History of the Nintendo Entertainment System

History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Brazil)

Nintendo's 8-bit video game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known as the Nintendo Family Computer (任天堂ファミリーコンピュータ Nintendō Famirī Konpyūta?), or Famicom (ファミコン Famikon?) in Japan, was introduced after the video game crash of 1983, and was instrumental in revitalizing the industry. It enjoyed a long lifespan and dominated the market during the rest of the decade. Facing obsolescence in 1990 with the advent of 16-bit consoles, it was supplanted by its successor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but support and production continued up to until 1995. Despite being discontinued, interest in the NES has since been renewed by collectors and emulators.

Contents

Origins (1982–1984)

The Nintendo Family Computer (Japan)

The video game market experienced a period of rapid growth and unprecedented popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision proved to be wildly popular, and many third-party developers arose in their wake to exploit the growing industry. Nintendo was one such development studio, and, by 1982 had found success with a number of arcade games, such as Donkey Kong, which was in turn ported to, and packaged with the ColecoVision console in North America. Around this time,[specify] Nintendo announced its intentions to produce its own console hardware.[citation needed] Led by Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo's R&D team had been secretly working on a system since 1980, ambitiously targeted to be less expensive than its competitors, yet with performance that could not be surpassed by its competitors for at least a year.[1][fn 1] To keep costs down, suggestions of including a keyboard, modem, and floppy disk drive were rejected, but expensive circuitry was added to provide a versatile 15-pin expansion port connection on the front of the console for future add-on functionality such as peripheral devices.[fn 2]

Launching on July 15, 1983[3], the Nintendo Family Computer (commonly known by the Japanese-English term Famicom) was an 8-bit console using interchangeable cartridges.[2]

The Famicom was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥14,800. The launch titles for the console were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, and Popeye. The console itself was intentionally designed to look like a toy, with a bright red-and-white color scheme and two hardwired gamepads that are stored visibly at the sides of the unit.

Though selling well in its early months,[4] the Famicom became beset with hanging on many games and systems. After tracing the problem to a faulty circuit, Nintendo recalled all Famicom systems just before the holiday shopping season, and temporarily suspended production of the system while the concerns were addressed, costing Nintendo significant millions of dollars. The Famicom was subsequently reissued with a new motherboard.[5] The Famicom easily outsold its primary competitor, the Sega SG-1000. By the end of 1984 Nintendo had sold over 2.5 million Famicoms in the Japanese market.[6]

Going international (1984–1987)

North America

Bolstered by its success in Japan, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the larger North American market. As a new console manufacturer, Nintendo had to convince a skeptical public to embrace its system. To this end, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari[7] to release the Famicom as the "Nintendo Enhanced Video System."[citation needed] Though the two companies reached a tentative agreement, with final contract papers to be signed at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Atari refused to sign at the last minute, after seeing Coleco, one of its main competitors in the market,[6] demonstrating a prototype of Donkey Kong for its forthcoming Coleco Adam home computer system[fn 3] Although the game had been originally produced for the ColecoVision and could thus automatically be played on the backwards compatible Adam computer, Atari took the demonstration as a sign that Nintendo was also dealing with Coleco. Though the issue was cleared up within a month, by then Atari's financial problems stemming from the North American video game crash of 1983 left the company unable to follow through with the deal.

After the deal with Atari fell through, Nintendo proceeded alone, designing a Famicom console for release in North America under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" (AVS). One of the major causes of the market crash in the region was a glut of software products of poor quality. To keep the software market for Nintendo's console from becoming similarly oversaturated, Nintendo added a lock-out system to obstruct unlicensed software from running on the console, thus allowing Nintendo to enforce strict licensing standards.

In the wake of the crash, many American retailers considered video games a fad that had run its course, and had seriously cut back their sales of such products, or stopped them entirely.[8] In an attempt to avoid the stigma of video game consoles, the AVS was fashioned as a full home computer, with an included keyboard, cassette data recorder, and a BASIC interpreter software cartridge.[9][fn 4] The AVS also included a variety of computer-style input devices: gamepads, a handheld joystick, a musical keyboard, and a light wand/gun.[fn 5] The AVS used a wireless infrared interface for all its components, including keyboard, data recorder, and controllers. The toy-like white-and-red color scheme of the Famicom was replaced with a clean and futuristic grey monochrome design, with the top and bottom portions in different shades, a stripe with black and ribbing along the top, and minor red accents. The AVS also featured a boxier design than the Famicom: flat on top, and a bottom half that tapered down to a smaller footprint. The front of the main unit featured a compartment for storing the wireless controllers out of sight.

