[BurritoBeans]

I put a TL;DR at the bottom - if this is way to long, I understand - just read that and look at the random pictures.

So recently, after a few years of going off and on about wanting one of these little things, I finally got one:

Yeah yeah, it's a bit dirty... I have yet to give the casing a good cleaning yet - just paper towels and 91% isopropyl - as I have a big list of systems to restore for work, first.

So, if you know what a Famicom is, that's cool. If not, well, I'm going to attempt to explain some history behind the thing to the best of my extent, but please go to the Wikipedia article if you want more detail.

The Famicom came out in '83, the same year that the US home console market had hit its peak at the time before it would crash the next year. Nintendo beforehand wasn't much into the video game market - They had produced the Color TV Game line of Pong units which were just that - pong - alongside the Game and Watch lineup starting three years earlier. The original design was something along the lines of a competitor to the other computer lines of the time - the NEC PC-80/66/88XX lineup, the Sharp MZ-** and X1 lineup, etc. being a 16-bit computer with a floppy drive, keyboard - the whole package. In the end though, the head designer brought home a ColecoVision and was impressed by the machine, and the Famicom ended up being based off of that. The machine came out in 1983 alongside Popeye, Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr. with launch titles and grew to gain a good bit of success. Two years later, the Nintendo Entertainment System popped out and I'm assuming that most people know what's happened since then.

So, how does the Famicom compare to my NES? Well, first-off the thing is a good bit smaller:

It's about the same length-wise, but as you can see it's smaller for width and height. Other obvious differences include:

• Side-mounted controllers - These are cool until you realize how short the cables are... they're about two and a half feet, but that includes the length stuffed inside the case so these are like Atari joysticks - set the console close. One neat thing is that the 2nd player, instead of having a start and select button, has a microphone - a few games take advantage of this, mind you some like Takeshi's Challenge have proven to be a pain in the ass due to making you sing Karaoke with the damn thing.
  
• Power and Reset buttons on the top of the system
  
• An eject lever - It works, but so does just pulling the cartridge out.
  
• A covered port - this 15-pin port is used for expansions, the only of which that I own at the moment being the controllers for Hyper Olympic/Track and Field/etc. from Konami. You can put additional controllers in, a keyboard for the Family BASIC cartridge, something to save games to like the ASCII TurboFile, and more.
  

So that's sort of neat. Speaking of accessories, one major thing at the time was the Famicom Disk System. This was a floppy drive using Nintendo-branded Mitsumi QuickDisks - I myself think that these are a pain in the ass, but whatever there's some history to them. Battery backups inside of cartridges didn't exist like they did in the US, so the Famicom Disk System was the solution - instead of worrying about a battery, you could just read and write data to your own floppy, hell if you even wanted you could take these to a Nintendo kiosk and have a new game put on them! While these are neat for being what they are, they also add loading times which I can't say I'm a fan of but whatever. Due to not wanting to have to worry about these for the time being, I instead got an FDSStick - this little USB stick has 256MB of flash to hold disk images, can plug into a RAM adapter to load disks off of or be plugged into a disk system to copy disks, and has a button to flip sides. For all of $35, this thing saves me the hassle of fixing up and adjusting a floppy drive and ordering disks, hoping that they are what the label says.

Hey look, it's Metroid but with extra sound channels! One feature of the Famicom which never was put in the NES was the additional sound channels generated by the 2C33 chip in the RAM adapter. If you run a RAM pack on a NES which is possible, you'll notice that these aren't there as Nintendo never connected the traces for this or other expansion audio chips to work properly - this is fixable by adding in a resistor which may vary from 24k to 56k. You may just by looking at this image also notice some of the noise in the RF signal - funnily enough, with the FDS-based games whenever audio plays this becomes super visible - it is fixable though, by going to channel 95 then back to 96 where the games is on.

