Family BASIC was Nintendo's weird, ambitious attempt to turn your NES into a programming tool back in the '80s. It came with this chunky keyboard peripheral and let you write simple BASIC programs—mostly for making blocky little games or animations. The manual was all in Japanese, so unless you could read it or had a guide, you were basically just mashing keys to see what happened.

Honestly, it's more of a curiosity than something you'd actually play for fun. The interface feels ancient now, and typing code with a controller is as awkward as you'd imagine. But there's something charming about seeing what people managed to create with such limited tools back then. You can find some wild fan-made demos floating around if you dig a little.

If you're into retro tech or programming history, it's a neat artifact. Otherwise, you'll probably close the emulator after five minutes.