The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is a home video game console created and sold by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan as the Family Computer (Famicom) on July 15, 1983. In the United States, it was introduced in test markets on October 18, 1985, and later launched nationwide on September 27, 1986. The NES was sold in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia during the 1980s. It was Nintendo’s first home console that could run different games, replacing earlier models like the Color TV-Game line. The NES mainly competed with Sega’s Master System during the third generation of video game consoles.
Engineer Masayuki Uemura designed the 8-bit Famicom after Nintendo’s president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, asked for a simple and affordable console that could play arcade games from cartridges. The Famicom’s hardware was based on Nintendo’s arcade game Donkey Kong (1981), and its controller design was adapted from Nintendo’s portable Game & Watch devices. For Western markets, Lance Barr and Don James redesigned the console as the NES to look like a video cassette recorder. To help stores accept the NES, Nintendo added accessories like the Zapper, a light gun for shooting games, and R.O.B., a toy robot. In Japan, Nintendo also released the Famicom Disk System, which used floppy disks to store games, though support for this add-on later decreased due to technical challenges.
Nintendo launched the NES after the video game crash of 1983. In Japan and North America, the NES quickly became popular, giving Nintendo almost complete control over the home console market. Unlike Atari, the previous market leader, Nintendo worked with outside developers like Capcom, Hudson Soft, Konami, Namco, Enix, and Square. Nintendo’s strict rules, such as requiring exclusivity and limiting developers to five games per year, led to legal issues in the U.S., resulting in a 1991 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission. Nintendo sold 61.91 million consoles. While the NES was very successful in Japan and North America, it faced stronger competition in Europe from the Master System and home computers like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
In 1990, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but it continued to support the NES through the 16-bit era. Production of the NES ended in 1995, and the Famicom was no longer made in 2003. The NES is considered one of the most important consoles in history because it helped restart the American gaming industry after the 1983 crash and created the standard business model of licensing outside developers to make games. Many games released for the NES, including Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), Dragon Warrior (1986), and Final Fantasy (1987), became major game series.
History
The video game industry grew quickly and became very popular from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. This time is known as the golden age of arcade games and the second generation of home consoles. Games like Space Invaders (1978) became very famous in arcades around the world. At the same time, home consoles such as the Atari 2600 and home computers like the Commodore 64 and the Intellivision became popular in the United States. Many companies, including the card and toy company Nintendo, started making games and consoles to take advantage of the growing industry.
Nintendo’s president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, noticed that new technology in the electronics industry allowed entertainment products to be made more cheaply. Companies like Atari and Magnavox had already sold gaming devices that worked with televisions, but with only moderate success. Yamauchi made a deal with Magnavox to use their technology for the Magnavox Odyssey. Since Nintendo did not have the skills to design its own hardware, Yamauchi partnered with Mitsubishi Electric and hired workers from Sharp Electronics to help create the Color TV-Game 6 and the Color TV-Game 15 in Japan. Later, Nintendo made the handheld Game & Watch series. These successes helped Yamauchi feel confident about expanding Nintendo’s role in the video game industry.
In 1978, Yamauchi divided Nintendo into separate research and development teams. He chose Masayuki Uemura to lead Nintendo Research & Development 2. Through talks with Uemura and other engineers, Yamauchi saw the possibility of using a console for more than just games. He imagined a home computer disguised as a toy that could attract children. If this idea worked, it would increase demand for games, with Nintendo as the main provider. By 1980, several systems had already been released in Japan by American and Japanese companies. Yamauchi asked Uemura to create a system that would be better than its competitors and hard to copy for at least a year. Uemura’s biggest challenge was making the system affordable enough for most families to buy. He aimed for a price of ¥9,800 (less than $75), which was much cheaper than other systems that cost ¥30,000 to ¥50,000 ($200 to $350).
As the new video game system was being developed, engineers asked Yamauchi about its features. They considered adding a disk drive, keyboard, data port, modem, and other computer-like parts. Yamauchi told Uemura to focus on simplicity and affordability, so these parts were not included. Instead, the team chose game cartridges, which Uemura believed would be less scary for buyers. The system had 2,000 bytes of memory.
The console’s hardware was based on arcade games, especially the hardware from Namco’s Galaxian (1979) and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong (1981). Engineers wanted to match the strong graphics and smooth movement of these games in a home system. A test model was built in October 1982 to check the hardware’s performance. Work on programming tools began next. Since 65xx CPUs were not available in Japan, engineers had to create their own software from scratch. Early Famicom games were written on a PC-8001 computer. Engineers used a grid of LEDs with a digitizer to design graphics, as no other tools existed at the time.
