Nintendo Entertainment System

""Now You're Playing With Power!""

The system that brought video game consoles back from The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 in North America (they were pretty healthy elsewhere) and ushered in the modern era of video gaming. Known in Japan/Asia as the Family Computer (commonly abbreviated as the "Famicom") and in South Korea as Hyundai Comboy (현대 컴보이) made by Hynix with unlicensed clones made in Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East and in China, it was the console that brought in the oldest and longest lasting competitor in the Console Wars, Nintendo. It also served as the initial console for many of gaming's oldest franchises, introduced the modern third-party licensing model for video games, and set the standards in control pads for consoles. It is still very much an icon of video games (less so the redesigned variant).

The reason all NES games are tile-based is because that's what the NES does. The graphics system is a separate processor that has its own memory space for palettes and images. It only understands tiles, tilemaps, and sprites, and it implements them directly in the video output hardware. While this imposed limitations on developers that even Atari 2600 games didn't have to suffer under, it also freed them from having to deal with the minutiae of graphics. Yes, you could only do tile-based graphics with sprites, but at least they were good tile-based graphics.

While the NES-001 is an iconic part of video game history, it's pretty badly designed. While the Japanese version is a remarkably solid piece of engineering that often continues to work over 25 years later, the American release (handled by Nintendo of America) was rather sloppily redesigned to distance itself from pre-Crash consoles due to many vendors refusing to stock anything even remotely resembling the console, fearing that they wouldn't sell.

So what was wrong with the NES-001? Well...
 * NoA's industrial designers made the console look like a VCR, adopting a VCR-like front-loading cartridge. Due to expenses, a "zero insertion force" mechanism was used (put a cart in, fix it with a lever)...but said mechanism ended up putting great force on the pins in both cart and connector, bending them slightly more with each insertion and shoving the ROM board back into the cartridge.
 * This was further compounded by using rather substandard materials for the connector and its frame, making it susceptible to bending. With each cartridge insertion, the cheaply-made pins and frame were bent more and more until no contact could be established. The fact that the pins were simple, ungilded copper and tarnished easily at exposure to moisture didn't help, and only intensified when NoA blamed dirty cartridges...which led to the classic tactic of blowing into the system and/or games.


 * The infamous 10NES lockout chip, required for all NES cartridges. While intended to keep unlicensed games from being used, the fact that it required a constant connection meant that constant usage of the system made it block even the licensed titles (hence why the system occasionally resets once per second). The Famicom didn't have this problem because it had no lockout chip or any contact problems in the first place, all due to being a traditional top-loader.

Why so? Well, the Big N reaped enormous profits from being the sole manufacturer of the carts for its system, and thus being able to decide what gets published, in what amount, for what price, and what the developers would have from it. While the Japan branch was able to enforce it without resorting to technical means, the American one was wary of the Atari situation when everybody and their dog was producing carts for the Atari 2600...hence the 10NES and 72-pin cartridge. But in a brilliant bit of Idiot Hardware Design, NoA engineers removed two pins that connected the motherboard to the sound extension chips in the cart and rerouted the original Famicom expansion port to the cartridge connector, ensuring that American releases would have inferior sound and that the FDS would never work on the NES.

The NES-101 (aka "NES 2"), a top-loader styled after the SNES and a bit after the original Famicom, was released in 1993 and not only used a 2-pin version of the original 60-pin connector but further lacked the 10NES chip. Despite being released in all Nintendo markets simultaneously, nobody remembers it. The last official games were released in 1994, after which the console as a whole was discontinued...although Japan produced new units until 2003 and continued support until 2007 (and only stopped because they finally ran out of the necessary parts).

See here for the system specs.

Games/series that appeared or debuted on the NES include:

