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On this day 40 years ago, the Nintendo Famicom released in Japan. Often regarded as one of the most important video game consoles of all time. It would mark the beginning of Nintendo's rise as a videogame juggernaut as well as play a major role in ushering in the era of modern gaming.
12:05 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Now for a bit of history lessons. Nintendo first got it's start in the late 1800s as a hanafuda card maker which would be followed by various other business ventures in the later 20th century chief among them toys. Many of which were essentially imitations of more successful products.
07:24 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Nintendo's earliest dabbles in the video game market came in the form of Pong clone consoles or relatively mediocre arcade games. Radar Scope in particular being such a flop in the west it almost resulted in the shuttering of Nintendo of America.
07:31 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Nintendo's fortunes in gaming would see a turnaround in the early 80s thanks to Miyamoto's Donkey Kong Arcade Game and Gunpei Yokoi's Game&Watch line of handheld games which would become Nintendo's first breakout hits.
07:54 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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The formula for success was clear. New ideas, innovative applications in technology, and an attention to quality and polish. It was soon clear however, that in order to find true success Nintendo would need to start moving away from dedicated devices and into the console gaming market.
07:56 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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It was here Nintendo saw an opening as dedicated cartridge-based systems at the time didn't really have a presence in Japan. It was then Mr Yamauchi put Masayuki Uemura the head of Nintendo's R&D3 Division in charge of designing Nintendo's first proper home gaming console.
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The console would have the following criteria
Accept Cartidges
Cost less than 10,000 Yen
Play a perfect game of Donkey Kong
Umemura having previously worked as an engineer at SHARP drew upon every business connection he could and thus the Family Computer or Famicom was born.
Accept Cartidges
Cost less than 10,000 Yen
Play a perfect game of Donkey Kong
Umemura having previously worked as an engineer at SHARP drew upon every business connection he could and thus the Family Computer or Famicom was born.
08:07 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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The Famicom released in Japan on July 15th 1983 ironically the same day rival company Sega launched their 1st home console the SG-1000.
While the Famicom didn't quite achieve Yamauchi's price mandate it still managed to be competitively priced on top of having superior hardware capability.
While the Famicom didn't quite achieve Yamauchi's price mandate it still managed to be competitively priced on top of having superior hardware capability.
08:10 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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While the SG-1000 used a fairly standard Z80 CPU which essentially made it identical to the ColecoVision, the Famicom meanwhile used a chip based on the MOS 6502 standard which while not as common in Japan as the Z80 would prove to have more versatility.
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The Famicom made a number of modifications to the 6502 instruction set with some new features being added while others being discarded. However, it's basic specs alone still allowed to stand above most other contemporary consoles.
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Features supported included
The ability to handle dozens of 4 color sprites
5 simultaneous audio channels
52 color palette
Smooth horizontal and vertical scrolling.
The ability to handle dozens of 4 color sprites
5 simultaneous audio channels
52 color palette
Smooth horizontal and vertical scrolling.
08:21 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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The system also featured a degree of expandability which would come into play with add ons such as the Famicom Disk system and specialized cartridges that contained their own co processors that could improve on the console's own latent capabilities.
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This expandability would play a key role in allowing the Famicom to have a long shelf life well into the 90s even as it found itself eclipsed hardware wise by competing consoles such as the Sega Master System thanks to ambitious developers and expanded cartridge capabilities.
08:43 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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A good example of the Famicom's longevity can be best seen in the final release in any region Wario's Woods which released in the United States roughly a week following the Sony PlayStation's Japanese launch.
08:46 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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The Famicom would mark the start of a major home gaming revolution in Japan with home consoles and specifically the Famicom becoming the mainstream platform of choice for a majority of Japanese kids. That said the Famicom was not exactly an instant hit right out of the gate.
08:49 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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The early launch was rough with only 3 titles available on Day 1. All of which were essentially ports of Nintendo's major arcade hits.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr
Popeye
The only other major 1st party release that year would end up being Mario Bros another arcade port.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr
Popeye
The only other major 1st party release that year would end up being Mario Bros another arcade port.
08:58 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Early Famicom models also were plagued by a number of defects and design flaws. Early units contained a defect in the CPU that could in rare circumstances crash the system.
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The original control pads also proved unreliable with the soft plastic that covered the A and B buttons being prone to wear and getting stuck in the controller housing.
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Nintendo would issue a recall of the early units replacing the defective CPUs and redesigning the controllers to have more reliable round hard plastic A and B buttons. A move that generated a reasonable amount of goodwill among the Japanese public.
09:43 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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By the end of 1984 Nintendo's 1st party output had improved substantially, the first third party titles were starting to materialize, the defective units had all been purged from the retail pipeline, and what would be arguably its true killer app was just on the horizon.
09:51 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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What really made the Famicom stand out from it's American counterpart the NES was the variety of peripherals and addons released for the system. With a cassette recorder and a full-fledged keyboard, one could essentially turn the Famicom into a miniature Coleco Adam.
09:57 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Then there would be arguably the Famicom's most iconic add on, the Famicom Disk System which allowed the Famicom capability of supporting larger and more complex games on magnetic disks. This history of this peripheral in particular probably warrants its own thread.
09:59 PM - Jul 14, 2023
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Even if Nintendo wasn't necessarily destined to become a video games company their 1st attempt at a creating a video game console reshaped games as we know it forever both in Japan and the west.
My main source of info for this thread can be found here.
My main source of info for this thread can be found here.
The Family Computer: How Nintendo set the stage for the NES | NES Works #000, Part 1 - YouTube
The first part of a look back at the NES hardware itself begins with the origins of its Japanese version, the Family Computer — Famicom for short. This episo...
10:03 PM - Jul 14, 2023
