Nintendo's Family Computer

Witness History

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2017

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Famicom gaming console was a breakthrough in the world of computer games. Launched in Japan in 1983, it brought games out of arcades and into people's living rooms. When it reached markets in the West it was renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo designer Masayuki Uemura has been speaking to Ashley Byrne about how it was developed.

Photo: Masayuki Uemura, holding Donkey Kong software for the original Famicom console. (Credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images.)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:38.4	Choosing what to watch.
0:39.4	Night after night.
0:41.1	The flicking through. The endless searching is a nightmare. We want to help you. On our
0:46.7	brand new podcast off the telly we share what we've been watching.
0:50.3	Cladie aider. Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming, lovely.
0:55.0	Off the telly with me Joanna Paige and me, Natalie Cassidy,
0:59.0	so your evenings can be a little less searching
1:02.0	and a lot more watching listen on BBC
1:04.7	sounds hello you're listening to the witness podcast history as told by the people
1:10.2	who were there I'm Ashley Byrne and I'm taking you back to 1983 and the
1:15.0	launch in Japan of a home computer game system that changed the world of
1:19.2	video gaming forever. Designer Masayuki Uamora shares his memories of the birth of the Nintendo family computer,
1:27.0	which would later become known in the West as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
1:32.0	Haruki and Erika Ukawa spend most evenings in front of the box,
1:38.0	but they're glued to software programs, not television programs.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.