Nintendo rebuilt a ten-year-old machine — at half the price — so a decade of cartridges could keep playing on a modern TV.
About the New Famicom (AV Famicom)
The New Famicom — officially the AV Family Computer, model HVC-101 — launched in Japan on December 1, 1993, ten years after the original. Priced at ¥6,800, less than half the original's launch price, it replaced RF-only video with a composite signal through the same Multi-Out connector as the Super Famicom, swapped the hardwired controllers for detachable NES-style pads, and shrank the shell into a grey livery matching its successor. It plays the entire Famicom library, supports the Disk System, and remains the model most overseas collectors seek — because it connects to a modern TV without modification. Nintendo built it until 2003 and repaired it until 2012.
By 1993 the world already had a newer machine. Nintendo built this one anyway — for the people who never wanted to leave the old one behind.
In December 1993, the contest was already over. Star Fox had shipped that year; the Super Famicom held the era. The Famicom was a ten-year-old machine. And yet Nintendo released a brand-new one — the HVC-101, at ¥6,800, less than half the original's launch price. The reason was quiet and practical: Japanese televisions had begun dropping the RF antenna input the first Famicom depended on. Families with shelves full of cartridges were discovering that their old console no longer connected to their new TV. The New Famicom solved exactly that — a clear composite picture through the same connector as the Super Famicom, detachable controllers, a smaller and cheaper shell. It was not built to win the future. It was built so that no one had to abandon the past. Nintendo kept making it until 2003, and kept repairing it until 2012 — nine years after the last new Famicom game had shipped.
Design Characteristics
Form & Feel
The New Famicom abandons the original's unmistakable burgundy-and-cream livery for a soft grey shell that deliberately echoes the Super Famicom sitting beside it on the shelf. It is noticeably smaller. The most consequential change is at the front: where the original Famicom had a single 15-pin expansion port and two permanently attached controllers, the HVC-101 carries two detachable seven-pin controller ports — the same shape as the North American NES — and moves the 15-pin expansion connector to the right side of the unit. The supplied controllers, model HVC-102, are the rounded 'dogbone' pads named for their silhouette, far more comfortable in the hand than the original's hard rectangular blocks. One thing is lost in the redesign: the microphone built into the original's Player 2 controller is gone, because the new controllers are interchangeable and standardized. The cartridge slot is top-loading and deliberately flat around its edges — a quiet engineering choice that lets the bulky Disk System RAM Adapter seat properly, something the original's raised slot made awkward.
Era & Context
The World It Was Born Into
The New Famicom arrived into a market that had, by every visible measure, moved on. The Super Famicom had launched in 1990 and dominated; 1993 was the year of Star Fox and its Super FX chip, of 16-bit spectacle. To release a brand-new 8-bit console into that landscape looks, at first glance, like a mistake. It was not. Two facts explain it. First, the installed base had not gone anywhere: Famicom hardware was still shipping roughly 540,000 units a year in Japan in 1993, and new licensed Famicom software kept coming until June 1994. Millions of households owned shelves of cartridges they had no intention of throwing away. Second, the televisions those households were buying had changed. Sets were increasingly built with composite AV inputs and, in many cases, without the 75-ohm RF antenna terminal the original Famicom's only output required. A working ten-year-old console that suddenly could not connect to a new living-room television was a real and growing problem. The New Famicom was Nintendo's answer — not a step forward, but a bridge, sold cheaply enough that replacing a tired original was an easy decision.
Engineering
How It Was Built — and Why
Inside, the New Famicom is the original Famicom. The Ricoh 2A03 CPU and 2C02 Picture Processing Unit are unchanged, which is why compatibility with the entire cartridge library is total — the machine is the same computer in a new case. The engineering work went into the interfaces, not the silicon. The RF modulator was removed and replaced with Nintendo's standardized Multi-Out connector, physically identical to the one on the Super Famicom and Nintendo 64, so that a buyer could use a Super Famicom AV cable straight away. Crucially, the connector's shape is shared but its signal is not: the New Famicom outputs composite video and mono audio only — no S-Video, no RGB without modification. The controller ports were rebuilt to the seven-pin NES standard, which makes North American NES controllers electrically compatible, though two pins (D3 and D4) were omitted, so a handful of NES accessories that rely on them will not work. The original's 15-pin expansion connector survived the redesign, relocated from the underside-front to the right flank of the unit, preserving compatibility with peripherals like the Family BASIC keyboard. The same power supply serves both generations: the HVC-002 adapter, DC 10V at 850mA, shared with the Super Famicom and the Virtual Boy.
