Let’s put the virtual flags at half mast tonight, gamers. Or at least, start preparing them for October 31st, when the Famicom (more familiarly known as the Nintendo Entertainment System to we American gamers), finally goes quietly into that good night. For while it hasn’t had new software or hardware in eons, the Famicom has continued to enjoy hardware support from Nintendo of Japan — only for Japanese Famicoms, of course. Unless I misunderstand, you couldn’t actually send your American NES system to Japan for repairs.

That hardware support will end at the end of October, according to Nintendo Co. And with the Famicom also goes the Super Famicom, the N64, the Gameboy, and the Gameboy pocket. Nintendo, of course, points out that you can continue to enjoy many of the great titles via the Wii’s Virtual Console. This is certainly true, but somehow it just isn’t quite the same as dusting off the good old console and jiggling it into playing a cartridge for you.

At any rate, a salute to the fantastic Famicom for a great quarter century or so.

[via AR]