Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in 1983 as the Famicom in Japan and in 1985 in North America, is an 8‑bit home video game console that revived the consumer game market after the 1983 crash. Its design combined a modest but efficient CPU with a highly flexible picture processing chip, enabling smooth scrolling, colorful sprites, and iconic chiptune sound. The NES popularized many of Nintendo’s flagship franchises, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, and established the template for modern gamepads with its rectangular controller and digital D‑pad. Its robust licensing program and large third‑party library made it a defining platform of the 8‑bit era and a cornerstone of video game history.

audio

Integrated APU in 2A03/2A07: 5 channels (2 pulse, 1 triangle, 1 noise, 1 DPCM sample); ~1.79 MHz (NTSC) / ~1.66 MHz (PAL) audio timing

cpu

Ricoh 2A03 (NTSC) / 2A07 (PAL) – based on MOS 6502 (8‑bit), ~1.79 MHz (NTSC), ~1.66 MHz (PAL)

gpu

Ricoh 2C02 (NTSC) / 2C07 (PAL) Picture Processing Unit (PPU), up to 64 sprites, 25 colors onscreen from a 54‑color master palette

media

ROM cartridges (Game Pak), typically 8 KB–1 MB+ with mapper chips for bank switching and extra features

ram

2 KB main work RAM; 2 KB PPU VRAM; additional cartridge RAM and ROM via mappers

releaseYear

1983 (Japan, as Famicom) / 1985 (North America, as NES)

resolution

256×240 pixels nominal; typically displayed within ~256×224 active area on NTSC CRTs