Graphics
256×240
- Colors on screen
- 25
- Palette
- 54 colors
- Sprites
- 64
Nintendo Entertainment System
Also known as Family Computer · Famicom · NES · Hyundai Comboy · Samurai Electronic TV Game System
- Nintendo
- Home console
- Third generation
1,214 Nintendo Entertainment System games, all playable free in your browser.
Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan on July 15, 1983 and brought it to North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, first in New York test markets in October 1985 and nationwide in September 1986, with Europe and Australia following between 1986 and 1987. Designed by Masayuki Uemura, it was Nintendo's first programmable home console and drew on the hardware of the arcade game Donkey Kong; for Western markets the casing was redesigned to resemble a video cassette recorder.
- First released · Japan
- 1983
- Units sold
- 61.9M
- CPU
- 8-bit
- Games in the library · all playable
- 1,214
TIMELINE
1983–2003
- JPJapan
- NANorth America
- EUEurope
- AUAustralia
- BRBrazil
- ENDDiscontinued (Japan)
Games per release year
| Year | Games |
|---|---|
| 1983 | 1 |
| 1984 | 3 |
| 1985 | 41 |
| 1986 | 46 |
| 1987 | 103 |
| 1988 | 99 |
| 1989 | 145 |
| 1990 | 237 |
| 1991 | 179 |
| 1992 | 156 |
| 1993 | 63 |
| 1994 | 16 |
| 1995 | 3 |
| 1996 | 1 |
| 1999 | 1 |
| 2001 | 1 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2010 | 3 |
| 2011 | 3 |
| 2012 | 5 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | 3 |
| 2019 | 1 |
- SpectrumZX Spectrum: Apr 23, 1982 – 1992
- ColecoColecoVision: Aug 1982 – 1985
- Atari 5200Atari 5200: Oct 1982 – May 21, 1984
- VectrexVectrex: Oct 1982 – Feb 1984
- NESNintendo Entertainment System: Jul 15, 1983 – Sep 25, 2003
- SG-1000Sega SG-1000: Jul 15, 1983 – Oct 1985
- MSXMSX: Oct 21, 1983 – 1993
- Amstrad CPCAmstrad CPC: Jun 21, 1984 – 1990
- Master SystemSega Master System: Oct 20, 1985 – 1996
All 36 systems
- Atari 2600Atari 2600: Sep 1977 – 1992
- SpectrumZX Spectrum: Apr 23, 1982 – 1992
- ColecoColecoVision: Aug 1982 – 1985
- Atari 5200Atari 5200: Oct 1982 – May 21, 1984
- VectrexVectrex: Oct 1982 – Feb 1984
- NESNintendo Entertainment System: Jul 15, 1983 – Sep 25, 2003
- SG-1000Sega SG-1000: Jul 15, 1983 – Oct 1985
- MSXMSX: Oct 21, 1983 – 1993
- Amstrad CPCAmstrad CPC: Jun 21, 1984 – 1990
- Master SystemSega Master System: Oct 20, 1985 – 1996
- Atari 7800Atari 7800: May 1986 – 1992
- X68000Sharp X68000: Mar 28, 1987 – end not recorded
- PC EnginePC Engine / TurboGrafx-16: Oct 30, 1987 – Dec 16, 1994
- CPS-1Capcom CPS-1: May 13, 1988 – May 11, 1995
- GenesisSega Genesis / Mega Drive: Oct 29, 1988 – 1997
- PCE CDPC Engine CD / TurboGrafx-CD: Dec 4, 1988 – end not recorded
- Game BoyGame Boy: Apr 21, 1989 – Mar 31, 2003
- LynxAtari Lynx: Sep 1, 1989 – 1995
- Neo GeoNeo Geo: Apr 16, 1990 – 2004
- Game GearSega Game Gear: Oct 6, 1990 – Apr 30, 1997
- SNESSuper Nintendo: Nov 21, 1990 – Sep 25, 2003
- Sega CDSega CD / Mega-CD: Dec 12, 1991 – 1996
- CPS-2Capcom CPS-2: Sep 10, 1993 – Dec 22, 2003
- Neo Geo CDNeo Geo CD: Sep 9, 1994 – 1997
- 32XSega 32X: Nov 1994 – 1996
- PS1PlayStation: Dec 3, 1994 – Mar 23, 2006
- N64Nintendo 64: Jun 23, 1996 – 2002
- CPS-3Capcom CPS-3: Nov 21, 1996 – end not recorded
- NAOMISega NAOMI: 1998 – end not recorded
- GBCGame Boy Color: Oct 21, 1998 – Mar 31, 2003
- NGPCNeo Geo Pocket Color: Mar 19, 1999 – Oct 30, 2001
- PS2PlayStation 2: Mar 4, 2000 – Jan 4, 2013
- WonderSwanWonderSwan Color: Dec 9, 2000 – 2003
- GBAGame Boy Advance: Mar 21, 2001 – 2010
- OpenBOROpenBOR: 2004 – today
- TIC-80TIC-80: Mar 22, 2017 – today
A bar that fades out means the end date is unknown. Fantasy consoles and game engines are still available.
