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 former manager of the Corporate Communications Division, Hiroshi Imanishi, to discuss how the console first came into being.
Interesting nuggets thrown up by the discussion reveal early teething troubles resulting from the controller's square buttons, despite having been subjected to tests of one million uses during production, as well as the revelation that Mario's name before Mario, Jumpman and Mr Video was "Ossan", a somewhat vulgar word for Uncle.
The complete Iwata Asks: NES & Mario is well worth reading for console historians and anyone interested in the formative years of Mario and the Japanese home console business.
[source us.wii.com]
Comments 6
"Ossan" a vulgar word for uncle....
Is that like Uncle Dad? Or Uncle who likes to touch his young nephews? Or just like Uncle douche face?
Man, what a butt-ugly machine the Famicom was. I'll take it's NES cousin ANY day.
My dictionary just says "Uncle (vulgar)" but then it likely means vulgar as in "impolite" rather than "maker of sexually inappropriate advances".
Other sites online have reported it as "middle-aged man" so perhaps my dictionary is just crude.
Do the Ossan!
....
It seems like they didn't forget that name because there is a character called Ossan in a famicom golf game who later reappeared in captain rainbow.
I bet the Famicom was fun. From the wonder of Wii virtual console I've played games from it but I bet it was fun to play from the actual thing.
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