After Atari changed CEO in 1979, sales climbed steadily. The second generation of family game consoles have enabled the way of game cards, and the influx of a large number of high-quality games has brought great prosperity to the market. Nintendo, which is planning to exit the arcade market, is once again setting its sights on family consoles.
In November 1981, Yamauchi called Masayuki Uemura, the head of Nintendo's R&D2, and said, "Make something so that you can play arcade games on your TV at home." At that time, donkey Kong arcade machines were very popular on the streets of Japan, and Masayuki Uemura could understand Yamauchi's pursuit of innovation. He thought he had to make a product that no one else had done, otherwise it wouldn't have much value.
Project codename: GameCom
In June 1982, the Nintendo R&D2 Division, led by Masayuki Yamamura, began to develop a home game computer requested by Yuki Yamauchi, codenamed GameCom, Game+Computer.
At this time, Nintendo had some technical accumulation, but it was not enough to use it. The color TV game series uses the obsolete technology of the first generation of game consoles, the Game & Watch is a modification of the Sharp LCD calculator, and only arcade machines have used microprocessors, but that is a large circuit board.
Leaving that aside, Nintendo wanted to develop it itself, and the most valuable reference was Coleco. Back in 1981, Coleco partnered with Nintendo to license Arcade Donkey Kong to port it to Coleco Vision and Mini. Donkey Kong licensed, but also the coleco vision game console sales of more than 1 million units of the biggest contributor.
When Coleco employees took Coleco Vision to visit Nintendo, all the staff of the Nintendo R&D2 were shocked. Takao Sawano, a programmer in charge of the software development of the GameCom project, took the machine home and let his family try it out, and the response was very good. Coleco Vision doesn't have the flickering and interruptions common to the Atari 2600, and the picture is very smooth.
Pictured here is the Donkey Kong game card of Coleco Vision.
Takao Sawano joined Nintendo in 1972 and after joining R&D2 and Masayuki Uemura developed arcade products using specialized chips. Later, due to the popularity of Game & Watch, he was transferred to R&D1 to develop GW with Junpei Yokoi. It wasn't until the GameCom project started that he returned to R&D2.
Takao Sawano, a key employee who recommended the use of the Cross Direction Controller at GameCom, developed GW and knew the importance of the Upper Cross Direction control key to enhance the gaming experience. There are many researchers who say that the GameCom project is based on the Atari 2600, but this is not the case. According to Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo's original prototype was designed with reference to Coleco Vision.
Pictured is the original GameCom prototype in 1982, unlike the Atari 2600.
The first core problem of the project: the processor problem of GameCom.
The processor was the core accessory of personal computers and home game consoles at that time, and its selection determined the hardware cost, operation and development difficulty of the machine, so it was the first to be solved.
Masayuki Uemura sent employees Katsuya Nakagawa and Masahiro Otake to Ricoh Semiconductor to research technology solutions. Why Choose Ricoh? The Nintendo arcade machine was commissioned by Mitsubishi Electric, and the person responsible for the project responsible for the construction of paradise arcade machine at that time was Hiromitsu Yagi. Hiromitsu Yagi is proficient in arcade processor solutions and is also interested in home console development.
Katsuya Nakagawa and Masahiro Otake also take the Donkey Kong arcade machine to Ricoh to discuss hardware solutions. The huge shell of the arcade machine can plug a larger screen and a large number of circuit boards, and it is difficult for home game consoles to plug in so many complex circuits.
At this point, the rich product experience comes into play. Masayuki Uemura made two important decisions here: First, he developed a home console processor with the goal of copying arcade games on televisions. At the same time, this processor can also support arcades, which can make it commercially available more quickly.
Readers have no experience in game product development, so it is not clear the value of this decision. Here, a brief explanation.
In game product development, after determining the development goals, the most difficult part is how to organize the team to start the production process and accept the results. Under one goal, there will be a lot of work processes. For example, game planning, programming, art, music, etc. Some workflows produce results quickly, such as art painting an original painting, while others take a long time to produce results. The result is what game development calls "delivery." Delivery is the most important part of software product development, equivalent to producing a can on a food assembly line.
For the huge delivery task of "developing gameCom processors", Masayuki Uemura, who has a wealth of development experience and judgment, broke it down into two parts: the first part is to complete the development goal of boss Yamauchi, which is difficult and may fail. The second part is to implement the new processor on Nintendo arcade machines, which is relatively easy. If successful, miniaturize it to accomplish the objectives of the first part.
Splitting big goals into smaller goals with phased delivery and keeping value, while meeting both the boss's requirements and business goals, is what top product managers and game artists do.
In fact, this decision was the key move that later brought the Nintendo family game console into the United States.
Pictured is Nintendo's GameCom-based arcade system.
MOS 6502 and Ricoh 2A03
As for which processor to choose for GameCom, Nintendo's initial opinion was to choose Zilog's Z80 processor. Because in the Donkey Kong arcade, it was developed using the Z80. The Z80 and MOS 6502 were the most widely used processors of the 1980s, used in the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit series, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, BBC Micro and many more.
For the Z80 and MOS 6502, Ricoh recommends the MOS 6502. Ricoh is licensed by MosTech to produce a MOS 6502 core-based processor. In order to cooperate with the Nintendo GameCom project, Ricoh later developed a microprocessor called the Ricoh 2A03, which also integrates a programming sound generator (APU), basic DMA and game control module.
Masayuki Uemura could not refuse Ricoh's suggestion.