Design Philosophy
The Belief Behind the Machine
"A machine's life is measured not by when the company stops selling it, but by when the last person stops loving it."
There is a particular kind of corporate decision that almost never gets made: spending real engineering effort on a product you have already replaced. By 1993 Nintendo had every commercial reason to let the Famicom fade — the Super Famicom was its present and future, and an 8-bit machine carried no prestige. The New Famicom is interesting precisely because it is the opposite of a flagship. It is a machine made out of obligation to the people who had stayed. Every choice in it serves continuity rather than progress: the price halved so a replacement would not feel like a purchase; the internals left untouched so nothing in the library would break; the bulky case slimmed and the controllers freed from their cables so the everyday annoyances of the original were quietly fixed. There is a kind of respect in that — the recognition that a product's life is measured not by when the company stops selling it, but by when the last person stops loving it. Nintendo kept repairing the New Famicom until 2012, almost two decades after the Super Famicom had supposedly ended the Famicom's era. The machine's whole reason for existing was a refusal to tell anyone that their games were over.
Birth Story
How the New Famicom Was Born
A New Machine for an Old One
By 1993, the Famicom was supposed to be finished. The Super Famicom had launched three years earlier and owned the market; that very year brought Star Fox and its Super FX chip, the leading edge of 16-bit ambition. Releasing a brand-new 8-bit console into that landscape made no obvious sense. Nintendo did it anyway, on December 1, 1993, with the AV Family Computer — model HVC-101 — at ¥6,800, less than half the original's launch price.
The Problem No One Talks About
The reason was not nostalgia. It was wiring. Japanese televisions had begun shipping with composite AV inputs and, increasingly, without the 75-ohm RF antenna terminal that the original Famicom's only output depended on. A ten-year-old console that still worked perfectly was quietly becoming unusable — not because it had broken, but because the living room around it had changed. Millions of households owned shelves of cartridges and a machine that could no longer connect to the TV they had just bought.
A Redesign Aimed at Continuity
Every change in the New Famicom served the goal of keeping the old library alive. The RF modulator was replaced with the Super Famicom's Multi-Out connector, so a buyer could use a cable they might already own and get a clean composite picture. The hardwired controllers — whose cables cracked and killed consoles — became detachable, seven-pin pads in the rounded shape English-speaking collectors would call the 'dogbone.' The case shrank into a grey livery matching the Super Famicom. And the internals were left untouched, so nothing in the catalogue would break.
What Was Kept, and What Was Let Go
The redesign quietly preserved things people assumed were gone. The original's 15-pin expansion port survived, moved to the right side of the unit, keeping peripherals like the Family BASIC keyboard alive. The cartridge bay was deliberately flattened so the bulky Disk System RAM Adapter would still seat — the New Famicom supports the Disk System, despite a persistent myth to the contrary. One thing was let go: the microphone built into the original's Player 2 controller, lost when the controllers became standardized and interchangeable.
Sold Cheap, on Purpose
The ¥6,800 price was a statement of intent. Nintendo was not trying to sell a new experience; it was trying to make replacing a tired original an easy, almost trivial decision. The Famicom was still moving roughly 540,000 units a year in Japan in 1993, and new licensed software kept appearing until June 1994 — the last being Takahashi Meijin no Bōken-jima IV. There was a real, paying audience that had simply never left, and the New Famicom was built to serve exactly them.
Repaired Until 2012
Nintendo manufactured the New Famicom until September 25, 2003 — discontinuing it on the same day as the Super Famicom Jr., citing parts that had become hard to source. But the more telling date came later. Repair service for the original Famicom ended in October 2007; for the New Famicom, Nintendo kept accepting repairs until June 2012, almost two decades after the Super Famicom had supposedly closed the Famicom's era. The machine's entire purpose — refusing to tell anyone their games were over — held right to the end.
