Nintendo Entertainment System

• Manufacturer: Nintendo

  • Designer: Masayuki Uemura

  • Generation: 3rd Generation

  • Bits: 8

  • Year Released: 1985 (Japan) and 1986 (US)

  • Units sold: 62 million

  • Media: ROM Cartridge

• Summary: Nintendo's first video game console. It was first released as the Famicom in Japan, and then as the NES a year later in the US. The NES effectively brought an end to the video game crash of 1984, at the same time gaining almost complete control over the game market.

History

In 1984, the Family Computer (Famicom) was released in Japan. After a rocky start, due to a bad chip which forced Nintendo to recall the systems and reissue it with a new motherboard, the Famicom became the best selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. Nintendo decided to release the console in the United States, despite the fact that video games in the US were considered a fad that had ended, thanks to the video game crash it had just suffered. A deal to release the Famicom under Atari's name fell through, but Nintendo decided to release the system on their own in 1985.

Thanks to the weak video game market, Nintendo had to do everything they could to convince retailers to sell the Famicom. The name was changed to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and it was redesigned to look less like a video game system and more like a computer or a VCR. It was released with such accessories as the Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB) and the Zapper gun, also to give it the look of a toy over the look of a video game. Nintendo even offered to buy back any unsold systems from retailers.

In December of 1985, Nintendo test released the NES in the New York area; it sold very well, and in February of 1986 it was released nationwide. It was released in Europe later that year.

Eighteen games were released along with the NES, including “Super Mario Bros.”, “Ice Climber”, and “Duck Hunt”.

The last game released for the NES was “Wario's Woods” in 1994. The system was officially discontinued in 1995, having been replaced by the Super NES five years earlier. By this time, the NES had sold over 62 million systems and 500 million games, the most popular video game system up to its time.

Hardware

The System:

CPU: 8-bit 6502 NMOS (1.79MHz)

RAM: 2KB (16Kb), 2KB Video RAM

Colors: 52 (24 on screen)

Resolution: 256x240 pixels

Sound: PSG audio

NES controllers introduced the now-common four-directional pad, used instead of a joystick. With only four buttons and this control pad, the controller was simple to understand and use. The console had two controller ports, although the original Famicom had two built-in controllers that could not be removed.

External Hardware

Many accessories were released for the NES over its lifespan. These include: