Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Nintendo Entertainment System

Encyclopedia : N : NI : NIN : Nintendo Entertainment System


"NES" redirects here. For , see .
Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Its Japanese equivalent is known as the Nintendo Family Computer, or Famicom. The most successful gaming console of its time in Asia and North America (Nintendo claims to have sold over 60 million NES units worldwide), it helped revitalize the video game industry following the video game crash of 1983, and set the standard for subsequent consoles in everything from game design (the first modern platform game, Super Mario Bros., was the system’s first "killer game") to business practices. The NES was the first console for which the manufacturer openly courted third-party developers.

History

Success of titles like Donkey Kong at the video arcade encouraged Nintendo to enter the home console market.
Enlarge
Success of titles like Donkey Kong at the video arcade encouraged Nintendo to enter the home console market.

Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce its own console hardware that had removable cartridges, a feature not included with the company’s earlier Color TV Games product. Designed by Masayuki Uemura and released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥14,800, and later in North America for $299 the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) was slow to gather momentum: during its first year, many criticized the system as unreliable, prone to programming errors and rampant freezing. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the Famicom’s popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. Encouraged by their successes, Nintendo soon turned their attentions to the North American markets.

Super Mario Bros. was packaged alongside the NES deck for the North American launch of the console.
Enlarge
Super Mario Bros. was packaged alongside the NES deck for the North American launch of the console.

Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom under Atari’s name as the name "Nintendo Enhanced Video System." This deal eventually fell throughAtari broke off negotiations with Nintendo in response to Coleco’s unveiling of a unlicensed port of Donkey Kong for their Coleco Adam computer system. Although the game had been produced without Nintendo’s permission or support, Atari took its release as a sign that Nintendo was dealing with one of their major competitors in the market., and Atari decided to concentrate on its own next-generation 8-bit console, the Atari 7800. Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller, and a special BASIC cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise fell through. Finally, in June 1985 Nintendo unveiled its American version of the Famicom at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). With a completely redesigned case and a new name, the Nintendo Entertainment System proved to be just as popular in America as the Famicom was in Japan, and played a major role in revitalizing interest in the video game industry. Originally Nintendo only released 50,000 units in New York City, and because of its great success it was released nationwide. Nintendo rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on October 18, 1985, following up with a nationwide release of the console in February of the following year. The console was released in two different packages: a full-featured $249 USD "Deluxe Set" which came packaged with the R.O.B., the NES Zapper, two game controllers, and two games (Duck Hunt, and Gyromite), and a scaled-down $199 "Control Deck," which omitted the R.O.B., Zapper, Duck Hunt and Gyromite, but included a Super Mario Bros. GamePak. The more common "Action Set" which included a Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt multicart wasn't released until 1988.

For the rest of the decade, Nintendo was the undisputed master of the American and Japanese gaming markets, and its game titles were breaking sales records. However, the console did not attain the same level of success in the rest of the western world. In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Mattel handled distribution for region A, which consisted of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy. Distribution in region B, consisting of the rest of mainland Europe, was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases. Not until 1990 did Nintendo's newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe. This enabled competitor Sega to outperform the NES with its Sega Master System in many countries. Despite this, by 1990 the NES had become the best-selling console in video game history.

Kirby’s Adventure, released in 1993, was one of the final licensed titles for the NES.
Enlarge
Kirby’s Adventure, released in 1993, was one of the final licensed titles for the NES.

As the 1990s dawned, however, renewed competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega Genesis (known as the Sega Mega Drive outside of North America) marked the end of the NES’s dominance. Eclipsed by Nintendo’s own Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the NES’s user base gradually waned. Nintendo continued to support the system in America through the first half of the decade, even releasing a new version of the console, the NES 2, to address many of the design flaws in the original NES hardware. By 1995, though, in the wake of ever decreasing sales and the lack of new software titles, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES. Despite this, Nintendo of Japan kept producing new Nintendo Famicoms for a niche market up until October 2003, when Nintendo of Japan officially discontinued the line. Even as developers ceased production for the NES, a number of high-profile video game franchises and series for the NES were transitioned to newer consoles and remain popular to this day. Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid franchises began life on the NES, as did Capcom's Mega Man franchise, Konami's Castlevania series, and Square Enix's Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises.

In the years following the official "death" of the NES in the west, a collector’s market based around video rental shops, garage sales and flea markets led some gamers to rediscover the NES. Coupled with the growth of console emulation, the late 1990s saw something of a second golden age for the NES. The secondhand market began to dry up after 2000, and finding ROMs no longer represented the challenge it had in the past. Parallel to the rise of interest in emulation was the emergence of a dedicated NES hardware "modding" scene. Such hobbyists perform tasks such as moving the NES to a completely new case, or just dissecting it for parts or fun. The controllers are particular targets for modding, often being adapted to connect with personal computers by way of a parallel or USB port. Some NES modders have transformed the console into a portable system by adding AA batteries and an LED or LCD screen.

