Nintendo Entertainment System
- Manufacturer
- Nintendo
- Production
- 1985–1995
- Generation
- Gen 3
- Type
- Home
- Region
- JP / NA / PAL
- Launch price
- $179
- Media
- Cartridge
- Units sold
- 61.9M
About Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released as the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan on July 15, 1983, and as the NES in test markets in the United States on October 18, 1985, followed by a nationwide launch on September 27, 1986. The NES was distributed in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia throughout the 1980s. It was Nintendo's first programmable home console, succeeding the Color TV-Game line of dedicated consoles, and primarily competed with Sega's Master System in the third generation of video game consoles.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Lifetime sales
Official manufacturer-reported figures.
61.9Munits
500.0Mgames
8.1games / console
Worldwide total, includes the Famicom.
Source: Nintendo Co., Ltd. IR — Dedicated Video Game Sales Units, as of June 30, 2026.
Library & collector facts
716licensed games
- North America: 716
- PAL: 525
Lineage
Release timeline
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- July 15, 1983
- 🇺🇸 North America
- October 18, 1985
- 🇪🇺 Europe / PAL
- September 1, 1986
- Lifespan
- 10 years on market
Pricing
Launch price (1985)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $179
- 🇯🇵 JPY
- ¥14,800
Controller
2 controller ports
Launch titles & exclusives
Super Mario Bros. · Duck Hunt · Hogan's Alley · Wild Gunman · Stack-Up · Gyromite · Excitebike · Kung Fu · Ice Climber · Clu Clu Land
Super Mario Bros. (Action Set, 1986); Gyromite + R.O.B. (Deluxe Set, 1985)
Super Mario Bros. 3 · The Legend of Zelda · Metroid · Castlevania · Mega Man 2 · Final Fantasy · Kirby's Adventure · Punch-Out!! · Contra · Tetris
Wario's Woods (1994, NA)
Stadium Events (NA NTSC, sealed examples reach $30k–$100k+)
Hardware specs
- Cpu
- Ricoh 2A03 @ 1.79 MHz, Ricoh 2A07 @ 1.66 MHz
- Gpu
- PPU (Ricoh 2C02)
- Ram
- 2 KB work RAM, 2 KB video RAM, 256 bytes sprite RAM
- Sound
- APU, 5 channels: 2 pulse wave, triangle wave, white noise, DPCM
- Weight
- ~1.3 kg (2.9 lb)
- Dimensions
- 254 × 90 × 203 mm
- Display Output
- 256 × 240 px
Hardware revisions
- Front-loader NES-001(1985)
original launch hardware
⚠ 10NES lockout chip + pin oxidation cause the infamous blinking-red-light cartridge issue
- Top-loader NES-101(1993)
final revision, lockout chip removed, RF-only video out
⚠ far more reliable but loses composite output
Launch colorways & special editions
- Sharp Twin Famicom (1986, JP)
- Sharp My Computer Famicom (1989, JP, with keyboard)
- Nintendo World Championships 1990 Gold (NA, 26 known copies)
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- N/A (no firmware; ROM-based)
Reception & legacy
Cautious post-crash success — retailers wary after the 1983 video game crash, so Nintendo bundled it as an 'Entertainment System' with R.O.B. to dodge the toy-aisle stigma
10NES lockout chip blocked unlicensed third-party games and birthed the 'blow on the cartridge' myth (the real fault was oxidized connector pins); Tengen lawsuit over unauthorized cart manufacturing
Revived the North American console industry after the 1983 crash and established Nintendo as the dominant home console brand for a generation
References
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