Famicom Wars: Nintendo Vs. Sharp & The Copyright Dispute Over "Famicom" (40th Anniversary Special!)
Sharp created a “Famicom” in 1979!? Yes, and they trademarked the word too! This gave Nintendo quite a headache in 1983. In the end, everything was made right. Here is the story of what happened! (More Below!)
Not exactly “chapters,” more like bullet points!
(and much better that I write them rather than YouTube doing so automatically)
0:00 GTV ID
0:06 Intro: “It’s a Famicom…”
1:25 Life After July 15, 1983
2:36 Life Before July 15, 1983
3:38 The Perfect Name
6:05 The Sharp Famicon
6:53 Legalities
9:07 Sharing “Famicom”
11:02 Conclusion: “It’s a Famicom!!!”
Episode information
GTV 52 “Famicom Wars” Season 3 Episode 10
Original Airdate: July 6, 2018
Produced April 1-July 2, 2018
Remastered version produced July 1-10, 2023
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and Topaz AI. All paid for with Gainful Employment™
GTV is now on Odysee! Join us!! https://odysee.com/$/invite/@GTV-Japan:d
Here are some other Nintendo videos from the GTV Archive you are sure to love!
What Was Yume Kojo? https://youtu.be/KL9o9zzCUsQ
Kid Icarus 30 https://youtu.be/ZGf6wIu9kEM
Double Identity https://youtu.be/sVx-e4obQc0
A Disney Afternoon (Let’s Play Rescue Rangers in 1990) https://youtu.be/4dbvfJhTaMg
Justin Bailey https://youtu.be/x-e3BPF-qzw
The Perils of Pauline https://youtu.be/DKmJmAVXHgg
Evets Kainzow https://youtu.be/wJdlZUmZ_n0
Famicom Wars https://youtu.be/ba84r28pHRw
The Story of Punch Out !! Theme Song Look Sharp https://youtu.be/4iBeleAy5RE
Zelda 2 and the 1988 Chip Shortage https://youtu.be/H6zYKiueCEA
From B To A https://youtu.be/ZjZH9abJy0w
StarTropics: The American Game https://youtu.be/65F7xNqiZVA
Where is Chris Houlihan? https://youtu.be/Erytb_0MiQA
The History of Nantendo https://youtu.be/zBRtrrPk4zY
Full Color Kirby https://youtu.be/4f2RSAm60iM
The Year of Luigi https://youtu.be/MnoczHYxOoQ
Appearances by
TeeVee Games @TeeVeeGames
Japanese Journey @JapaneseJourney
Red Cow Entertainment @RedCowEntertainment
Uemura footage courtesy of @GameEscape
Other Footage provided by Sharp, and the Nintendo CM Compilation DVD
Partial Transcript
People always call the Family Computer “Famicom,” so why does it say Family Computer right on the front of the machine? You could say, “well that’s what it was originally called and later, Nintendo shortened the name, but every Nintendo-made product of the 8-bit line says Family Computer somewhere on the product and not the word “Famicom.”
The Disk System from 1986, The New AV Model from 1993, and the Classic Mini from 2016 ALL SAY FAMILY COMPUTER on the machine! And in documentation. So, where have we seen the word Famicom before? I’ve seen it on the Twin Famicom, but that was made by Sharp! Not Nintendo! A few other things made by Sharp also use the word Famicom. Let’s not forget that this is called the Super Famicom, not Super Family Computer! So what gives? What if I told you that Sharp beat Nintendo to the punch by about 5 years and had their own Famicom first?!
Comments are closed.