Nintendo Entertainment System: Diferenzas entre revisións

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Nintendo entered into negotiations with [[Atari]] to release the Famicom under Atari’s name as the name "Nintendo Enhanced Video System." This deal eventually fell through<ref>Atari broke off negotiations with Nintendo in response to [[Coleco|Coleco’s]] unveiling of a unlicensed port of ''Donkey Kong'' for their [[Coleco Adam]] computer system. Although the game had been produced without Nintendo’s permission or support, Atari took its release as a sign that Nintendo was dealing with one of their major competitors in the market.</ref>, and Atari decided to concentrate on its own next-generation 8-bit console, the [[Atari 7800]].<ref>{{citeCite web | title=The History of the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom | work=Nintendo Land | url=http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?nes/history.htm | format=http | accessdate=February 12 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> Subsequent plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller, and a special [[BASIC programming language|BASIC]] cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise fell through. Finally, in June 1985 Nintendo unveiled its American version of the Famicom at the [[Consumer Electronics Show]] (CES). With a completely redesigned case and a new name, the Nintendo Entertainment System proved to be just as popular in America as the Famicom was in Japan, and played a major role in revitalizing interest in the video game industry. Originally Nintendo only released 50,000 units in New York City, and because of its great success it was released nationwide. Nintendo rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on October 18, 1985, following up with a nationwide release of the console in February of the following year.<ref>{{citeCite book | first = Van | last = Burnham | year = 2001 | title = Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971–1984 | pages = p. 375 | publisher = MIT Press | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | id = ISBN 0-26-252420-1 }}</ref> The console was released in two different packages: a full-featured $249 USD "Deluxe Set" which came packaged with the [[R.O.B.]], the NES Zapper, two game controllers, and two games (''[[Duck Hunt]]'', and ''Gyromite''), and a scaled-down $199 "Action Set," which omitted the R.O.B. and ''Gyromite'' and included a ''Super Mario Bros.''/''Duck Hunt'' [[multicart]].<ref name="liedholm1">{{citeCite web | author=Liedholm, Marcus and Mattias | title=History of the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom | work=Nintendo Land | url=http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?nes/history.htm | format=http | accessdate=February 12 | accessyear=2006}}</ref>

For the rest of the decade, Nintendo was the undisputed master of the American and Japanese gaming markets, and its game titles were breaking sales records. However, the console did not attain the same level of success in the rest of the western world. In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Mattel handled distribution for region A, which consisted of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy. Distribution in region B, consisting of the rest of mainland Europe, was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases. Not until 1990 did Nintendo's newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe.<ref name="europe">{{citeCite web | title=European information | format=http | work=[http://nindb.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Nintendo Database] | url=http://nindb.classicgaming.gamespy.com/nes/nes_eu.shtml | accessdate=May 4 | accessyear=2006}}</ref> This enabled competitor Sega to outperform the NES with its Sega Master System in many countries. Despite this, by 1990 the NES had become the best-selling console in video game history.<ref>{{citeCite web | author=Nielsen, Martin | year=1997 | title=The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) FAQ v3.0A | format=http | work=ClassicGaming.com's Museum | url=http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/faqs/nesfaq.shtml | accessdate=January 5 | accessyear=2005}}</ref>

* ''60-pin vs. 72-pin cartridges''. The original Famicom and the re-released [[AV Family Computer]] both utilized a 60-pin cartridge design, which resulted in slightly smaller cartridges than the NES (and the [[NES 2]]), which utilized a 72-pin design. Four pins were used for the [[10NES]] lockout chip.<ref>{{citeCite web | author=Hernandez, Christopher | title=Nintendo NES / Famicom | format=http | work=Dark Watcher's Console History | url=http://darkwatcher.psxfanatics.com/console/nes.htm | accessdate=January 5 | accessyear=2005}}</ref> Ten pins were added that connected a cartridge directly to the expansion port on the bottom of the unit. Finally, two pins that allowed cartridges to provide their own sound expansion chips were removed, a regrettable decision. Many early games (such as ''StackUp'') released in North America were simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter (such as the [[T89 Cartridge Converter]]) to allow them to fit inside the NES hardware. Nintendo did this to reduce costs and inventory by using the same cartridge boards in America and Japan.

