In the previous article, we learned how the legendary Nintendo company was founded, and also met key people who were at the forefront of the gaming industry, such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Gumpay Yokoy. Today we will continue our fascinating insight into the history of video games.
Famicom (1983)
After the success of Color TV-Game and Game & Watch, it was stupid to doubt the profitability of gaming entertainment electronics. Therefore, Nintendo engineers almost immediately began to develop the next game console, codenamed GameCom.
In 1983, the Family Computer gaming console or just Famicom entered the Japanese market. The console became incredibly popular among the Japanese and sold 500,000 boxes in the first two months. At that time, the prefix was worth 14,800 yen (about $ 100).
Famicom is the first Nintendo console to use interchangeable cartridges as information carriers. When the console just a few built-in games, it quickly annoys the owner. And if you release all new and new games on removable media, without changing the iron filling of the console, it significantly increases its life cycle and brings much more money to developers.
The design and interior design of Famicom was developed by the Japanese engineer Masayuki Uemura, a man with a wealth of life experience and a great love for various games. During World War II, his family moved to Kyoto. And since they had no money, little Masayuki made toys for himself with his own hands. His toys over time became more and more complex. When he graduated from an industrial college, he was hired by Sharp Corporation. One day, employers sent him to Nintendo to find out if those Sharp photo cells were needed. It was on that day that Masayuki Uemura met Gumpei Yokoy, and later got a job at Nintendo, where he headed one of the main research and development departments of the company.
Nintendo in those years could not afford to bling, so, in order to save, the console was released in an inexpensive plastic case with two wired gamepads and a light gun. Remember the last time I told you about how Nintendo created a kind of “lighting gallery” for bowling parks? This knowledge is very useful to them in the development of Famicom.
The game controllers of the console were partially copied from the Game & Watch handheld console, which I told you about in the previous article. It was a plastic rectangle on which the D-pad crosspiece (Nintendo's know-how) was located, the Start, Select, A and B buttons. Now for many of us, this seems primitive, while at the time this controller was the most advanced among existing ones . Subsequently, it will, in one way or another, be copied to almost all the major market players. Game console controllers for the now thriving Microsoft and Sony would also not exist without the innovations that Famicom brought.
The second gamepad was deprived of the Start and Select buttons, but the built-in microphone used in a number of games, as well as the console volume control were added to it.
Gamepads could not be disconnected from the console. This was done for the sake of saving on additional connectors for connecting game controllers. Therefore, if one of the gamepads failed, you had to either repair it yourself, or, in case of impossibility of repair, buy a new console.
Masayuki Uemura specially added a lever with the inscription “Eject” to the console body, which pushed the game cartridge out of the console. In fact, there was no need for it, since the cartridge was easily pulled out by hand. But Uemura noted that the children, who were among the first testers of the new console, very much liked to “catapult” the cartridge from the console. Therefore, they decided to leave the lever in the final revision of the console. Also, Uemura insisted that the console be a bright red and white for external similarity with children's toys. This attracted the attention of children and forced their parents to buy them the much-desired expensive toy.
Cartridges with games were made in the form of multi-colored plastic cases, inside of which were located printed circuit boards with built-in memory. With the help of 60-pin connectors, they were inserted into the top slot of the console, after which the game almost instantly started. Each cartridge, depending on the size of the game and the technologies used in it, contained special components, due to which the game console itself did not need to be “upgraded”. All the necessary new technology could be embedded in the cartridge with the game. Famicom games ranged from 8KB (Galaxian) to 1MB (Metal Slader Glory), but, as a rule, the range of 128-384KB was the most popular.
In terms of iron, the console was an engineering marvel. An 8-bit chip developed by Ricoh based on the then very popular MOS Technology 6502 processor core was used as a central processor. Similar chips were also used in the popular Atari 2600 gaming consoles, Atari 800 and Apple IIe personal computers and Commodore VIC-20. To avoid patent royalties, Ricoh engineers removed several transistors from the processor, disabling some of its patented features. Different versions of the processor, depending on the year of manufacture and region, operated at a frequency of 1.66 to 1.79 MHz. Famicom's RAM could have only 2KB of information, but the lack of memory was compensated by additional chips that were built into some game cartridges. Also, the console had onboard 2 KB of video memory, 256 bytes of memory for storing descriptions used on the screen of graphic sprites and objects, as well as 28 bytes of memory for storing information about the color palette of the game.
