Nintendo Entertainment System
Home video game console / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Nintendo Entertainment System?
Summarize this article for a 10 years old
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the Family Computer (FC),[note 1] commonly referred to as Famicom.[note 2] It was redesigned to become the NES, which was released in American test markets on October 18, 1985, and was soon fully launched in North America and other countries.
  | |
Top: NES Control Deck (with detachable controllers) Bottom: Family Computer ("Famicom") main unit (with hardwired controllers) | |
| Also known as | Family Computer/Famicom (Japan) Hyundai Comboy (Korea) Samurai (India) Dendy (Soviet Union) Gradiente Phantom System (Brazil) |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo R&D2 |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Third |
| Release date | |
| Lifespan | 1983–2003 (Famicom) 1985–1995 (US)[5] 1986–1995 (EU) |
| Introductory price | ¥14,800 (Japan) US$179 (equivalent to $530 in 2022)[6] |
| Discontinued | |
| Units sold | 61.91 million[9] |
| Media | ROM cartridge ("Game Pak") |
| CPU | Ricoh 2A03/2A07 @ 1.79/1.66 MHz[lower-alpha 2] |
| Display | 256 × 240 pixels standard |
| Graphics | PPU (Ricoh 2C02) |
| Sound | APU, 5 channels: 2 pulse wave , triangle wave, white noise, DPCM |
| Controller input | 2 controller ports[lower-alpha 3] 1 expansion slot |
| Best-selling game |
|
| Predecessor | Color TV-Game |
| Successor | Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Related | Famicom Disk System, Famicom 3D System |
After developing several successful arcade games in the early 1980s such as Donkey Kong (1981), Nintendo planned to create a home video game console. Rejecting more complex proposals, the Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console with games stored on cartridges. The controller design was reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch games. Nintendo released several add-ons, such as the NES Zapper light gun for shooting games like Duck Hunt.
The NES is one of the best-selling consoles of its time and helped revitalize the US gaming industry following the video game crash of 1983.[12][lower-alpha 4] It pioneered a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers to produce and distribute games.[14] The NES features a number of groundbreaking games, such as the 1985 platform game Super Mario Bros. and the 1986 action-adventure games The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, which became long-running franchises. It was succeeded in 1990 by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2011, IGN named the NES the greatest video game console of all time.[15]