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6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
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co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
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content/museum/nintendo-family-computer-keyboard.md
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---
title: Nintendo Family Computer Keyboard
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1984'
cpus:
- 6502 ?
params:
name: Family Computer Keyboard
company: /companies/nintendo
company_name: Nintendo
specs:
- label: NAME
value: Family Computer Keyboard
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Nintendo
- label: TYPE
value: Home Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: Japan
- label: YEAR
value: April 1984
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: NS-HUBASIC V1.0, V2.0A, V2.1 or V3.0
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Full-stroke keyboard with functions keys and arrow keys
- label: CPU
value: 6502 ?
- label: RAM
value: |-
Basic V2.0A : 1982 bytes free\
Basic V3.0 : 4086 bytes free
- label: VRAM
value: 4 kb
- label: ROM
value: 8 kb
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 28 x 24
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 256 x 240
- label: SOUND
value: 5 channel sound (2 channels for square wave, 1 triangle wave, 1 noise channel and 1 PCM)
- label: PERIPHERALS
value: Expansion memory unit, tape-recorder, Basic cartidges
- label: PRICE
value: 14 800 yens (Japan, 1982)
tabs:
- photos
- hardware
- software
- links
photos:
- title: FAMILY COMPUTER
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system
image: null
- title: SIDE VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system
image: null
- title: UNDER THE BEAST
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system
image: null
- title: REAR
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system
image: null
- title: FAMILY BASIC CARTRIDGE
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
- title: FAMILY BASIC CARTRIDGE (BACK)
subtitle: ''
text: This is where you insert the batteries so you can save your work, directly inside the cartridge!
image: null
- title: BOX
subtitle: ''
text: Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system
image: null
hardware:
- title: TAPE-RECORDER
subtitle: ''
text: |-
The tape-recorder connects to the keyboard. It was a useful extension to save Basic programs (though it was possible to save them to the Basic cartridge memory) !
It cost 9800 yens in 1984 !
image: null
- title: FAMILY ACE
subtitle: Cartridge copier
text: ''
image: null
- title: FAMILY WRITER
subtitle: Cartridge copier
text: Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture
image: null
- title: FAMILY WRITER
subtitle: Front
text: Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture
image: null
screenshots:
- title: FAMILY BASIC V3
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
links:
- title: FAMILY BASIC
url: http://home7.highway.ne.jp/hiro-s/fb/famindex.htm
text: Nice Japanese page
- title: Technical information by Goro
url: http://nesdev.parodius.com/Keyboard-english.txt
text: Mostly about the keyboard itself (scanning and connectors)
- title: TRS's NES Archive
url: http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/other/
text: This excellent site has some adverts of the keyboard
comments:
- author: James (Ireland)
date: Saturday 30th May 2020
text: |-
The FAMILY BASIC ROM was actually created by the creators of the BOMBERMAN games HudsonSoft since most of the cartridges code was created by them.
Along with that FAMILY BASIC was quite unique compared to other versions since NES sprites are already preloaded in ROM Where as in other versions of basic you would be required to create a sprite by using machine code
- author: Robert (usa)
date: Friday 17th October 2014
text: also the data recore could be used as a standard tape player/ recorder and has a built in mic it runs off of 4 aa batteries or a 6V Adapter
- author: Robert (usa)
date: Friday 17th October 2014
text: i acutally own one of these in my game console collection and yes there was a tape recoreder avallable for it called the famicom data recorder which allowed you to save your basic programs or save games that have an edit mode like lode runner etc
oc_id: 517
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230528095538/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=517
date: '2023-05-28'
---
This is an initiation computer. It was sold as an add-on for the Japanese Famicom (but can't be connected to a NES as it lacks the Famicom's Expantion Port).
In fact the system is composed of three parts : the Famicom, the keyboard and the Basic cartidge. The keyboard is connected to the expansion port situated at the front of the Famicom. Then a Basic cartridge must be inserted into the Famicom catridge slot. As the keyboard is almost "empty", most of the Famicom's hardware is used, along with the Basic cartridge RAM chips.
The Basic delivered with the keyboard is the NS-HUBASIC, where "N" stands for Nintendo, "S" for Sharp and "HU" for Hudson, as they all contributed to this project.\
Once inserted there is only 1982 bytes free to play with ! But it was possible to back-up the program into the cartridge itself by powering it with 3 battery cells. This saving method wasn't reliable as quite often the programs were lost because of bad contacts...\
Hopefully, a tape-recorder was available, but there again, the adjustment of the input level was quite difficult to get.
Some games using the built-in save/load feature of the Basic cartridge were released such as "Lode Runner" (edit mode) and "Challenge Race".
The catalog number of the keyboard is HVC-007.