Regional differences

Although the Japanese Famicom and the international NES included essentially the same hardware, there were certain key differences between the two systems:
In Japan, Metroid was released both in cartridge and diskette form for the Famicom Disk System.
Enlarge
In Japan, Metroid was released both in cartridge and diskette form for the Famicom Disk System.

The NES version of Castlevania III suffered from inferior sound when compared to its Famicom counterpart.
Enlarge
The NES version of Castlevania III suffered from inferior sound when compared to its Famicom counterpart.


Game controllers

The game controller used for the both the NES and Famicom featured a brick-like design with a simple four button layout: two round buttons labelled "B" and "A," a "Start" button, and a "Select" button. Additionally, they utilized the cross-shaped D-pad, designed by Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi for Nintendo Game & Watch systems, to replace the bulkier joysticks on earlier gaming consoles' controllers.

It is also possible that the Famicom/NES controllers may have been directly influenced by the controllers released with the Vectrex video game system in 1982. These controllers similarly featured a multidirectional, analog thumb pad/joystick on the left, and four horizontally arranged buttons.

Famicom controllers were simple in design, though they included a number of features, such as a microphone, missing from their NES counterparts.
Enlarge
Famicom controllers were simple in design, though they included a number of features, such as a microphone, missing from their NES counterparts.
The original model Famicom featured two game controllers, both of which were hardwired to the back of the console. The second controller lacked the "Start" and "Select" buttons, but featured a small microphone. Relatively few games made use of this feature. The earliest produced Famicom units initially had squared A and B buttons.  This was changed to the circular designs because of the square buttons being caught in the controller casing when pressed down. The NES dropped the hardwired controllers, instead featuring two custom 7-pin ports on the front of the console. Also in contrast to the Famicom, the controllers included with the NES were identical to each other—the second controller lacked the microphone that was present on the Famicom model, and possessed the same "Start" and "Select" buttons as the primary controller.

Although it was supported only by a few select titles, the Zapper was arguably the most popular special controller released for the NES.
Enlarge
Although it was supported only by a few select titles, the Zapper was arguably the most popular special controller released for the NES.

A number of special controllers designed for use with specific games were released for the system, though very few such devices proved particularly popular. Such devices included, but were not limited to, the NES Zapper (a light gun), the Power Pad, and the ill-fated R.O.B. and Power Glove. The original Famicom featured a DB-15 expansion port on the front of the unit, which was used to connect most auxiliary devices. On the NES, these special controllers were generally connected to one of the two control ports on the front of the unit.

Near the end of the NES’s lifespan, upon the release of the AV Famicom and the top-loading NES 2, the design of the game controllers was modified slightly. Though the original button layout was retained, the redesigned device abandoned the "brick" shell in favor of a "dog bone" shape reminiscent of the controllers of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, the AV Famicom joined its international counterpart and dropped the hardwired controllers in favor of detachable controller ports. However, the controllers included with the Famicom AV, despite being the "dog bone" type, had cables which were a short three feet long, as opposed to the standard six feet of NES controllers.

In recent years the original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the system. Nintendo has mimicked the look of the controller in several recent products, from promotional merchandise to a limited edition version of the Game Boy Advance SP handheld game console.

Hardware design flaws

The official NES Cleaning Kit was intended to address flaws in the NES design that caused cartridge connectors to be particularly succeptible to interference from dirt and dust.
Enlarge
The official NES Cleaning Kit was intended to address flaws in the NES design that caused cartridge connectors to be particularly succeptible to interference from dirt and dust.

When Nintendo released the NES in the United States, the design styling was deliberately different from that of other game consoles. Nintendo wanted to distinguish their product from those of competitors, and to avoid the generally poor reputation that game consoles had acquired following the video game crash of 1983. One result of this philosophy was a front-loading zero insertion force (ZIF) cartridge socket designed to resemble the front-loading mechanism of a VCR. The ZIF connector worked quite well when both the connector and the cartridges were clean and the pins on the connector were new. Unfortunately, the ZIF connector was not truly zero insertion force. When a user inserted the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge down and into place bent the contact pins slightly, as well as pressing the cartridge’s ROM board back into the cartridge itself. Repeated insertion and removal of cartridges caused the pins to wear out relatively quickly, and the ZIF design proved far more prone to interference by dirt and dust than an industry-standard card edge connector. Exacerbating the problem was Nintendo’s choice of materials; the slot connector that the cartridge was actually inserted into was made of a cheap alloy that was highly prone to corrosion. Add-on peripherals like the popular Game Genie cheat cartridge tended to further exacerbate this problem by bending the front-loading mechanism during gameplay.

