ABSTRACT
The third generation of video games (also called the “8-bit era”) began in Japan with video game consoles by Nintendo and Sega. While these systems continued the tradition of producing ports of arcade hits, the games that brought players back to their TVs during this time were quite different from those in the arcades. There was also the Family Computer Disk System, which cost as much as the Famicom. Debuting on February 21, 1986, the Disk System was a disk drive unit the Famicom sat on top of. It included a RAM adapter cartridge that plugged into the top of the Famicom, which sent information to the system and provided 32 kB RAM for program data, 8 kB for image data, and processor with an extra audio channel. The Famicom became the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984 with over 3 million units sold.
