====== Nintendo Entertainment System (1985) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: 8bit NMOS 6502 CPU with a secondary PPU (Picture Processing Unit)
* Clock Speed: 1.7897725MHz for NTSC and 1.773447MHz for the PAL version
* Data Path width: 8-bits
* SPR-RAM: 256 Bytes
* ROM: 8k
* Video Ram: 16 Kbits
* Color Palette: 256; 16 max on screen
* Sprites: 64 (8x8 or 8x16)
* Sound: FM with 5 sound channels (4 analog, 1 digital)
* Cart Size: 64k - 4 Megabit
===== Usage =====
NES controller consists of an 8-way directional pad, two action buttons (labeled A and B), a Start button and a Select button. On the main unit, a Power and a Reset buttons are present.
===== Known Issues =====
The NES driver should run most of the images currently out there with very little problem, with the exception of MMC5 mapper used by Castlevania III, Just Breed, Nobunaga's Ambitions II and others. It also doesn't yet support all the obscure one-game mappers used by many "pirate carts".
===== History and Trivia =====
Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce a cartridge-based console. Masayuki Uemura designed the system, which was released in Japan on July 15, 1983. Launch title were three ports of Nintendo's successful arcade games: "Donkey Kong", "Donkey Kong Jr.", and "Popeye".
The Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) did not meet instant success: during its first year, many criticized the system as unreliable, prone to programming errors and rampant freezing. These critics were completely unfunded: Nintendo decided to recall most of the units and to reissue the system with a new motherboard. Quite soon the popularity of Famicom soared and it became the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. You can easily spot the recalled version of the Famicom because of its square buttons, replaced with circular buttons in all Famicom systems produced after the recall.
Encouraged by its successes, Nintendo soon turned its attentions to the North American market. At first, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom under Atari's name as the name "Nintendo Enhanced Video System". This deal eventually fell through. Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless
joystick controller, and a special BASIC cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never materialized.
Finally, in June 1985 Nintendo unveiled its American version of the Famicom at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Nintendo rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on 18 October 1985, following up with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year. Nintendo simultaneously released eighteen launch titles!
In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Distribution in region B, consisting of most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy), was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases; most of region B saw a 1986 release. Mattel handled distribution for region A, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, starting the following year. Not until 1990 did Nintendo's newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe. Despite not having in Europe and Oceania the same success it had in Japan and North America, by 1990 the NES had become the best-selling console in videogame history.
As the 1990s dawned, however, renewed competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega MegaDrive (known as the Sega Genesis in North America) marked the end of the NES's dominance. Eclipsed by Nintendo's own Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the NES user base gradually waned.
Nintendo continued to support the system in America through the first half of the decade, even releasing a new version of the console, the NES 2, to address many of the design flaws in the original NES hardware. By 1995, though, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the NES.
Despite this, Nintendo of Japan kept producing new Nintendo Famicom units for a niche market up until October 2003, when also Nintendo of Japan officially discontinued the line.
Many videogame franchise, later migrated on new systems, had their origin on the Nintendo Famicom/NES: "MegaMan", "Castlevania", "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Warrior", not to mention Nintendo series like "Super Mario Bros.", "The Legend of Zelda", "Kirby" and "Metroid".
== Regional differences ==
NES and Famicom were not exactly the same console, even if they shared most of the hardware.
* Case design: The Famicom features a top-loading cartridge slot, a 15-pin expansion port located on the unit's front panel for accessories (as the controllers were hard-wired to the back of the console) and a red and white color scheme; the NES features a front-loading cartridge slot, an expansion port was found on the bottom of the unit and a more subdued gray, black and red color scheme.
* Cart design: Differences between NES carts and Famicom carts are not only aesthetic! The original Famicom and the re-released AV Family Computer both use a 60-pin cartridge design, which resulted in smaller cartridges than the NES (and the NES 2), which utilized a 72-pin design. Four pins were used for the NES lockout chip, 10NES. Ten pins were added that connected a cartridge directly to the expansion port on the bottom of the unit. Finally, two pins that allowed cartridges to provide their own sound expansion chips were removed. Many early games (such as Stack-Up) released in North America were simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter (such as the T89 Cartridge Converter) to allow them to fit inside the NES hardware. Nintendo did this to reduce costs and inventory by using the same cartridge boards in America and Japan.
* Lockout Chip: The patented 10NES was a chip Nintendo added to NES in order to avoid unlicensed software to boot the system: at start, the NES unit checks for the presence of the chip in the cart and simply stops if the chip cannot be found. At least three versions were created, one put in US carts, one in UK carts and the last one in other European carts. These chips also prevented North American carts from playing on PAL consoles and viceversa.
