Nintendo Entertainment System: Difference between revisions

==History==

[[File:Famicom 1983.png|390px|left|thumb|The Nintendo Famicom.]]

Since before the success of their {{wp|Game & Watch}} line of systems and their venerable arcade games such as ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong (game)|Donkey Kong]]'' and ''[[mariowiki:Mario Bros. (game)|Mario Bros.]]'', the president of NCL (Nintendo of {{wp|Japan}}) at the time, {{wp|Hiroshi Yamauchi}}, had tasked a team of engineers with creating a home computer gaming system. Due to the [[wikipedia:Video game crash of 1983|video game crash of 1983]] in America, Nintendo had an opportunity to enter a milion-dollar industry with their console, since the crash that destroyed the console playing field over in America had not affected Japan in the slightest. One of Yamauchi's desires for the console was to keep the system's price point at around 9,800 yen, or 71.27 American dollars (worth roughly 221.03 US dollars in 2023). One of the console's engineers (and one of Nintendo's wisest advisors and technical gurus), {{wp|Masayuki Uemura}}, had the technological capabilities to make the console a 16-bit system; but since Yamauchi wanted the price to be as low as possible, Uemura made the system an 8-bit machine instead, while Yamauchi further lowered the costs for the console by way of brutal negotiations. One such tactic was promising the Japanese electronics company {{wp|Ricoh}} a sale of three million semiconductors, but only on the condition that they each be priced at 2,000 yen each. In this manner, Nintendo's new system could be more powerful than its competitors while still being the cheapest one out of all of them. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref>

The Famicom launched on July 15th, 1983 in Japan to immense critical and commercial reception, with its launch line-up consisting of home console ports of ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong (game)|Donkey Kong]]'', ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Jr. (game)|Donkey Kong Jr.]]'', and ''[[wikipedia:Popeye (game)|Popeye]]''. Shortly after its release, multiple reports came in from all over Japan that the Famicom would freeze or crash during gameplay; a problem caused by faulty chips in each and every Famicom console that malfunctioned. In response, Nintendo recalled every Famicom system (including the non-faulty systems) on the marketplace and replaced the motherboards for each and every system, with the consumers who had the faulty Famicoms being given the option to send in their defective Famicoms for repair free of charge. This act of goodwill bolstered Nintendo's image in the eyes of Japanese retailers, and the Famicom would move 500,000 units for the rest of 1983, with TV manufacturer [[wikipedia:Sharp Corporation|Sharp]] producing a commercially-available TV set with a built-in Famicom. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Super_Mario/9_JvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> Sharp also produced multiple iterations of the Famicom, including one which combined both the standard Famicom and its add-on, the [[Famicom Disk System]], into one console. The initial release of the Famicom had a smooth-bottomed console and square controller buttons; since it had a weak lockout chip and soft square buttons could wear down, the console and controller were revamped with a rougher-textured bottom, a better lockout chip and round plastic controller buttons, which became the more widespread release. <ref>https://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/square-button-famicom/</ref> Three million Famicom units were sold by 1984, with 19.32 million units being sold by the end of the Famicom's lifetime. The Famicom would become the most popular console system in Japan at the time, with Nintendo controlling 90 to 95% of the video game market at the time, with this fact being especially touted by Nintendo of America when bringing the Famicom to the U.S. Manufacturing for the Famicom lasted two decades before it was finally shut down in 2003, with the last published Famicom game, {{wp|Master Takahashi's Adventure Island IV}}, being released in 1994.

[[File:Avs system.jpeg|thumb|left|The Nintendo Advanced Video System from a January 1984 Las Vegas {{wp|CES}} brochure. Here, you can notice the multiple applications for the system and its accessories. The console, tape deck/data recorder, and musical keyboard could also fit on top of each other for an ergonomic setup. <ref>https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By3fjn1rWdp3VzlMR29qcDVVNHc?resourcekey=0-spwTMki9kcex7Yh2pEXf5Q</ref>]]