Reflection
What Lasts
There is a quiet honesty in the New Famicom that is easy to miss, because it never asked to be admired.
By 1993 the company that made it had every reason to look forward. The Super Famicom was the present; the future was already being drawn. A ten-year-old machine carried no glory. And yet someone sat down and did the unglamorous work — halving the price, fixing the cables, replacing the antenna jack with a connector that matched the new television in the corner — so that a child's shelf of cartridges would not quietly become unusable.
No one is asked to leave anything behind.
It is a small kindness, expressed in plastic and solder. The machine exists to say that the games you loved are not over just because the world bought something newer. Nintendo kept repairing it until 2012, almost two decades after its successor had supposedly closed the chapter.
Maybe that is the thing worth carrying out of this room: that what you have made, and what you have loved, does not expire on someone else's schedule. The newer machine on the shelf is not a verdict on the older one.
If you still have a shelf of old games somewhere — you already understand why this machine was built.
Before You BuyWhat to watch for, so you don't regret it
Buying a New Famicom: what to think about before you click Of all the Famicom-family machines, this is the one most people actually want to play on — because it connects to a modern television without surgery. That alone is why collectors outside Japan seek it out. But 'easiest to use' is not the same as 'nothing to check.' The New Famicom has its own small list of questions, different from the original's, and most of them come down to one thing: what's actually in the box, and what condition the thirty-year-old parts are in. These are notes from someone who has been through the same decisions — written to save you the detours.
Caring for One You OwnKeeping a vintage machine running
Getting the right machine was the first step. This is the second. A New Famicom is the most forgiving member of its family — composite output, detachable controllers, the same robust internals as the original. But it is still a thirty-year-old machine, and the same quiet attention that has kept it alive this long is now yours to carry forward. This is not a repair manual. It does not assume a soldering iron or a background in electronics. It assumes only that you would rather understand the machine you have than be surprised by it. What ages inside. What you can do. Where to call in a specialist. Three sections, in that order.
What Ages Inside a Thirty-Year-Old Machine
- Electrolytic capacitorsThe New Famicom board carries electrolytic capacitors, and aluminum electrolytics of this era have a chemical lifespan of roughly twenty to thirty years. A console built in 1993 has now reached or passed that window. The decline is invisible at first. Rising internal resistance produces symptoms that seem unrelated to each other: audio that sounds slightly off, faint lines across an otherwise clean picture, a reset that happens once and never repeats. These are not dramatic failures. They are a machine speaking in a language most people do not recognize. By the time the signs are obvious — a faint chemical smell, fluid traces on the board — the damage is no longer minor. A capacitor that looks fine from the outside may already be well into its decline. The exterior offers no reliable evidence of what is happening underneath.
- Cartridge connectorMetal contacts oxidize in open air, with humidity, over time. The New Famicom's 60-pin cartridge connector is no exception, and after three decades a layer of oxidation is reliable enough to expect on any unserviced unit. This oxidation is the single most common reason a game fails to load. It is also the area where careful home maintenance makes the most genuine difference.
- Detachable controller ports — an advantage that still agesThe move to detachable controllers removed the original Famicom's worst failure point: hardwired cables that cracked where they entered the housing. On the New Famicom, a damaged controller is simply unplugged and replaced. What remains is the port itself. The seven-pin connectors accumulate the same oxidation as any contact, and the springy metal inside can loosen with thousands of insertions. A controller that reads intermittently is more often a dirty or tired port than a broken pad.
- Plastic shellThe grey ABS plastic of the New Famicom yellows with age, as all console plastics of the period do. Ultraviolet light — sunlight and fluorescent tubes alike — oxidizes the brominated flame retardants in the material, shifting the colour toward amber. This is a chemical change within the plastic itself, not a surface deposit that cleaning can address. The reaction does not require light to begin; some machines yellow in storage. Yellowing is aging made visible. It does not indicate neglect, and it does not affect how the machine runs.
- A note on save batteries — they live in the cartridgeA common misconception is worth stating plainly. The console itself contains no save battery of any kind. Save data does not live in the machine. It lives in the cartridge. A small number of Famicom games store progress using a lithium battery soldered inside the cartridge housing. When that battery fails, the game can no longer retain saves — but the console is not involved, and the repair is entirely a cartridge-side procedure.
