Console
An NTSC 1.66 MHz 2A03 with 2 KiB work RAM and a tile-and-sprite PPU.
The front-loading Nintendo Entertainment System, the case in which this hardware was sold in North America.
This is the North American retail NES configuration, built around Nintendo's 2A03 and its separate picture processor. It belongs here as the console that carried Nintendo's cartridge hardware into the North American home market.
| Component | Role | Count | Clock | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricoh 2A03 | Main CPU | 1 | 1.66 MHz Nominal clock | — |
| Ricoh 2C02 PPU | GPU | 1 | 5.37 MHz Nominal clock | — |
| Nintendo Entertainment System RAM | System memory | 1 | — | 2 KiB |
| Nintendo Entertainment System video RAM Attached to the picture processor; the CPU reaches it only through the PPU ports. | Video memory | 1 | — | 2 KiB |
provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clock frequency cpu | 1.66 MHz | Confirmed | Vendor-rated | Nominal clock Stated by the vendorAs stated by Nintendo for the console, with no region named. Nintendo's own figure, and it matches neither of the frequencies this console is normally described as running at: about 1.79 MHz on NTSC hardware, about 1.77 MHz on PAL. The manufacturer names no region and no condition. It is published here because it is the only statement about this console from a document anybody can open: the circulating figure has no source this project may cite, so there is no competing candidate to record against it. | |
| Clock frequency gpu provisional | 5.37 MHz | Rumored | Vendor-rated | Nominal clock From community documentation Nintendo publishes no clock for the picture processor. Wikipedia's specification section states 5.37 MHz for the Ricoh 2C02 in an NTSC console, and the catalog carries it as rumored until a technical document states it. | |
| Memory capacity whole-system | 4096 B | Confirmed | Derived | Design capacity Computed here from figures the vendor stated Adds 2 memory-capacity figures obtained by design-capacity. Left out: removable game-cartridge ROM (removable program storage, not memory the console can write to). A total is only as trustworthy as the decision about what belongs in it, so both the terms and the exclusions are named records. |
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory bandwidth memory | unknown Nintendo's table states two memory capacities and no transfer rate, bus width or timing, so there is neither a bandwidth to read nor terms to compute one from. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor The vendor page is a consumer specification rather than a hardware manual; capacities are as far as it goes into memory. | |
| Storage capacity storage | not applicable Game cartridges are removable media and their ROM capacity varies by title; no cartridge capacity is part of the base console. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendor Nintendo's page for this console gives no cartridge figure. Its Super Nintendo page does state a range, which is why that machine's record carries the bounds and this one does not. | |
| Rated power consumption whole-system | unknown Nintendo's table states the console's dimensions and no electrical figure of any kind. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Rated power Stated by the vendor The console predates the European ecodesign disclosures that give this catalog the Switch's rating, and its specification page states nothing electrical. |
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak FP32 rate cpu | not applicable This console CPU has no integrated floating-point execution unit. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Not-applicable rather than unknown: this is a fact about the architecture, not about what Nintendo published. |
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak FP32 rate gpu | not applicable This is a tile, sprite or scanline graphics unit, not a floating-point processor; it executes no FP32 operations. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Not-applicable for the same architectural reason as the processor, and recorded separately because it is a separate part. |
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory capacity memory | 2 KiB | Confirmed | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendorStatic work RAM addressable by the processor. The processor's work memory, which Nintendo states beside an equal amount of video memory. The page writes "Kb" where it means kilobytes; read as kilobits the row would give 256 B, which no version of this console has. |
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory capacity memory | 2 KiB | Confirmed | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendorStatic video RAM addressable by the picture processor. Memory attached to the picture processor rather than to the processor, and a term of the machine's memory all the same: Nintendo lists it in the same row as the work memory and in the same amount. |
4096 B
a + b + … sum v1 Adds 2 memory-capacity figures obtained by design-capacity. Left out: not applicable (removable program storage, not memory the console can write to). A total is only as trustworthy as the decision about what belongs in it, so both the terms and the exclusions are named records.
Cartridge ROM is removable storage and is excluded from every whole-system memory total in this catalog.
Two of this console’s defining games are in The Strong National Museum of Play’s World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the museum’s records describe two different kinds of influence.
Super Mario Bros. went in with the inaugural class of 2015. The record credits Shigeru Miyamoto as its designer and Nintendo as its publisher, gives 1985 as the year it appeared on the Famicom and on its American counterpart, and makes a point about timing. The American home video game market had already crashed, and the museum’s judgment is that Mario helped Nintendo revive it.
The Legend of Zelda followed in 2016. The museum’s record describes a game with no set path, where players were free to work through Hyrule in whatever order they chose, and says the resulting complexity pushed players into trading tips with one another. Nintendo answered that with the Fun Club newsletter, which became Nintendo Power. The record also notes a piece of hardware inside the cartridge: an internal battery that backed up saved data.