 * 10-Yard Fight
 * Nineteen Forty Two
 * 1943: The Battle of Midway
 * 3D Worldrunner
 * Abadox
 * Action 52
 * Adventures in The Magic Kingdom
 * Adventure Island
 * Adventure Island II
 * Adventure Island III
 * Adventure Island IV (Japan only)
 * The Adventures of Bayou Billy
 * Adventures of Dino Riki
 * Adventures of Lolo
 * Adventures of Lolo 2
 * Adventures of Lolo 3
 * Air Fortress
 * Alien Syndrome
 * Amagon
 * Antarctic Adventure
 * Archon
 * Arkanoid
 * Astyanax
 * Athena
 * Back to The Future
 * Bad Dudes
 * The Bards Tale
 * Batman
 * Batman: Return of the Joker
 * Batman Returns
 * Battle City
 * Battle Kid Fortress of Peril
 * The Battle of Olympus
 * Battletoads
 * Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
 * Bionic Commando
 * Blaster Master
 * Bomberman
 * Bomberman II
 * A Boy and His Blob
 * Bubble Bobble
 * Bubble Bobble Part II
 * Burger Time
 * Cabal
 * Captain Comic
 * Castlevania 1986
 * Castlevania II Simons Quest
 * Castlevania III Draculas Curse
 * Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
 * Clash At Demonhead
 * Cobra Triangle
 * Cocoron
 * Code Name Viper
 * Conquest Of The Crystal Palace
 * Contra
 * Super C
 * Contra Force
 * Crystalis
 * Deadly Towers
 * Dig Dug
 * Dig Dug II
 * Donkey Kong
 * Donkey Kong Junior
 * Donkey Kong 3
 * Double Dragon
 * Double Dragon II: The Revenge
 * Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
 * Dr. Chaos
 * Dr. Mario
 * Dragon Quest I
 * Dragon Quest II
 * Dragon Quest III
 * Dragon Quest IV
 * Duck Hunt
 * Duck Tales
 * Duck Tales 2
 * Earthbound Zero
 * ExciteBike
 * Famicom Wars (the precursor to the later Advance Wars series)
 * Faxanadu
 * Final Fantasy
 * Final Fantasy II
 * Final Fantasy III
 * Fire Emblem: The Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light
 * Fire Emblem Gaiden
 * Friday the 13 th
 * Galaga
 * Galaxian
 * Gauntlet
 * Gauntlet II
 * Genghis Khan
 * Ghostbusters
 * Ghosts N Goblins
 * Gargoyle's Quest II
 * Ghoul School
 * Mr. Gimmick
 * The Goonies
 * The Goonies 2
 * Gradius (and the Konami Code)
 * The Guardian Legend
 * Guerrilla War
 * Gun Nac
 * Hammerin Harry
 * Heavy Barrel
 * Ice Climber
 * Ikari Warriors
 * Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
 * Ikari III: The Rescue
 * Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu
 * Jaws
 * Journey to Silius (a.k.a. Rough World)
 * Joust
 * Kabuki Quantum Fighter
 * Karate Champ
 * Karateka
 * Kart Fighter (unlicensed)
 * Kid Icarus
 * Kings Knight
 * Klax
 * Kung Fu Master
 * Spartan X 2
 * The Legend of Kage
 * The Legend of Zelda
 * Zelda II the Adventure of Link
 * Legendary Wings
 * The Little Mermaid
 * Little Nemo the Dream Master
 * Lode Runner
 * Magical Doropie
 * The Magic of Scheherazade
 * Maniac Mansion
 * Mappy
 * Mappy Kids
 * Mappy-Land
 * Mega Man
 * Mega Man 1
 * Mega Man 2
 * Mega Man 3
 * Mega Man 4
 * Mega Man 5
 * Mega Man 6
 * Wily & Right no Rock Board: That's Paradise!
 * Megami Tensei II
 * Mendel Palace
 * Metal Gear 1987
 * Snakes Revenge
 * Metal Storm
 * Metroid
 * Mickey Mousecapade
 * Might and Magic Book I: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum
 * Mighty Final Fight
 * Mike Tyson's Punch Out!
 * Milon's Secret Castle
 * Monster Party
 * Moon Crystal
 * Nazo no Murasamejo (Japan-only)
 * Nekketsu Kōha Kunio Kun (Renegade)
 * Nekketsu Koko Dodgeball Bu (Super Dodge Ball)
 * Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom)
 * Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen (Nintendo World Cup)
 * Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai
 * Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zen'in Shūgō
 * Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu: Subette Koronde Dairantō
 * Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal (Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge)
 * Nekketsu Kakutō Densetsu
 * Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League
 * Nekketsu! Street Basket: Ganbare Dunk Heroes
 * Nightshade aka Nightshade: Part 1 The Claws of Sutekh
 * Ninja Gaiden
 * Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
 * Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
 * Nintendo World Championships
 * Nuts & Milk
 * Pac-Man
 * Ms. Pac-Man
 * Pac-Land
 * Pac-Mania
 * Paperboy
 * Paperboy 2
 * Parodius
 * Popeye
 * Prince of Persia
 * Q Bert
 * Qix
 * Rad Racer
 * Rad Racer II
 * RBI Baseball
 * RC Pro-Am
 * Recca (Summer Carnival '92)
 * Robo Warrior
 * Rockin Kats
 * Rod Land
 * Rush N Attack
 * Rygar
 * Samurai Zombie Nation
 * Shadowgate
 * Shatterhand
 * Silver Surfer
 * Snake Rattle And Roll
 * Snow Bros
 * Solar Jetman
 * Space Harrier
 * Spy Hunter
 * Star Soldier
 * Star Tropics
 * Star Tropics II: Zoda's Revenge
 * Strider
 * Super Mario Bros
 * Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels
 * Super Mario Bros 2
 * Super Mario Bros 3
 * Sweet Home
 * Takeshis Challenge
 * Tecmo Bowl
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
 * Tetris
 * Tetris 2
 * Thexder
 * Tiger Heli
 * Tombs & Treasure
 * The Tower of Druaga
 * The Quest of Ki
 * Track and Field
 * Twinbee
 * Moero TwinBee (Stinger)
 * TwinBee 3
 * Twin Cobra
 * Ufouria
 * Ultima III: Exodus
 * Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
 * Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
 * Uninvited
 * Wally Bear and The No Gang
 * Wizardry
 * Wizardry 2
 * Wizards and Warriors
 * Wizards and Warriors 2: Iron Sword
 * WURM Journey to The Center of The Earth
 * Xevious
 * Xexyz
 * Yie Ar Kung-Fu
 * Ys
 * Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter
 * Zanac
 * Zoids
 * Zoids 2
 * Zoids 3