Nintendo Entertainment System: Difference between revisions

*{{cite web |date=March 28, 2012 |title=Making the Famicom a Reality |website=GlitterBerri's Game Translations |url=https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/how-the-famicom-was-born/making-the-famicom-a-reality/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505103737/https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/how-the-famicom-was-born/making-the-famicom-a-reality/ |archive-date=May 5, 2012}}</ref> Original plans called for an advanced [[16-bit]] system as a full-fledged computer with a keyboard and floppy disk drive, but Nintendo president [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]] rejected this in favor of a cheaper, more conventional, cartridge-based game console as he believed that advanced features such as keyboards and disks were intimidating to non-technophiles. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, and work began on programming tools. Because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan by that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be developed from scratch. Some Nintendo engineers advocated using a [[Z80]] instead as it was what most arcade games used and Japan had a large pool of Z80 coders available while few people knew 6502 assembly language outside of HAL who would often be called upon by Nintendo to help develop software. Early Famicom games were written on a [[PC-8000 series|NEC PC-8001]] computer. LEDs on a grid were used with a digitizer to design graphics as no such software design tools existed at that time.<ref name="DevHistory">{{Cite magazine|last=高野|first=雅晴|date=January 16, 1995|title=ファミコン開発物語|url=https://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20081002/1019327/|magazine=日経エレクトロニクス|language=ja|publisher=[[Nikkei Business Publications]]|oclc=5530170|access-date=June 6, 2019|via=Nikkei Trendy Net|archive-date=June 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606140054/https://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20081002/1019327/|url-status=live}}</ref>

*{{cite web |date=April 21, 2012 |title=Deciding on the Specs |website=GlitterBerri's Game Translations |url=https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/how-the-famicom-was-born/deciding-on-the-specs/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427193537/https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/how-the-famicom-was-born/deciding-on-the-specs/ |archive-date=April 27, 2012}}</ref> the ColecoVision's top-seller was a port of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong''.<ref name="Nintendo life">{{cite news |last1=McFerran |first1=Damien |title=Feature: How ColecoVision Became the King of Kong |url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2010/09/feature_how_colecovision_became_the_king_of_kong |access-date=April 13, 2021 |work=[[Nintendo Life]] |date=September 18, 2010 |archive-date=January 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106181833/http://retro.nintendolife.com/news/2010/09/feature_how_colecovision_became_the_king_of_kong |url-status=live }}</ref> The project's chief manager Takao Sawano brought a ColecoVision home to his family, impressed by its smooth graphics,<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=高野|first=雅晴|date=January 16, 1995|title=ファミコン開発物語|url=https://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20081002/1019378/|magazine=日経エレクトロニクス|language=ja|publisher=[[Nikkei Business Publications]]|oclc=5530170|access-date=June 7, 2019|via=Nikkei Trendy Net|archive-date=June 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606151812/https://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20081002/1019378/|url-status=live}}</ref> which contrasts with the flicker and slowdown commonly seen on Atari 2600 games. Uemura said the ColecoVision set the bar for the Famicom. They wanted to surpass it and match the more powerful ''Donkey Kong'' arcade hardware; they took a ''Donkey Kong'' arcade cabinet to chip manufacturer [[Ricoh]] for analysis, which led to Ricoh producing the [[Picture Processing Unit]] (PPU) chip for the NES. The [[Colecovision]] game console and its supporting chips such as the [[TMS9918]] GPU were also studied for ideas.<ref name="Nikkei7" />

The console was released on July 15, 1983, as the {{nihongo foot|'''Home Cassette-type Video Game: Family Computer''',|家庭用カセット式ビデオゲーム　ファミリーコンピュータ|Katei-yō Kasetto-Shiki Bideo Gēmu: Famirī Konpyūta|lead=yes|group=note}} for {{JPY|14,800}} ({{Inflation|JP|14800|1983|fmt=eq|cursign=¥|r=-2}}) with three [[Porting|ports]] of Nintendo's successful arcade games ''[[Donkey Kong (arcade game)|Donkey Kong]]'', ''[[Donkey Kong Jr.]]'', and ''[[Popeye (video game)|Popeye]]''. The Famicom was slowrushed to gatherstore successshelves and not entirely a finished design; numerous problems quickly became apparent. The biggest one was the console suffering from overheating issues. The initial PPU and CPU used a bad4 μm chip setdie; causedthe large die size created thermal runaway and issues with sprites disappearing as the earlyPPU revisionswarmed toup [[crashand (computing)|crash]]the OAM table's decay time would shorten. FollowingNintendo had equipped the PPU with a [[productsilicone rubber heat spreader placed underneath the chip but this proved inadequate. Nintendo also did field service modifications to the PCBs to correct some lesser hardware bugs. One Nintendo engineer suggested correcting the problems with the console this way but Yamauchi rejected that idea and in December he decided to recall]] all Famicoms and ahalt production until the hardware could be redesigned even though it would cost Nintendo the all-important Christmas season. The Revision B Famicom was introduced in spring 1984 and had an improved reissuechipset with the die size shrunk to 3.5 μm. The PPU still retained an aluminum heat spreader on top of the chip as a newprecautionary [[motherboard]],measure. Metal shielding was added around the Famicom'scartridge slot to reduce popularityRF soared,interference becomingas the bestsellingoriginal gameRevision console0 inconsoles Japanhad byextremely noisy video output. Nintendo replaced Revision 0 boards for free as part of the endrecall program and the vast majority of them were swapped with Revision B boards. The first Famicoms also lacked a functional looped noise channel; this was added by Revision D which appeared in late 1984 or early 1985. The Revision E PPU which arrived in late 1985 was shrunk further to a 1.5 μm die size and the heat spreader was done away with. Also starting with Revision D consoles the original membrane controller buttons were replaced with hard plastic ones as they had a tendency to become stuck and fall off the controller.<ref name="Ultimate History">{{cite book |last=Kent |first=Steven L. |author-link=Steven L. Kent |title=[[The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World]] |year=2001 |publisher=Prima Publishing |location=Roseville, California |isbn=0-7615-3643-4}}</ref>{{rp|279, 285}}