Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on July 15, 1983, as the and released as the redesigned NES in test markets in the United States on October 18, 1985, followed by a nationwide launch on September 27, 1986. The NES was distributed in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia throughout the 1980s under various names. As a third-generation console, it mainly competed with Sega's Master System.
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that could run arcade games from cartridges. The Famicom was designed by Masayuki Uemura, with its controller design reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch hardware. Lance Barr and Don James designed the western NES model to resemble a video cassette recorder. To aid the console's acceptance in stores, Nintendo released add-ons such as the Zapper, a light gun for shooting games, and R.O.B., a toy robot.
The NES is regarded as one of the most influential gaming consoles. It helped revitalize the American gaming industry following the video game crash of 1983. It pioneered a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers to produce and distribute games. Several games released for the NES, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Warrior, and Final Fantasy, became major franchises.
While the NES dominated Japanese and North American markets, it performed less well in Europe, where it faced strong competition from the Master System, as well as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum home computers. With 61.91 million units sold, it is the 14th-best-selling console of all time. Nintendo ceased production of the NES in 1995 and the Famicom in 2003. It was succeeded in 1990 by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
History
Background
The video game industry experienced rapid growth and popularity from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, marked by the golden age of arcade games and the second generation of consoles. Games like Space Invaders became a phenomenon across arcades worldwide, while home consoles such as the Atari 2600 and home computers such as the Commodore 64 and the Intellivision gained a foothold in the American market. Many companies emerged to capitalize on the growing industry, including the card and toy company Nintendo.Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi realized that breakthroughs in the electronics industry meant that entertainment products could be produced at lower prices. Companies such as Atari and Magnavox were already selling gaming devices for use with television sets to moderate success. Yamauchi negotiated a license with Magnavox for the patents on the technology used in the Magnavox Odyssey. Since Nintendo's operation was not yet sophisticated enough to design its own hardware, Yamauchi forged an alliance with Mitsubishi Electric and hired several Sharp Electronics employees to assist in developing the Color TV-Game 6 and the Color TV-Game 15 in Japan. This was followed the handheld Game & Watch series. The successes of these consoles gave Yamauchi the confidence to expand Nintendo's influence in the fledgling video game industry.
In 1978, Yamauchi split Nintendo into separate research and development divisions. He appointed Masayuki Uemura as head of Nintendo Research & Development 2. Yamauchi, through extensive discussions with Uemura and other engineers, recognized the potential of the developing console beyond gaming. He envisioned a home computer system disguised as a toy, which could significantly expand Nintendo's reach if it became popular with children. This popularity would drive demand for games, with Nintendo as the sole provider. Indeed, by 1980 several systems had already been released in Japan by both American and Japanese companies. Yamauchi tasked Uemura with developing a system that would be superior to its competitors and difficult to replicate for at least a year. Uemura's main challenge was economic rather than technological; Yamauchi wanted the system to be affordable enough for widespread household adoption, aiming for a price of ¥9,800 compared to existing machines priced at ¥30,000 to ¥50,000. The new system had to outperform other systems, both Japanese and American, while being significantly more affordable.
Inception
As development progressed on the new video game system, engineers sought Yamauchi's guidance on its features. They questioned whether to include a disk drive, keyboard, data port, as well as the potential for a modem, expanded memory, and other computer-like capabilities. Yamauchi ultimately instructed Uemura to prioritize simplicity and affordability, omitting these peripherals entirely. Game cartridges, which Uemura saw as "less intimidating" to consumers, were chosen as the format. The team designed the system with 2,000 bytes of random-access memory.The console's hardware was largely based on arcade video games, particularly the hardware for Namco's Galaxian and Nintendo's own Donkey Kong, with the goal of matching their powerful sprite and scrolling capabilities in a home system. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, and work began on programming tools. Because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan by that time, no cross-development software was available, and had to be developed from scratch. Early Famicom games were written on a PC-8001 computer. LEDs on a grid were used with a digitizer to design graphics, as no such software design tools existed at the time.
The codename for the project was GameCom, but Masayuki Uemura's wife proposed the name Famicom, arguing that "In Japan, 'pasokon' is used to mean a personal computer, but it is neither a home nor personal computer. Perhaps we could say it is a family computer." Meanwhile, Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white color scheme after seeing a hoarding for DX Antenna that used those colors.