Problems with the 10NES lockout chip frequently resulted in one of the system’s most infamous problems: the blinking red power light, in which the system appears to turn itself on and off repeatedly. The lockout chip was quite finicky, requiring precise timing in order to permit the system to boot. Dirty, aging, and bent connectors would oftentimes disrupt the timing, resulting in the blink effect. User attempts to solve this problem ranged from blowing air onto the cartridge connectors to slapping the side of the system after inserting a cartridge. Many of the most frequent attempts to fix this problem ran the risk of damaging the cartridge and/or system. Blowing on the cartridge connectors was, in most cases, no better than removing and reinserting the cartridge, and tended to increase the rate of oxidation resulting in browning of the printed circuit board, while slapping the side of the system after inserting the cartridge could potentially damage the console. The safest and most reliable ways to solve the blinking power light problem involve either replacing the connector, or cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip. In 1989, Nintendo released an official NES Cleaning Kit to help users clean malfunctioning cartridges and consoles.

An alternate method of dealing with the poor connection caused by an aging system was the insertion of a second cartridge after depressing the first. With the gap above the first cartridge almost exactly the size of a second, the pressure from the second is often enough to restore playability to the system while both cartriges are engaged.

-->
When Nintendo released the top-loading NES 2 toward the end of the NES’s lifespan, they fixed the problem by switching to a standard card edge connector, and eliminated the lockout chip. All of the Famicom systems used standard card edge connectors, as did Nintendo’s subsequent game consoles, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Nintendo 64.

In response to these hardware flaws, "Nintendo Authorized Repair Centers" sprang up across the United States. According to Nintendo, the authorization program was designed to ensure that the machines were properly repaired. Nintendo would ship the necessary replacement parts only to shops that had enrolled in the authorization program. In practice, the authorization process consisted of nothing more than paying a fee to Nintendo for the privilege.

Third-party licensing

Nintendo’s near monopoly on the home video game market left it with a degree of influence over the industry exceeding even that of Atari during its heyday in the early 1980s. Many of Nintendo’s business practices during this period were heavily criticized, and may have played some role in the erosion of Nintendo’s market share throughout the 1990s. Unlike Atari, who never actively courted third-party developers, and went so far as to go to court to attempt to force Activision to cease production of Atari 2600 games, Nintendo had anticipated and encouraged the involvement of third-party software developers—strictly on Nintendo’s terms. To this end, a 10NES authentication chip was placed in every console, and in every officially licensed cartridge. If the console’s chip could not detect a counterpart chip inside the cartridge, the game would not be loaded.

This Nintendo Seal of Quality was placed on every officially licensed NES cartridge released in North America, with a similar design used in Europe.
Enlarge
This Nintendo Seal of Quality was placed on every officially licensed NES cartridge released in North America, with a similar design used in Europe.

Nintendo combined this with a marketing campaign introducing the Nintendo Seal of Quality. Commercials featured a purple-robed wizard instructing consumers that the Nintendo Seal of Quality was the only assurance that a game was any good—and, by implication, that any game without the Seal of Quality was bad. In reality, the seal only meant that the developer had paid the license fee; it had nothing to do with the quality of the game.

The business side of this was that game developers were now forced to pay a license fee to Nintendo, to submit to Nintendo’s quality assurance process, to buy developer kits from Nintendo, and to utilize Nintendo as the manufacturer for all cartridges and packaging. Nintendo tested and manufactured all games at its own facilities (either for part of the fee or for an additional cost), reserved the right to dictate pricing, censored material it believed to be unacceptable, decided how many cartridges of each game it would manufacture, and placed limits on how many titles it would permit a publisher to produce over a given time span (five per year). This last restriction led several publishers to establish or utilize subsidiaries to circumvent Nintendo’s policies (examples including Konami’s subsidiary Ultra, and Acclaim Entertainment’s subsidiary LJN).

These practices were intended not only to keep developers on a short leash, but also to manipulate the market itself: in 1988, Nintendo started orchestrating intentional game shortages in order to increase consumer demand. Referred as "inventory management" by Nintendo of America public relations executive Peter Main, Nintendo would refuse to fill all retailer orders. Retailers, many of whom derived a large percentage of their profit from sales of Nintendo-based hardware and software (at one point, Toys "R" Us reported 17% of its sales and 22% of its profits were from Nintendo merchandise), could do little to stop these practices. In 1988, over 33 million NES cartridges were sold in the United States, but estimates suggest that the realistic demand was closer to 45 million. Because Nintendo controlled the production of all cartridges, they were able to enforce these rules on their third-party developers. These extremely restricted production runs would end up damaging several smaller software developers: even if demand for their games was high, they could only produce as much profit as Nintendo allowed.

