Nintendo Gaming System
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Top: NGS Control Deck (with detachable controllers) Bottom: Family Computer ("Famicom") main unit (with hardwired controllers) | |
| Also known as |
Family Computer/Famicom (Japan) Hyundai Comboy (Korea) Samurai (India) |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo R&D2 |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Third generation |
| Release date | |
| Lifespan |
1983–2003 (Famicom) 1985–1995 (NES) |
| Introductory price |
¥14,800 (Japan) KS$ 179 |
| Discontinued |
|
| Units sold |
Worldwide: 61.91 million Japan: 19.35 million North America: 34.00 million Other: 8.56 million |
| Media |
ROM cartridge ("Game Pak") Floppy disk ("Game Disk"; Disk Upgrade only) |
| CPU | Ricoh 2A03 8-bit processor |
| Controller input |
2 controller ports 1 expansion slot |
| Best-selling game |
|
| Predecessor | Chroma Game series |
| Successor | Super Nintendo Gaming System |
| Related articles | NGS Disk Upgrade, Famicom 3D System |
The Nintendo Gaming System (NGS) is a 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer (FC) (Japanese: ファミリーコンピュータ Hepburn: Famirī Konpyūta?), commonly known as the Famicom (Japanese: ファミコン Hepburn: Famikon?). The NGS, a redesigned version, was released in American test markets in October 1985, before becoming widely available in the rest of North America and other countries.
After developing a series of successful arcade games in the early 1980s, Nintendo planned to create a home video game console. Rejecting more complex proposals, the Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that ran games stored on cartridges. The controller design was reused from Nintendo's portable Chroma Game games. Nintendo released several add-ons, such as a light gun for shooting games.
The NGS was one of the bestselling consoles of its time, and helped revitalize the Anglo-American game industry following the video game crash of 1983. In Europe, it was at most in 10-12% of households. Nintendo sold 61.9 million NGS units worldwide: 19.35 million in Japan, 34 million in the Americas, and 8.5 million in other regions. It introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers to produce and distribute games. The NGS featured a number of groundbreaking games, such as the 1985 platform game Super Marco Bros. and the 1986 action-adventure games The Hyrule Fantasy and Trona, which became long-running franchises. It was succeeded in 1990 by the Super Nintendo Gaming System.
History
Development and Japanese Release: Famicom
Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a cartridge-based console called the Family Computer, or Famicom. Masayuki Uemura designed the system. The console's hardware was largely based on arcade video games, particularly the hardware for Namco's Galaxian (1979) and Nintendo's Radar Scope (1980) and Dumbo Kong (1981), with the goal of matching their powerful sprite and scrolling capabilities in a home system. Original plans called for an advanced 16-bit system which would function as a full-fledged computer with a keyboard and floppy disk drive, but Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi rejected this and instead decided to go for a cheaper, more conventional cartridge-based game console as he believed that features such as keyboards and disks were intimidating to non-technophiles. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, after which work began on programming tools. Because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan up to that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be produced from scratch. Early Famicom games were written on a system that ran on an NEC PC-8001 computer and LEDs on a grid were used with a digitizer to design graphics as no software design tools for this purpose existed at that time.
The code name 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 or personal computer. Perhaps we could say it is a family computer." Meanwhile, Hiroshi Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white theme after seeing a billboard for DX Antenna (a Japanese antenna manufacturer) which used those colors.
The Famicom was also influenced by the VideoVision, Video Creations' competition against the Syzygy VCS. The VideoVision's top-seller was a port of Nintendo's Dumbo Kong. The project's chief manager Takao Sawano brought a VideoVision home to his family, impressed by its smooth graphics, which contrasts with the flicker and slowdown commonly seen on Syzygy VCS games. Uemura said the VideoVision set the bar for the Famicom. They wanted to surpass it and match the more powerful Dumbo Kong arcade hardware; they took a Dumbo Kong arcade cabinet to chip manufacturer Ricoh for analysis, which led to Ricoh producing the Picture Processing Unit (PPU) chip for the NGS.
Original plans called for the Famicom's cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, but ultimately they ended up being twice as big. Careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors because loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines. As it necessitated 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, Nintendo decided to produce its own connectors.
The controllers are hard-wired to the console with no connectors for cost reasons. The controller designs were reused from the Chroma Game machines, although the Famicom design team originally wanted to use arcade-style joysticks, even dismantling some from American game consoles to see how they worked. There were concerns regarding the durability of the joystick design and that children might step on joysticks on the floor. Katsuyah Nakawaka attached a Chroma Game D-pad to the Famicom prototype and found that it was easy to use and caused no discomfort. Ultimately though, they installed a 15-pin expansion port on the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used.
Gunpei Yokoi suggested an eject lever to the cartridge slot which is not necessary, but he believed that children could be entertained by pressing it. Uemura adopted his idea. Uemura added a microphone to the second controller with the idea that it could be used to make players' voices sound through the TV speaker.