What distinguished Famicom from its competitors was the presence of a special video processor, which was also developed within the walls of Ricoh. The processor was called the Picture Processing Unit (PPU) and ran at a frequency of 5.32 to 5.37 MHz (depending on the console revision). The processor allowed the console to simultaneously display up to 64 graphic sprites (“sprite” - a 2D image of an animated or static game character or any other object). Game developers had access to a color palette of 64 colors, 25 of which could be simultaneously displayed on the screen without resorting to any additional software tweaks. The resolution of the image, issued by Famicom through a composite cable (the most popular "tulips" in the people) on a TV screen, was 256 by 224 pixels.
In each set with the console, the ports of three Nintendo arcade games were delivered: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and popeye. Since before this game of such quality was available only thanks to a very expensive slot machines, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, Famicom simply swept away the shelves of Japanese stores. Still would! Indeed, thanks to this little box for $ 100, it was possible to play wonderful games with stunning 8-bit graphics for those times right at home.
Not without small overlays. A few months after the launch of the console, it turned out that some consoles hang tight when playing certain games. The problem was in the lot of defective microchips used in the assembly of Famicom. Nintendo had to withdraw a fairly large batch of consoles from the sale and completely replace the motherboards in them, and for those people who had a problem, change the defective console to a new one for free. Approximately $ 500,000 was spent on troubleshooting.
Be that as it may, Famicom sold very successfully. By the end of 1984, the prefix had already sold 2.5 million copies in Japan alone. But the company Nintendo was preparing for a large-scale conquest of North America.
The Advanced Video System (1984)
Nintendo has entered into an agreement with the American company Atari in order to distribute its new console in the United States. Famicom in North America was to be called the Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System. Everything went smoothly until Atari representatives learned that Nintendo had once sold a license to distribute Donkey Kong to Coleco, which to this day continued to sell it for its consoles. This was a violation of the license agreement, so the contract was suspended. A month later, the head of Atari was dismissed by the board of directors for this oversight, and the contract was simply broken. Thus, Atari has signed a death sentence for itself, as this short-sighted strategic decision will lead the company to bankruptcy in the future. Nintendo decided to promote its console in the US market on its own.
As a result of Famicom preparing to meet American consumers, a prototype of The Advanced Video System (AVS) console was born. This console was similar to a regular keyboard to which a cassette recorder was connected to download data, two push-button controllers, one joystick, and a futuristic light gun. With all its appearance, the console showed its elitism and high cost. Yes, and now it looks very impressive.
AVS was well ahead of its time, because then there was simply nothing like this on the market. Take a good look at the picture. Do you see any wires leading to gamepads or cassette recorders? They are not, because the console, as well as all data entry devices were equipped with infrared ports. Yes, before you the first example of using wireless communication in the world of video games. And that was in 1984 - hard to believe! The console was not only able to play games released for Famicom. With its help, it was possible to program in the BASIC language, write music, create your own games, and so on.
Now about the sad. Because of the high cost of production that was frantic at the time, this set-top box never appeared on the market. President of the company Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to develop a cheaper version of the console for the US market. As a result, AVS was shown to the public only once in 1984 at the CES electronics exhibition. The original console prototype is currently on display at the video game museum.
Despite the fact that AVS was not destined to see the light, it served as the basis for developing a cheaper version of Famicom for North America.
Video game industry crisis
Then, few people believed that Nintendo will be able to gain a foothold in the United States. Indeed, in 1983, there was a terrible crisis in the gaming console market. This happened primarily because of the glut of the American market with various game consoles, which offered players virtually identical games. Moreover, these games were so low in quality that the modern man, even out of curiosity, did not pay any attention to them. On top of that, the demand for personal computers, which in many ways were ahead of game consoles in terms of their functionality, was growing very fast. The confluence of these circumstances has led to the fact that most American video game developers simply went bankrupt.
Developers, in order to somehow stay afloat, have begun to score dozens of low-end games of even lower quality than before with dozens of dozens. Prices for video games began to plummet, and for the year fell from $ 35 to $ 5 per game. Companies Magnavox (the developers of the first in the history of the game console) and Coleco left the market. Atari was sold to American businessman Jack Tremel and renamed Atari Corp.
