LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Nintendo Entertainment System: Nintendo Famicom
built 117 days ago
Ironically (if you're familiar with the Nintendo 64), Nintendo promised a disk drive add-on for the NES in time for Christmas 1986. It was never released in the States. The Famicom version of the drive did come out in Japan, but it never gained much of a following.
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Boasting a superior Ricoh 8-bit processor and an openness to third-party developers, it became the most successful gaming system of its time. Shortly after in 1984, the Nintendo "Famicom" System was released in Japan, which subsequently became the best selling console in that country, after a rusty start plagued with game freeze-ups and motherboard glitches.
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Some of Nintendo's patents on the Famicom expired in 2003, followed in 2005 by NES-specific patents such as those covering the 10NES lockout chip. While Nintendo still holds various related trademarks, NES hardware clones are no longer necessarily illegal on the basis of patent infringement. This matter is complicated by the effect of different patents awarded in different countries, with different expiration dates. Nintendo sued
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Unfortunately, an AFP article says Nintendo has made the decision to stop repairing the NES systems, because Nintendo is running out of spare parts. Owners of Super Nintendo or Super Famicom systems are not immune. Repairs of these systems will ... cease.
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The unlicensed clone market has persisted, and even flourished, following Nintendo’s discontinuation of the NES. Some of the more exotic of these resulting systems have gone beyond the functionality of the original hardware, and have included variations such as a portable system with a color LCD (e.g. Pocket Famicom). Others have been produced with certain specialized markets in mind, including various "educational computer packages" which include copies of some of the NES’s educational titles and come complete with a clone of the Famicom BASIC keyboard, transforming the system into a rather primitive personal computer.[40] These unauthorized clones have been helped by the invention of the so called NES-on-a-chip or NoaC.
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At first, they tried to partner with Atari, who rebuffed them in favour of developing their own system, the Atari 7800, which was eventually shelved due to the failing market and later released during the NES's heyday to little success. They then tried to shop the Famicom directly to retailers, who as a group wanted nothing to do with video games and the toylike red and white Famicom.
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Nintendo Famicom