1984 · Nintendo · Arcade

Family BASIC

Nintendo exclusive

The Family Basic is a Basic interpreter for the Famicom that was only released in Japan. It included the Famicom Keyboard and a tape drive called the Famicom Data Recorder. Many versions were released following the first version which was released in June 1984. Version 3 included games that were based on previous Nintendo titles.

Released: 21 June 1984
Platforms: NES
Genres: Arcade
Developers: Nintendo
Publishers: —
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric

About

Family BASIC is a consumer product for programming on the Family Computer video game console. Family BASIC was launched on June 21, 1984, to consumers in Japan by Nintendo, in cooperation with Hudson Soft and Sharp Corporation. A second version titled Family BASIC V3 was released on February 21, 1985, with greater memory and new features.

Keywords

programming

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Family BASIC was released in Japan by Nintendo for the Family Computer on June 21, 1984, in Japan. As part of a collaboration between Nintendo, Sharp Corporation, and Hudson Soft, it was created to attract computer users over to the new Famicom. Koji Kondo wrote a section in the instruction manual for programming Japanese popular music in the game, as his second project for Nintendo. Prior to this, Kondo had become interested in producing music through computers by programming sound effects in BASIC on his home computer.

0", was released in early 1985. 0 features expanded memory and several minigames built-in to the programming cartridge, indicated by a red cartridge shell.

Reception

Family BASIC was commercially successful, with more than 400,000 units sold by the end of the 1980s.

In a 2011 retrospective review, Retro Gamer thought it was a "some-what useless" peripheral for the Famicom due to its high price point and lack of compatibility with the Famicom Disk System, although they found it to be an interesting collection piece for its rarity and overall concept.

Legacy

Family BASIC was the basis of the Nintendo Advanced Video System prototype, which was an early attempt by Nintendo of America to repurpose the Famicom as a home computer before releasing it in the United States. The AVS ended up being replaced by the Nintendo Entertainment System, which dropped the home computer accessories of the AVS, and the Family BASIC didn't receive a release outside Japan.

Cho Ren Sha 68K developer Koichi "Famibe no Yosshin" Yoshida began his video game programming career in his teens with a Family BASIC borrowed from a friend, spending six years using Family BASIC and submitted several shooter game programs to the Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine.