Tag: Famicom - Page 2
News Famicom RPG Musashi No Bōken Gets New English Translation Patch
Dubbed "The Adventures of Musashi Jr."
From the big pile of JRPGs that flooded the market in Japan after the success of both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy comes this 1990, feudal Japan-themed adventure featuring the son of Musashi and his Tanooki companion, because… well, it's feudal Japan, so there had to be a Tanooki throw in there. Musashi no...
News Take A Look Inside Nintendo's Vintage Hardware Storage Room
Minty fresh
As part of Nintendo's celebration of the original release of The Legend of Zelda 30 years ago in 1986, the company is posting a series of features on its Japanese site, the latest of which gives a tantalising glimpse into one of the most interesting rooms in its Kyoto HQ. Packed with mint and boxed Famicom consoles,
News There's Another HDMI-Ready Famicom On The Way This Year
Say hello to the FC Compact
Japan is getting an official mini Famicom this year which apes the approach taken with the NES Classic Mini, but it's not the only option if you want crystal clear retro gaming goodness on your HD telly. Japanese firm Columbus Circle is launching the FC Compact on November 30th for 7,992 Yen, and it offers bot
News Those Famicom Mini Pads Sure Are Small
Dinky details
The NES Classic Mini isn't the only hardware release Nintendo is making this year - the company has confirmed that Japan is getting its own variant, based on the Famicom. Japanese site Akiba PC Hotline has hands-on photos of the new syst
News This Cart Could Contain The First Code Satoru Iwata Ever Wrote For Nintendo
A little piece of history
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata passed away last year at the age of 55. Beloved by gamers and responsible for seeing the company through one of its most successful periods, Iwata started out as a developer in the early 1980s, joining HAL Laboratory and collaborating closely with Nintendo on Famicom titles. It would seem...
Video Learn The Full Story Of The Famicom Disk System With The Gaming Historian
Slipped disk
The Gaming Historian (aka Norman Caruso) is back with ever more luscious hair to get us up to speed with the ill-fated Famicom Disk System. Nintendo considered the Disk System the future of the Famicom, and promised bigger, cheaper games through the hardware iteration. To get a better understanding of how the Famicom Disk System came...
News NES Visual Compendium Kickstarter Hit With Intellectual Property Dispute
Legally blind
We recently reported on the Kickstarter campaign for Bitmap Books' NES/Famicom: A Visual Compendium. Part of the publisher's long-running Visual Compendium series - which has previously featured the Commodore, Amiga and ZX Spectrum - the book is intended as a celebration of Nintendo's iconic 8-bit console, a machine which changed the...
News Bitmap's Next Visual Compendium Turns Its Attention To The Nintendo Entertainment System
And the Famicom, of course
UK publisher Bitmap Books has carved out quite a niche for itself in recent years. Focused on quality coffee table tomes related to video gaming, the company has produced a wide range of retro classics, with the most recent examples being the lavish Artcade and positively lush Super Famicom: Th
Art Meet The Famicube, The NES Successor That Only Exists In A Parallel Universe
NES 1.5
Given that Sony and Microsoft are chewing up the column inches with rumours of "updated" versions of their current consoles, it seems fitting that we should take a look at an amazing project by Swedish artist and programmer Arne Niklas Jansson for what he dubs "the NES 1.5" - a console which would have bridged the gap between the NES and...
News Obscure Mario Bros. Famicom Disk System Game Gets Translated Into English
It's Kaettekita Mario Bros!
The Famicom Disk System (FDS for short) and its diskettes might have not set Japan ablaze as Nintendo had hoped they would but the system still managed to get a decent library of games, and was also responsible for the debut of both the Metroid and Zelda franchises. One unique title was Kaettekita Mario Bros.
News There's A New Famicom Game Being Released In Japan
Yes, it's still getting games
Japanese artist and programmer RIKI - the same chap who did the brilliant 8bit Music Power "cartridge album" - is bringing his homebrew indie hit Kira Kira Star Night to the Famicom as a physical release. Released in 2013 and shown off to great acclaim at BitSummit back in 2014, the side-scrolling platformer boasts...
Weirdness A New Animation is Found in Super Mario Bros. 3
It's only taken 28 years
It's amazing that still to this day, quirks and hidden information in the video games of yesteryear are still being surfaced from players around the world. The latest addition to this is NES classic Super Mario Bros. 3. For those accustomed with this title, you'll know that when our heroic plumber becomes Hammer Mario, he...
News Meet The Famicom Machine Gun Peripheral That Never Made It Out Of Japan
Complete with realistic recoil system
It's easy to forget just how massive the NES was back in its glory days, but even that system paled in comparison to the near-domination that its Japanese counterpart - the Famicom - enjoyed in its homeland. Simply put, the Nintendo "Family Computer" was the only real game in town if you were a Japanese player,...
Chipping away
In the world of music vinyl is currently enjoying something of a resurgence, with the antiquated audio format coming back from the dead to take pride of place in any self-respecting hipster's living room. While it's unlikely that this trend has anything to do with the release of RIKI's 8Bit Music Power, parallels can nevertheless be...
Random Conduct Interviews in Retro Style With a Famicom Voice Recorder
Hopefully isn't 8-bit sound
A number of the UK-based Nintendo Life crew spent four days at EGX in Birmingham recently, an expo with all of the noise, fun and shenanigans you'd expect. Your humble writer wasn't to be found out in the wilds of the main hall, however, but conducting interviews with plenty of Indie developers; the burden of...
Weirdness Japanese Company Wants To Bring NES Games To Smartphones Via A Tiny Cartridge
Small device plugs into into your headphone socket
Modern gaming is becoming increasingly focused on digital distribution, with publishers making use of online stores such as the Wii U and 3DS eShops to deliver games directly to consumers without having to produce physical media. With rumours that Nintendo's next console could abandon physical...
Review VS. Excitebike (Wii U eShop / NES)
Enjoyable interlude
It's undoubtedly a good thing when Nintendo starts releasing older titles on the eShop that are otherwise fairly difficult to find or play. But does VS. Excitebike, originally only released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1988, offer enough extra content compared to the original to justify a purchase? As the core of the...
News The Famicom is 32 Years Old Today
Should have a steady job and a mortgage by now
Here's one to make some of us feel old - the Famicom is 32 years old today, released in Japan on 15th July 1983. It was, of course, the system that would be revamped and remodelled as the NES in October 1985 in North America. Famicom was the shortened name for Family Computer; a key difference of this...
Interview Aaron Hamel on Bringing the Mother Original Arranged Soundtrack to the West
We talk about the soundtrack’s history, future projects, and much more
We recently reported on the Kickstarter campaign that has been launched with the goal of giving the Mother Original Arranged Soundtrack a western release. In just four short days the campaign smashed its funding goal and is now well on
Weirdness Meet The Studybox, The Famicom's Audio Edutainment System
Video games have often been twinned with education to create fun, interactive experiences which both entertain and enlighten, but one of the oldest examples has to be Fukutake Publishing's Studybox, a tape drive peripheral for the Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES) which ran tape-based games that featured actual recorded audio. Using audio...
News The NES Story Began On This Day 31 Years Ago
We are Family (Computer)
31 years ago today, Nintendo Co., Ltd. released the Famicom console in Japan, an event which would herald the beginning of the firm's wildly successful relationship with home video games. Hitting store shelves at 14,800 Yen (around $145 / £84 / 107 Euros), the system wasn't an instant hit with the Japanese public. Sales...
News Mother 25th Anniversary Fanfest Teleports in this 5th July
Celebrating the Zero fans have always wanted
Many of us caught the bus with Shigesato Itoi's quirky RPG series through EarthBound, but well before that came his first game, Mother. Also known as EarthBound Zero, Mother was released July 1989 in Japan and, unfortunately, nowhere else officially since. Not one to dismiss a reason to celebrate their...
News The 2014 My Famicase Exhibition Is Packed With Fascinating Flights Of Fictional Famicom Fancy
Too bad none of them are real games
Japanese game store Meteor has been running its "My Famicase" art exhibition for the past few years, and each year the entries go above and beyond our expectations. The idea is that artists create "fake" Famicom cartridge labels which are in keeping with the designs of the '80s and ''90s, but have a modern vibe as...
News Sleek Metal NES Analogue Nt Now Available for Preorder
$499 price point and colour options revealed
Seattle-based custom console manufacturer Analogue Interactive has spilled the beans on its upcoming Analogue Nt, a sexy aircraft-grade aluminium NES/Famicom we reported on back in March. Set for a release this summer, the Analogue Nt is now available for preorder through the company's website with a base...
