With its rectangular shell and retro look, Nintendo’s NES is a bit like the grandmother of video games. With exceptional longevity, it crystallizes the memories of millions of people around the world. But do you know where she got this VCR design from? We tell you this story!
Article written by Régis Monterrin
With her white and gray dress, Nintendo’s NES is recognizable at first glance. Rather bulky and suffering from flashing button syndrome (because of the connector which was unable to read the cartridges), the console has won over several generations of players thanks to a game library as extensive as it is eclectic.
Many of us remember, not without emotion, our first digital adventures on Mario, Kirby, DuckTales or even Mega Man. However, like many projects before it, the NES could have had a very different fate. Especially if we had gotten the Japanese model…
High-performance and inexpensive, the leitmotif of the Japanese version of the NES
Nowadays, the vast majority of electronic devices have the same shape from one continent to another. We would find it strange if the latest fashionable iPhone or PlayStation did not have the same look, whether we are European, American or Japanese. For reasons of cost and homogeneity, manufacturers now make the same model for everyone! In the 1980s, this was not the norm and it was not uncommon for consoles to be disparate from one geographical area to another, very often with a different name. So, the one we know under the name NES (for Nintendo Entertainment System) does not bear this form and this nomination at all in Japan. In the Land of the Rising Sun, the machine is nicknamed Famicom, a diminutive coming from its official name, Family Computer. In short, the computer for the whole family!
Besides this name, you just have to take a look at its carcass to understand that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Western model. It is white and red, its controllers (ultra-short) are indetachable from the system and it has a somewhat childish design. This console is the result of a request from the president of Nintendo to one of its engineers, Masayuki Uemura. The latter, who left us in December 2021, was responsible for one of the company’s research and development laboratories.
One evening in November 1981, while he was wondering about his future (blame it on projects that ended in failure), he received a phone call from Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. First taken aback by this late phone call, he listened attentively to his boss’s request and almost rolled his eyes. “At the time, I was responsible for the second Research & Development department (R&D 2) whose workforce was tending to decrease” he explained during an interview. “I had a lot of free time and could go home quite early. He then explained to me that the next product that would be a hit would be video games to play on the television screen in the living room and he asked me if my department could develop them. He wanted games to no longer be integrated (as in electronic games), but instead the console used cartridges, a system that was gaining popularity at the time. He also added that he wanted a machine that the competition could not match for three years. »
It is on the basis of this telephone call that the Famicom will be born. The challenge was daunting, but it allowed Masayuki Uemura to restore the image of his team. To meet his boss’s demands, the engineer was nevertheless forced to prioritize power and price over the look of the console. This explains the cheap color, the somewhat brittle plastic and the presence of non-removable controllers. Yes, we can’t have everything.
How did the Japanese Famicom become the NES in the West?
In Japan, the Famicom was such a hit that Nintendo quickly considered an international release, first in the United States, then in Europe. The first discussions around the Western model took place between Nintendo in Japan and its American subsidiary, Nintendo of America. Unquestionably, it was unthinkable for the Americans to release such a machine with this name. Everything had to be changed!
In their madness of grandeur, American engineers then estimated that the console should be closer to the spirit of family computers which were beginning to spread on the market. They imagined a prototype called AVS (for Advanced Video System), resembling a cassette recorder and incorporating a keyboard, a joystick and funny controllers. A hybrid object which absolutely did not convince the public during its presentation at the big CES winter show in 1985. Nintendo had to react…
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Masayuki Uemura heard of the popular failure of the AVS. At the request of his management, he thought about a look that could suit a Western audience. The engineer then imagined a rectangular box whose cartridges are protected by a flap that can be opened and closed. A kind very ingenious video recorder… linked to the weather! He explained: “Japan has high humidity, so there isn’t a lot of static electricity. However, if you go to America, especially somewhere like Texas, it’s very dry, so there’s a lot of static. So we wanted to make sure that children don’t touch the connection ports. This is why the cartridge became larger, because this is how the product should be designed. »
You do not dream ! If Nintendo’s NES has this form here, It’s above all a question of security… which itself arises from the weather in certain Western countries. Masayuki Uemura designed the appearance of the console and Nintendo of America, via the team of American designer Lance Barr, then imagined a visual (with its diode on the front, its white/gray dress, its cosmetic ventilation grilles… ), able to blend into homes. The name (Nintendo Entertainment System in good French) was then chosen to stand out from the emergence of family computers.
Also read – If Mario is red, it’s for a very specific reason, Nintendo leaves nothing to chance
Unlike the Super Nintendo, Europe has recovered the American model of the console, which explains why we too had the joy of having fun with the NES and its famous flap! Between us and even if it does not lack charm, we were rather lucky not to get the somewhat cheap Japanese model. With its clamshell and sleek design, the NES had much more class! You can not find ?