Everyone understood that something had to be changed. Change strongly and completely. But no one knew how to put this into practice. None but Nintendo. They suddenly appeared on a foreign market and forever changed the video game industry, bringing not just a new console, but a whole new Japanese philosophy, capturing consumers with the highest quality products and, most importantly, beautiful and incredibly exciting video games.
Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)
In the summer of 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was introduced to the world community. Despite the fact that the prefix was just a rebirth of the Japanese console, the Famicom, outwardly, it was strikingly different from its Japanese ancestor.
The design of the console quite predictably resembled the AVS console, which had not been seen, shown earlier this year. Everything in it was very much simplified and because of this cheaper. Gamepads got wires to replace infrared ports, the light gun became less futuristic, and the console itself stopped resembling a personal computer, lost a cassette tape recorder for data entry and a classic joystick.
The cartridge port has moved from the top surface of the console to its front. Yes, now, you had to lift a special cover, similar to those that cover the piano keys, insert the cartridge inside the console until the connector enters the special port, and then also press on the horizontally positioned cartridge so that it slides down to the characteristic click. Only after that it was possible to play.
Cartridges have also changed a lot. They have become more than two times larger than the cartridges for Famicom. If the Japanese cartridges had 60 pins on the connectors, then the American connectors became 72-pin. Additional contacts were used to combat piracy, as well as to improve the quality of sound in video games. In the NES, two new microchips were built specifically for this, distinguishing it from Famicom. The 10NES authorization chip tested each video game for its authenticity, since by 1985 Chinese craftsmen had learned how to fake Famicom cartridges and even successfully started selling counterfeit video games in the markets of various countries. The second chip was supposed to significantly improve the sound quality in some games, but, in fact, it was almost never used.
Since the video game crisis proved that this is a highly volatile business, Nintendo decided to protect itself from possible risks. All American cartridges were made exclusively on the equipment of the Japanese company, and their production was fully paid by the developers of video games. This made it possible to eliminate losses as a result of the failure of the game in the market. Also, if the developers made a critical error in the game code, all defective cartridges returned to them, and not to Nintendo.
Gamepads finally found full ports. They could be pulled out and easily changed to new ones. Their design has changed to match the updated console, but the layout of the buttons and the D-pad remained the same. The rest of the NES was almost a complete copy of the Famicom.
The success of the console in the US, and then in the European market is very difficult to describe in words. By 1990, in the five years of its existence, the NES sold more than all the game consoles that were entering the market before it, taken together. In total, about 62 million NES and Famicom were sold, and do not forget that this is without taking into account the endless Chinese clones and fakes, which were sold many times more. But what can we say, they are even now being sold at almost every corner.
Famicom Disc System (1986)
This is not really a console, but just a hardware-addition to the Japanese Famicom console, which uses special floppy disks developed by Nintendo as storage media. The FDS was a rectangular box on which the original Famicom was placed on top, with which the FDS was connected via the cartridge port.
FDS increased Famicom's available RAM to 32 KB, and branded double-sided floppy disks contained 112 KB of information. If the game was placed on both sides of the diskette, then at a certain point in the game the console asked the user to turn the diskette to the other side, after which the gameplay continued. Some very bulky games were released on two floppy disks, i.e. occupied up to 224 KB of memory.
Diskettes with games, due to their small size, were sold in Japan using special machines right on the streets of large cities. You come in, shove the amount you need into the machine, and he spits the floppy disk in your hands with the new Nintendo game. Fast, convenient and no queues.
Due to excessive savings on everything, Nintendo did not provide curtains with games on diskettes that would protect the magnetized surface from physical damage, which is why it often scratched and came into complete disrepair.
For all the time, it has sold approximately 4.5 million Famicom Disc System. To this day, this device is very much appreciated among collectors of game consoles, and its price tag on online auctions sometimes reaches quite space sums.
Popular video games
NES would not have become popular if it had not had a sufficient number of impressive video games. In this regard, the Japanese console was all right. Nintendo Entertainment System was distributed in the USA in the form of two different sets. The Deluxe Set costing $ 249 included the console itself, two controllers, a NES Zapper light gun, a small ROB robot, which I will tell you about later, and two games, Gyromite and Duck Hunt. The second set, priced at $ 99, was called the Control Deck and contained only a console, two gamepads and the game Super Mario Bros. (it was possible to purchase a console without a game, saving about 10 dollars).
