray, with black trim. The top-loading cartridge slot was replaced with a front-loading mechanism. The slot is covered by a small, hinged door that can be opened to insert or remove a cartridge and closed at other times. The dimensions of this model are 10 in (25.4 cm) wide by 8 in (20.3 cm) long by 3.5 in (8.9 cm) high. When opened, the cartridge slot door adds an additional 1 in (2.5 cm) height to the unit.
Redesigned model
The NES-101 model of the Nintendo Entertainment System (HVC-101 model in Japan), known informally as the "top-loader", uses the same basic color scheme, although there are several subtle differences. The power switch is colored a bright red and slides into the on and off position, similar to the
SNESThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, instead of the original push-button. Also, there is no LED power indicator on the unit. Like the original Family Computer, it uses a top-loading cartridge slot. The NES-101 model was redesigned after the (also top loading) SNES and indeed they share many of the same design cues. The NES-101 model is considerably more compact than the original NES-001 model, measuring 6" by 7" by 1.5". The NES-101 model offered only
RFA coaxial RF connector is an electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range.RF connectors are typically used with coaxial cables and are designed to maintain the shielding that the coaxial design offers. Better models also minimize the change in transmission...
outputs instead of the RF and
RCAAn RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
(mono) outputs offered on the original NES-001 model, whereas the HVC-101 model of the Family Computer offered RCA connectors only.
Cartridges
All officially licensed
NTSC-UNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and
PAL regionPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
cartridges, or "carts", are 5.25 inches (13.3 cm) tall, 4.75 inches (12 cm) wide and 0.75 inches (2 cm) thick. Originally, NES carts were held together with 5 small, slotted screws. Later games (post-1987) were redesigned slightly to incorporate two plastic clips molded into the plastic itself, eliminating the need for the top two screws. This is why older NES carts are referred to as "5-screw" and are distinguishable by their flat tops and, as the name suggests, five screws instead of three. Around this time, the standard screws were changed to 3.8 mm
security screwA screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...
s to further secure the ROMs inside from tampering. The back of the cartridge bears a label with instructions on handling. These labels were gray for standard games and gold (or in rare cases silver) for games that featured battery backup. With the exception of
The Legend of Zelda and
Zelda II: The Adventure of LinkZelda II: The Adventure of Link, released as in Japan and often mistakenly called The Adventures of Link, is an action role-playing video game with platforming elements. The second installment in The Legend of Zelda series, it was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment...
, which were available in gold-plastic carts, all licensed NTSC and PAL cartridges were a standard shade of gray plastic. Unlicensed carts were produced in black (Tengen, American Video Entertainment and Wisdom Tree), robin egg blue (Color Dreams and Wisdom Tree) and gold (Camerica) and were all slightly different shape and style than a standard NES cart. Nintendo also produced yellow-plastic carts for internal use at Nintendo Service Centers, although these "test carts" were never made available for purchase by consumers.
Japanese (Famicom) cartridges are shaped slightly differently, measuring only 2.75 inches (7.0 cm) in length, and 4.25 inches (10.8 cm) in width. While the NES used a 72-pin interface, the Famicom system used a 60-pin design. Some early NES games (most commonly
GyromiteGyromite is a video game released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, designed for use with the Robotic Operating Buddy. Gyromite is one of two games in Nintendo's Robot Series, the other being Stack-Up. The opening screen of the game shows the title Robot Gyro, the Japanese name of the...
) were actually 60-pin Famicom PCBs and ROMs with a built-in converter. Unlike NES games, official Famicom carts were produced in many colors of plastic. Adapters, similar in design to the popular accessory
Game GenieThe Game Genie is a series of cheat systems designed by Codemasters and sold by Camerica and Galoob for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega Game Gear that modifies game data, allowing the player to cheat, manipulate various...
, are available that allow Famicom games to be played on an NES.
Central processing unit
For its
central processing unitThe central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
(CPU), the NES uses an
8-bitThe first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
produced by
Ricohor Ricoh, is a Japanese company that was established in 1936 on February 6th, as , a company in the RIKEN zaibatsu. Its headquarters is located in Ricoh Building in Chūō, Tokyo....
based on a
MOS Technology 6502The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, it was the least expensive full-featured microprocessor on the market by a considerable margin, costing less than one-sixth the price of...
core. It incorporates custom sound hardware and a restricted
DMA controllerIn computer science, channel I/O is a generic term that refers to a high-performance input/output architecture that is implemented in various forms on a number of computer architectures, especially on mainframe computers...
on-die. To save some space on the silicon, the Ricoh CPU omitted the 6502's BCD (binary coded decimal) mode.
NTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
(North America and Japan) versions of the console use the
Ricoh 2A03The Ricoh 2A03 or RP2A03 / Ricoh 2A07 or RP2A07 is the 8-bit microprocessor in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was manufactured by Ricoh...
(or RP2A03), which runs at 1.79
MHzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
.
PALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
(Europe and Australia) versions of the console utilize the
Ricoh 2A07The Ricoh 2A03 or RP2A03 / Ricoh 2A07 or RP2A07 is the 8-bit microprocessor in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was manufactured by Ricoh...
(or RP2A07), which is identical to the 2A03 save for the fact that it runs at a slower 1.66 MHz
clock rateThe clock rate typically refers to the frequency that a CPU is running at.For example, a crystal oscillator frequency reference typically is synonymous with a fixed sinusoidal waveform, a clock rate is that frequency reference translated by electronic circuitry into a corresponding square wave...
and has its sound hardware adjusted accordingly.
Memory
The NES contains 2
kBThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
of onboard work
RAMRandom access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
. A game cartridge may contain expanded RAM to increase this amount. It also has 2 kB of video RAM for the use of the picture processing unit (PPU), 256 bytes of OAM (object attribute memory) to hold a display list, and 28 bytes of palette RAM. The system supports up to 32 kB of program
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
at a time, but this can be expanded by orders of magnitude by the process of
bank switchingBank switching is a technique to increase the amount of usable memory beyond the amount directly addressable by the processor. It can be used to configure a system differently at different times; for example, a ROM required to start a system from diskette could be switched out when no longer...
. Additionally, cartridges may contain 16,352 bytes (nearly 16 kB) of address space reserved as "Expansion Area", which often contained an 8 kB SRAM. Expanded Video memory (VROM or VRAM) may also be available on the cartridge (on-cartridge mapping hardware also allowing further video expansion past 12 kB).
Video
The NES uses a custom-made
Picture Processing UnitThe PPU , more specifically known as Ricoh RP2C02 / RP2C07 , is the microprocessor in the Nintendo Entertainment System responsible for generating video signals from graphic data stored in memory....
(PPU) developed by
Ricohor Ricoh, is a Japanese company that was established in 1936 on February 6th, as , a company in the RIKEN zaibatsu. Its headquarters is located in Ricoh Building in Chūō, Tokyo....
. The version of the processor used in NTSC models of the console, named the RP2C02, operates at 5.37 MHz, while the version used in PAL models, named the RP2C07, operates at 5.32 MHz. Both the RP2C02 and RP2C07 output
composite videoComposite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
. Special versions of the NES's hardware designed for use in
video arcadeAn amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s use other variations of the PPU. The
PlayChoice-10PlayChoice-10 was an arcade machine which could consist of as many as 10 different games previously available only on the Nintendo Entertainment System home console...
uses the RP2C03, which runs at 5.37 MHz and outputs RGB video at NTSC frequencies. Two different variations were used for
Nintendo Vs. SeriesThe Nintendo Vs. System is a coin-operated video game platform designed for two-player competitive play using the VS. UniSystem or VS. DualSystem, arcade system boards based on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Many of these stand-up or sit-down arcade machines had two screens and controls joined...
hardware: the RP2C04 and the RP2C05. Both of these operate at 5.37 MHz and output RGB video at NTSC frequencies. Additionally, both use irregular palettes to prevent easy ROM swapping of games.
All variations of the PPU feature 2
kBThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
of video RAM, 256 bytes of on-die sprite position/attributable RAM (object attribute memory or OAM) and 28 bytes of on-die palette RAM to allow selection of background and
spriteIn computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
colors. This memory is stored on separate buses internal to the PPU. The console's 2 kB of onboard RAM may be used for tile maps and attributes on the NES board and 8 kB of tile pattern ROM or RAM may be included on a cartridge. Using bank switching, virtually any amount of additional cartridge memory can be used, limited only by manufacturing costs.
The system has an available
color paletteIn computer graphics, a palette is either a given, finite set of colors for the management of digital images , or a small on-screen graphical element for choosing from a limited set of choices, not necessarily colors .Depending on the context In computer graphics, a palette is either a given,...
of 48 colors and 6 grays. Red, green and blue can be individually darkened at specific screen regions using carefully timed code. Up to 25 simultaneous colors may be used without writing new values mid-frame: a background color, four sets of three tile colors and four sets of three sprite colors. This total does not include color de-emphasis.
