page_title: Nintendo Entertainment System
section_title: Configurations
hierarchical_section_title: Nintendo Entertainment System / Hardware / Configurations
caption_attribution_description: English: A North American Nintendo Entertainment System, model NES-101, shown with redesigned "bone" controller.
context_page_description: The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. Nintendo first released it in Japan as as the Family Computer, commonly known as the Famicom, in 1983. The NES, a remodelled version, was released internationally in the following years.
  The NES featured a number of groundbreaking games, such as the platform game Super Mario Bros, the action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda and the action game Metroid. As one of the best-selling gaming consoles of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983. With the NES, Nintendo introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce and distribute games for Nintendo's platform. It had been preceded by Nintendo's first home video game console, the Color TV-Game, and was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
context_section_description: Although the Japanese Famicom, North American and European NES versions included essentially the same hardware, there were certain key differences among the systems.
  The original Japanese Famicom was predominantly white plastic, with dark red trim. It featured a top-loading cartridge slot, grooves on both sides of the deck in which the hardwired game controllers could be placed when not in use, and a 15-pin expansion port located on the unit's front panel for accessories.
  The original NES, meanwhile, featured a front-loading cartridge covered by a small, hinged door that can be opened to insert or remove a cartridge and closed at other times. It features a more subdued gray, black, and red color scheme. An expansion port was found on the bottom of the unit and the cartridge connector pinout was changed.
  In the UK, Italy and Australia which all share the PAL-A region, the "Mattel Version" of the NES released, with the UK also receiving the "NES Version" of the NES and Italy later receiving the "Versione Italiana" NES. When the NES was first released in those countries, it was distributed by Mattel and Nintendo decided to use a lockout chip specific to those countries, different from the chip used in other European countries.
  In October 1993, Nintendo redesigned the NES to follow many of the same design cues as the newly introduced Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Super Famicom. Like the SNES, the NES-101 model loads cartridges through a covered slot on top of the unit replacing the complicated mechanism of the earlier design. The console was only released in America and Australia.
  In December 1993, the Famicom received a similar redesign. It also loads cartridges through a covered slot on the top of the unit and uses non-hardwired controllers. Because HVC-101 uses composite video output instead of being RF only like the HVC-001, Nintendo marketed the newer model as the AV Famicom. Since the new controllers don't have microphones on them like the second controller on the original console, certain games such as the Disk System version of The Legend of Zelda and Raid on Bungeling Bay have certain tricks that cannot be replicated when played on an HVC-101 Famicom without a modified controller. In October 1987, Nintendo released a 3D stereoscopic headset called the Famicom 3D System (HVC-031) in Japan only.
caption: The NES-101 control deck alongside its similarly redesigned NES-039 game controller.
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