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Family Basic V3

Platform : Nintendo Entertainment System

Publisher : Nintendo

Release date : 21 February 1985

Category : Game Creation

Game description

Family Basic V3 is a game creation cartridge for the Nintendo Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System.

Family BASIC is an accessory for the Family Computer (Famicom) created by Hudson Soft, Nintendo, and Sharp Corporation. It allowed users to create programs in the BASIC programming language, more specifically the NS-HuBASIC language which stands for Nintendo, Sharp, and Hudson Soft respectively. This accessory came with a specially designed cartridge and keyboard, similar in function to that of a Commodore computer of that era. There was also the Data Recorder peripheral which was sold separately. It was preceded by the nearly identical Playbox BASIC for the Sharp C1 Famicom TV. Family BASIC V3 was released on February 21, 1985 as a stand-alone cartridge.


The Playbox BASIC and Family BASIC were both released in 1984 and came with NS-HuBASIC v1.0. Their initial retail price was the same as the Family Computer. V1.0 cartridges are now rare and Playbox BASIC ones are extremely rare as the only people who bought it were owners of the expensive C1 TV sets.

Family BASIC V3 was sold as a separate title with NS-HuBASIC v3.0 in red cartridges. It was marketed to people who already owned a previous version so it did not come with a keyboard and its manual served as an addendum to the previous v2.x manual. As a result of its narrow market, it sold poorly and is now rare. Unlike the previous versions, it did away with the message, calculator, and music boards to concentrate solely on programming. It had double the RAM capacity and came with pre-programmed mini-games.

Many of the sprites and tilesets were taken directly from the Arcade Classics Series version of the Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. There are 16 animated sprites built-in. There are four sample games and instructions on making others.