Why Famicom?

[pxlbluejay]

This thought suddenly occured to me. Why is the Famicom called the Famicom? I get how it can run BASIC and all, but unlike an actual computer in the 80s, it doesn't have BASIC in rom, and more importantly, its keyboard is an optional feature and in return you get a set of game controllers(an aptional feature for actual computers) So, in my opinion, I think they should have named it the FGS for Family Game Console or something like that. After all, the Colecovision can function as a personal computer (the Coleco Adam) when combined with the explansion module three, and the Colecovision, certainly, is a game console.

[xIceMan]

Famicom is short for Family Computer.

It's also called HVC = Home Video Console

[P]

I never heard the term "console" in Japan in the context of video game systems. Usually you would say terebigeemu (meaning television-game), similar terms are used in other languages as well including Swedish. I believe HVC stands for Home Video Computer.

According to interviews with Nintendo staff, there was no common term for video game systems around this time, so "computer" made sense. Yet according to an Iwata Ask, when releasing the system people thought it was strange that they called it a computer even though it didn't even have a keyboard, so you have to take these interviews with a pinch of salt. In Iwata Ask, Nintendo defended it by saying it was a computer, it's just that Nintendo would provide the software for it, not the user. Nowdays this isn't so strange since most people uses pre-made programs for computers, but back then a computer that you couldn't program yourself was probably very strange and contradictional.

The "Family Computer" name was supposedly inspired by "Personal Computer" marketed by IBM for their home computers, and later used widely for any type of home computer. According to some interviews, they wanted to use the abbreviation "Famicom" but Mr Yamauchi rejected this idea. Though it has been discovered that wasn't probably not the case. Sharp had trademarked the term "Famicom" for their microwave ovens "Family Convection Oven", so Nintendo couldn't use the term even if they wanted to. This is also supposedly why Sharp's licensed Famicoms do use "Famicom" in the title while Nintendo's doesn't. Of course people called the Family Computer the Famicom anyway and it's Nintendo's system that is remembered as the Famicom, not a microwave oven. And Sharp didn't use it for any of their own computers either AFAIK.

Later Nintendo collaborated with Hudson to make Family BASIC so that you could finally program it, and turning it into a real computer (although quite limited for a computer). Hudson had previously made a BASIC for Sharp's computers that was called Sharp Hu-BASIC, and now they ported this to the Famicom calling it NS-HuBASIC (Nintendo Sharp Hudson-BASIC). Sharp was also involved in this I think because they released a TV with a built-in Famicom and a version of Family BASIC called Playbox BASIC (which possibly predates Family BASIC). I'm not sure about the details around this though.
Around this time Nintendo still didn't accept third-party makers, so I guess this collaboration also opened the way for Hudson to become the first third-party developer for the Famicom, and they released Nuts & Milk and Loderunner as the first third-party games.

[xIceMan]

Ah, my bad. Did I say Console? I did mean Computer. 

[pxlbluejay]

Famicom is short for Family Computer.

It's also called HVC = Home Video Console

I know it means Family Computer but my point was why it was called a computer in the first place. Anyways, thanks, P!

[boye]

The reason they didn't go with the name "Famicom" in the first place is due to an interesting legal battle with Sharp.  That also explains why the only Famicom systems to be called Famicom were made by Sharp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba84r28pHRw