website/content/museum/nintendo-family-computer-keyboard.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Nintendo Family Computer Keyboard	Computers	Home Computer	Japan	1984	6502 ?	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos hardware screenshots links oc_id source Family Computer Keyboard /media/museum/photos/nintendo_family-computers_1.jpg /companies/nintendo Nintendo label value NAME Family Computer Keyboard label value MANUFACTURER Nintendo label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN Japan label value YEAR April 1984 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE NS-HUBASIC V1.0, V2.0A, V2.1 or V3.0 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with functions keys and arrow keys label value CPU 6502 ? label value RAM Basic V2.0A : 1982 bytes free\ Basic V3.0 : 4086 bytes free label value VRAM 4 kb label value ROM 8 kb label value TEXT MODES 28 x 24 label value GRAPHIC MODES 256 x 240 label value SOUND 5 channel sound (2 channels for square wave, 1 triangle wave, 1 noise channel and 1 PCM) label value PERIPHERALS Expansion memory unit, tape-recorder, Basic cartidges label value PRICE 14 800 yens (Japan, 1982) photos hardware software links 511 title subtitle text image FAMILY COMPUTER Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system /media/museum/photos/nintendo_familiybasic_2.jpg title subtitle text image SIDE VIEW Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system /media/museum/photos/nintendo_familiybasic_right.jpg title subtitle text image UNDER THE BEAST Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system /media/museum/photos/nintendo_familiybasic_under.jpg title subtitle text image REAR Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system /media/museum/photos/nintendo_familiybasic_rear.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY BASIC CARTRIDGE /media/museum/photos/nintendo_basic-cart.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY BASIC CARTRIDGE (BACK) This is where you insert the batteries so you can save your work, directly inside the cartridge! /media/museum/photos/nintendo_basic-cart_opened.jpg title subtitle text image BOX Thanks to Pascal Blancaneaux for lending us his system /media/museum/photos/nintendo_familiybasic_box.jpg title subtitle text image TAPE-RECORDER 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 ! /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_family-computers_tape_1.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY ACE Cartridge copier /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_familycomputer_familyace_copier.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY WRITER Cartridge copier Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_familcom_family-writer_1.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY WRITER Front Thanks to Rikard Ljungkvist for this picture /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_familcom_family-writer_2.jpg title subtitle text image FAMILY BASIC V3 /media/museum/software/nintendo_famicom_familybasicv3.jpg title url text FAMILY BASIC http://home7.highway.ne.jp/hiro-s/fb/famindex.htm Nice Japanese page title url text Technical information by Goro http://nesdev.parodius.com/Keyboard-english.txt Mostly about the keyboard itself (scanning and connectors) title url text TRS's NES Archive http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/other/ This excellent site has some adverts of the keyboard 517 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230528095538/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=517 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.