What Good Care Looks Like
- Power — the one rule that matters mostThe New Famicom runs on the HVC-002 adapter: DC 10 volts at 850 milliamps, centre-negative, shared with the Super Famicom and Virtual Boy. One caution outweighs all others. A North American NES adapter (NES-002) outputs alternating current — 9V AC — while the New Famicom expects direct current. Connecting an NES adapter can destroy the console. The two are not interchangeable, regardless of whether the plug fits. Original HVC-002 adapters are now over thirty years old and can drift out of their rated tolerance. Testing with a multimeter, or using a correctly specified modern replacement, is worth considering for any machine in regular use.
- StorageAim for a room that stays between 15 and 24 degrees Celsius, with relative humidity around 40 to 50 percent. Basements and attics swing outside both ranges with the seasons, and those swings — more than any single extreme — accelerate the aging of plastic, metal, and board alike. For long-term storage, a sealed container with a packet of silica gel limits humidity between uses. Direct sunlight is the fastest way to yellow the shell permanently; indirect, diffused light is the right environment for a machine you want to keep its original colour.
- Cartridge contacts — the most useful thing you can do at homeOf all the maintenance possible without specialized tools, cleaning the cartridge contacts produces the most noticeable results. Use isopropyl alcohol at 91 percent or higher. The 70-percent disinfectant formulas contain too much water, and that water accelerates exactly the corrosion you are trying to remove. Apply a small amount to a cotton swab and use a forward-and-back motion along the pins — not circular, which redistributes rather than removes oxidation. Follow with a dry swab, and let the contacts sit for at least thirty seconds before inserting a cartridge. One note on a habit that has circulated for decades: blowing into a cartridge or slot is not effective and is not recommended. The moisture in breath adds humidity to contacts already prone to corrosion. Any improvement after blowing came from removing and reinserting the cartridge, not from the breath.
- Controllers and portsThe detachable controllers are the New Famicom's quiet luxury. Treat the ports as you would any contact: if a controller reads intermittently, a swab of high-concentration isopropyl alcohol on the connector pins, allowed to dry fully, usually restores it before you assume the pad is faulty. Unplug controllers by gripping the connector, not by pulling the cable — the same care that keeps any connector alive for decades.
- Exterior cleaningA microfiber cloth, lightly dampened, with a little diluted dish soap if needed, is enough for the shell and the ventilation slots. Bleach, abrasive cleaners, and strong solvents damage ABS plastic and should never come near the housing. Let the surface dry fully before powering the machine on.
Where Specialist Work Begins
Good home maintenance — the right power supply, gentle cleaning, careful contact work, sensible storage — does more than most people realize. For a machine already running well, these habits extend the time before anything more serious is needed. But there is a line, and recognizing it matters.
- RecappingReplacing the electrolytic capacitors is the most common specialist procedure, and among the most consequential if done incorrectly. Reversed polarity on an electrolytic capacitor can destroy the board permanently. The work requires temperature-controlled soldering, familiarity with component specifications, and proper electrostatic precautions. These are learnable skills, but they are not beginner work, and a board damaged by a bad recap cannot be undone.
- Internal inspection and board cleaningTo assess a machine's internal condition, someone has to open it. Evaluating capacitor health, spotting early corrosion, recognizing compromised solder joints — this requires experience that photographs cannot substitute for. A machine that runs cleanly today may still have capacitors approaching failure. External and internal condition are separate questions, and the exterior answers neither.
- RGB or S-Video modificationThe New Famicom outputs composite only. Collectors who want a sharper signal sometimes fit an RGB modification (for example using an NESRGB board). This is specialist work involving internal soldering and is not reversible casually. For most players, a good composite-to-HDMI converter is sufficient and requires no modification at all.
Coming soon — the shop owner's personal note on the New Famicom. Of all the Famicom-family machines, this is the one Taisei Shimizu most often recommends to overseas collectors who simply want to play. His note will appear here.
The New Famicom runs the same Ricoh 2A03 sound chip as the original — hear it, in original music composed for the machine: The Sound of the Machines: Famicom →