Nintendo Entertainment System

The development of the Famicom (and subsequently the NES) was led by Masayuki Uemura, a former Sharp Corporation engineer who headed Nintendo's R&D2 division. Uemura was tasked by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi with creating a home console capable of faithfully reproducing Nintendo's arcade games at a consumer-friendly price point. Yamauchi set aggressive cost targets: the system was to retail for 9,800 yen in Japan (approximately $75 USD), a price that demanded creative engineering compromises. The CPU was a custom Ricoh 2A03 processor, essentially a MOS Technology 6502 core running at 1.79 MHz with integrated sound generation hardware. The arrangement with Ricoh was financially advantageous for Nintendo, as Ricoh agreed to produce the chip at a low price in exchange for a guaranteed high-volume order. The 6502 core was chosen for its proven reliability, low cost, and the extensive developer expertise available, though the Ricoh version omitted the original 6502's BCD (Binary-Coded Decimal) mode, likely to avoid patent licensing fees to MOS Technology. The Picture Processing Unit (PPU), another custom Ricoh chip (2C02 in NTSC markets), provided the Famicom's graphics capabilities. It could display 25 colors simultaneously from a palette of 54, render up to 64 sprites (8 per scanline), and manage two hardware scrolling background layers. While these specifications were modest, the PPU's efficient design and the developers' ingenious exploitation of its capabilities produced visuals that far exceeded what the raw numbers suggested. Techniques like carefully timed mid-frame register changes (used by games like Battletoads and Kirby's Adventure) pushed the hardware well beyond its nominal limits. The Famicom's original Japanese design featured a distinctive red-and-white color scheme with hardwired controllers, the second of which included a built-in microphone. The controllers used a simple but effective layout: a D-pad (an invention Nintendo had patented following its use in the Game & Watch series), two action buttons (A and B), and Select and Start buttons. The D-pad, credited to Gunpei Yokoi, would become the standard directional input for game controllers across the industry. The redesign for the North American market was driven by both practical and strategic considerations. The front-loading cartridge mechanism, while more prone to connector issues than the Famicom's top-loading design (leading to the infamous "blinking screen" problem that plagued NES units in later years), was deliberately chosen to evoke the appearance of a VCR and distance the product from the stigma associated with video game consoles. The grey color scheme and angular industrial design further reinforced the perception of a sophisticated electronic device rather than a toy. R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) was perhaps the most ingenious element of the NES's launch strategy. The robot peripheral, which responded to on-screen flashes to manipulate physical accessories for two compatible games (Gyromite and Stack-Up), was never intended to be a long-term product. Its purpose was purely strategic: R.O.B. gave Nintendo a credible reason to pitch the NES as an electronic toy rather than a video game console, bypassing the retail resistance that had made bringing any video game system to market in America nearly impossible. Once the NES established itself, R.O.B. was quietly discontinued. The 10NES lockout chip, designed by Nintendo engineer Masao Yamamoto, used a CIC (Checking Integrated Circuit) that performed a handshake authentication between the console and the cartridge. A chip in the console (the "lock") communicated with a corresponding chip in each authorized cartridge (the "key"). If authentication failed, the console would repeatedly reset. This system generated significant legal controversy; Atari Games (through its subsidiary Tengen) reverse-engineered and cloned the 10NES chip, leading to a protracted lawsuit that Nintendo eventually won. The lockout system established the template for console manufacturers controlling their software ecosystems, a practice that continues to this day.