Famicom and NES!
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 10:59 pm
The console that started it all. For Nintendo, in the West, at least...hehe.
But a significant console nonetheless!
It's a cool and tidy kind of system with a really huge library and so many great games, but what I find most fascinating about it is how it feels like a bridge between two eras in ways that other consoles simply don't.
The early "black box" games (and their contemporaries in Japan) feel so much like what you'd expect for a system originally designed and released in 1983 - simple sprites, simple backgrounds of just black or another single colour, and mostly single-screen gameplay with basic sound effects and perhaps a little melody playing over the top of them if you're lucky. But then, they really start to evolve, and become so large, and complex in both graphics and gameplay. Comparing for instance Kirby's Adventure with Popeye, they feel almost like completely different systems. And Sega's contemporary systems were - the Famicom released on the same day as the SG-1000, which feels like another in the same group as the Famicom's early games, along with the Colecovision, Intellivision, and Magnavox Odyssey 2. But then Sega upgraded that into the Mark III (later modified for export as the Master System) in 1985, which could then finally match what the Famicom was evolving to be.
Of course, this was down to what was likely a cost-cutting measure - put the video ram into the game cartridge. But putting it in there means that games can meddle with it as they please!!! (Well, with clever bank-switching tricks hehe.) And turned it into its greatest strength.
And all in such a compact little package. I love the design of the original Famicom - continuing with the theme, it also looks and feels like you'd expect from a console of 1983 - sturdy but rudimentary, with glossy plastic and bright colours. Like some kind of toy rather than a piece of serious electronics. And of course, Nintendo were at that time essentially a toy company!
The NES is much less compact, but still has a style of its own, doing its best to look as little like any of the games consoles prior due to the stigma attached to them after the crash in the market in the the US which had happened at the time it launched in Japan. Looks a lot less like a toy!
I'm pleased to have both - the stylish little Famicom which lets me play all the Japan and US games, and then the good ol' PAL NES, to let me play all the poor conversions. ...Or more accurately, the small handful of excellent games intended specifically for PAL regions! There are some!!
I've region-modded them both, which of course was especially important for the Famicom, given that my CRTs won't decode NTSC at all, let alone tune to whatever channel frequency it outputs for haha.
But a significant console nonetheless!
It's a cool and tidy kind of system with a really huge library and so many great games, but what I find most fascinating about it is how it feels like a bridge between two eras in ways that other consoles simply don't.
The early "black box" games (and their contemporaries in Japan) feel so much like what you'd expect for a system originally designed and released in 1983 - simple sprites, simple backgrounds of just black or another single colour, and mostly single-screen gameplay with basic sound effects and perhaps a little melody playing over the top of them if you're lucky. But then, they really start to evolve, and become so large, and complex in both graphics and gameplay. Comparing for instance Kirby's Adventure with Popeye, they feel almost like completely different systems. And Sega's contemporary systems were - the Famicom released on the same day as the SG-1000, which feels like another in the same group as the Famicom's early games, along with the Colecovision, Intellivision, and Magnavox Odyssey 2. But then Sega upgraded that into the Mark III (later modified for export as the Master System) in 1985, which could then finally match what the Famicom was evolving to be.
Of course, this was down to what was likely a cost-cutting measure - put the video ram into the game cartridge. But putting it in there means that games can meddle with it as they please!!! (Well, with clever bank-switching tricks hehe.) And turned it into its greatest strength.
And all in such a compact little package. I love the design of the original Famicom - continuing with the theme, it also looks and feels like you'd expect from a console of 1983 - sturdy but rudimentary, with glossy plastic and bright colours. Like some kind of toy rather than a piece of serious electronics. And of course, Nintendo were at that time essentially a toy company!
The NES is much less compact, but still has a style of its own, doing its best to look as little like any of the games consoles prior due to the stigma attached to them after the crash in the market in the the US which had happened at the time it launched in Japan. Looks a lot less like a toy!
I'm pleased to have both - the stylish little Famicom which lets me play all the Japan and US games, and then the good ol' PAL NES, to let me play all the poor conversions. ...Or more accurately, the small handful of excellent games intended specifically for PAL regions! There are some!!
I've region-modded them both, which of course was especially important for the Famicom, given that my CRTs won't decode NTSC at all, let alone tune to whatever channel frequency it outputs for haha.
It's a fun game! It's got an A- on my list of every game I've streamed for my ranking projects!)
