According to the Masayuki Uemura, one of Nintendo's hardware designers who oversaw the design of the Famicom, the reason the console was named the "Family Computer" was because during the '80s, words like "personal computer" and "home computer" became widespread in Japan, and the word 'Family' hadn't been used yet. Uemura also wanted to call it "Famicom" for short, after having it suggested to him by his wife, but the idea was rejected by Nintendo's then boss, believing "Family Computer" to be easier to understand, although the moniker was still colloquially used by many.

The Famicom's final design incorporated this red color because of an order from Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo at the time. Yamuchi often wore a scarf of a similar color and decided to include this favorite of his in the system as well.

It should also be noted that at the time of manufacturing, red and white plastics were the cheapest color of plastic to produce.

Nintendo was originally going to release a home computer in place of the NES. Known as the Advanced Video System, or the AVS, it was going to be a home computer with a heavy gaming twist.

The Famicom Disk System was an early attempt at expanding the capability of the Famicom, which was the original Japanese version of the NES. This new add-on used discs rather than cartridges, which were cheaper to produce and held more data. Unfortunately the technology at the time was faulty; so much so that Nintendo of Japan continued servicing them until their patents expired in 2003. Interestingly enough, NES has an expansion port located on the bottom of the console. This is because Nintendo planned to release a version of the Famicom Disk System for international markets. This expansion port is absent on the original Famicom, and the Famicom Disk System connects to the Famicom by the cartridge slot. However, the international version of the Famicom Disk System never saw the light of day, and the NES expansion port went unused.

Nintendo once planned to release a knitting add-on for the NES. The slogan was 'Now you're knitting with power.'

The Minnesota state lottery was considering using the NES to let people play the lottery. The player would use a game cartridge made by the company to play the lottery, and a modem that would allow them to communicate with the central computer. The plan eventually fell through due to concerns that minors would illegally purchase tickets.

Due to South Korea banning Japanese cultural imports at the end of World War II, the NES was distributed by South Korean company Samsung, and was named the Comboy.

Samsung released many consoles in South Korea under alternate names, like the Game Boy, Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, SNES and Nintendo 64.

Known in Japan as the Famicom, it originally came with 2 hardwired controllers attached to the console, with the second controller featuring a microphone, but no start or select buttons.