50 free NES trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Nintendo Entertainment System began life as the Family Computer, a red-and-white Japanese console designed by Masayuki Uemura after Hiroshi Yamauchi demanded a machine cheap enough for every household. Two years later, redesigned as a gray VCR lookalike and sold with a robot and a light gun, it revived an American games market that the 1983 crash had nearly killed. These 50 questions trace the whole story: the Donkey Kong arcade hardware and the ColecoVision benchmark, the 1983 recall, the GameCom codename, the collapsed Atari deal and the Advanced Video System prototype, the 17 launch games, Worlds of Wonder's strong-arm sales, the 10NES lock-out chip and the blinking red light, Tengen's Rabbit chip, the FTC settlement, the Famicom Disk System, the Dendy and other famiclones, the gold Zelda cartridge and the unreleased knitting machine. Easy questions stick to the famous accessories and games; the hard tier asks about engineers, chip makers and regional variants. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Play it solo or print it for a retro games night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the Famicom released in Japan?
1983
It launched on July 15, 1983, the same day as Sega's SG-1000.
Q 02Where did the NES first go on sale as a US test market in October 1985?
New York
Los Angeles followed in February 1986 and the nationwide launch came that September.
Q 03Which engineer designed the 8-bit Famicom?
Masayuki Uemura
Uemura headed Nintendo Research & Development 2 from 1978.
Q 04Which Nintendo president demanded a simple, cheap console that ran arcade games?
Hiroshi Yamauchi
He personally decided the controller layout, casing shape and red-and-white look.
Q 05The Famicom's hardware was based on that of which Nintendo arcade game?
Donkey Kong
The team even took a cabinet to chip maker Ricoh for analysis.
Q 06Which pair redesigned the console as the NES for Western markets?
Lance Barr and Don James
They nicknamed the Japanese prototype they were sent "the lunchbox".
Q 07The Western NES was styled to resemble which household appliance?
A cable TV box
The front-loading slot hid the cartridge once inserted, just like a VCR tape.
Q 08What was the name of the NES light gun?
Zapper
It shipped in the Deluxe Set with Duck Hunt.
Q 09What does R.O.B. stand for?
Robotic Operating Buddy
The toy robot helped position the NES as cutting-edge rather than as a mere game console.
Q 10Which console was the NES's main rival in the third generation?
Sega Master System
The Master System outsold the NES in Europe for much of the 1980s.
Q 11Roughly how many NES and Famicom consoles did Nintendo sell?
62 million
The exact figure is 61.91 million, most of them in Japan and North America.
Q 12In what year did Nintendo discontinue the NES in North America and Europe?
1995
The Famicom carried on in Japan until 2003.
Q 13What was the Famicom project's codename during development?
GameCom
The final name was suggested by the lead engineer's wife.
Q 14Who proposed the name "Famicom"?
Q 21What unusual feature did the Famicom's second controller include?
A microphone
It lacked Start and Select, and very few games used the mic.
Q 22What was the Famicom's launch price in Japan?
¥14,800
It was still less than half the cost of rival consoles.
Q 23Which of these was one of the Famicom's three launch games?
Popeye
All three launch titles were arcade ports: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye.
Q 24Which Sega console launched in Japan on the same day as the Famicom?
Masayuki Uemura's wife
She argued it was neither a personal nor a home computer but a "family computer".
Q 15What inspired the Famicom's red and white colour scheme?
An antenna maker's billboard
The president spotted a hoarding for DX Antenna using those colours.
Q 16Which American console set the bar for the Famicom, according to its designer?
ColecoVision
Its smooth port of Donkey Kong impressed the project manager's family.
Q 17Which chip maker produced the Famicom's Picture Processing Unit?
Ricoh
Ricoh also built the console's CPU, an unlicensed 6502 variant.
Q 18Who designed the Famicom's sound chip?
Yukio Kaneoka
Kaneoka, who composed Donkey Kong, wanted a chip that could render more waveforms than rivals.
Q 19At whose suggestion was a cartridge eject lever added, purely to amuse children?
Gunpei Yokoi
Yokoi also designed the cross-shaped D-pad for Game & Watch.
Q 20The D-pad and two-button layout came from which earlier Nintendo product line?
Game & Watch
Joysticks were rejected for fear children would step on them.
SG-1000
It failed to gain traction as fourteen rival makers left the market.
Q 25What fee did third-party Famicom developers pay Nintendo from 1984?
30%
That cut became the standard platform-holder model for decades.
Q 26Which company was originally going to distribute the console in North America?
Atari
The deal collapsed at the 1983 Summer CES after Atari's CEO was fired.
Q 27Under what name was the console first shown to Americans at the January 1985 CES?
Advanced Video System
It had a keyboard, cassette drive and wireless controllers, and drew a lukewarm response.
Q 28Which 1984 arcade line brought Famicom games to American arcades?
VS. System
The VS. System sold nearly 100,000 cabinets and was 1985's highest-grossing arcade machine in the US.
Q 29What nickname did Nintendo of America's designers give the Japanese prototype?
The lunchbox
Their redesign added a two-tone gray scheme and a VCR-style front loader.
Q 30Which marketing manager coined the terms "Game Pak" and "Control Deck"?
Gail Tilden
The new vocabulary helped toy stores accept a console so soon after the 1983 crash.