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Nintendo Co., Ltd.,
originally a playing card company, began making TV gaming systems in the 1970s,
updating Pong and having mild
success with its systems; however, it was the Famicom that set Nintendo's profits on fire
and propelled Nintendo to the top of the video game
empire.
The Japanese Famicom
as released in 1983.
Nintendo released
the brilliant
white and red Famicom in Japan in 1983, after the
failure of Atari and on the dawn of a new era of
gaming. Up
until the 1980s, children were playing classics such as
Donkey Kong in the arcades and on Atari consoles, but simply wanted
something new and more diverse. So, after
some re-tooling of their arcade games, Nintendo sent forth to living rooms
around the world the Famicom, in Japan, and its brother
console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES),
released to the rest of the developed world.
Famicom is, of course, short for Family Computer.
This is what a
complete Famicom looks like.
The Famicom comes with two
controllers, fixed on both sides of the console by short black cords, which
forced young gamers to sit closer to their TV screens when playing. The
second of the two controllers was given a microphone function, which
could be used in some games, including karaoke, or could be used to irritate your friends by talking through the TV speakers.
The Famicom had a
large red knob used to slide the games out of the
pins slot. It had the standard On/Off button and a
reset button. A port at the front of the console
allowed for accessories, such as controllers, a 3D
system and handheld microphone to be connected. Accessories were introduced
throughout the Famicom decade, enhancing gameplay like never before. The
Famicom was a hot item from the day it was released, though the first
release of the Famicom, known as the square-buttoned
Famicom, had glitches that irked early gamers.
The Famicom
controllers, designated I and II.
The games came in simple
plastic cartridges that would you insert into the
Famicom, similar to the top-loading NES with which the rest of the world is familiar. The cartridges came in
various different colors with
often great label art. The cartridges varied in size
and shape, but never were made as large as an NES
cartridge.
Super Mario USA
is one of the many colorful Famicom carts.
Like with the NES,
Famicom cartridges became a problem. Some games would freeze up during gameplay or not
play at all due to dust and grime that got in between the contacts on the
cartridge and the console. Though cleaning was
encouraged, the cartridges
were very small and often difficult to open.
Because the Famicom
never came with a lock-out chip, like versions of
the NES that kept unlicensed and pirated cartridges
from being played, pirated cartridges
abounded in Asia. Just about everywhere you turn
today you can get pirates of 8-bit games and sometimes
even 16-bit games
(reduced to 8-bit
quality).
Strangely enough, even though gaming had moved
beyond the 8-bit era, some shady companies continued
to make pirates into the turn of the century.
A pirate of one of the
Nekketsu series games.
The Famicom
originally retailed for 14,800yen (about $120 in
today's dollars) and sold nearly 19.4 million units.
Nintendo stopped producing the Famicom in September 2003
because secondary companies were no longer
manufacturing the parts Nintendo needed. |
