A Titan in the Making
After Nintendo's successful series of arcade games in the early 1980s, they decided to create a home console. The original plan
was to make a 16-bit computer package, including a keyboard and floppy drive. But, then-president of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi
decided the console should be cartridge-based, arguing that keyboards and disk drives would intimidate non-tech-savvy consumers
(this revelation wouldn't last). October 1982 saw the creation of a prototype to test the new architecture. This was when
programming tools were created, and games started being coded. The codename for the system was "GameCom" (I beg you not to
confuse this with the handheld), but the wife of head of development Masayuki Uemura suggested it be the Family Computer,
shortened to Famicom.
D-Pad is Mightier
Chief manager of the project Takao Sawano brought a ColecoVision to show to his family. They were amazed by its smooth graphics
compared to that of the slow and flickery Atari 2600. As for controller design, a joystick for movement was planned. But Uemura
felt that kids could step on and break them, so they became flat D-Pads, a consistent controller design for decades to come.
Out of the Pipe
On July 15, 1983, the Famicom was released and was slow to get up to speed. While 500,000 units were sold in the first two months,
some of the first revision units would glitch up and/or crash. The A and B buttons were originally square and made of rubber,
sometimes jamming into the plastic when pressed. Nintendo discovered that faulty circuits were the reason for consoles failing, so
all units sold just before the holidays in 1983 were recalled and production was halted. And although they lost millions of
dollars, they were able to start production back up with those issues fixed. In addition, the second revision Famicom had circular
A and B buttons made of plastic.
Back Out of the Pipe
Despite the setback, Nintendo ended up selling 2,500,000 units by the end of 1984, making it the best-selling game system in
Japan! There would be some accessories made by tech giant Sharp, including a keyboard and cassette recorder released with a
"Family Basic" cartridge.
Western Confrontation
As the Famicom was selling, Nintendo started planning for a North American release. But first, let's survey the region's state of
gaming in 1983. On the home gaming front, the market was plagued by games of varying levels of quality being too similar to one
another, turning consumers and retailers off. This was a prime catalyst for the video game crash, although not the only one. As a
result, Nintendo was forewarned that reintroducing Americans to home video games would be the greatest obstacle yet. With arcade
gaming, the golden age was coming to an end, as people began to lose interest in the games available at the time, causing a decline
in profit. But when conversion kit systems started to arrive, arcades began to bounce back even as people were already going to
them again, but we'll get back to that.
Atari Video Computer System 2?
Nintendo and Atari originally made a deal to release the Famicom under Atari's name as the Advanced Video Gaming System by the end
the year. But at Summer CES, Atari saw Coleco demonstrating their new Adam computer with their ColecoVision console's port of
Donkey Kong. As a result, Atari backed out of the deal at the last minute. But there was a misunderstanding in that while Coleco
licensed Donkey Kong for their ColecoVision, Atari had the license for only home computer ports of the game. The Adam was designed
to be backwards-compatible with the base console's games, and Atari delayed the deal with Nintendo thinking Donkey Kong being
demonstrated on the Adam was a violation Atari's license. The final nail in the coffin for the deal was when their CEO Ray Kassar
was fired.
Continuing development solo, Nintendo decided to introduce their Famicom hardware and games to North America through their own
arcade machine line called the VS. System. It was a big success, selling over 100,000 machines by 1985, due to being affordable and
easy to convert Famicom games to. This gave Nintendo great confidence in getting the hardware and games into American households.
In-comp-nito
Their first plan to reintroduce Americans to video games was to avoid creating a home console altogether, so they revisited a
potential personal computer package called the Advanced Video System. It included controllers and a joystick with infrared wireless
technology, a cassette drive, and even a musical keyboard. The base unit would have a QWERTY keyboard built in like most BASIC-run
computers of the time. When it was shown off at Winter CES 1985, not an order was placed. (Lance Barr put this on display at the
Nintendo World Store in New York City in the mid-2000s! Sadly, it's gone.)
People had little confidence this console would appeal to any retailers. So Nintendo initiated Plan B--marketing it more vaguely as
just an entertainment machine. They started by renaming it the Nintendo Entertainment System. Then, they redesigned it to be
front-loading like a VCR. Famicom designer Masayuki Uemura said in 2020 this also served to prevent shorting something inside the
unit when inserting a cartridge, aggravated by static electricity-laced furniture in dry-climate locations like Arizona.
First Impressions
A highly important aspect of selling a video game is its box/cover art, to depict what the game is about and what the consumer can
expect when they play it. The cover art for most Atari 2600 and Intellivision games, for instance, depicted them as if they were
novels or movies. But obviously, their respective systems were incapable of replicating the art with their graphics. So, the
cartridge labels and boxes for the NES's "black box" games (which there were 30 of from Nintendo that came in black boxes, but 17
were released alongside the console itself) used pictures with in-game sprites on it to represent the game more closely. These
"black box" games were then placed in their own genre. Mario Bros., for instance, is in the Arcade series, and Duck Hunt is in the
Zapper series of games that require the light gun.
Video Toy System
Even specific terminology was used in promotional material and manuals for the console and its games. For example, the formal
"Control Deck" term replaced "console", and "Game Paks" replaced "game cartridges" to market the system to toy stores. The next
issue to tackle was the quality of its games, an issue that killed the industry in the first place. So, Nintendo put strict
stipulations on game releases: Nintendo had to approve each game (hence the "Seal of Quality" on each cartridge) by going through
it and playtesting to determine if it adheres to their guidelines and it's worth playing; Every third-party developer was allowed
to release a certain number of games each year; And one game released on the NES can't come out on another system for two years.
In addition, they prevented pirated and unlicensed games from playing on the NES by implementing a lockout chip in the console and
games that Nintendo licensed. Those without the chip wouldn't play (unless you disassemble the NES, find the chip, and lift a leg
off the board to nullify it).
It more or less worked, until 1988 when companies like Color Dreams and Tengen surfaced to work around it, which in most cases,
did end up tainting the game library a bit. But then again, not all licensed third-party games were up to snuff despite
receiving Nintendo's seal of approval.
Finally, to market the system as being way more innovative, a plastic robot called the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) was
developed. It communicated with the TV screen by flashing the background blue when a button was pressed. It would control where
and when the robot's arms would move and open or close, making it a pseudo-second player. Sadly, only two games were made
specifically for the Robot series, so R.O.B. was ditched as soon as his purpose to trick consumers into buying a high-tech
entertainment machine was fulfilled.
Game Back On!
Ultimately, it was all a success, and the video game industry was saved! The NES ended up being released on October 18, 1985, and
was a massive success. Its success was what helped Nintendo fully break into American culture and reignited demand in video games
in that region.
The main reason why the NES was so popular back then and is still universally loved by those who were children back in the
console's heyday and younger, newer fans in the retrogaming community today, 40 years after its original release, was the
memorable game library. A bunch of game franchises that exist now were either first established, evolved to its current form, or
made available to a wide audience for the first time did so on the Nintendo Entertainment System, such as, of course, Super Mario,
Castlevania, Mega Man, The Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy. Of course, it had a lot of other games that were part of franchises
that have since ended, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Contra. But the variety made the console one for any gamer to go pick
up in order to find what they like.
Not only did the console give birth to many popular franchises, but it helped start or popularize video game genres that also
reign the industry. For instance, the port of Kung-Fu Master to the NES as Kung-Fu laid the groundwork for the beat-em-up genre,
The console's popularity allowed it to stay in production throughout most of the lifespan of its 16-bit successor, the Super
Nintendo, and through part of the development of ITS successor, known as the Ultra 64 by the time the NES was discontinued in
August 1995. Nintendo offered repairs for it for almost another 15 years before stopping as original parts got more scarce by the
day. Throughout the decade the NES was in production, across all regions and models, the console sold almost 62,000,000 units.
AV Famicom (once the SFC's "Famicom Adapter"?)
Now this console is a mystery to me. It was shown to the public alongside the first prototype of the Super Famicom on November 21,
1988 called the "Super Famicom Adaptor", and in an issue of the "Famicom Tsushin Magazine". They disclose that the main 16-bit
console has no backwards compatibility with 8-bit games.
The unit connected to the back of the Super Famicom (making this a peripheral) to play earlier 8-bit games in AV picture quality
in the smaller hardware. Because of these video capabilities, it's possibly a precursor to the composite video model Famicom,
known officially as the AV Famicom, released in December 1993.
It's also possible the adapter could have been responsible for running the 8-bit games, not the 16-bit console, when its
"FAMICOM" switch is switched.
My Personal Thoughts
This is one of my favorite game systems. I remember my mom having one from she was a kid and keeping it around until I was about
five years old, presumably because it stopped working. She even had a strategy guide for Super Mario Bros. 3 that survives to the
current day and is now in my possession, although the pages have come apart and some are missing. The surviving pages were taped
then stapled together over the years. My dad and his brothers also had the NES, among other systems years later. This one, in
addition to a bunch of games, also survived at my grandparents throughout the years. I even remember being in elementary school
and coming over to try and play it, but not really knowing how to start it up. Eventually my cousin and his dad took some games
and the NES with them to try and fix it, but I haven't seen or heard about it since, so they may have ended up getting rid of
them. Some of the games did hang around for a while longer. Around that time, I asked my mom to get us one off eBay. We were on
vacation at the time, so I was thrilled to get back home to play it. But we didn't have any games for it yet. I bought some on
eBay and even remembered the games that were still at my grandparents, which I managed to get working again! To this day, I turn
it on occasionally to get lost in an era of primitive but still enjoyable games.
Sometimes called the NES 2 (which shan't be confused with the concept sketch of the SNES), the NES Top Loader solved most design
issues the original had. Cartridges were inserted into the top, like most game systems before and contemporary with it, so the
cartridge didn't have to be nudged and poked to work. Shaped and stylized after the SNES, the controllers were redesigned to be
more comfortable in the hands and referred to as "dogbones".
This is another shot of the NES 2 prototype. Unlike the last picture, the controller has a wire. Maybe they were toying with
the concept of wireless controllers on this model too?