The Nintendo Famicom console, the device that paved the way for modern gaming consoles turns 30 this month. The Nintendo Famicom or family computer was first sold in Japan in 1983. Following the system's success in Japan the Famicom gaming system came to US shores and introduced us to "Mario," "Donkey Kong" and "Zelda."
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At this point in the US the gaming industry had been taking a bit of a nose dive. Atari was still popular but its games were not imaginative as people seemed to be wanting. That all changed with the introduction of Nintendo's Famicom. This device launched Nintendo to the top of gaming food chain.
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The Famicom console was created by Nintendo designer Masayuki Uemura as a way to compete with the rival company's, Cassette Vision by Epoch. The goal was to make the console cheaper with more innovative games making Epoch's system obsolete.
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The features of the Famicom gaming system by Nintendo included an 8-bit CPU that ran at a speed 1.79 and 2 kilobytes or RAM. That is 100,000 times less than the amount Ram the PS3 has. The limited hardware available to designers at the time took a toll on character development. Creators had to use as few pixels as possible when drawing a character. Often times the character's features were largely proportioned in order to make them easier to tell apart.
Eventually the success of the Nintendo Famicom allowed the system to spread out from Japan and head west to the US. Rebranded for the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the US console will not turn 30 until 2015.
Nintendo and Famicom are credited with galvanizing the modern gaming world. The Play Station devices, X Box consoles, and various other Nintendo products would not have been created were it not for the success of Famicom in Japan and the US.
Techlandandtime.com says "No, electronic gaming wouldn't have settled into the sediment had the Famicom fizzled or the NES never been, but without those systems - and Nintendo's visionary transformation from a century-old playing card company into the foremost provider of interactive entertainment on the planet - no Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong, no Game Boy, no Super Nintendo, no Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii or Wii U. Whatever shape gaming might have taken in a Nintendo-less world, I'm grateful I don't have to live in it."
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