The AVS was showcased at the 1984 Winter and Summer CES shows,[10] where attendees acknowledged the advanced technology, but responded poorly to the keyboard and wireless functionality.[11] Still wary of video game consoles from the crash, retailers did not order any systems.[6][fn 6]

At the 1985 Summer CES, Nintendo returned with a stripped-down version of the AVS, having abandoned the home computer approach. Renamed the "Nintendo Entertainment System" (NES),[fn 7] the new version lacked most of the upscale features added in the AVS, but retained many of its design elements, such as the grey color scheme and boxy design. Purposely designed so as not to resemble a video game console, the NES replaced the top-loading cartridge slot of the Famicom with a front-loading chamber for software cartridges that placed the inserted cartridge out of view.[fn 8] The Famicom's pair of hard-wired controllers was replaced with two custom 7-pin sockets for detachable controllers.

Using another approach to market the system to North American retailers as an "entertainment system", as opposed to a video game console, Nintendo positioned the NES more squarely as a toy, emphasizing accessories such as the Zapper light gun, and more significantly, R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), a battery-powered robot that responds to special screen flashes with physical actions.[8] Although R.O.B. succeeded in generating retailer attention and interest for the NES, retailers were still unwilling to sign up to distribute the console.[6][fn 9] Only after an intense direct campaign by a dedicated "Nintendo SWAT team",[12] including telemarketing and shopping mall demonstrations, as well as a risk-free proposition to retailers, did Nintendo secure enough retailer support (about 500 retailers, including FAO Schwarz) to conduct a market test in New York City. Nintendo agreed to handle all store setup and marketing, extend 90 days credit on the merchandise, and accept returns on unsold inventory.[fn 10]

The NES would be released in New York City on October 18, 1985 with an initial shipment of 100,000 systems. Each set would include a console, two gamepads, a R.O.B., a Zapper, and the Game Paks Gyromite and Duck Hunt.[13] With encouraging sales over the holiday season,[fn 11] Nintendo added Los Angeles as a test market in February 1986, followed by Chicago and San Francisco, progressively spreading out into the top 12 US markets, finally going nationwide in September.[15] Nintendo managed to secure a distribution deal with toy company Worlds of Wonder, which leveraged its popular Teddy Ruxpin and Lazer Tag products to get more stores to carry the console.[8]

For the nationwide launch, the NES was available in two different packages: the full-featured $249 USD "Deluxe Set" as configured during the New York City launch, and a scaled-down "Control Deck" package which included two gamepads and a copy of Super Mario Bros. To accompany this wide release, Nintendo marketed eighteen launch titles: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew.[citation needed]

Europe

The NES was also released in Europe, albeit in stages and in a rather haphazard manner. Most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy) received the system in 1986, where it was distributed by various companies. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand received the system in 1987, where it was distributed by Mattel.[16] In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere. Many European third-party publishers went with the technically-superior Sega Master System over the latecomer NES, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration (though the console did see more success later on in its life). The NES did outsell the Master System in Australia, though by a much-smaller margin than in North America.[17]

South Korea

In South Korea, the hardware was licensed to Hyundai Electronics, which marketed it as the Comboy. After World War II, the government of Korea (later South Korea) imposed a wide ban on all Japanese "cultural products." Until repealed in 1998, the only way Japanese products could legally enter the South Korean market was through licensing to a third-party (non-Japanese) distributor, as was the case with the Comboy and its successor, the Super Comboy, a version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.[18]

Soviet Union/Russia

While the NES in its heyday was never officially released in the Soviet Union, an unlicensed third-party hardware clone named the Dendy was produced in Russia in the early 1990s. Aesthetically, it was an exact duplicate of the original Famicom, with the color scheme and labels altered. In addition, the hardwired controllers of the original console were omitted in favor of removable controllers which connected to the front of the unit using DE-9 serial connectors, identical to those used in the Atari 2600 and the Atari 8-bit family of computers.[19]

Leading the industry (1987–1990)

The successful launch of the NES catapulted Nintendo to the forefront of the video game industry. For the remainder of the 1980s, Nintendo was the undisputed king of the home video game market. Buoyed by the success of the system, NES game packs were similarly smashing sales records: Super Mario Bros. 3, released in 1988 in Japan, would gross well over US$500 million, selling over 7 million copies in America and 4 million copies in Japan, making it the most successful standalone home video game in history.[fn 12]

By 1990, the NES had reached a larger user base in the United States than any previous console, easily surpassing the previous record set by the Atari 2600 in 1982.[21] Reaping the benefits of that success, that year Nintendo surpassed Toyota as Japan's most successful corporation.[22] In North America, the NES outsold its primary competitors, the Atari 7800 and the Sega Master System, by a wide margin.