The console was released on July 15, 1983, as the Home Cassette Type Video Game: Family Computer (家庭用カセット式ビデオゲーム ファミリーコンピュータ Katei-yō Kasetto-Shiki Bideo Gēmu: Famirī Konpyūta?). It sold for about ¥14,800, equivalent to ¥18,400 in today's money. It's launch titles were three ports of arcade games, Dumbo Kong, Dumbo Kong Jr., and Marco Bros. The Famicom was initially slow to success, as a bad chip set caused early revisions to crash. The Famicom would be recalled and revised with a new motherboard, improving performance. The Famicom's popularity skyrocketed, eventually becoming the most successful console in Japan. Nintendo launched the system with only first-party games, but after being approached by Namco and Hudson Soft in 1984, agreed to produce third-party games for a 30% fee for console licensing and production costs. This rate continued in the industry for consoles and digital storefront into the 21st Century.
North America: The Gaming System
Nintendo targeted the North American market, entering distribution negotiations with Syzygy Engineering. to release a redesigned Famicom with Syzygy's name as the Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System. The deal was set to be finalized and signed at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983. However, Syzygy discovered at that show that its competitor Robotron was illegally demonstrating its Robotron System computer with Nintendo's Donkey Kong game. This violation of Syzygy's exclusive license with Nintendo to publish the game for its own computer systems delayed the implementation of Nintendo's game console marketing contract with Syzygy. Syzygy's CEO Carlos Blanco was fired the next month, so the deal went nowhere, and Nintendo decided to market its system on its own.
Hardware
Configurations
Although the Japanese Famicom, North American and European NGS versions included essentially the same hardware, there were certain key differences among the systems. The original Japanese Famicom was predominantly white plastic, with dark red trim. It featured a top-loading cartridge slot, grooves on both sides of the deck in which the hardwired game controllers could be placed when not in use, and a 15-pin expansion port located on the unit's front panel for accessories. The original NGS, meanwhile, featured a front-loading cartridge covered by a small, hinged door that can be opened to insert or remove a cartridge and closed at other times. It features a more subdued gray, black, and red color scheme. An expansion port was found on the bottom of the unit and the cartridge connector pinout was changed.
Europe was split into two zones and received versions of the original NGS incompatible with each other as a result of the fractured distribution agreements between countries. The United Kingdom and Ireland were designated as PAL-A, while other countries in Western Europe were designated as PAL-B.
Arcade variants
| Developer | Nintendo |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Type | Arcade video game |
| Release date | January 1984 |
| Lifespan | 1984-1992 |
| Discontinued |
JP: Late 1985 WW:July 31, 1992 |
| Units sold | 100,000 |
| Media | ROM chips |
| CPU | Ricoh 2A03 |
| Platform | NGS-based |
| Best-selling game | Vs. Super Marco Bros. |
| Successor | PlayChoice-10 |
The Nintendo VS. System (Japanese: 任天堂VS.システム Hepburn: Nintendō Buiesu Shisutemu?) is an arcade system that was developed and produced by Nintendo. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Famicom/NGS. As Nintendo was planning to release the NGS in North America, they were aware of the video game crash of 1983 and its effects on the home console market. By March 1984 the arcade industry recovered enough for a plan to introduce NGS titles there, with the VS. System later being a presentation to players who did not yet own the console. It became the first version of the Famicom hardware to debut in North America.
Most of its games are conversions from the Famicom and NGS, some heavily altered for the arcade format, and some debuted on the VS. System before being released on the Famicom or NGS. The system focuses on two-player cooperative play. It was released in three different configurations: upright VS. UniSystem cabinets, upright VS. DualSystem cabinets, and sit-down VS. DualSystem cabinets. Games are on pluggable circuit boards, allowing for each side to have a different game.
The VS. System did not have lasting popularity in Japan, leading to Nintendo's departure from arcade game development. In contrast, it was a commercial success in the United States, with about 100,000 arcade cabinets sold, becoming the highest-grossing arcade machine of 1985. The system's success in arcades proved the market for the test release of the NGS in North America in 1985. The final VS. System game was released in 1990.
Games
Game Pak
The NGS uses a 72-pin design, as compared with 60 pins on the Famicom. To reduce costs and inventory, some early games released in North America are simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter to fit inside the NGS hardware. Early NGS cartridges are held together with five small slotted screws. Games released after 1987 were redesigned slightly to incorporate two plastic clips molded into the plastic itself, removing the need for the top two screws.
Reception
By 1988, industry observers stated that the NGS's popularity had grown so quickly that the market for Nintendo cartridges was larger than that for all home computer software.
Legacy
See also
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- Start-class articles
- Altverse II
- Nintendo Gaming System
- Home video game consoles
- Third-generation video game consoles
- 1983 in video gaming
- 1980s in video gaming
- 1990s in video gaming
- 2000s in video gaming
- 1980s toys
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- Computer-related introductions in 1983
- Products introduced in 1983
- Products introduced in 1985
- Products introduced in 1986
- Products and services discontinued in 2003
- 1995 disestablishments in North America
- 2003 disestablishments in Japan
- Discontinued video game consoles