News Famicom Remix 1 + 2 Coming to Retail in Japan
A one-two nostalgic combo right in Japan's childhood
NES Remix was a pleasant surprise when suddenly announced for the Wii U eShop, and the appearance of its slightly more mature cousin NES Remix 2 is a good sign that this particular brand of retro carnival play is taking off. It may come to the delight and/or great envy of others, then, that Japan...
Weirdness Famicom Cartridges Turned Into Chiptune Harmonicas
Because some of you will just never stop blowing into them
The idea has been sitting right under our noses (where our mouths are) the entire time: we blow into cartridges; we blow into harmonicas. Why not merge the two together? Finally, we have the technology — or at least someone creatively wily enough to use it. The gadgeteer(s) at Ugoita...
Hardware Review Gametech Neo Fami
The Famicom Clone To Rule Them All?
The concept of clone retro hardware isn't anything new — in fact, we've already covered the likes of the Retro Duo V2, RetroN 3 and SupaBoy here on Nintendo Life — but as time goes on these cheap and cheerful systems are becoming more and more desirable. Older machines are either failing as
News Retro Collection of Manga Titles Coming To 3DS in Japan
Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya and Go! Go! Ackman all feature
Namco Bandai is bringing a compilation of Famicom and Super Famicom games known as J Legend Biography in Japan. The games included in the collection are Dragon Ball: Mystery of Shenlong, Go! Go! Ackman 3, Saint Seiya: The Golden Legend, Saint Seiya: The Golden Legend Final Chapter and...
Feature The History Of The Famicom, The Console That Changed Nintendo's Fortunes
As Nintendo's iconic system turns 30, we chart the rise of a legend
Nintendo may be a company with a history that stretches back over a hundred years, but it has only enjoyed its current level of fame for the past thirty or so — and that’s largely thanks to a remarkable 8-bit console which launched in its native Japan three decades ago this...
Talking Point The Famicom Was the Beginning of the Modern Gaming Era
Solid building blocks
We recently shared the landmark news that the Famicom has celebrated its 30th Anniversary, having launched in Japan on 15th July 1983, over two years before the NES made its way West. The latter version is that best known and most commonly cited, yet it was the original model's release — Nintendo's first dalliance with a home...
News The Famicom Turns 30 Years Old
The system that started it all
At the time of writing it may still be 14th July in many countries, but it's 15th July in Japan — that means that the Famicom has now turned 30 years old in its homeland. It would eventually make its way to the West, redesigned, as the iconic NES. Of course, Nintendo had been a Playing Card company in its earliest...
News 8-Bit Titles Nuts & Milk And Mach Rider Hitting Japanese 3DS eShop Next Week
500 Yen a pop
Nintendo has confirmed that two new 8-bit titles are coming to the Japanese 3DS eShop next week. The excellently-titled Nuts & Milk was in fact the first third-party game for the Famicom, and launched way back in 1984. It's a curious puzzle / platfomer hybrid which involves linking up Milk with his girlfriend whilst avoiding the...
News This Custom Twin Famicom Is The Stuff Hardware Dreams Are Made Of
Remember when console designs actually mattered?
We hate to keep going on about it, but Microsoft revealed the Xbox One to the world this week. We're obviously biased, but we happen to think it looks a little underwhelming in purely physical terms — Nintendo Life Operations Director Darren Calvert said it best when he described the console as...
News This Famicom GamePad Skin is a Thing of Beauty
A retro reminder every day
So, who is it says that the Japanese market gets all of the coolest limited edition Nintendo hardware and accessories? Well, lots of people, including us at Nintendo Life — because it's often true. The latest example is the pictured Famicom skin on the way to lovingly cover Wii U GamePad controllers in Nintendo's...
News Famicom Hardware Designer Masayuki Uemura Explains Origins of its Name and Red Colouring
Colour choice "due to an order from the company's president"
The original Famicom — which would be branded as the NES in the West — remains an iconic example of Japanese hardware design. That's not to say it was perfect, with one notable feature being that the controllers were hardwired into the system — it's easy to see why that idea was...
News Famicom Classic Recca Could Be Blasting To Western 3DS eShops
Big in Japan
Naxat Soft's Recca seems destined for a 3DS eShop release in the west. The game — which is a vertically-scrolling shooter from 1992 — has just been given a rating by the Australian Classification Board. Also known as Summer Carnival '92: Recca thanks to the fact that it was used in Naxat Soft's "Summer Carnival" shooting game...