Одновременно с запуском консоли на рынок поступили 18 игр для неё: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Wild Gunman и Wrecking Crew. Этого было вполне достаточно для того, чтобы заворожить американскую аудиторию, которая тогда была просто подавлена ужасными играми, разработанными в период кризиса 83-го года.
Разумеется, главным хитом стала игра Super Mario Bros., которую разработал Сигеру Миямото совместно с геймдизайнером Такаши Тедзукой. Это был духовный наследник игры 1983 года Mario Bros., в которой плотник из Donkey Kong (Jumpman) наконец обрёл личность и стал итальянским водопроводчиком Марио. Но если в Mario Bros. игроку приходилось просто прыгать по четырём этажам и убивать странного вида черепах, то в Super Mario Bros. игровой процесс заиграл новыми красками. Тогда мало кто мог себе представить, что игры могут быть настолько яркими и красивыми. Жанр платформеров, разумеется, появился не в 1985, а гораздо раньше, но именно игра Super Mario Bros. подняла планку качества на невероятно высокий уровень. В братьев Марио играли даже взрослые и весьма серьёзные люди, несмотря на то, что игра, прежде всего, была нацелена на детскую аудиторию. На сегодняшний день эта игра разошлась тиражом более чем в 40 миллионов копий, и это не считая бесчисленных пиратских подделок и любительских ремейков. Но одним хитом NES, разумеется, не ограничилась.
В 1986 году Сигеру Миямото выпустил свою новую игру – The Legend of Zelda, в которой главный герой по имени Линк, вооружённый щитом и мечом, должен спасти принцессу Зельду от злодея Ганондорфа. Игра сочетала в себе элементы RPG и экшена, что было очень необычно в те годы, так как разработчики игр вообще боялись экспериментировать со смешением жанров. В итоге история Линка и Зельды так сильно полюбилась людям, что серия стала одним из главных источников дохода Nintendo и остаётся им по сей день. Шестнадцать игр серии на сегодняшний день разошлись тиражом около 68 миллионов копий, а самая первая The Legend of Zelda стала самой продаваемой игрой всех времён для NES.
Охватить все замечательные видеоигры для NES в рамках этого материала я не смогу при всём своём желании. Ограничусь лишь упоминанием некоторых самых известных хитов. Это, разумеется, охота на уток с помощью светового пистолета Duck Hunt, приключения черепашек ниндзя TNMT в трёх частях, похождения пещерного человечка из Adventure Island, боевые жабы Battletoads, братья-каратисты Double Dragon, подрывник Bomberman, борец с нечистью из Castlevania, приключения Чипа и Дэйла, Darkwing Duck, известный в нашей стране, как Чёрный Плащ, а также Утиные Истории — Duck Tales, танковые баталии Battle City, фантастический мир Metroid, симпатяга Pac-Man и, конечно же, легендарная русская игра Tetris, эксклюзивные права на которую Nintendo в своё время отвоевала у Atari. Продолжать этот список можно очень долго, ведь только в США на этой консоли вышло более 700 игр. И это без учёта неофициально выпущенных игр, которых наверняка в несколько раз больше. Сюда же можно приплюсовать сотни, если не тысячи игр, которые так никогда и не покинули Японии и не были переведены на английский язык.
Дополнительные аксессуары NES
Помимо игр для NES, можно было приобрести различные аксессуары, некоторые из которых по сути были практически бесполезны или работали из рук вон плохо.
Как я уже говорил, в Deluxe-комплектации NES был миниатюрный робот ROB (сокращение от Robotic Operating Buddy), который подключался в один из портов консоли. Этот пластмассовый робот был совместим всего с двумя играми – Gyromite и Stack-Up. Игрок посредством геймпада взаимодействовал с роботом, а тот, в свою очередь, взаимодействовал с игрой. В Gyromite по экрану бегали два профессора, жизни которых угрожали различные злобные существа, а игроки, помимо управления главными героями, должны были параллельно отдавать команды роботу, который неспешно нажимал на различные кнопки или перекладывал разные цветные кубики с места на место, тем самым изменяя игровой уровень и условия игры. Робот был настолько медлительным, что только мешал прохождению игры. Руководство Nintendo быстро отказалось от поддержки этого аксессуара, а позднее и вовсе перестало его производить, поэтому выпущенные на запуске NES роботы большую часть времени просто лежали мёртвым грузом около игровой консоли.
Контроллер Power Glove представлял собой неуклюжую перчатку для управления играми при помощи движений пальцев и определённых жестов. Перчатка работала просто ужасно. Вместо одних кнопок постоянно нажимались другие, управление было жутко неотзывчивым, что также привело к снятию её с производства.
Для Famicom выпускали даже свою собственную караоке-студию. Этот комплект из микрофона и картриджа с песнями был очень популярен у себя на родине, в Японии. Существует официальный модем для этой консоли, с помощью которого можно было скачивать шутки, новости и секреты прохождения игр с сервера Nintendo. А несмотря на то, что AVS так никогда и не поступила в продажу, можно было докупить дополнительную клавиатуру и картридж с языком BASIC, после чего начать осваивать азы программирования. Аксессуаров было очень много, но лишь некоторые из них представляли истинную ценность для пользователей.
Клоны Famicom
Очень важной главой в истории Famicom является момент, когда эту игровую консоль начали подделывать в Китае и других азиатских странах. Думаю, что многие из вас, так или иначе, сталкивались с клонами этой приставки на многочисленных рынках нашей страны и даже в некоторых вполне престижных магазинах электроники. Клоны Famicom продавались во множестве стран, но сегодня давайте поговорим именно о нашей с вами родине.
В СССР и России Famicom и NES официально никогда не продавались. Nintendo попросту не рассматривала всерьёз эту возможность, да и времена тогда были не самые лучшие для того, чтобы выходить на наш рынок. Сами понимаете. А ведь в нашей стране, как оказалось, очень многие готовы были платить приличные деньги за то, чтобы заиметь у себя дома игровую консоль Nintendo.
Инициативу взяли в свои руки студенты МГУ, которые в 1992 году договорились о поставках в Россию тайваньских клонов Famicom, производимых компанией TXC Corporation, а также пиратских картриджей с самыми популярными играми Nintendo. Был разработан фирменный стиль, название Dendy и логотип со слоном, которого нарисовал известный российский художник-аниматор Иван Максимов. Свою компанию студенты окрестили Steepler и приступили к продажам игровой консоли на территории России по цене 39 000 рублей (примерно 94 доллара).
Спрос на продукцию Steepler оказался просто ошеломляющим. Очень скоро у предпринимателей появился свой собственный журнал про видеоигры «Видео-Асс Dendy», а также своя собственная телепередача «Dendy – Новая реальность», которую вёл Сергей Супонев. К ноябрю 1995 года Steepler владела 10 дочерними предприятиями и продавала свою продукцию через 80 авторизованных дилеров по всей стране. Сегодня, если речь заходит о 8-битных игровых консолях, то название Dendy используется как нарицательное. Настолько плотно вошло оно в русскую культуру.
Steepler в своей наглости дошли до того, что в середине 90-х заключили с Nintendo соглашение, по которому они будут официально распространять на территории нашей страны их новую консоль Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), о которой мы поговорим в другой раз. Таким образом, в отечественных магазинах продавались одновременно официальные 16-битные консоли Nintendo и 8-битные подделки Famicom, о которых Nintendo даже не догадывалась.
Разумеется, в 1996 году руководство Nintendo прознало о бесчинствах, которые творились на территории нашей страны. Но остановить волну пиратства и контрафактных игровых консолей было уже невозможно, так как у Steepler появились конкуренты в лице компаний Kenmaster (приставки Kenga) и Bitman, которые привезли в страну ещё больше подделок. Попытки выяснить отношения через суд ни к чему не привели, так что Nintendo осталась без единой копейки от вырученных предприимчивыми русскими миллионов долларов, незаконно заработанных ими за счёт японской компании. Этот печальный случай очень надолго оттолкнул Nintendo от российского рынка, так как японцы – очень гордый народ, да и быстро такие обиды вряд ли забываются. Вероятнее всего, именно из-за этой истории консоли Nintendo на территории России официально не продавались аж до 2006 года.
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Содержание цикла «Nintendo»:
[1] Nintendo и её игровые консоли
[2] Nintendo и её игровые консоли
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