8-bit Nintendo
8-bit Nintendo is a term to describe Nintendo hardware derived from the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System and all other hardware and add-ons that utilize the same 8-bit hardware. The term is primarily used as generalizing without specifically pointing to a particular brand of hardware.
Applications
The term should be used if something cannot be described with a particular brand of hardware. Certain plug & plays for example should be described as running on 8-bit Nintendo hardware rather than Famicom or NES hardware. If the connection to those branded hardware do not go beyond what it is running on than it should not be assumed it's based on one or the other. This should also be applied to software that only exists in a digital form and not on any physical media. For example, aftermarket software that does not exist under any physical media would be considered 8-bit Nintendo software. The exception for this is if it's specifically designed for a particular add-on such as the Family Computer Disk System or Datach Joint ROM System as they contain features not present on base 8-bit Nintendo hardware.
Origins
Before the term was coined, people described the consoles as being regional variants of one another. In Japan, the NES is considered to be the "Overseas Famicom" while outside the country the Famicom is considered to be the "Japanese NES". This resulted in the brand names of the consoles becoming the way people described the hardware as a whole. This would seep into translation as localizers and machine translation would automatically change Famicom to NES without consideration of the context which can result in misinformation and flawed understanding of the subject matter.
The term 8-bit Nintendo would spring to life when FamiWiki was created in March 2023 as a solution to generally define everything under the same umbrella without utilizing a particular brand of hardware. This in return gives meaning to the branded hardware allowing pages to be specific if it released on Famicom or NES or is simply 8-bit Nintendo software that is not bind to particular consoles.