A total of 64 sprites may be displayed onscreen at a given time without reloading sprites mid-screen. Sprites may be either 8
pixelIn digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s by 8 pixels, or 8 pixels by 16 pixels, although the choice must be made globally, as it affects all sprites. Up to eight sprites may be present on one scanline, using a flag to indicate when additional sprites are to be dropped. This flag allows the software to rotate sprite priorities, increasing maximum amount of sprites, but typically causing
flickerFlicker is a visible fading between cycles displayed on video displays, especially the refresh interval on cathode ray tube based computer screens. Flicker occurs on CRTs when they are driven at a low refresh rate, allowing the brightness to drop for time intervals sufficiently long to be noticed...
.
The PPU allows only one
scrolling layerParallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, popularized in the 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol. In this pseudo-3D technique, background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion...
, though the horizontal scroll can be changed on a per-scanline basis for a parallax effect. The vertical scroll can also be changed between scanlines for a split-screen effect.
The standard
display resolutionThe display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
of the NES is 256 horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels. Typically, games designed for NTSC-based systems had an effective resolution of only 256 by 224 pixels, as the top and bottom 8 scanlines
are not visibleOverscan is extra image area around the four edges of a video image that may not be seen reliably by the viewer. It exists because television sets in the 1930s through 1970s were highly variable in how the video image was framed within the cathode ray tube .-Origins of overscan:Early televisions...
on most television sets. For additional video memory bandwidth, it was possible to turn off the screen before the
rasterA raster scan, or raster scanning, is the rectangular pattern of image capture and reconstruction in television. By analogy, the term is used for raster graphics, the pattern of image storage and transmission used in most computer bitmap image systems...
reached the very bottom.
Video output connections varied from one model of the console to the next. The original HVC-001 model of the Family Computer featured only
radio frequency (RF) modulatorAn RF modulator is a device that takes a baseband input signal and outputs a radio frequency-modulated signal....
output. When the console was released in North America and Europe, support for composite video through
RCA connectorAn RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
s was added in addition to the RF modulator. The HVC-101 model of the Famicom dropped the RF modulator entirely and adopted composite video output via a proprietary 12-pin "multi-out" connector first introduced for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Conversely, the North American re-released NES-101 model most closely resembled the original HVC-001 model Famicom, in that it featured RF modulator output only. Finally, the PlayChoice-10 utilized an inverted RGB video output.
Audio
The NES board supported a total of five sound channels. These included two
pulse waveA pulse wave or pulse train is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform that is similar to a square wave, but does not have the symmetrical shape associated with a perfect square wave. It is a term common to synthesizer programming, and is a typical waveform available on many synths. The exact shape of...
channels of variable
duty cycleIn engineering, the duty cycle of a machine or system is the time that it spends in an active state as a fraction of the total time under consideration....
(12.5%, 25%, 50% and 75%), with a volume control of sixteen levels and hardware
pitch bendingPortamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...
supporting frequencies ranging from 54
HzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
to 28
kHzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
. Additional channels included one fixed-volume
triangle waveA triangle wave is a non-sinusoidal waveform named for its triangular shape.Like a square wave, the triangle wave contains only odd harmonics...
channel supporting frequencies from 27 Hz to 56 kHz, one sixteen-volume level
white noiseWhite noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
channel supporting two modes (by adjusting inputs on a
linear feedback shift registerA linear feedback shift register is a shift register whose input bit is a linear function of its previous state.The most commonly used linear function of single bits is XOR...
) at sixteen preprogrammed frequencies and one
differential pulse-code modulationDifferential pulse-code modulation is a signal encoder that uses the baseline of pulse-code modulation but adds some functionalities based on the prediction of the samples of the signal...
(DPCM) channel with 6-bit resolution, using 1-bit delta encoding at sixteen preprogrammed sample rates from 4.2 kHz to 33.5 kHz. This final channel was also capable of playing standard
pulse-code modulationPulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
(PCM) sound by writing individual 7-bit values at timed intervals.
NES Test Station
The NES Test Station was a Nintendo Entertainment System testing machine made by Nintendo in 1988.
It is a NES-based unit designed for testing NES hardware, components and games. It was only provided for use in World of Nintendo boutiques as part of the Nintendo World Class Service program. Visitors were to bring items to test on the station, often with assistance from a technician or store employee.
The NES Test Station features a Game Pak slot and connectors for testing various components (AC adapter, RF switch, Audio/Video cable, NES Control Deck, controllers and accessories) at the front, with a knob selector in the center to select the component to test. The unit itself is very large, weighing almost forty pounds, and securely hooks up to the television through both AV Cables and RF Switch in one wire. The user can choose which output to use for gameplay by pressing the RF/AV for Audio/Video Cable connection, or leave it unpressed for RF Switch connection. The television it's hooked up to (normally nineteen inches) is meant to be placed on top of it.