The project was first called GameCom, but Uemura’s wife suggested Famicom, saying that “In Japan, ‘pasokon’ means a personal computer, but the Famicom is not a computer. It is a family computer.” Yamauchi decided to use a red and white color scheme after seeing a display for DX Antenna, a Japanese company that used those colors.
The Famicom was influenced by the ColecoVision, a competitor to the Atari 2600 in the United States. The ColecoVision’s most popular game was a version of Donkey Kong. A team member brought a ColecoVision home and was impressed by its smooth graphics, which were better than the flickering and slow performance of the Atari 2600. Uemura said the ColecoVision set a high standard for the Famicom. To match the power of Donkey Kong arcade games, the team took an arcade cabinet to Ricoh for analysis. This led Ricoh to create the Picture Processing Unit (PPU) chip for the Famicom. The sound system of the Famicom was also influenced by Donkey Kong, as the game’s composer, Yukio Kaneoka, found that existing sound chips could not reproduce the game’s music. Kaneoka designed a new sound chip for the Famicom that could create more types of sounds than other systems at the time.
During development, Yamauchi told engineers to remove unnecessary parts to save costs. However, he wanted to include a low-cost circuit and connector that allowed the CPU to send or receive signals, which could help with future upgrades like modems or keyboards. This feature led some Nintendo workers to call the console “Yamauchi’s Trojan Horse,” because it looked like a simple game system but had advanced features. A 1989 report said, “We planned for these possibilities… we built a data communications function into the system.” Uemura said his lack of experience helped him try new
Hardware
The Famicom and NES consoles have similar hardware but differ in their physical designs. The original Famicom is mostly white plastic with dark red accents. It has a top-loading cartridge slot, slots on both sides for storing game controllers, and a 15-pin expansion port on the front. The original NES has a gray, black, and red color scheme. It uses a front-loading cartridge slot with a hinged door, and its expansion port is on the bottom. The NES also includes a 10NES lock-out chip and a matching validation chip in its cartridge connector.
In 1993, Nintendo released redesigned versions of the Famicom and NES. The new NES has a top-loading cartridge slot and removes the 10NES lock-out chip to improve reliability. It also lacks AV output. The redesigned Famicom includes AV output and has detachable game controllers, which removed microphone functionality. The redesigned models look similar, except the NES has a small bump on its cartridge slot to fit shorter cartridges and the RAM Adapter for the Famicom Disk System.
Sharp Corporation made three Famicom variants in Japan. One was a TV with a built-in Famicom, sold as the My Computer TV in 1983 and later as the Video Game Television in the U.S. Another was the Twin Famicom, combining a Famicom with a Famicom Disk System. The Famicom Titler, released in 1989, had features for video production, including RGB video output and inputs for subtitles and voice-overs.
Unlicensed NES clones became popular in regions with weak copyright laws. The Dendy, a clone made in Taiwan and sold in the former Soviet Union, sold six million units. In Poland, the Pegasus clone sold over a million units. In China, about 30 million clones were sold by 1995. Famicom clones were sold in Latin America as "Family Game" and resembled the original design. The Ending-Man Terminator clone was popular in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
After Nintendo stopped making the NES, unlicensed clones became more common. Some clones, like the PocketFami, added features like color LCD screens. Others, like a computer with a keyboard, were made for specific markets. These clones were helped by the invention of the "NES-on-a-chip."
Nintendo designed the NES for North America to look different from other consoles. This was to avoid the poor reputation game consoles had after the 1983 video game crash. The NES used a front-loading cartridge slot that looked like a videocassette recorder’s slot. However, inserting cartridges bent the contact pins and made the slot prone to dirt.
Design issues worsened because of the materials used. The console’s nickel connectors wore out easily, and the brass connectors on cartridges tarnished. Nintendo fixed these problems by redesigning the SNES as a top-loader like the Famicom. Many users tried blowing into cartridges to clean them, but this caused more damage.
The original Famicom in Japan had no lock-out hardware, leading to many unlicensed cartridges. Nintendo tried using the "Seal of Quality" to identify licensed games, but bootleg games still appeared. The original NES, released in 1985, used the 10NES lock-out chip to stop unapproved cartridges from working. This was a response to the 1983 crash, which was caused by too many low-quality games. The lock-out chip worked with the "Seal of Quality" to control game licensing.
NES consoles in different regions had different lock-out chips, blocking games from other regions even if TV signals were compatible. Problems with the 10NES chip often caused the console’s power light to blink red, as the chip reset the system every second.
The NES’s CPU was made by Ricoh and had different versions for NTSC and PAL regions. The NTSC version ran at 1.79 MHz, and the PAL version at 1.66 MHz. Both were based on the MOS Technology 6502 chip. Nintendo disabled a feature of the 6502 to avoid patent issues. The CPU had 2 KB of onboard RAM.
The NES’s graphics were handled by the Ricoh 2C02 chip.
Games
The NES uses a 72-pin design, while the Famicom has 60 pins. To save money and reduce inventory, some early North American games used Famicom cartridges with adapters to fit into the NES. Early NES cartridges were held together with five small slotted screws.
The back of each cartridge has a label with handling instructions. Production and software revision codes were printed as stamps on the label to match the software version and producer. All licensed NTSC and PAL cartridges are made of standard gray plastic, except The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, which used gold plastic. Unlicensed cartridges were made in black, robin-egg blue, and gold, and had different shapes than standard NES cartridges. Nintendo also made yellow plastic cartridges for use at service centers, but these were never sold to the public. All licensed US cartridges were made by Nintendo, Konami, and Acclaim.
Famicom cartridges are shaped differently from NES cartridges. Unlike NES games, official Famicom cartridges came in many plastic colors. Adapters, similar to the Game Genie accessory, allow Famicom games to be played on an NES. In Japan, several companies made Famicom cartridges, which let them create special chips for better sound and graphics.
Nintendo had a strong influence over the home video game market. Unlike Atari, which avoided working with outside developers and even took legal action against Activision, Nintendo planned ahead and encouraged third-party developers to create games for the NES, but only under strict rules.
Every NES console and licensed cartridge has a 10NES authentication chip. If the console’s chip cannot find a matching chip in the cartridge, the game will not load. Nintendo said these rules protected players from low-quality games and added a golden seal to all licensed games.
Nintendo was less strict than Sega, which did not allow third-party publishers until 1988. Nintendo wanted to keep most game profits for itself. It required that all cartridges be made by Nintendo, and that publishers paid in full before production began. Cartridges could not be returned, so publishers took on all the risk. Some publishers lost money when they had to sell leftover games at the end of the NES era. Nintendo controlled cartridge production and required third-party developers to sign contracts that limited them to making only five games per year and ordering at least 10,000 cartridges. A shortage of DRAM and ROM chips in 1988 limited the number of cartridges Nintendo could produce for publishers. Nintendo’s strict rules led to criticism, and some developers tried to bypass the five-game limit or the 10NES chip.
Because of its strict licensing rules, Nintendo faced accusations of breaking antitrust laws. The US Department of Justice and several states investigated Nintendo’s business practices, leading to involvement by Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC interviewed many retailers and later changed Nintendo’s licensing terms to remove restrictive rules. In 1991, Nintendo and the FTC reached a settlement where Nintendo gave $5 vouchers to every person who bought an NES game between 1988 and 1990. Some critics said the punishment was too lenient.
As the NES grew in popularity, many third-party publishers supported competing consoles like the Sega Genesis and PlayStation, which had fewer restrictions. These consoles later took over from Nintendo in the home console market. Companies that refused to pay Nintendo’s fees or were rejected by Nintendo found ways to bypass the 10NES chip. Some used circuits to disable it temporarily, while others in Europe and Australia used dongles to use a licensed game’s chip. Nintendo threatened to stop supplying licensed games to retailers that sold unlicensed games and made changes to the NES hardware to block unlicensed cartridges.
Atari Games tried a different approach by having its subsidiary, Tengen, reverse-engineer Nintendo’s lock-out chip to create its own "Rabbit" chip. Tengen also obtained details about the chip from the US Patent and Trademark Office by falsely claiming it needed them to defend against legal claims. Nintendo won a copyright lawsuit against Tengen, but Tengen’s antitrust claims were never decided.
Color Dreams made Christian games under its subsidiary, Wisdom Tree. Historian Steven Kent wrote that Nintendo faced a difficult situation when dealing with Wisdom Tree, as the public paid little attention to its legal battle with Atari Games, and analysts admired Nintendo’s legal strategies. However, targeting a small company that made religious games was controversial.
As the NES became popular in American homes, some small video rental shops started buying their own copies of games and renting them out for a few days at prices similar to video cassette rentals. Nintendo did not profit from this practice, as games could be rented the same day they were released. Nintendo tried to stop rentals but did not take legal action until Blockbuster Video expanded the service. Nintendo claimed rentals would hurt game sales and increase prices. Nintendo lost the lawsuit but won a copyright claim, banning Blockbuster from including copies of instruction booklets with rented games. Blockbuster then printed its own short guides for rented games. Other rental shops continued renting games despite the ruling.