Development
The Famicom was influenced by the ColecoVision, Coleco's competition against the Atari 2600 in the United States; the ColecoVision's top-seller was a port of Nintendo's Donkey Kong. The project's chief manager Takao Sawano brought a ColecoVision home to his family, who was impressed by its smooth graphics, which contrasted with the flicker and slowdown commonly seen on Atari 2600 games. Uemura said the ColecoVision set the bar for the Famicom. The team, wanting to surpass the ColecoVision and match the more powerful Donkey Kong arcade hardware, took a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet to chip manufacturer Ricoh for analysis, which led to Ricoh producing the Picture Processing Unit chip for the Famicom.During development, Yamauchi directed engineers to reduce costs by removing non-essential components. However, he insisted on including a low-cost circuit and connector that allowed the CPU to send or receive unmodified signals, enabling future hardware expansions such as modems or keyboards. This built-in capability led some within Nintendo to refer to the console as "Yamauchi's Trojan Horse": it entered homes as a simple gaming device with two controllers, and yet contained features far beyond its apparent function. A 1989 corporate report later acknowledged, "In the initial stages of development, we foresaw these possibilities... we built a data communications function into the system." Lead engineer Masayuki Uemura credited luck for this foresight, while colleague Genyo Takeda remarked that Uemura's lack of experience allowed him to attempt what others might have deemed unfeasible. Design decisions were also carefully considered. Yamauchi took a hands-on role in determining the controller layout, casing shape, and overall aesthetic. The final design featured a directional pad and two buttons on the right controller, a microphone on the left controller, rounded edges, and a red and white color scheme deliberately made to appear more like a toy than a computer.
Original plans called for the Famicom's cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, but they ultimately ended up being twice as large. Careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors, as loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines. Because it necessitated 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, Nintendo decided to produce its own connectors. Each cartridge typically contained two primary chips: one for the game’s program code, and another for graphical data used to render on-screen characters. Nintendo's R&D3 team designed the "UNROM" cartridge, which enabled larger memory capacities and the use of bank switching. This technique involved storing additional data in RAM and dynamically accessing it as needed, thereby significantly expanding gameplay possibilities. At Gunpei Yokoi's suggestion, a cartridge eject lever was also added, not for functionality, but to amuse children.
The Famicom design team initially considered arcade-style joysticks, and even dismantled existing models from American consoles, but ultimately rejected them due to concerns about durability and the risk of children stepping on them. Instead, they adopted the D-pad and two action button layout developed by R&D1 for their handheld Game & Watch series. As an early prototype, Katsuya Nakagawa attached a Game & Watch D-pad to the Famicom and found it comfortable and easy to use. To reduce costs, the controllers were hardwired to the console and stored in molded pockets on the case. A 15-pin expansion port was added to the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used. The second controller also included a microphone, which Uemura envisioned being used to make players' voices come through the TV speaker.
Japanese launch
On July 15, 1983, the console was released in Japan as the priced at with three launch games, all of which were ports of popular Nintendo arcade games: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. Although it was priced higher than originally intended, the Famicom remained less than half the cost of rival consoles. Backed by a robust marketing campaign, 500,000 units were sold within the first two months. However, a major fault emerged ahead of the critical Japanese New Year season, as reports began surfacing of consoles crashing during gameplay. Uemura and engineer Gunpei Yokoi traced the issue to a defective integrated circuit that could lock under specific data conditions. Upon reporting the issue to Yamauchi, staff proposed selectively replacing affected units. However, they were warned that a partial response could damage consumer trust and jeopardize Nintendo's first-mover advantage before competitors could respond. Yamauchi considered their input, then issued a decisive directive: "Recall them all."After a product recall and the release of a revised model with a new motherboard, the system's popularity soared. By the end of 1984, the Famicom had become the best-selling game console in Japan in what came to be called the "Famicom Boom". Following the sale of the first million units, demand showed no signs of slowing. Japanese retailers inundated Nintendo with urgent requests for stock. Anticipation for new game releases reached unprecedented levels, with children lining up outside shops and games selling out almost immediately. This phenomenon, soon dubbed "Nintendomania", overwhelmed the supply chain and further increased demand. The Famicom's success quickly cleared the field of competition in Japan. Fourteen rival console manufacturers exited the market, and Sega's SG-1000, launched in Japan on the same day as the Famicom, failed to gain traction.
At launch, Nintendo released only first-party games for the Famicom. However, in 1984, after being approached by Namco and Hudson Soft, the company agreed to allow third-party titles. Developers paid a 30% fee to cover console licensing and production costs, a revenue model that would later influence the video game industry for decades.