Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
🏭 Nintendo📅 1983
The NES revolutionized home gaming in North America and Europe during the 1980s. It revived the video game industry with iconic titles like Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Its simple yet responsive D-pad + AB control scheme became a standard. Cartridge-based media made it easy to swap games, and cheat codes like the '30 Lives' code in Contra became part of playground lore. The NES created a generation of gamers and laid the foundation for modern console gaming.
📊 Market Data
Units Sold
Global: 61.91M (China clones estimated 20M+)
Best Selling Game
Super Mario Bros (40.24M including bundles)
Lifespan
1983-1995 (12 years)
⚙️ Technical Specifications
cpu
Ricoh 2A03 (MOS 6502-based, 1.79 MHz)
memory
2 KB RAM + 2 KB VRAM
graphics
Picture Processing Unit (PPU), 256x240 resolution, 52 simultaneous colors
sound
5-channel: 2 pulse + 1 triangle + 1 noise + 1 DPCM
media
Cartridge (up to 512KB without banking)
🎮 Usage Characteristics
🔤 Local Terms
FamicloneYellow CartSuborMulti-cart30 Lives Code
✨ Unique Practices
- •Blowing into cartridges to fix connection issues
- •Slapping the console to fix glitches
- •Hand-copying Salamander stage select codes
