Who’s up for some co-op?
24 July 2026
by rawmeatcowboy1
While most Nintendo fans know about the NES and Famicom, there were plenty of other versions of Nintendo’s 8-bit hardware, some of which were never meant to be owned by the general public. One such piece of Nintendo history is the Famicombox, which was a commercial-use-only Famicom that released in 1986, and it was mainly found at hotels in Japan. Surprisingly, a Famicombox has just been discovered by a Nintendo historian, and best of all, it’s in nearly perfect working order.
The image above shows off a Famicombox that was found by Nintendo historian, Orochi. According to them, the Famicombox still plays games without issue, but the Zapper is unfortunately busted. Wondering where Orochi happened upon this piece of Nintendo history? Turns out it’s still installed and available for play at an unnamed love hotel in Japan.
Nintendo fans have long since discussed Nintendo’s history with love hotels, which are short-stay lodgings primarily for the purpose of allowing guests…intimate moments. Rumor has it that Nintendo operated a handful of love hotels back in the day, but so far no actual evidence of this has been discovered. Now with this discovery of a Famicombox at a love hotel, you can start to see where the urban legend may have stemmed from. All it takes is one person talking about how they played a Famicombox in a love hotel, and then word of mouth turns the discussion into Nintendo owning love hotels and installing NES units in rooms for guests.