On the front edge are three colored button switches: an illuminated red Power switch, a blue Reset switch and a green switch for alternating between AV and RF connections when testing an NES Control Deck. The different knob selections are:
- Game Pak Channel (for testing Game Paks)
- Control Deck and Accessories Channel (includes tests for NES Controllers, the Zapper
The NES Zapper, also known as the Beam Gun in Japan, is an electronic light gun accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Famicom. It was released in Japan for the Famicom on and alongside the launch of the NES in North America in October 1985...
, R.O.B.R.O.B. , released in Japan as the , is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in July 1985 in Japan and later that year in North America. It had a short product lifespan, with support for only two games which comprised the "Robot Series"; Gyromite and Stack-Up. R.O.B...
and Power PadThe Power Pad is a floor mat game controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a gray mat with twelve pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic...
)
- Audio Video Channel
- AC Adaptor Channel
- RF Switch Channel
- System Channel (for testing a Control Deck)
The testing simply displays the selected output's results as either 'Pass' or 'Fail.'
Very little is known about this equipment.
Nintendo later provided an add-on for testing Super NES components and games, named the Super NES Counter Tester.
Legacy
The NES/Famicom was one of the most influential video game systems ever produced. It also had the longest-lasting production run that lasted 20 years, from July 1983 to September 2003, before being discontinued in Japan. The NES was released after the "video game crash" of the early '80s, and many retailers and adults treated electronic games as a passing fad. Five years later, in 1988, video gaming was a multi-billion dollar industry. Before the NES/Famicom, Nintendo was known as a moderately successful Japanese toy and playing card manufacturer, and the popularity of the NES/Famicom helped the company grow into an internationally recognized name almost synonymous with video games and set the stage for Japanese dominance of the video game industry. With the NES, Nintendo also changed the relationship between
console manufacturerA console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles. It is also known as a first-party video game publisher...
s and third-party software developers by restricting developers from publishing and distributing software without licensed approval. This led to higher quality software titles, which helped to change the attitude of a public that had grown weary from poorly-produced titles for other game systems of the day. The NES was the first system to use special technology to lock-out unauthorized cartridges.
The NES hardware was also very influential. Nintendo chose the name "Nintendo Entertainment System" for the US market and redesigned the system so it would not give the appearance of a child's toy. The front-loading cartridge input allowed it to be used more easily in a TV stand with other entertainment devices, such as a video cassette player. The controller was radically different from those of previous consoles, replacing the joystick with a 4-way directional "control pad." Unlike a joystick, the control pad could be manipulated precisely and easily with a single thumb. As the industry adopted the idea, it became universally known as the "directional pad," "D-pad," or "cross pad." Nearly every major game system after the NES incorporated a D-pad onto the primary controller. In later years, Nintendo was recognized with multiple industry awards for the innovation.
Many prominent game franchises originated on the NES. The system's hardware limitations led to game design similarities that still influence video game design and culture. Some of the more important franchises that debuted on the NES were Nintendo's own
Super Mario Bros.The video game series, alternatively called the series or simply the series, is a series of highly popular and critically acclaimed video games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in many games, his brother Luigi. Gameplay in the series often centers around jumping on and...
,
The Legend of ZeldaThe Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
and
Metroid,
Capcomis a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
's
Mega Man franchise,
Konamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
's
CastlevaniaCastlevania, known as in Japan, is a video game series created and developed by Konami. The series debuted in Japan on September 26, 1986, with the release of for the Family Computer Disk System , followed by an alternate version for the MSX 2 platform on October 30...
franchise,
Squarewas a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
's
Final Fantasyis a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
and
EnixThe was a Japanese company that produced video games, anime and manga. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975 as and renamed Enix in 1982...
's
Dragon Quest, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
(now
Square Enixis a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
's) franchises. All of these still exist today.
NES imagery, especially its controller, has become a popular motif for a variety of products, including Nintendo's own Game Boy Advance. Clothing, accessories, and food items adorned with NES-themed imagery are still produced and sold in stores. Such items include hats, shirts, underwear, wallets, wrist-bands, belt buckles, tins containing mint candy, and energy drinks.
See also
- List of Nintendo Entertainment System games
- List of Family Computer games
- List of Family Computer Disk System games
- List of Nintendo Entertainment System emulators
- Nintendo World Championships
External links