A typical Betamax recorder. This and similar appliances influenced the international design of the NES. I spotted this particular one at The Centre for Computing History (Cambridge, UK) when I visited in August 2024.
Nintendo ended up shipping lots of different variants of the same console across the world and even though they all share the same architecture, many look dramatically different and some may include built-in accessories. So, to keep it simple for this article, I'll focus on the two most popular revisions:
- The Family Computer (known as Famicom) was the first incarnation, but was only released in Japan. This toy-looking design features two non-removable controllers (of which the second controller bundles an internal microphone), a front socket for the light gun (called Zapper), RF video out (using NTSC-J signal) and extra pins in the cartridge slot to expand the audio capabilities.
- The Nintendo Entertainment System (known as NES) was the redesigned edition for western audiences living in North America, Europe and Oceania; with a look and mechanism that match the common VHS/Betamax player. On the technical side, the controllers are now detachable (and microphone-lacking) and the video out has been improved with extra NTSC/PAL composite RCA connectors, although the audio expansion has been replaced with an anti-piracy subsystem. To top it off, the bottom of the case seals an 'expansion port' that was left unused, along with extra cartridge pins that communicate to that port .
Because the author grew up with the 'NES' name, I will default to using that term to refer to the console in general, but I will switch to 'Famicom' when referring to unique capabilities only found in the Japanese variant.