Nintendo Entertainment System (Model NES-101) - Family Computer (model HVC-101)

Family Computer (model HVC-101)

The HVC-101 model of the Family Computer was a redesign of the original Family Computer video game console released by Nintendo in Japan in the early 1980s. Nintendo itself marketed simply as the Family Computer, exactly the same as the original, but users called it AV Famicom or New Famicom to distinguish from the original. It was released in Japan on December 1 1993 and retailed for ¥6800. Like the original model, it is commonly referred to by the nickname "Famicom". It was stylistically similar to the NES-101 model released in North America at roughly the same time.

The HVC-101 model was designed to address two major design flaws of the original HVC-001 model. The original HVC-001 featured hardwired game controllers; users who wished to add additional, specialized controllers were forced to make use of the deck's single expansion port. In bringing NES-style removable controllers to the HVC-101 model, Nintendo removed the microphone which had been originally included on the second controller in place of the "start" and "select" buttons. The microphone was originally intended to introduce extra functionality for certain games, but, in practice, very few games had ever made use of it. The redesigned controllers have the Nintendo part number HVC-102 and are equivalent to the NES-039 controllers for the NES.

Secondly, the HVC-001 model featured audio/video output via RF modulator only. By the early 1990s, many Japanese television sets featured composite input jacks. The HVC-101 replaced the HVC-001's RF output switch with composite AV cables, thus the name AV Famicom. This represented the biggest difference between the Japanese HVC-101 and the North America NES-101, which included only RF modulator output functionality (even though the original NES had composite as well as RF modulator outputs).

The HVC-101 also featured a slightly different case design from the NES-101 in order to allow compatibility with the Family Computer Disk System. The area around the cartridge slot of the HVC-101 is flat rather than convex. This allows users to insert the large RAM Adapter Cartridge required to use the Disk System accessory.