Unlicensed games, such as Wisdom Tree’s Bible Adventures, were often released in cartridges which looked very different from typical NES game paks.
Enlarge
Unlicensed games, such as Wisdom Tree’s Bible Adventures, were often released in cartridges which looked very different from typical NES game paks.

Several companies began producing unlicensed games, either refusing to pay the licensing fee or manufacturing their own cartridges after having been rejected by Nintendo. Most of these companies created circuits that used a voltage spike to knock out the authentication unit in the NES. Atari Games created a line of NES products under the name Tengen, and took a different tack: the company obtained a description of the lockout chip from the United States Patent and Trademark Office by falsely claiming that it was required to defend against present infringement claims in a legal case. Tengen then used these documents to design their Rabbit chip, which duplicated the function of the 10NES. Nintendo sued Tengen for these actions, and Tengen lost because of the fraudulent use of the published patent. Tengen’s antitrust claims against Nintendo were never finally decided.

A few unlicensed games released in Europe and Australia came in the form of a dongle that would be connected to a licensed game, in order to use the licensed game’s 10NES lockout chip for authentication.

Although Nintendo’s success at suing such companies was mixed (the case of Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. was found in favor of Galoob and their Game Genie device, for instance), most were eventually forced out of business or out of production by legal fees and court costs for extended lawsuits brought by the giant against the transgressors. One notable exception was Color Dreams, who produced religious-themed games under the subsidiary name Wisdom Tree. This operation was never sued by Nintendo, who feared a public relations backlash.

Following the introduction of Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo began to face real competition in the industry, and in the early 1990s was forced to reevaluate its stance towards its developers, many of whom had begun to defect to other systems. When the console was reissued as the NES 2, the 10NES chip was omitted from the console, marking the end of Nintendo’s most notorious hold over its third-party developers.

Companies that produced unlicensed games or accessories for the western market include:


Hardware clones

-->
A thriving market of unlicensed NES hardware clones emerged during the heyday of the console’s popularity. Initially, such clones were popular in markets where Nintendo never issued a legitimate version of the system. In particular, the Dendy (Russian: ), an unlicensed hardware clone produced in Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union, emerged as the most popular video game console of its time in that setting, and enjoyed a degree of fame roughly equivalent to the that experienced by the NES/Famicom in North America and Japan. The clone market has persisted, and even flourished, following Nintendo’s discontinuation of the NES. But as the NES fades into memory, these systems have tended to adopt case designs which mimic the most popular gaming consoles of their time. NES clones resembling the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and even current systems like the Nintendo GameCube, the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox have been produced. Some of the more exotic of these systems have gone beyond the functionality of the original hardware, and have included variations such as a portable system with a color LCD (e.g. Pocket Famicom). Others have been produced with certain specialized markets in mind, including various "educational computer packages" which include copies of some of the NES’s educational titles and come complete with a clone of the Famicom BASIC keyboard, transforming the system into a rather primitive personal computer.

As was the case with unlicensed software titles, Nintendo has typically gone to the courts to prohibit the manufacture and sale of unlicensed cloned hardware. Many of the clone vendors have included built-in copies of licensed Nintendo software, which constitutes copyright infringement in most countries. As recently as 2004, Nintendo of America has filed suit against manufacturers of the Power Player Super Joy III, an NES clone system that had been sold in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Although most hardware clones were not produced under license by Nintendo, one exception is the Twin Famicom, produced by Sharp Corporation. The Twin Famicom was compatible with both Famicom cartridges and Famicom Disk System disks. It was available in two colors (red and black) and used similar hardwired controllers to the original Famicom, but featured a different case design.

Technical specifications

Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! was the only NES title to make use of the MMC2 Multi-Memory Controller (also known as a "mapper").
Enlarge
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! was the only NES title to make use of the MMC2 Multi-Memory Controller (also known as a "mapper").

Games like Gradius made heavy use of the NES's scrolling capabilities.
Enlarge
Games like Gradius made heavy use of the NES's scrolling capabilities.


Notes and references

Super Mario Bros. 3 was the fastest selling stand-alone video game title ever released.
Enlarge
Super Mario Bros. 3 was the fastest selling stand-alone video game title ever released.


External links

has more about this subject:

Selected video game consoles
First generation
Magnavox Odyssey > Pong | Coleco Telstar
Early second generation
Fairchild Channel F > Atari 2600 | Magnavox Odyssey² | Intellivision
Later second generation
5200 | ColecoVision | Vectrex | SG-1000
Third generation (8-bit)
NES | Master System | 7800
Fourth generation (16-bit)
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 > Mega Drive/Genesis | SNES | Neo-Geo | CD-i
Fifth generation (32/64-bit)
3DO | Jaguar | Saturn | PlayStation | PC-FX | Nintendo 64
Sixth generation
Dreamcast | PlayStation 2 | GameCube | Xbox
Seventh generation
Xbox 360 > PlayStation 3 | Wii

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: