The Nintendo Entertain![\"100_1044\"](\"https:\/\/retrovideogamesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/100_1044-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Boxed")
ment System or NES as it was also known was a cartridge based console that graced our stores in 1985. Later the NES was released in the US where its name was changed to Famicom (Family Computer) as Nintendo though it would suit the market better in the US.<\/p>\n
The NES system was welcomed by many as it helped revive the market after the video gaming crash of 1983.\u00a0 The system was to also set the standard for subsequent game consoles, from hand control layout through to game design. The NES\u00a0 was quite powerful featuring a custom made 8-bit 6502 processor and a Picture Processing Unit (PPU). What helped was that these were developed and manufactured at low cost by a company called Ricoh.<\/p>\n
Having an available colour palette of 48 colors and 5 grays.\u00a0 Red, green and blue could be individually darkened at specific screen regions using carefully timed code.\u00a0 Up to 24 colors could be used on one scan line:\u00a0 a background color, four sets of three tile colors and four sets of three sprite colors.![\"100_1045\"](\"https:\/\/retrovideogamesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/100_1045-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Nintendo")
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The system could handle up to 64 sprites with up to eight sprites being present on one scanline.\u00a0 With a resolution display of 256 horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels.\u00a0 Typically, games designed for NTSC-based systems had an effective resolution of only 256 by 224 pixels, as the top and bottom 8 scanlines are not visable on most television sets.<\/p>\n
The sound for the NES came from an on-board sound chip giving a total of five sound channels.\u00a0 These included two pulse wave channels of variable duty cycle (12.5%, 25%, 50% and 75%), sixteen volume levels and hardware pitch bending supporting frequencies ranging from 54\u00a0Hz to 28\u00a0kHz.<\/p>\n
Additional channels included one fixed-volume triangle wave channel supporting frequencies from 27\u00a0Hz to 56\u00a0kHz, one sixteen-volume level white noise channel supporting two modes (by adjusting inputs on a linear feedback shift registe![\"100_1047\"](\"https:\/\/retrovideogamesystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/100_1047-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Selection")
r) at sixteen pre-programmed frequencies and one differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM) channel with six bits of range, using 1-bit delta encoding at sixteen pre-programmed sample rates from 4.2\u00a0kHz to 33.5\u00a0kHz.<\/p>\n
This final channel was also capable of playing standard pulse-code modulation (PCM) sound by writing individual 7-bit values at timed intervals.<\/p>\n
A fantastic array of games were released for the NES some being from franchises that were owned by Niniendo.\u00a0 Games such as the adventure series which featured titles like The Legend of Zelda,\u00a0 Zelda II – The Legend of Link,\u00a0 Super Mario Bros and Metroid. There were also great sports series with titles such as Rad Racer, R.C. Pro-Am, Ice Hockey, Pro Wrestling and Golf.<\/p>\n
Between 1985 & 1987, thirty or so titles were made for the NES known as ‘Black Box Games’ and these are getting pretty rare.\u00a0 Some of these titles can start from \u00a310.00 and reach as much as \u00a3100.00.<\/p>\n
Some consoles were repackaged and sold in various sets i.e The Action set. This came with a NES zapper and two cartridges,\u00a0 Super Mario & Duckhunt. <\/strong>To support some games, controllers were produced such as:-<\/p>\n Some of the titles were to become unbelievably successful with titles like Super Mario Bros 3 selling over 7 million copies of the game and making over $500 million dollars in just the US alone.\u00a0 This is a record that has not yet been beat and has made it the best selling game of all time ! ! !<\/p>\n Here is the first us television commercial shown in the US just for a bit of NES nostalgia, enjoy. . .<\/p>\n\n