![]() ![]() If you want to play FDS games on your setup, you’ll have to purchase either a Twin Famicom or an FDS (make sure it comes with a RAM adapter). There are no FDS-clones on the market, unfortunately. Like the FDS, the belt is still subject to breaking and can still be difficult to replace. In fact, the system had a mechanical switch that prevented the insertion of a Disk Card if a cartridge is present in the slot and vice versa. Unlike the Famicom, the drive was hard-mounted to the main circuitry so no bulky RAM adapter was needed. Some titles never made it off of the FDS, though, except in the form of pirated carts which are harder to find, and often more expensive, than the original hardware and software.Īn interesting side note, the only time that Nintendo has ever licensed a third-party console was the Sharp Twin Famicom system that featured a built-in disk drive. Notable classics such as Zelda no Densetsu, Metroid, Yume Koujou: Doki Doki Panic, and Akumajou Dracula ( Castlevania in the US) were only available on the FDS in Japan, though some were eventually ported to the cartridge several years later with noticeable compromise in certain cases. The similarity of the Disk Card to Mitsumi’s QuickDisk format led to piracy concerns (which were later realized) that prevented the system from finding release outside of Japan.īut it did play games, many of which were not possible on a cart at that time. The FDS ran loud and access was much slower than a ROM-based cartridge and double-sided games would require flipping the disk at some point, usually after the title or load screen. ![]() The FDS would perform a quick scan on the entire disk upon insertion and render it unreadable if encountered even one error. It was a non-standard size and often carried a sizeable premium. The drive belt was notoriously unreliable and would become brittle during long periods of inactivity. The FDS required its own power source which could be either 6 C-cell batteries or an AC adapter which was the same used by the Famicom systems which caused some manner of inconvenience for those with few spare power outlets and the unit itself was rather large, effectively doubling the height of the Famicom when stacked (as they were often depicted). The system did have its fair share of problems and concerns, though. This extra capability sometimes led to features being removed, animations being cut, and sound being down-mixed or simplified when it came time for a cartridge port. Additionally, the RAM adapter housed extra memory for temporary program data and graphical data as well as extra sound synthesizing hardware. At the time, the 128K afforded by a Disk Card was far more than a ROM chip for the equivalent cost. The disks were double-sided, each side having a 64K capacity, though not all games used two sides. Some later disks had a shutter and were colored blue. The early cards were housed in a rigid yellow casing with no shutter to protect the disk itself. The FDS used 2.8 inch disks it referred to as “Disk Cards”. The solution was to adapt the floppy disk which had been an established medium for reading and writing. But that was not ready in early 1986 and games like The Legend of Zelda (Zelda no Densetsu) would need a way for the player to record their progress. ![]() The latter was alleviated with the development of the first generation memory management controller chip (though, as we still know, hardly perfected the art). Battery backup was possible, but the technology was fairly recent, not yet perfected, and also expensive. Another limitation of the cartridge format was the cost of onboard saving. It was possible to make increased capacity ROM chips, but only at great expense and this was before video game development became a multimillion dollar affair. The Famicom Disk System, or FDS, was an external floppy disk drive that connected to the Famicom console via the RAM adapter, a large box that had a cartridge slot on the bottom and a cable running out the back that connected to the FDS unit.Īt the time of release, cartridge sizes were fairly limited. Only four months after the NES was released in North America, Nintendo launched the Famicom Disk System expansion module for Japanese console. Before we get to the guide itself, let's go over a brief history and overview of the Famicom Disk System. ![]()
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