Nintendo Famicom

the Famicom

The Nintendo Famicom is a cartridge-based console released by Nintendo in 1983 in Japan. The console was basically the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which was released in 1985. However, it can be considered a separate console since NES games are not compatible with it, and vice versa. This is due to the Famicom cartridges being much smaller than NES cartridges and not having the same 72-pin connector. The games are usually in Japanese, but can be translated to English. The system also has permanently attached controllers, which is one of the advantages the NES has over it, and it only has an RF / coaxial output, another disadvantage. The console was not very successful upon its initial launch, but it soon gained popularity and was discontinued in the 1990s and became no longer available for retail purchase in 2003.

## AV Famicom

The AV Famicom was the equivalent to the Famicom what the NES toploader was to the original NES - a smaller redesign. As the name implies, it has an AV output rather than an RF output, meaning it can be played on an American TV by default due to both being NTSC.

## Famicom Disk System

The Famicom Disk System was a peripheral for the console also only released in Japan, with a then-unique game storage system - floppy disks. Games were only stored on those for personal computers such as the Commodore 64, but this peripheral allowed the playing of floppy disks on a console. The disks were better than cartridges due to the fact that they could hold more data, they could save games, and they were (at the time) cheaper to make than cartridges due to the high cost of semiconductors. The system is most well known for *Super Mario Bros. 2* (not this game), which was released in the US in 1993 as *Super Mario Bros : The Lost Levels*. The accessory was a commercial hit.

An interesting concept of the disk system was its disk writer kiosks which appeared in stores all around Japan. Since floppy disks are writable, the kiosks allowed games that were on the disks to be overwritten by a new game. They even sold blank disks so that people could get a customized game disk. This is a better idea than overwriting a disk with a game already on it, because it can get confusing booting up a game with a certain label, only to have it be an entirely different game. The disk kiosks seem to have worked by having various yellow cartridges in the shape of the NES outside of Japan inserted into a few different slots. The games were supposedly copied from these cartridges onto the disks.

Eventually, however, the cost to make cartridges came down, and they could store more data. They could even save with the introduction of a battery backup system. Therefore, the disk system was not needed anymore, so Nintendo stopped releasing their games on the disk system exclusively. Plans were made to release the Famicom Disk System in the United States, but they were dropped as it would not have been a profitable business decision. Strangely, writer kiosks were offered until 2003, and technical support for Disk Systems lasted until 2007. Speaking of the kiosks, they all disappeared from stores in 2003, seemingly destroyed. However, recently, people were given a secret tour of Nintendo's vault, and alongside mint-condition sealed Famicoms and Disk Systems, they found the supposed last-surviving disk kiosk. It is unknown if any more still survive, and the one that does is not known for sure to be in either a working or non-working condition.