The twilight years (1990–1995)

In 1988, Sega released the technologically superior 16 bit Mega Drive (known in North America as the "Genesis") in Japan. Facing new competition from the Mega Drive, the Famicom's market share began to erode. Nintendo responded in the form of the Super Family Computer ("Super Famicom," for short; "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" in North America and Europe), the Famicom's 16-bit successor, in 1990. Although Nintendo announced their intention to continue to support the Famicom alongside their newer console, the success of the newer offering began to draw even more gamers and developers from the original NES whose decline accelerated. However, Nintendo did continue support of the NES for about three years after the September 1991 release of the Super NES, with the last first-party games being Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II and Wario's Woods.

The HVC-101 model of the Family Computer was more compact than its predecessor, and was modeled after the Super Famicom.

The original Japanese Famicom hardware featured an RF modulator audio/video output connector, but more and more Japanese television sets had dropped RF connectors in favor of higher-quality RCA composite video output by the early 1990s. A revised Famicom (HVC-101 model), often referred to unofficially as the AV Famicom, was released in Japan in 1993, largely to address this problem. It borrowed some design cues from the SNES. The HVC-101 model replaced the original HVC-001 model's RF modulator with RCA composite cables, eliminated the hardwired controllers, and featured a new, more compact case design. Retailing for ¥4,800 to ¥7,200 (equivalent to approximately $42 to $60 USD), the HVC-101 model remained in production for almost a decade before being finally discontinued in 2003.[23] The case design of the AV Famicom was adopted for a subsequent North American rerelease of the NES. The NES-101 model (sometimes referred to unofficially as the "NES 2") differed from the Japanese HVC-101 model in that it omitted the RCA composite output connectors that had been included in the original NES-001 model, and sported only RF output capabilities.[24]

After a full decade of production, the NES was formally discontinued in the U.S. in 1995.[17] By the end of its run, over 60 million NES units had been sold throughout the world.[25]

Discontinuation and emulation (1995-present)

The NES was in popular decline from 1991–1995, with the Sega Genesis and Nintendo's own Super Nintendo Entertainment System chipping away at its market share, and next-generation CD-ROM-based systems on the horizon. Even though the NES was discontinued in North America in 1995, the system had left a mark of many millions of game cartridges. The secondhand market – video rental stores, Goodwill, yard sales, flea markets, games repackaged by Game Time Inc. / Game Trader Inc. and sold at retail stores such as K-Mart – was burgeoning. Parallel to, or perhaps because of this, many people began to rediscover the NES around this time, and by 1997, many older NES games were becoming popular with collectors.

At the same time, computer programmers who were also NES enthusiasts began to develop emulators capable of reproducing the internal workings of the NES on modern personal computers. When paired with a ROM image (a bit-for-bit copy of a NES cartridge's program code), the games could be played on a computer. The illegal trade of ROM images was carried out on various bulletin board systems around the country and, as it became more popular and accessible, on the Internet. Despite this, ROM images were frequently hard to come by, and early emulators in particular were often plagued by computer bugs and compatibility issues – sometimes they were designed to play one specific game.

Bloodlust Software's NESticle revolutionized the console emulation scene

Despite these inconveniences, emulation provided access to many rare and hard to find games that otherwise might have been forgotten, and provided gamers with a wider selection of titles than ever would have been possible with the original console. Emulators also came with a variety of built-in functions that changed the gaming experience, such as save states which allow the player to save his or her progress at an exact spot in the game and resume later at that exact spot.

