It Came From Japan

Famicom Disk System

こんにちは!  Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Started a new job, had a bunch of training then I had a vacation in Vegas.  But now I’m back and ready to go!  Today I’m gonna continue to talk about the Famicom, but this time focusing on the attachment known as the Famicom Disk System.  The FDS system is pretty cool and plays games that look like 3.5 inch floppy disks. The beauty with this type of cartridge/game is it allows you to save your game!   There were machines in a lot of stores that would allow you to erase the game on the disk you had and save a new game onto it.  Which seems awesome but when you buy a game online now, even though it has a label saying it’s one game it could actually be something totally different.


An attachment like the FDS never did make its way over to North America since with being able to write data onto the disks there was a lot of piracy, so instead the battery system in games like Legend of Zelda was introduced.  It would allow you to save your game bypassing the long passwords (like in Metroid!) and didn’t have all the piracy issues.  I’ll show you how the disk system works though.

fds

On the right hand side we have a red power light, unlike the Famicom which just had a section that was painted that would be visible when the console was turned on.  In the middle we have the cartridge slot where you put the game and the yellow eject button to remove the games.

famicomram

Here’s how it connects to the Famicom system.  You use what is called the RAM cartridge.  It hooks in the back of the disk system and the main unit plugs into where a game cartridge goes.  One of the really awesome things is it can run on C batteries so if you don’t have a power adapter or room for one you don’t have to worry about it.  I use batteries since my FDS didn’t come with a power adapter.  It seems like a lot of batteries but since the Famicom really only accesses the FDS to retrieve a save game or to save a game it should last for a long time.

fdsbattery

 

fdsgame

Here’s a close up of a game disk, you have to be careful to protect the exposed silver strip at the top because you don’t want your game corrupted.  The game I’m holding is Doki Doki Panic. :)  The game was used for Super Mario Brother 2 here in North America, which was released in Japan as Super Mario USA.

myfdsgames

Top left is Adventure of Chatram, which is actually a game for the movie Milo and Otis.  I love this movie with the kitten and pug dog so I had to get the game :)  To it’s right is Gachapon Senshi which is an SD Gundam game.  Then we have Ultraman Club and Doki Doki Panic.

fdsmurasame

On the left is Nazo no Murasame then on the right is another Ultraman game that isn’t SD or chibi.

fdsstartscreen

When you turn on the disk system you see Mario and Luigi turning the light off. It will then ask you to place a disk into the system.

fdsultraman

Here is the Ultraman Club game, works no problem!

fdsdiskproblem

Unfortunately a couple of my games get Error 27.  So it looks like the game data needs to be written again.  I’m sure I can find someone online who can do this for me.  You have to keep in mind there is a bit of loading time with the disks and you might have to flip from side A or side B, but compared to some newer games the loading time I experienced was minimal.

Here’s some video of me playing Youkai Yashiki for the FDS to give you an idea what it’s like to play games on the system.

If you have a FDS, comment and let us know what some of your favorite games are!  さようなら! And until the next post, happy gaming!