One is to take the Ricoh 2A03, which has a chip area of only 1/4 of the Z80. The second is that no other manufacturer in Japan has used the Ricoh 2A03.
Replacing the processor is not a small task, and Masayuki Uemura persuaded his colleagues at the Nintendo R&D Center to switch to the new development platform, and everyone was more resistant. At this time, Sawano Takao showed another wave, just returned from R&D1, he had no technical burden, and immediately used the 6502 processor for development, did not think that the 6502 processor and the original graphics processing chip is very compatible.
Pictured is a GameCom motherboard loaded with a Ricoh 2A03 processor.
A microprocessor was chosen, but at that time, development tools were still extremely scarce, which greatly affected the efficiency of game development. Masayuki Uemura bought a Taiwanese manufacturer's ICE (In-circuit emulator) to develop NCAP (Nintendo-capture) to solve the urgent need. NCAP runs on THE EC's PC-8001, and many of Nintendo's games were developed on this device. During the development process, the developers of R&D2 solved many technical problems and completed the development of NCAP with difficulty.
In April 1983, software programmer Shuhei Kato joined R&D2, the programmer's nickname: 6502 Live Manual.
After Yuhei Kato joined, GameCom finally entered the fast lane of development.
Design GameCom
While solving the processor, GameCom's features and body design are also being designed. Through the analysis of Coleco Vision, Masayuki Uemura proposed seven design requirements:
Do not connect the keyboard to the principal.
Get out of the computer image.
It's a game console, but it doesn't smell like a toy.
There are two controllers, consider storing it in the body if possible.
ROM emulates tape with almost the same appearance, size, and resistance.
The ROM box connector, power switch, and controller connector are connected to the host computer through the power adapter jack and the RF adapter jack.
Place the joystick, two entry buttons, a start button, and a pause button onto the controller.
Trying to elaborate on the machine's exterior design, Masayuki Uemura took Katsuya Nakagawa with Masayuki Yukawa to The Ricoh's design office. Yamauchi's requirements are: unprecedented innovation, unprecedented product image. Ricoh's designers say: It is best to use a design that cannot judge value from the outside. For example, if the tape recorder looks like a tape recorder, consumers will naturally position it according to the price of the tape recorder. Simply put, the GameCom design philosophy is: don't know what it is.
Yukawa Masayuki said that such a design concept is indeed more advanced. Because when it's done, everyone finds that it is: "a boring box". The only fun thing is the suggestion made by Junhei Yokoi to pop up the bracket design of the game card. When the game card pops up, it makes a clicking sound, and Yokoi Junpei feels that such a sound can attract the attention of children, and Nakagawa accepts this suggestion.
As can be seen from the Gamecom prototype, the controller was originally planned to use an arcade-like joystick. How is the joystick fixed at home? Does the bulge hurt a child? These questions have left everyone scratching their heads. Takao Sawano, who returned from the Nintendo R&D1 at this time, suggested using the cross-directional control key as the controller of the machine. For Takao Sawano, who used the cross key to complete the development of Game & Watch Donkey Kong, it is natural to recommend using the cross key to control. Other developers did not immediately agree with him, is the cross key suitable for small screen GW, is it suitable for large video games?
Sawano didn't say much, using the cross key controller to connect to the GameCom prototype and let others try it. Try it, and Nakagawa is immediately conquered by the cross key. He found himself quickly familiar with the operation of the cross keys, without looking at the controller at all, just looking at the screen. Even if you move the TV a few meters away, it does not affect the operation at all.
In the end, Masayuki Uemura decided to use the cross direction control key, but no one in the R&D1 department would make plastic molds, and could only entrust Yokoi Junhei to do the work. For the actual released controllers, the buttons are one size larger than the Game & Watch. And the feedback of the response operation is better, and different buttons take different materials.
The picture shows the handle of the world's first cross-directional control key plus AB key.
Game cards and Family
According to Masayuki Uemura's advice, the specifications of the game card should be the same as the size of the tape. Nakagawa tried to load the tape into the card slot, but found that it did not work, and the final design result became a little larger.
Pictured here is a Nintendo game cartridge, a 60-pin PCB board with two 24KB capacity ROMs (read-only memory).
During the development of the game card, Nakagawa found that the contact defect and wear were very serious. He decided to develop a special 60-pin PCB board to solve this problem. Special emphasis is placed on the aging test of insertion and withdrawal, and then the number of game cards is plugged and removed to 5000 times.
In 1983, the overall content of GameCom: the main content of the airframe, controller, game card, etc., became clear. In April 1983, Masayuki Uemura was talking about the GameCom project at home. His wife said that since it wasn't a home console and it wasn't a personal computer, why not call it a home computer: FamilyComputer. FC for short, nicknamed Famicom, is very good.
The name was eventually retained and became the official name when it was released in Japan: Famicom.
Why is FC red and white? It originates from Yamauchi Pu's color requirements for the host. Once when Masayuki Uemura accompanied Yamauchi out of the house, he saw the billboard of the antenna manufacturer DX at high speed, which was a very good red. The next day, Yamauchi brought his own red scarf to the company and suggested using red. Although Uemura they have designed various color combinations such as: white and black, black and blue. Finally, according to Yamauchi's opinion, red is used as the main color of the machine.
Famicom is officially complete.
The picture shows the real body of The Family.
It should be noted that the abbreviation Famicom is not working for the time being, because Sharp trademarked it as a microwave oven (home appliance) and registered entertainment equipment. It wasn't until Sharp transferred the trademark for the entertainment device to Nintendo that Famicom was officially launched.