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There's a reason the Famicom (NES) CPU was similar to the 6502 -- Ricoh copied it. They removed the BCD mode because it wasn't necessary on a game console and more importantly, MOS's patents only covered that portion of the logic.

I don't remember if there's evidence for this, but I believe the experience of Iwata and the rest of the HAL Laboratory crew with the 6502 led to them choosing it for the Famicom system. There are certainly plenty of PET and VIC-20 games they developed, including this one with his name hidden in it:

https://tcrf.net/Star_Battle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsA8JPReMzE

HAL Laboratory made some excellent games with their software sprite system. It's surprising that Iwata is gone so soon.



"Commodore: A Company on the Edge" book (http://goo.gl/y62uRe) contains some pages about Iwata and HAL labs collaboration with Commodore




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