Nintendo Entertainment System (NES/Famicom)
Talk about a success story. Nintendo's jump into the console market was a gamble which made a simple toy company into one of the biggest Videogame console manufacturers in the biz. Nintendo began it's gaming history producing arcade hits like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, and selling rights to the games for home console use (See Colecovision).
Eventually Nintendo decided to take a crack at the home console industry. The Nintendo Famicom (FAMIly COMputer) videogame system was released in Japan in 1984.
Story Title
The consoles great specs combined with ports on Nintendo's popular arcade titles quickly made it a popular favorite in Japan selling 2.5 million systems in that same year. With success achieved in Japan, Nintendo set it's eyes on the American gaming market. They began negotiations with the American videogame console industry leader Atari to bring the Famicom to the U.S.
The "Great Videogame Crash of 1984", and some poor business announcements forced Atari to pull out of the agreement. After negotiations with Atari to sell the Famicom in the U.S. fell through, Nintendo decided to release the system on their own in 1985, ignoring the weak videogame market and the recent crash occurring in the States.
Nintendo take a chance? You bet, but they were not going to gamble without doing their homework. They called the U.S. version of the Famicom the Nintendo Entertainment System, and designed it to look less like a videogame console and more like something that would fit in with other home entertainment appliances.
Nintendo took steps to make the system seem like a computer or a VCR. Nintendo even agreed to buy back all unsold inventory in order to get retailers to take a chance on them. 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. Nintendo also created restraints on 3rd party software developers to prevent oversaturation of games that contributed to the "Crash".
NES Model 2
Nintendo would later debut the NES successor, but would still try to cash in on the remainder of the NES's success. In 1993, Nintendo released a top loading NES model 2. This newer model was scaled down to nearly half the size of the original. The case was a sleeker design (Like a smoother Famicom). The cartridge port was more stable, and used eject & power buttons similar to it's successor the SuperNES. Even the controller had the "bone-like" shape of the SuperNES. This new model sold for $45. The cheaper price came at the loss of the original model's interface and A/V Out ports. Nintendo dropped support for this new model a year later. Today, it's a collectors item.
In the end the gamble paid off, the NES had sold over 62 million systems and over 500 million games, making it the most popular videogame system of it's time.
Add-ons
Nintendo's success introduced some of the most interesting accessories and conversions. Who could forget the "Power Glove", and "Rob the Robot". Nintendo slapped "NES-like" hardware into an Arcade cabinet and released Nintendo Playchoice to arcades everywhere. In Japan they released a disk drive accessory that allowed gamers to download games from vending machines onto a disk..
NES Detailed Specs
CPU
8-Bit CPU
MEMORY
RAM: 2Kb
Video RAM: 2Kb
GAME PROGRAM MEMORY
128K, 32K, 16K or 8K Bytes, 1 Meg, 256K, or 64K Bits
GAME CHARACTER MEMORY
128K, 32K, 16K or 8K Bytes, 1 Meg, 256K, or 64K Bits
COLOR
Colors Displayed: 16
Colors Available: 52
Sprite Colors: 4 per Sprite from the 52 possible
RESOLUTION
256 x 240
PROCESSOR
8-Bit PPU (Picture Processing Unit)
SPRITES
Maximum Sprites: 64
Maximum Sprite Size: 8x16 Pixels
Minimum Sprite Size: 8x8 Pixels
SCROLLING
Horizontal and Vertical
CLOCK SPEED
1.79 Mhz
SOUND
2 Square Waves, 1 Triangle Wave, 1 White Noise