So, say you wanted to buy one of these - how much would it cost? Well, on average from a US seller (Being that I'm in the US) they're $30+ for the bare console alongside the cost of shipping pushing it to around $45 or so. I didn't do that though, as I went through a Japanese seller - while shipping charges are a lot more expensive, they're constantly trying to move these things and a lot go unsold, so you can get your own Famicom for under $5 before shipping costs. One big tip with ordering from Japan - buy large lots and combine shipping. The only way I'm able to afford things like my Sharp X68000s, PC-66/80/88/98, Fujitsu FM-7/FM Towns, Bandai Pippin, etc. is by doing this and it works surprisingly well. Famicom games in most cases are dirt cheap - in total, for my system alongside eight cartridges, a RAM adapter, and the Hyper Olympic controllers cost me $50 including shipping costs. If you want to own a major piece of gaming history and pay less than even a cheaper Atari 2600 that's in good condition, the Famicom may be the system for you - it's very cheap to get into, takes up very little space with the PC Engine being the only smaller major console to exist, and can be played without too much Japanese knowledge.


So, that's one of my new toys. I'm a complete nut for games new and old so I've found this thing that cost half of my Atari 5200 and spare controller to be an absolute load of fun so far.

TL;DR - I bought a Famicom which had come out in 1983, then two years later in the US and Europe as the Nintendo Entertainment System. It has some things that the NES never got, and it'd cost you about $50 or so to buy one of these today depending on where you buy one from and what you get with it.

[Skullmeat]

Oh yes, the microphone... now you can yell at pols voice in Zelda, or sing bad karaoke in Takeshi's Challenge.

[3rd Impact]

Dude, I'm jealous of you.

[Manny]

I never actually owned one but my cousin does.

[Nil]

I've never seen one of these but it looks awesome. Are the only games you have Japanese because you shipped from them?

[BurritoBeans]

Are the only games you have Japanese because you shipped from them?

Well, there are US/EU games for the system, they just look a bit different...



...as the Famicom was only put out in Japan - to the rest of the world it was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Funnily enough, if you take apart some early NES cartridges they're just a 72 to 60-pin adapter with the Famicom cartridge PCB placed on top.

My little stack of Fami carts (apart from the RAM adapter) is there on the right behind the Lode Runner cart - it's a bit hard to see in this image, but even the full box for a Famicom game (That Hydlide 3 box on top of the stack) is about the same size as a NES cartridge for length and height, it's just a bit wider.

[Nil]

Are the only games you have Japanese because you shipped from them?

Well, there are US/EU games for the system, they just look a bit different...



...as the Famicom was only put out in Japan - to the rest of the world it was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Funnily enough, if you take apart some early NES cartridges they're just a 72 to 60-pin adapter with the Famicom cartridge PCB placed on top.

My little stack of Fami carts (apart from the RAM adapter) is there on the right behind the Lode Runner cart - it's a bit hard to see in this image, but even the full box for a Famicom game (That Hydlide 3 box on top of the stack) is about the same size as a NES cartridge for length and height, it's just a bit wider.

Oh ok. I'm not much of a hardware guy so much of your lingo involving that just goes straight over my head. haha. But nice setup, I've always been a gamer at heart, just don't have the time that I use to. Would love to get back into it.

[3rd Impact]

Are the only games you have Japanese because you shipped from them?

Well, there are US/EU games for the system, they just look a bit different...



...as the Famicom was only put out in Japan - to the rest of the world it was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Funnily enough, if you take apart some early NES cartridges they're just a 72 to 60-pin adapter with the Famicom cartridge PCB placed on top.

My little stack of Fami carts (apart from the RAM adapter) is there on the right behind the Lode Runner cart - it's a bit hard to see in this image, but even the full box for a Famicom game (That Hydlide 3 box on top of the stack) is about the same size as a NES cartridge for length and height, it's just a bit wider.

damn thats a nice collection.

[mothered]

I envy you.

I remember this back In the 80s. My friend had one and was so addicted to It, that he'd take constant sick leave from work just to continue playing.