Twenty-five years ago, Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (lovingly known as the NES) in the United States. The iconic gray-and-black 8-bit console (which sold 61.9 million units worldwide) pushed boundaries in both hardware and software design and served as a rallying point for the suffering video game industry in the post-Atari era.
In honor of this anniversary, let’s take a peek inside the console that first brought Mario, Zelda, and Metroid to life.
This is the NES. On the left we see the main console, which measures roughly 10 inches by 8 inches by 3.5 inches in size. To its right sits the now-iconic control pad, which plugs into the console via one of two black connectors on the right side of the console’s face. The front of the NES also contains two switches (power on/off and reset) and a hinged door that conceals a slot for game cartridges.
The NES was the first game console in the U.S. to ship with discrete composite video and audio-out jacks. We call them AV jacks today, and they’re present on most TVs made after about 1995 or so. In 1985, however, the only consumer equipment with jacks to receive these signals were VCRs and very-high-end TV sets. Most consoles until the mid-1990s sent their audio/video signals to a TV’s antenna jack.
In a rear corner of the NES lies an alcove sheltering some points of interest. From left to right we see the power connector, a channel 3-4 selector switch (for choosing which TV channel the game will display on), and the RF audio/video output that leads to an external RF switch (which, in turn, attaches to an antenna terminal on a TV set).
On the bottom of the NES sits a small plastic cover that, when removed, allows access to an expansion port. The actual connector is obscured by a breakable plastic tab, which reveals how often Nintendo thought you’d use it. Neither Nintendo nor any third-party company sold a product that used the port.
The NES in Japan (known as the Famicom) received accessories like a disk drive, 3D glasses, a modem, and a keyboard/computer kit, so Nintendo likely had those possibilities in mind for the NES.The NES’s unique zero-insertion-force (ZIF) cartridge loading mechanism (seen here in its up and down positions) dictated many elements of the console’s design, including its size and shape. To operate it, one would slide a cartridge into the mechanism from the front and push the cartridge down, locking the cartridge into place before powering on the system. While innovative, this mechanism would also turn out to be the console’s Achilles’ heel (more on that ahead).
All in all, the NES is by far, one of the greatest consoles of all time, if not the greatest. There are many of us with fond memories and, checking by the eBay listings, this console is a hot commodity.
Nicely done, Nintendo. Happy birthday to one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind.
this is kinda cool.
i have an N.E.S.
i still play it and get frustrated with it to this day.
The N.E.S had the hardests games ever and some wierd controls.
Aww, man I wish I could get a N.E.S.; play some Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and some F-Zero.