Table
of Contents:
|
|
NES Hardware
During a recent
shareholders' meeting, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi touted the upcoming
Gamecube as "a piece of hardware that allows creators to bring all their
ideas and tricks to life as smoothly as possible." That wasn't always his
tune however -- his only mandate to the NES R&D team was to make it
cheap enough to sell for $100. Sure, the NES had its share of technical
shortcomings, but like Nintendo's Game Boy technology, the hardware itself
proved to be extremely expandable. As a result, NES software, which continued
to flow for over 11 years, happily matured with the platform.
The NES Max
controller |
|
The infamous
Power Glove |
|
|
Despite Yamauchi's
$100 price ceiling Nintendo's R&D department had to work under, they
managed to create a fairly robust system by early-80s standards. The NES
included 2K of video memory that allowed for a total of 64 moving sprites
onscreen at once. Coupled with the NES' five-channel sound and revolutionary
controller, the system was more than capable of providing arcade-like (at
the time) sensory experiences.
The NES Satellite
was the first four-player multitap for the system. It was wireless, too. |
|
A happy lad
sporting the stylish Hypershot headset. He was playing with power! |
|
|
The biggest
boost for the NES came in the form of third party support. Developers were
just starting to hit their stride with the hardware when the NES picked
up steam in the U.S. This brought about an abundance of software available
at launch that was completely unlike anything the public had ever seen
from a home console. These early titles were to be the seeds of modern
gaming as we know it today.
Pictured here
is R.O.B. with his new set of toys |
|
The sleek,
redesigned NES which came out in 1993 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Be an NES
Otaku
A small scene
of collectors have emerged on the Internet, buying and
trading NES
games and spreading the word at
NES fan sites
like tsr's
NES archive. A handful
of diehards
have even managed a complete collection; if you think getting all 251 Pokémon
is hard, try rounding up all 776 American NES releases! |
|