On April 2, 1997, Bloodlust Software released NESticle version 0.2 – an emulator that was remarkably stable, compatible, and easy to use by the standards of its day (the product, according to its creator Sardu, of "two weeks of boredom"). NESticle is frequently credited with revolutionizing the console emulation scene, and its success spawned many imitators and competitors. After this, emulators quickly became more refined and ROM images more easily available, attracting more people to emulation, which in turn served as a catalyst for further development, both for NES and other console emulators.[26][non-primary source needed]

Nintendo did not respond positively to these developments and became one of the most vocal opponents of ROM image trading. Nintendo and its supporters claim that such trading represents blatant software piracy.[27] Proponents of ROM image trading argue that emulation preserves many classic games for future generations, outside of their more-fragile cartridge formats.[28]

The NES "revival" settled down, to a degree, after 2000, once the secondhand market began to dry up or charge collector's prices, and finding ROM images no longer represented the challenge it had in the past. There is also a strong independent community of developers dedicated to producing demos and games for the NES.

In 2005, Nintendo announced plans to make classic NES titles available on the Virtual Console download service for the Wii console. Initial titles released included Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong,[29] with blockbuster titles such as Super Mario Bros., Punch-Out!! and Metroid appearing in the months after.[30]

In 2007, Nintendo of Japan announced that it would no longer repair Famicom systems, due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.[31]

See also

  • History of video games (8-bit era)

Notes

  1. ^ Uemura initially thought of using a modern 16-bit CPU, but instead settled on the inexpensive MOS Technology 6502, supplementing it with a custom graphics chip (the Picture Processing Unit).[2]
  2. ^ The keyboard, Famicom Modem, and Famicom Disk System would later be released as add-on peripherals, all utilizing the Famicom expansion port. Other peripheral devices connecting via the expansion port would include the Famicom Light Gun, Family Trainer, and various specialized controllers. Many such devices would be produced for the console, though many of them, including the Famicom 3D System and Famicom Disk System, were never released outside of Japan.
  3. ^ Coleco had licensed Donkey Kong for the ColecoVision home console, but Atari had the exclusive computer license for the game.
  4. ^ A cassette data recorder and BASIC interpreter would later be released for the Famicom. The BASIC interpreter would be sold together with the keyboard as Family BASIC, and the data recorder was named the Famicom Data Recorder.
  5. ^ The AVS Zapper is hinged, allowing it to straighten out into a wand form, or bend into a gun form.
  6. ^ Though the console itself is not shown, most of the peripherals for the Advanced Video System are on display at the Nintendo World Store.[10]
  7. ^ In addition, Nintendo would avoid terms associated with game consoles, using the term "Pak" for cartridge, or "Control Deck" instead of "console".
  8. ^ The revised design had the side-effect of making the NES more prone to breakdown. The loading mechanism became notorious for slowly failing. For more information regarding design problems with the NES, see Nintendo Entertainment System#Hardware design flaws.
  9. ^ Although R.O.B. is credited as a significant factor in building support for the NES from North American retailers and analysts, the accessory itself was not very successful. Its Famicom counterpart, the Famicom Robot, was already failing in Japan at the time of the North American launch, and R.O.B. would sell similarly poorly. Only two games, Gyromite and Stack-Up, were ever produced for the device.
  10. ^ Retailers would pay nothing upfront, and after 90 days would either pay for the merchandise or return it to Nintendo.[10]
  11. ^ Sources vary on how many consoles were sold during that holiday season.[6][14]
  12. ^ The original Super Mario Bros. actually outsold Super Mario Bros. 3 by a sizable margin (40.24 million to 17.28 million). Many of the sales of the original game, however, were the result of the fact that it was packaged alongside the NES console itself. Super Mario Bros. 3 was the fastest selling game title that was never packaged alongside a system.[20]

