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List of Nintendo Entertainment System games

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List of Nintendo Entertainment System games
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The Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System has a library of 1377[a] officially licensed games released during their lifespans, plus 7 official multicarts and 2 championship cartridges. Of these, 672 were released exclusively in Japan, 187 were released exclusively in North America, and 19 were released exclusively in PAL countries. Worldwide, 521 games were released.

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The Japanese Family Computer (Famicom) (top) and international Nintendo Entertainment System (bottom)
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An NES cartridge (top) is taller than a typical Famicom cartridge.

Its launch games for the Famicom were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. Only first-party titles were available upon launch, but Nintendo started a licensing program the following year that allowed third-party companies such as Namco, Hudson Soft, Taito, Konami, Bandai, and Capcom to create titles and produce their own cartridges for the Famicom in exchange for royalty payments;[1][2] Nintendo later revised the program to mandate itself as the producer of all cartridges while carrying it with the console outside Japan.[3][4] The launch games for North America were: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew.[5][6][b] The final licensed game released is the PAL-exclusive The Lion King on May 25, 1995.

As was typical for consoles of its era, the Famicom used ROM cartridges as the primary method of game distribution;[7] each cartridge featured 60 pins, with two pins reserved for external sound chips.[8][9] For the console's North American release in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo redesigned the cartridge to accommodate the console's front-loading, videocassette recorder-derived socket by nearly doubling its height and increasing its width by one centimeter (0.39 in), resulting in a measurement of 13.3 cm (5.2 in) high by 12 cm (4.7 in) wide.[10]:108[11] Referred to as "Game Paks", each NES cartridge sported an increased total of 72 pins, with two pins reserved for the CIC lockout chip and ten pins reserved for connections with the console's bottom expansion port.[10]:367 However, the two pins for external sound were removed and relocated to the expansion port instead; any Famicom game using them would have its soundtrack recomposed for releases on NES cartridges.[9][12] Though the extra space of the NES cartridge was not utilized by most games, it enabled the inclusion of additional hardware expansions; in contrast, some copies of early NES games like Gyromite merely paired the printed circuit board of the game's Famicom version with an adapter to convert between the different pinouts.[10]:108[13] Cartridges had storage sizes ranging from 64 Kilobits to 8 Megabits, with 1 to 3 Megabit cartridges being the most commonly used.

Nintendo later released the Famicom Disk System (FDS) in Japan in 1986, intending to have developers distribute all future games on proprietary 2.8-inch (7.1 cm) floppy disks to avoid the cost and size limitations of cartridges; however, developers began re-releasing FDS games on cartridges as advancements in cartridge technology made them feasible again with the limitations of the floppy disks and their ecosystem apparent, pulling support for the FDS by the 1990s.[9] The disks had 512 Kilobits of storage per side.

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Licensed games

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Compilations

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Championship games

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Konami QTa Adaptor games

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Unreleased games

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Unlicensed games

NES's lifespan

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Famicom games

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After lifespan

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See also

Notes

  1. This number is always up to date by this script.
  2. Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Mach Rider are often erroneously listed as launch games. Neither was available until later in 1986.[6] Also, some modern sources question if Super Mario Bros. was available on launch day, though contemporaneous sources such as Computer Entertainer and The Milwaukee Journal state that the system launched with 17 titles, and the Journal references Super Mario Bros. by name.[5][6]
  3. This game was originally released on the Famicom Disk System.
  4. This game was released on an unlicensed cartridge in this region. As such, the title is considered to be unreleased within this table.
  5. This game received a full localization for this region, but was not released.
  6. This game received an official re-release with permission of the current rights holder of the game title, at the time of re-release, in limited quantities on either a refurbished licensed cartridge or an unlicensed reproduction cartridge long after the Nintendo Entertainment System's lifespan. Usually this is done as the result of a promotional stunt or to capitalize on the retro game collecting market.
  7. This game was first released on licensed cartridges, but was re-released on unlicensed cartridges. This was due to the unlicensed version's publisher not wanting to pay Nintendo's license fees after discovering a means to bypass Nintendo's lockout chip.
  8. This game was later released on the Famicom Disk System
  9. The 72-pin NES cartridge version of this game was only available in Hong Kong titled as Mah Jong. The NES was officially released in Hong Kong around 1987, and it is fairly rare. This game is the rarest licensed and commercially available NES game produced with fewer than 10 copies known.
  10. A different port by the same publisher was released in this region.
  11. Copies released after August 1990 were simply rebranded as Punch Out!! with Mike Tyson replaced by a new opponent.
  12. This game uses a special cartridge which lets you attach a smaller cartridge which when inserted update team rosters, allowing for more teams to play as.
  13. This is an expansion pack for Nantettatte!! Baseball. This comes in a small cartridge that you are supposed to attach to Nantettatte!! Baseball and doing that updates the team rosters with new stats for the upcoming season, in an effort to keep the gameplay fresh.
  14. In North America, this game was released initially by Tengen in 1988 as a licensed cartridge, then as an unlicensed cartridge a year later. In November 1993, Namco rereleased the game in North America on licensed cartridges once again. The game was released solely by Namco in Japan and Europe.
  15. A different port by a different developer and publisher was released in this region.
  16. In North America and Europe, this game was released initially by Bandai as Stadium Events, then a year later, Nintendo purchased the rights to publish this game in North America, under the reissued title: World Class Track Meet.
  17. A different port by a different developer and publisher was released in this region.
  18. The exact NA release date is debated, as some modern sources question if Super Mario Bros. was available on launch day, though contemporaneous sources such as Computer Entertainer and The Milwaukee Journal state that the system launched with 17 titles, and the Journal references Super Mario Bros. by name.[5][6]
  19. In 2015, it was officially localized on the Wii U's Virtual Console as EarthBound Beginnings.
  20. In 2009, reproduction cartridges of the game were released.
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References

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