Family Computer According to Uemura, video games were an unfamiliar concept to Japanese toy stores when they were introduced; the stores did not consider carrying them since they required televisions, which the stores did not sell at the time. Rather than targeting the
educational market with
PC-like styling, Uemura styled the Famicom like a toy as a cheaper option. The red, gold, and white color scheme, chosen by Yamauchi, was inspired by two objects that used similar schemes: a
scarf that he liked, and a
set-top TV antenna from a company called DX Antenna. Other design considerations took into account the lifestyles and attitudes of Japanese consumers at the time. Uemura had considered PC-like styling for the console, but elected to use a horizontally oriented design suited for placement on the floor; he felt Japanese consumers would prefer the latter as more relaxing. The controllers were designed to make the console's adoption among Japanese consumers easier; despite arriving on the market later than its competitors, the
Game & Watch-inspired design provided a familiar control scheme for those who had already played one of its
handheld electronic games, especially with the inclusion of a
D-pad for versatility across game genres. They were also intentionally hardwired with short cables to keep players close to the console (and the TV by extension), ideal for Japanese houses due to their smaller layout compared to their American counterparts.
Nintendo Entertainment System Seeking to market the Famicom worldwide after its 1983 release in Japan, Nintendo forged a tentative distribution and rights agreement with
Atari to market it outside the country as the
Nintendo Enhanced Video System; however, both sides never consummated the deal as planned at the Summer CES in June 1983 due to a series of events that culminated in Atari collapsing amid the
video game crash that year. Despite the pessimism of North American retailers, Yamauchi was still convinced that a launch there was feasible, so he ordered the introduction of a Famicom-based arcade system called the
Nintendo VS. System the following year to gauge interest in the console's games there; the success of the system in North America encouraged Yamauchi to move forward with the launch. Under the direction of Lance Barr and Don James, the former of which then held the position of "Design & Brand Director" at Nintendo of America (NOA), the Famicom was initially redesigned to resemble a
home computer; christened the
Nintendo Advanced Video System (AVS), it featured peripherals such as a
computer keyboard, a
musical keyboard, a
tape drive,
infrared wireless controllers, and a folding
light gun. The console itself featured a Famicom-like top-loading system and cartridges, whereas the controller's D-pad had a square shape similar to that of
Sega's
Master System. The AVS was shown off at the Winter CES in January 1985, planned for a June release, to middling fanfare. Chief among the concerns identified by Nintendo was the lingering stigma from the 1983 crash and the high price point the console was likely to command. was showcased at the Summer CES that June as the
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo subsequently conceived a new design for the NES with colorations from Barr and James. Known among Nintendo employees as the "lunch box", the design—credited to engineer Masayuki Yukawa—included a front-loading cartridge mechanism that was modeled after a
videocassette recorder, mainly intended to further remove the console from the stigma of its contemporaries. While most of the peripherals that accompanied the AVS were scrapped, the light gun was kept, albeit in a cost-reduced form as the
NES Zapper. To further dissuade consumers from perceiving the NES as a console, Nintendo introduced the Nintendo Video Robot, a
toy robot that acted as a second player in two games; the presence of the robot, which was eventually named the
Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) by advertising manager
Gail Tilden, helped convince reluctant
toy shops to place orders for the NES before it launched in New York City on October 18, 1985. Nintendo then partnered with
Mattel in 1987 to distribute the NES in the United Kingdom and Italy; the same year, the console was introduced to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg via Nintendo Entertainment Systems International (NESI), a French private company led by former NOA salesperson Ron Judy. However, Mattel's lackluster marketing effort in the face of strong competition from the home computer market led Nintendo to give the British distribution rights to NESI the following year. The same year, Nintendo established a regional subsidiary—Nintendo Australia—and subsequently reclaimed the distribution rights the following year. Europe was split into two zones for distribution; the United Kingdom and Italy were designated as PAL-A, while the rest of Europe was designated as PAL-B. Consoles from one zone are not compatible with games from the other zone. Also, unique to the French NES consoles is the inclusion of an
audiovisual (AV) port that outputs
RGB video via a
SCART connector instead of
composite; however, since the NES is not capable of RGB output (in its original form), it converts the native composite signal to RGB.
Asian versions The NES was also released in other regions of Asia outside Japan (except for mainland China). In particular, South Korea received the NES via distributor
Hyundai Electronics as the
Hyundai Comboy in October 1989. Nintendo could not sell the NES directly in the country as Japanese cultural imports were banned by the government at the time, dating back to the end of
World War II; the ban stayed in effect until 2004. In India, a license-built version of the PAL-region NES was sold as the
Samurai Electronic TV Game System. However, due to the prohibitively expensive price of the console, it sold poorly in the country; the Samurai brand was later reused on a series of unauthorised
Famiclone consoles. ==Redesigned variant==