References

  1. ^ Turner, Benjamin; Nutt, Christian (2003-07-15). "Building the Ultimate Game Machine". Nintendo Famicom: 20 Years of Fun!. GameSpy. p. 7. http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/famicom/index2.shtml. 
  2. ^ a b Liedholm, Marcus and Mattias. "History of the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom" (http). Nintendo Land. http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?nes/history.htm. Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
  3. ^ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/03/9999999997-03-043511
  4. ^ Turner, Benjamin; Nutt, Christian (2003-07-15). "Codename: Famicom". Nintendo Famicom: 20 Years of Fun!. GameSpy. p. 7. http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/famicom/index3.shtml. 
  5. ^ Liedholm, Marcus and Mattias. "The Famicom rules the world! - (1983-89)" (http). Nintendo Land. http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?history/hist3.htm. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  6. ^ a b c d e Goldberg, Marty (2005). "Nintendo Entertainment System 20th Anniversary" (http). ClassicGaming.com. http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/nes20th/. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  7. ^ Teiser, Don (1983). "Atari – Nintendo 1983 Deal" (http). Atari History Museum. http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/atari-nintendo-deal.htm. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  8. ^ a b c Jeremiah Black (director), Jeff Rubin, Josh Shabtai, Dan Ackerman, Libe Goad, Shandi Sullivan, T. J. Allard (2007-07-13) (Flash Video). Play Value: The Rise of Nintendo (podcast). ON Networks. http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/play-value/rise-of-nintendo. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 
  9. ^ Beschizza, Rob (2007-11-02). "Retro: Nintendo's 1985 Wireless-Equipped Gaming PC". Gadget Lab. Wired. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/11/retro-nintendos.html. Retrieved 3 January 2009. 
  10. ^ a b c Nielsen, Martin (2005-08-19). "The Nintendo Entertainment System". NES World. http://www.nesworld.com/nes.php. Retrieved 2009-07-25. 
  11. ^ Turner, Benjamin; Nutt, Christian (July 2003). "Uphill Struggle". Nintendo Famicom: 20 Years of Fun!. GameSpy. p. 12. http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/famicom/index12.shtml. Retrieved 25 July 2009. 
  12. ^ Hill, Charles W. L.; Jones, Gareth R. (2006). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. Houghton Mifflin. p. 127. ISBN 0131020099. 
  13. ^ "The first to move video action off the screen.". New York Magazine: p. 9. 1985-11-04. http://books.google.com/books?id=7McBAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9. 
  14. ^ Turner, Benjamin; Nutt, Christian (July 2003). "Big Apple, Little N". Nintendo Famicom: 20 Years of Fun!. GameSpy. p. 13. http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/famicom/index13.shtml. Retrieved 26 July 2009. 
  15. ^ http://www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/NES1.html
  16. ^ PAL releases
  17. ^ a b Nielsen, Martin (1997). "The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) FAQ v3.0A" (http). ClassicGaming.com's Museum. http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/faqs/nesfaq.shtml. Retrieved January 5, 2005. 
  18. ^ "Breaking the Ice: South Korea Lifts Ban on Japanese Culture". Trends in Japan. December 7, 1998. http://web-japan.org/trends98/honbun/ntj981207.html. Retrieved May 19, 2007. 
  19. ^ "Dendy" (http). tsr's NES archive. http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/odd/pirate/dendy.html. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  20. ^ http://www.gamecubicle.com/features-mario-units_sold_sales.htm
  21. ^ GaZZwa. "History of games (part 2)" (http). Archived from the original on November 3, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20051103165622/http://www.gamingw.net/articles/74. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  22. ^ Liedholm, Marcus and Mattias. "A new era – (1990-97)" (http). Nintendo Land. http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?history/hist3.htm. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  23. ^ "AV Family Computer" (http). tsr's NES archive. http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/fc/avfami.html. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  24. ^ "Nintendo Entertainment System 2" (http). Vidgame.net. http://www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/NES2.html. Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
  25. ^ "Classic Systems / Nintendo Entertainment System" (http). Nintendo. Archived from the original on 2006-02-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20060207090244/http://www.nintendo.com/systemsclassic?type=nes. Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
  26. ^ "Official Bloodlust Software NESticle Page" (http). Bloodlust Software. http://bloodlust.zophar.net/NESticle/nes.html. Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
  27. ^ "Legal Information (Copyrights, Emulators, ROMs, etc.)" (http). Nintendo. http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp. Retrieved 2006-02-12. 
  28. ^ Pettus, Sam. "Emulation: Right or Wrong? version 1.033". EmulationHQ. Archived from the original on February 24, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060224170745/http://www.emuhq.com/idx/4/021/article/-Emulation-Right-or-Wrong-Module-1-Part-3-by-The-Scribe-.html. Retrieved February 12, 2006. 
  29. ^ "IGN: Wii: 62 Games in First Five Weeks" (http). IGN Wii. http://wii.ign.com/articles/742/742962p1.html. Retrieved November 3, 2006. 
  30. ^ "Nintendo: Virtual Console" (http). Nintendo. http://wii.nintendo.com/virtualconsole.jsp. Retrieved August 14, 2007. 
  31. ^ "Nintendo's classic Famicom faces end of road" (Reprint). AFP. 2007-10-31. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jAJfrC1k8lDKLOCGJu4VonjOYxBg. Retrieved 2007-11-09. 

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