UNDER THE HOOD
Technical specifications
Processor
1.79MHz
- CPU
- Ricoh 2A03
- Core
- MOS Technology 6502
- Word size
- 8-bit
- Ricoh 2C02 (PPU) — picture processing unit (tile-based graphics, derived from the TI TMS9918) · 5.37 MHz
Below: Vectrex 1.5 MHz · Above: WonderSwan 3.07 MHz
NTSC consoles: Ricoh 2A03 at 1.79 MHz; PAL consoles: Ricoh 2A07 at 1.66 MHz. Both are unlicensed 6502 variants with the binary-coded decimal mode disabled.
Memory
2KB
- Main RAM
- 2 KB
- Video RAM
- 2 KB
- Sprite RAM (OAM, 256 bytes)
- 256 bytes
Below: Vectrex 1 KB · Above: Atari 7800 4 KB
Sound
5channels
- Chip
- APU (integrated in the Ricoh 2A03)
Two pulse-wave channels, one triangle-wave channel, one white-noise channel and one DPCM sample channel
Sales
61.9million
- Scope
- Worldwide (as of 2016-03)
- Best-selling game
- Super Mario Bros. · 40 million
Media
Cartridge
Launch price
¥14,800
- Japan
- ¥14,800
- North America
- $180
Family line
- Before
- Color TV-Game
- This system
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- After
- Super Nintendo
THE STORY
About the NES
Arriving after the 1983 video game crash, the system came to dominate the Japanese and North American markets. Nintendo built its library through licensed third-party developers such as Capcom, Konami, Namco, Enix and Square, under terms strict enough to lead to a 1991 settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission. In Europe it faced stronger competition from the Master System and home computers.
Nintendo sold 61.91 million units. The NES was discontinued in North America and Europe in 1995 and the Famicom in Japan in 2003. Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest all began on the platform, and its games have since been reissued through Virtual Console, Nintendo Classics and the NES Classic Edition.
- Nintendo's first programmable home console, succeeding the Color TV-Game line of dedicated consoles.
- Its hardware was based on Nintendo's 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, and its controller design came from the Game & Watch handhelds.
- Pioneered the model of licensing third-party developers; its restrictive terms led to a 1991 settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.
- In Japan, the Famicom Disk System add-on distributed games on floppy disks.
- Sales of 61.91 million units: 19.35 million in Japan, 34 million in the Americas and 8.56 million elsewhere.
- Received Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry award at Tokyo Game Show 2023 for laying the foundations of the game industry.
THE LIBRARY
1,214 NES games on Back2OldGames
1,214
games, all playable right in your browser
Release years 1983–2019
<p class="lib-span">328 developers</p>Genres
Top developers
Players
691 games with a known number of players.
Regions
THE GAMES
The NES library
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Sources
Specifications and history from the sources below (Wikipedia text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; facts summarized in our own words). Library numbers come from the Back2OldGames catalog.
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