Reception
By 1988, people who studied the video game industry said the NES was so popular that more Nintendo game cartridges were sold than all home computer software combined. In 1989, the magazine Compute! reported that Nintendo sold seven million NES systems in 1988 alone. This number was close to the total number of Commodore 64 computers sold in the first five years of that system’s release. The magazine noted that computer game makers were very worried because Nintendo’s success caused many competitors to sell few games during the previous holiday season, leading to serious financial problems for some companies.
In June 1989, Peter Main, who was Nintendo of America’s vice president of marketing, said that the Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES) was found in 37% of homes in Japan. By 1990, the NES was in 30% of homes in the United States, compared to 23% for all personal computers. By 1990, the NES had sold more units worldwide than any other console released before it.
In the early 1990s, some people thought that newer, more advanced systems like the 16-bit Mega Drive would quickly end the NES’s success. However, during the first year of the Famicom’s successor, the Super Famicom (called the Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan), the Famicom remained the second most popular video game console in Japan. It sold more units than the newer and more powerful PC Engine and Mega Drive. The console stayed popular in Japan and North America until late 1993, when demand for new NES games suddenly dropped. The last officially licensed games for the NES were Adventure Island IV in Japan (released on June 24, 1994), Wario’s Woods in North America (December 10, 1994), and The Lion King in Europe (May 25, 1995). After sales continued to fall and no new games were released, Nintendo of America officially stopped selling the NES in 1995. Nintendo continued to make new Famicom units in Japan until September 25, 2003, and repaired Famicom consoles until October 31, 2007. The company said it stopped supporting the console because it could not find enough parts to repair or produce new units.
The NES was not as successful in Europe during the late 1980s, where it was outsold by the Master System and ZX Spectrum in the United Kingdom. By 1990, the Master System was the best-selling console in Europe, even though the NES was growing in popularity in the UK. In the early 1990s, NES sales in Western Europe caught up to and slightly surpassed the Master System overall. However, the Master System still sold more units in some countries, including the UK, Belgium, and Spain.
Legacy
The NES was released two years after the video game crash of 1983, when many stores and adult buyers thought electronic games were a temporary trend. Many people believed the NES would not last long. Before the NES and Famicom, Nintendo was a fairly successful Japanese company that made toys and playing cards. However, the popularity of the NES helped Nintendo become a well-known global brand, similar to Atari, and helped Japan become a leader in the video game industry during the 1980s and 1990s. Nintendo also changed how console makers and outside game developers worked together by requiring developers to get permission before publishing games. This led to better-quality games, which helped improve public opinion about video games after earlier systems had poor-quality games.
The NES hardware design had a major influence. Nintendo chose the name "Nintendo Entertainment System" for the U.S. market and redesigned the system to avoid looking like a toy. The front-loading cartridge slot made it easier to use the system on a TV stand with other devices, such as a videocassette recorder.
The system's hardware limits led to rules that still affect how modern video games are made. Many famous game series began on the NES, including Nintendo's Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, as well as Mega Man by Capcom, Castlevania by Konami, Final Fantasy by Square, and Dragon Quest by Enix.
The NES's design, especially its controller, has become a common image on many products, including Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. The original NES controller is one of the most recognizable symbols of the console. Nintendo has used the controller's design in other products, such as promotional items and special editions of the Game Boy Advance.
At the Tokyo Game Show in 2023, the Famicom received "The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award" for its influence and for helping build the game industry.
In 2011, IGN named the NES the greatest video game console of all time.
The NES can be recreated on other systems. The first known NES emulator was called the Family Computer Emulator, created by Haruhisa Udagawa for the FM Towns computer in 1990. The first emulator for IBM PC compatibles was Pasofami, a Japanese-only program. Later, iNES was released in 1996 and described as the first emulator that could be used by people who were not experts. NESticle, an unofficial MS-DOS-based emulator, was released on April 3, 1997. Nintendo offers officially licensed versions of some NES games through its Virtual Console service for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U, and through its Nintendo Classics service for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
On July 14, 2016, Nintendo announced the release of a small replica of the NES called the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition in the United States and the Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and Australia. The console, released on November 10, 2016, included 30 pre-installed games from the NES library, such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. It had HDMI output and a new replica controller that could also connect to the Wii Remote for Virtual Console games. The system was discontinued in North America on April 13, 2017, and globally on April 15, 2017. Nintendo later announced a return of the NES Classic Mini in June 2018, but it was discontinued again in December 2018.