The Famicom: 20 Years Later
- July 24, 2003 16:48 PM PST
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Nintendo's Hiroshi Imanishi--co-designer of the NES's precursor--discusses his creation.
Nintendo's Family Computer, the Japanese equivalent of the Nintendo Entertainment System, celebrated its 20th birthday on July 15. To celebrate the Famicom's anniversary, Nintendo advisor Hiroshi Imanishi (one of the designers of the NES' internal hardware) sat down with Japanese games mag Famitsu last week to discuss how the game system was born and what obstacles it faced in the then-struggling video game marketplace.
Nintendo's Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES. |
The very first thing he told the development department was "Make something that won't be ripped off by anybody for three years". Nintendo had the troublesome experience of having the Game & Watch marketplace taken from under them by other companies, after all. His second command was to make something that cost below 10,000 yen (about $84). In the end the price became 14,800 yen ($124), but that was set because we figured people would, if they tried hard enough, still be able to afford that. Yamauchi was very sharp on this point?no matter how good a product is, if it doesn't sell there's no point to it.
Q: If you bought the system with one game, it'd still total to under 20,000 yen. With a price like that, you could imagine buying it for someone's birthday or Christmas.
HI: If we had used the Z80 CPU that was common in arcades back then, we probably never would've made that a reality. That's why running into a chip called the 6502 was so important.
Q: Why did you choose the 6502 as your base CPU for the Famicom?
HI: I don't know the reason completely, but from what I know, I think it was a miracle, or something close to destiny. It was like, as we were searching for CPU sources from different routes, a number of coincidences came together, and in the end they all led us to the 6502. However, at the time in Japan, people told us "The 6502 is too hard to work with; only a handful of geniuses can use it." (laughs) It wasn't all that common a CPU.
That's why I think everyone who programmed the Famicom is really amazing. Even with this difficult CPU and with all the other limits, they were able to master the hardware and create some wonderful software. After the Famicom was on the market for a few years, it got to the point where any game would sell well on the system, but even then, you had to do an incredible amount of studying before you could release a game for it. I'm not on the development side, but that's what I heard from a lot of programmers.
I think this accumulation of effort on the programmers' part has become one of the treasures of today's game industry. There's also the fact that since the 6502 wasn't a popular chip in Japan, it was difficult for people on the outside to fully analyze it. As a result, nobody ever released a perfect copy of the system until much later.
Q: What was the response from retailers when you introduced the Famicom?
HI: It was pretty terrible. (laughs) We were the new kid on the block, and a lot of places said to us "We've already seen Donkey Kong in the arcades and on the Game & Watch! You're putting it out again?" I think we managed to survive because of the large color palette and the controller. Masayuki Uemura (the head of the Famicom's design team) was at the original Famicom launch press conference for the newspapers, but they didn't have any working machine yet, so they had to pass out papers instead. As a result there was almost no reaction, except for one reporter who asked him "What colors are the 52 colors, exactly?" The size of that palette had a lot of impact on people.
Also, as for the controller, during development the majority of Nintendo wanted to include a regular joystick with the system. However, during that time, we made the first multi-screen Game & Watch, and we introduced the control pad so you wouldn't have to keep on glancing at your hands while you're playing the game... Now that I think about it, I'm amazed we got that through the joystick group. (laughs)
Before the control pad was used for the Famicom controller, it debuted in portable games like this one. |
HI: Right. That was an incredible number for the time, but we also ran into a lot of danger. There was an issue with our first shipment of systems where they would become unstable because of the chips inside heating up, so we ended up having to recall and trade out a great deal of consoles. As a result of this, we had nothing to sell for the 1983 Christmas season, and even when retailers asked us for more Famicoms in early 1984, we didn't ship out any new systems until around February of '84. That might have been the end of the Famicom right there, now that I think of it. That was something close to a miracle.
Q: What did you do once the Famicom was released to stores?
HI: We had a large debate on whether to make all the software ourselves or to ask for help from third parties. Some people were of the opinion that since we made the hardware, we should make all the software, too, while others noted that outside companies were expressing interest in the console, so we might as well let them make games. Eventually Yamauchi chose the licensee system?he probably figured that, since much of the console couldn't be protected by patents, licensing would be a better answer.
No matter which hardware maker you're talking about, it all comes down to how you control the quality of the software. Yamauchi saw the Game & Watch fiasco and the fall of Atari around that time, so he was very adamant on this quality issue. However, common sense among PC game makers back then said, Why do we need a license to make Famicom games if we don't need one for PC games? Nintendo's way of thinking was different from that. Personal computers are creative tools, used to solve problems based on your personal needs. A Famicom, on the other hand, is a tool for entertainment; it's a system that we declare we're making games for and then we make them. You don't actually create anything on it.
Q: So you tried to classify PCs and Famicoms as two different things.
HI: Well, we also felt a sort of responsibility to provide high-quality software for all the users who were nice enough to buy the system. The licensee system was an attempt to solve that responsibility... and, of course, we tried to explain this to third parties, but none of them really understood us, I don't think. The mood was along the lines of "Nintendo takes none of the risk, collects all the licensing fees and then takes away all of our profits! We hate you!" (laughs) A lot of the press said similar things, too... I've forgotten most of them, thankfully. (laughs)
Even as people said all of this about us, though, Yamauchi managed to build up a business model and, I think, basically created a marketplace for console games. Oh, right?the licensee system was also handy for whenever a new hardware version came up.
Q: A new hardware version?
HI: Well, if you count all of the small revisions done to the Famicom over the years, there are eight official versions of the system, even though they're all sold under the same model number. They're all supposed to use the same chips, but depending on the software, some games won't run on some versions of the system. It's a matter of hardware compatibility.
As a result, one of the services Nintendo offered to third parties was a testing department to make sure the software runs completely fine on all versions of the Famicom. This service was one of the things we did to defend ourselves?"People who buy your game would be terribly angry if it didn't work on their system, right? That's why we don't sign licensees left and right." It became a basis for the contract. It took a lot of time, hard work and above all money (laughs), but it allowed the users to play their games without worrying about anything. I think the people involved in that department did a great job.
Q: After over 20 years on the marketplace, Nintendo still offers full repairs on the Famicom, as well as a game-exchange service for Disk System users. This is an amazing example of keeping up service.
HI: The model itself's only changed once in twenty years. You could say it's a personification of Yamauchi's philosophy that "the hardware exists for the software," not the other way around. Besides, I'd never want to do something cruel like throw away our long-time users. (laughs)
Q: You've been involved with the Famicom for a very long time. What is your most cherished memory involving the system?
HI: Hmm... I don't have one. (laughs) On my end I had to deal with the media picking on us, as well as all the patent lawsuits based around our licensing scheme. Still, the lawsuit with Universal over Donkey Kong I remember well because we won completely, even though people compared it to an ant fighting an elephant. Companies like these are a very rare thing. We even got damages after winning the lawsuit.
Q: That sounds like a cherished memory to me. (laughs)
HI: Well, it's not like I pocketed the damages myself or anything. (laughs) I've been through a lot, but I guess the fact that Nintendo has expanded to where it is today is a good memory for me.
Q: Finally, to sum up, what does the Famicom mean to you?
HI: You're asking me some hard questions. (laughs) Hmm... The Famicom is Nintendo itself, I think.