* ''Lockout circuitry''. The Famicom contained no lockout hardware, and, as a result, unlicensed cartridges (both legitimate and bootleg) were extremely common throughout Japan and the Far East. The original NES (but not the top-loading NES 2) contained the [[10NES]] lockout chip, which significantly increased the challenges faced by unlicensed developers. Tinkerers at home in later years discovered that disassembling the NES and cutting the fourth pin of the lockout chip (a process now legal with the expiration of the NES patent) would cut power to the chip, removing all effects and greatly improving the console’s ability to play legal games, as well as bootlegs and converted imports.<ref>{{citeCite web | author=Horton, Kevin | title=The Infamous Lockout Chip | format=http | work=BlueTech | url=http://www.tripoint.org/kevtris/mappers/lockout/ | accessdate=January 5 | accessyear=2005}}</ref> The European release of the console used a [[regional lockout]] system that prevented cartridges released in region A from being played on region B consoles, and vice versa.<ref name="europe" />

These practices were intended not only to keep developers on a short leash, but also to manipulate the market itself: in 1988, Nintendo started orchestrating intentional game shortages in order to increase consumer demand. Referred as "inventory management" by Nintendo of America public relations executive Peter Main, Nintendo would refuse to fill all retailer orders. Retailers, many of whom derived a large percentage of their profit from sales of Nintendo-based hardware and software (at one point, [[Toys "R" Us]] reported 17% of its sales and 22% of its profits were from Nintendo merchandise), could do little to stop these practices. In 1988, over 33 million NES cartridges were sold in the United States, but estimates suggest that the realistic demand was closer to 45 million. Because Nintendo controlled the production of all cartridges, they were able to enforce these rules on their third-party developers. These extremely restricted production runs would end up damaging several smaller software developers: even if demand for their games was high, they could only produce as much profit as Nintendo allowed.<ref>{{citeCite web | author=GaZZwa | title=History of Videogames (part 2) | format=http | work=Gaming World | url=http://www.gamingw.net/articles/74 | accessdate=January 7 | accessyear=2005}}</ref>

Several companies began producing unlicensed games, either refusing to pay the licensing fee or manufacturing their own cartridges after having been rejected by Nintendo. Most of these companies created circuits that used a voltage spike to knock out the authentication unit in the NES. [[Atari Games]] created a line of NES products under the name [[Tengen (company)|Tengen]], and took a different tack: the company obtained a description of the lockout chip from the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] by falsely claiming that it was required to defend against present infringement claims in a legal case. Tengen then used these documents to design their ''Rabbit'' chip, which duplicated the function of the [[10NES]]. Nintendo sued Tengen for these actions, and Tengen lost because of the fraudulent use of the published patent. Tengen’s [[antitrust]] claims against Nintendo were never finally decided. <ref>{{citeCite web | author=U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit | year=1992 | title=Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc. | format=http | work=Digital Law Online | url=http://digital-law-online.info/cases/24PQ2D1015.htm | accessdate=March 30 | accessyear=2005}}</ref>

A thriving market of unlicensed NES hardware [[Clone (computer science)|clones]] emerged during the heyday of the console’s popularity, and has continued to exist, and even flourish, following Nintendo’s discontinuation of the NES itself. Such clones continue to be sold even now. But as the NES fades into memory, these systems have tended to adopt case designs which mimic the most popular gaming consoles of their time. NES clones resembling the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and even current systems like the [[Nintendo GameCube]], the [[PlayStation 2|Sony PlayStation 2]] and the [[Microsoft Xbox]] have been produced. Some of the more exotic of these systems have gone beyond the functionality of the original hardware, and have included variations such as a portable system with a color LCD (e.g. [[Pocket Famicom]]). Others have been produced with certain specialized markets in mind, including various "educational computer packages" which include copies of some of the NES’s educational titles and come complete with a clone of the Famicom BASIC keyboard, transforming the system into a rather primitive [[personal computer]].<ref>{{citeCite web | author=Davidson, Michael | title=Famicom Clones / Pirate Multicarts and Other Weirdness | format=http | work=Obscure Pixels | url=http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~pinwhiz/famicom.htm | accessdate=January 5 | accessyear=2005}}</ref>

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