== Accessories ==
* Zapper: this is a Lightgun device produced by Nintendo. Few games used it: among these "Duck Hunt", "Hogan's Alley", "Wild Gunman", "Gumshoe" and "Bayou Billy".
* R.O.B.: R.O.B. stands for Robotic Operating Buddy. Nintendo produced this Robot shaped device to provide an interactive medium between the TV screen and player. In the two games which supported it (i.e. "Gyromite" and "Stack Up"), R.O.B.'s actions affect gameplay on the screen and the player have to react to what happens in the game: in "Gyromite" R.O.B. pushes and hold buttons on the second controller; in "Stack Up", the player has to press a button when R.O.B. finishes a task.
* NES Advantage: This arcade style controller produced by Nintendo features a joystick in place of the D-Pad, a variable-speed turbo for A and B buttons, a slow-down effect (consisting in repeated pressures of the Start button) and the possibility to plug it in both joypad ports (so that it can be used in games with alternating 2 players mode).
* NES Max: This controller produced by Nintendo replaces the D-Pad with a button-shaped cycloid. It also featured two turbo buttons for A and B. Its shape anticipates the "winged" shape of Sony Playstation controllers.
* NES Four Score / Satellite: Accessories which will allow 4 player to play the same game. The Satellite is wireless, allowing even more distance between the players and the unit.
* Power Glove: In 1989 Mattel introduced the PowerGlove, a handtracking device based on a glove. The PowerGlove was intended to work in place of a regular controller. The PowerGlove can track motion of the glove in three-space, finger position, and has a set of buttons/switches on the top of the wrist. It has two modes "hires" and "lores": in "hires" mode, it tracks 3d position, the rolling and the position of fingers along with the state of SELECT, START, A, B, D-PAD switches (which are a part of the NES standard controller); in "lores" mode, the glove reports only the position of the hand on the x and y axis and the buttons (thus emulating a NES controller completely and allowing one to use the glove with non-glove-specific games). In "lores" mode, it is also possible to map up to 14 combinations of the buttons to movements of the glove. The only games which explicitly supported the Power Glove were "Super Glove Ball" and "Bad Street Brawler", other being announced but never released
* Arkanoid Controller: specific controller with a knob in place of the D-Pad to control the paddle in the game "Arkanoid".
* LaserScope: Produced by Konami, it is a head-mounted lightgun with a microphone and a crosshair that covered one eye. It was manufactured specifically for one Konami game, "Laser Invasion". Wearing the device on the head, the players had to shout "fire!" into the microphone to fire a shot at the on-screen object via the headset's crosshair. However, microphone technology was poor: saying almost anything else would cause the controller to react.
* Power Pad / Family Fun Fitness: Released by Bandai, this is a floor mat controller consisting of eight/twelve (depending on the side) pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic. It was used by "Athletic World" and "World Class Track Meet".
* U-Force: This device, produced by Broderbund, uses infrared sensors and switches to recognize movements across the sensor and use them as input for the NES.
* Miracle Piano: Created by The Software Toolworks, it is MIDI keyboard/teaching tool. It consisted of a keyboard, connecting cables and a cartridge. When connected to the console, the user followed the on-screen notes.
* Aladdin Deck Enhancer: Produced by Camerica, the Aladdin system is kinda like a cartridge split up in two in two parts: the common chips have been put into the Deck Enhancer, while the game specific chip is contained in its own cart. This way, you can buy a single Deck Enhancer and several Compact Cartridge (cheaper than original cartridges because part of the circuitry was not needed). Only few games saw the release for the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, and most of them (except the bundled game "Dizzy the Adventurer") were also released on common carts.
* Game Genie: Video game enhancer from Galoob (Codemasters), it was first introduced in 1991. It allows to change and customize gameplay and to create special effects on many popular video games. For example, you can have more lives or weapons, start on any level of the game, jump higher, be invincible, and more. The changes you make with Game Genie are not permanent, and disappear when the power to the game deck is turned off.
//(info from Wikipedia, FAQs, etc.)//
===== Links =====
* NESDev -- http://nesdev.parodius.com/
* NESdevWiki -- http://nesdevwiki.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
* NES World -- http://nesworld.parodius.com/
* [[wp>Nintendo_Entertainment_System]]
===== Other Emulators =====
* Nestopia -- http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
* Nintendulator -- http://qmt.ath.cx/~nes/nintendulator/
* SegaLi -- http://home.planet.nl/~haps/
* Mednafen -- http://mednafen.sourceforge.net/
* olafnes -- http://olafnes.1emulation.com/
* FCE Ultra -- http://fceultra.sourceforge.net/
* FakeNES -- http://fakenes.sourceforge.net/
* RockNES -- http://rocknes.kinox.org/
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009