Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), was an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in 1985. Its Japanese equivalent (the Famicom) was released two years earlier, in 1983. The console became the most successful of its time in Asia and North America, selling over 60 million units worldwide and revitalising the video game industry following the video game crash of 1983.

However, by the 1990s, renewed competition from fourth generation consoles such as the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive marked the end of the NES's dominance, and by 1995, Nintendo of America officially discontinued the console. Japan's Famicon lasted much longer, officially discontinuing the line in 2003.

Controllers

The game controller for the NES and the Famicom featured a brick-like design with a simple four button layout: a Start button, Select button, and two round buttons labelled 'A' and 'B'. The controllers used a cross-shaped D-pad to replace the bulkier joysticks on earlier gaming consoles' controllers. In later years, the controllers were redesigned, abandoning the brick shape for the dog bone shape used in later consoles such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

There were also a number of other special controllers designed for use with specific games, such as the Power Glove, Power Pad and the NES Zapper (a light gun).

Games

The NES became the standard for subsequent consoles, particularly for game design. On launch, Nintendo released eighteen launch titles: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew.

Nintendo encouraged the involvement of third-party software developers, but placed an authentication chip into the console and officially licensed cartridges in order to prevent unlicensed games. They also introduced the Nintendo Seal of Quality; a mark which, although implied that the game met strict quality conditions, in fact only meant that the developer had paid the license fee.

Although production of the NES ceased in 1995, many of the video game franchises and series for the NES were transitioned to newer consoles and remain popular to this day. These include franchises such as the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Castlevania, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Specifications

Processor

• Ricoh 8-bit processor based on MOS Technology 6502 core, custom sound hardware, and a restricted DMA controller on-die
  • NTSC version (RP2A03) runs at 1.79 MHz
  • PAL version (RP2A07) runs at 1.66 MHz

RAM

• 2 KiB plus expanded RAM if present on the cartridge

ROM

• Up to 49128 bytes for ROM, expanded RAM, and cartridge I/O

Sound

• Five sound channels
  • 2 pulse-wave channels, variable duty cycle (25%, 50%, 75%, 87.5%), 16-level volume control, hardware pitch-bend support, supporting frequencies from 54 Hz to 28 kHz.
  • 1 triangle-wave channel, fixed volume, supporting frequencies from 27 Hz to 56 kHz
  • 1 white-noise channel, 16-level volume control, supporting two modes (by adjusting inputs on a linear feedback shift register) at 16 pre-programmed frequencies
  • 1 delta pulse-code modulation (DPCM) channel with 6 bits of range, using 1-bit delta encoding at 16 pre-programmed sample rates from 4.2 kHz to 33.5 kHz, also capable of playing standard PCM sound by writing individual 7-bit values at timed intervals

Video

• Picture processing unit (PPU): Ricoh custom-made video processor
  • NTSC version (RP2C02) runs at 5.37 MHz and outputs composite video
  • PAL version (RP2C07) runs at 5.32 MHz and outputs composite video
  • PlayChoice-10 version (RP2C0) runs at 5.37 MHz and outputs RGB video (at NTSC frequencies)
  • Nintendo Vs. Series versions (RP2C04 and RP2C05) run at 5.37 MHz and output RGB video (at NTSC frequencies) using irregular palettes to prevent easy ROM swapping of games
• Palette: 48 colours and 5 greys in base palette; red, green and blue can be individually darkened at specific screen regions using carefully timed code.
• Onscreen colours: 25 colours on one scanline (background colour + 4 sets of 3 tile colours + 4 sets of 3 sprite colours), not including colour de-emphasis
• Hardware-supported sprites
  • Maximum onscreen sprites: 64 (without reloading sprites mid-screen)
  • Sprite sizes: 8x8 or 8x16 pixels (selected globally for all sprites)
  • Maximum number of sprites on one scanline: 8, using a flag to indicate when additional sprites are dropped (to allow the software to rotate sprite priorities, causing flicker)
• PPU internal memory: 256 bytes of on-die sprite position/attribute RAM ("OAM") and 28 bytes of on-die palette RAM (allowing for selection of background and sprite colors) on separate buses internal to the PPU
• PPU external memory (Video RAM): 2 KiB of RAM for tile maps and attributes on the NES board and 8 KiB of tile pattern ROM or RAM on the cartridge
• Scrolling layers: 1 layer, though horizontal scrolling can be changed on a per-scanline basis
• Display resolution: 256x240 pixels, though NTSC games usually used only 256x224

Output

• Original NES: RCA composite output and RF modulator output
• Original Famicom (Japan) and NES 2: RF modulator output only
• AV Famicom: Composite video output only, via a Nintendo proprietary 12-pin "multi out" connector first introduced for the Super Famicom/SNES.
• PlayChoice 10: inverted RGB video output