Hardware Classics Nintendo AV Famicom
Give the dog a bone
The Nintendo Entertainment System — or NES, for short — is arguably the console on which Nintendo's current lofty status was built. Launched in Japan as the Famicom, the 8-bit platform is home to an almost endless list of solid-gold classics, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid,
News Watch the Translated GameCenter CX vs. Iwata Asks Segment Right Here
Fresh from Japan
If you watched last week's Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation you'll know that at the end there was a special GameCenter CX segment featuring none other than Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. For those of you that don't know, GameCenter CX (known in the west as Retro Game Master) is a TV show starring Shinya Arino, who plays...
News Go On, Judge a Game By Its Cover
Nobody says you shouldn't
You might remember some of our previous coverage of Famicase, where artists create stickers for fictional Famicom games. A Game By Its Cover (AGBIC) takes this concept to the next stage, inviting developers to create games based on the stickers. The competition runs from 17th June until 18th August and is open to anyone...
Feature Slipped Disk - The History of the Famicom Disk System
We look back at Nintendo's first misstep in the domestic gaming hardware arena
Given what we now know about add-on hardware for games consoles, the very concept of the Famicom Disk System seems hopelessly flawed. Since this Japan-only system hit the market in 1986 we’ve seen the equally ill-fated Sega Mega CD, Sega 32X and Nintendo 64DD all come...
News How Nintendo Manufactured the Famicom on the Cheap
Recently revealed report hints at Scrooge-like attitude
As we all know, the Nintendo Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES, in case you were wondering) was pretty damn successful back in the day. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to state that the machine practically created the modern console market - certainly in Japan, at least. Nintendo...
News Read About the Birth of the Famicom in Latest Iwata Asks
Go right back to the start
Nintendo's Famicom is a piece of gaming history. The company's first cartridge-based gaming system, it set the revitalised the industry and set the standard for what was to follow. Satoru Iwata sat down with two of Nintendo's behind-the-scenes heroes for his latest "Iwata Asks" feature: R&D advisor Masayuki Uemura and...
Nintendo Download 5th & 6th October 2010 (Japan)
October begins with Virtual Console and DSiWare
WiiWare's alternating weeks continue, but at least there's the Virtual Console to keep Wii owners happy – even better when the releases include classic arcade games! The DSi has a trio of actual games for a change with nary a lifestyle download in sight. Virtual Console: Commando (800pts Arcade,...
News Developers Make Famicom Games from Unreal Famicom Cartridges
It'll make sense soon
You might remember a story back in May about a Japanese art project where artists created fictitious Famicom cartridges to display their work. Here we are, three months later, bringing you news that some enterprising developers took the cartridges as inspiration to create games. Taking in cat-touching adventure Neco Touch,...
News Start Saving as Famicom Box Surfaces on eBay
Rare machine up for grabs
Back in 1980s Japan, Nintendo's Famicom was doing the business, but the company wanted to get more gamers to experience what it could offer. The answer was the FamicomBox, a machine used by retailers to allow customers to try out a selection of Famicom games, with some models even featuring a coin slot to allow gamers to...
News Unreal Famicom Games are... Well, Unreal
Famicase project shows off 2010 line-up
The humble Famicom cartridge may not seem like the perfect canvas on which to create art, but every year Japanese game shop Meter hosts Famicase, a project aiming to prove just the opposite. Artists are asked to create artwork for a fictitious game and display it on a Famicom cart, and predictably the results...
News Samurai Warriors 3 to Feature a Nazo no Murasamejou Mode
Koei's latest Warriors game is Wii-exclusive and includes a Nintendo-related bonus mode.
If you're not familiar with Koei's popular franchise you shouldn't be too surprised - The only game released on a Nintendo platform, Samurai Warriors: Katana, was a spin-off which was not that well received. All is forgiven with Koei's latest announcement...
News Famicase 2009 Art Exhibit Opens
Fifty-eight artists and designers craft imaginary Famicom game carts
The art on game boxes and carts from the 8-bit era was generally pretty crap. A lot of it is still crap today, but back then gaming was still considered largely a kid's thing so people gave even less of a **** on whether or not the box art looked good. Japanese retro games shop...
News Stupidly Cool Portable Famicom Mod Surfaces
Shame we don’t know how to use a soldering iron...
The stuff these crazy modders seem to dream up never fails to surprise us, and this latest endeavour is totally off the chart in terms of sheer genius. Modder ‘goteking’ has taken a business card holder shaped like a Famicom cartridge and skillfully inserted a media player with a Famicom...
