JAMES: Many people are probably familiar with
the Nintendo Entertainment System.
It was the best-selling game console of the
1980s in North America. However, in Japan it was
this thing: the Famicom. What many people don't know about the Famicom is
that it could play games off floppy disks.
So, should you buy a Famicom Disk
System in 2018? What is this thing and why
is this video more off the cuff than
usual? We'll find out in today's video,
where as usual a bearded guy on the
internet tells you about old video games.
Welcome to Stuff We Play, home of
everything weird and retro, and if that
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Today we're talking about the Famicom
Disk System. Full disclosure before we
begin: I'm still a poor university
student, and as such I still know that
Famicom DiskSsystems are expensive.
However, I'm currently at Epic Games and More
in Quadra village in Victoria, British
Columbia where they actually had one of
these in stock. They were
gracious enough to let me borrow it for this video.
So what is the FDS?
Well, NES games were usually pretty
big cartridges, but in Japan they
actually came on these little-well this
one's a little black cartridge, but they
actually came in a variety of different
colors and shapes and whatnot. By the mid 1980s, Nintendo realized
that games and cartridge could get a bit
expensive, so what they did was they gave
the option to play games off floppy disks on the Famicom.
Floppy disk games are quite interesting
and it's a shame we don't have any physical ones to show
off right now, but essentially, instead of paying the
equivalent of what you would pay
nowadays for a modern game, you'd instead pay about
$20 to get a game on a floppy disk to use via the FDS.
I've talked about a floppy disk Famicom game before in my review of
All Night Nippon Super Mario Brothers.
One thing to keep in mind about
these floppy disks games, is like anything
release on floppies,
these games were rewritable. Essentially,
you had your choice between either going
to a game store and buying a game, or
getting a blank disc and going to a
kiosk in Japan where you could actually
write a game to your floppy disk.
Some games were huge, such as RPGs and
took up multiple floppy disks, and disk swapping of course is
one of the downsides to floppy disks.
Both disk swapping, and of course load
times, but some games were small enough that
you could fit one on each side of a disk.
Because of this, though, you'll often
find games that are labeled, for example, as The
Legend of Zelda or Metroid, but instead
are something completely different,
such as Othello. That's because someone
probably paid the $4 fee (I think it was
like 400 yen back then) to get their
disk rewritten. Now let's take a look at
the unit itself. Like the Famicom itself,
it's this really nice red and black
colour scheme. The first thing you
need to even get it to work is this this:
the Famicom disk system RAM cartridge.
It pops on the top of your Famicom
like a game cartridge. Something you don't
need but is also nice is this
holder. The Famicom Disk System is a
perfect size to be a nice stand for your
Family Computer/Famicom/whatever you
want to call, and as the system itself never
came bundled with an AC adapter, the
FDS can actually run off
of 9-sorry 6 "C" cell batteries. SIX!
Granted, from what I've
heard they do last quite a while, but that
is a lot of big batteries.
What you also need to keep in mind with these
FDS units, though, is that they
do have a few hardware issues. As this is a belt-driven floppy disk drive
and over time your belt will wear
out, but thankfully, due to the popularity
of retro game collecting nowadays, you
can get new belts for cheap.
Of course, there are also the typical errors and issues that come with using floppy
disks nowadays. These things weren't
really made as durable as cartridges, and
while they were certainly cheaper at the
time, they weren't built as well to last.
However, most FDS disks to seem to still work
nowadays. It's nice too, because there
were a lot of really cool games released
on this. Not a ton of exclusive games, per
se, but, for example, Metroid was
originally released on the Famicom Disk
System, and in Japan, instead having a
password system like in North America, it had a proper save feature.
Furthermore, the Legend of Zelda was
released in Japan as A Hyrule Fantasy,
and while that game had a save system
much like it did in the U.S., it also had
an extra sound channel to enrich its music. Other games of note
are the previous mentioned All Night
Nippon Super Mario Bros.
and even Super Mario Bros. 2,
the Japanese version that was later released in the west as "The Lost Levels".
That and many other FDS games
later got released on cartridge in Japan when
Nintendo decided phase out to this
add-on system (I think it was because
as time went on, Nintendo increasingly felt that
floppy disks were just not a sustainable format
to go with), Super Mario Brothers 2 was
originally a floppy disk game. That's
how it was released in Japan originally and, really,
that was the only way you could get
their original release of Super Mario
Brothers 2, not counting the Mario
All Stars version, until the Wii Virtual Console.
So, the real question here is: how
much does one of these retail for nowadays?
Well, complete in the box, and keep in mind this is kinda
like the Sega CD in a way and I've done
a Sega Genesis buying guide beforem but
on top of the cost for a Famicom console itself so you can even
use the disk system, the FDS
itself, in a box like this one is, will
probably run you about $150CAD.
Of course you can find them for less potentially, and of
course if you use a service like Zen
Market or someone like Yamatoku
on eBay, you can import it and get it for less,
but you still run the risk of, y'know,
if you can't read Japanese when you're
maneuvering some sort of Japanese auction website,
how will you know if it's tested or not?
Furthermore, something you might want to
keep in mind with the FDS as well, is
that it will work on the top loader NES with a cartridge converter.
NOT the regular NES, because of its weird
VHS-style tray system for loading cartridges, but if you use one
of these game converters, plop the RAM
cartridge on your game converter and put
it into a NES top loader, it'll work no problem!
So, should you buy a Famicom Disk System in 2018? To be completely honest, this
one is for collectors only. If you're a
Nintendo lover or a game collector in
general, you will absolutely love and adore the FDS.
I think it's a great addition to
any collection, but really and truly, if
you're just into collecting more
casually or if you don't want to risk
having to replace a belt in a floppy disk drive, then you may be
better off just passing on this one.
However, I may be beginning to ramble on just a bit.
I have had a lot of fun talking about this weird little system.
Thank you EGM for letting me look at this
piece of gaming history. It's really different than what I
usually do and this was a totally unscripted video. However, I had a
ton of fun talking about the Famicom
Disk System. It's a great system and it's
something I hope I can talk about more in the future!
What weird game console(s) should I talk
about in future videos? What should I did for
future buying guides? I guess this was
kind of a buying guide, though,
I didn't really have a ton of games to
show off, but anyways, let me know down in the comment section below!
While you're at it, subscribe to Stuff We Play
for more great content like this!
Even back us on Patreon, because every
dollar earned from Patreon does go back into the
channel itself. So, with that, thank you
very much watching, stay classy, and I'll see you...
next time.
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