Famicom Disk System

ja:ディスクシステム

The Famicom Disk System (FDS) was released in 1985 by Nintendo as an add-on to its overwhelmingly popular Family Computer ("Famicom") console in Japan. It was a unit that sat underneath the Famicom and used non-standard floppy disks for data storage. It was announced, but never released, for the North American Nintendo Entertainment System.

The device was connected to the Famicom deck by plugging an included cartridge, known as the RAM adapter, into the system's cartridge port, and then connecting a supplied cable from this cartridge to the disk drive. The RAM adapter contained 32 kilobytes of RAM for temporary program storage, 8 kilobytes of RAM for tile and sprite data storage, and a custom IC known as the 2C33. This ASIC acted as a disk controller for the floppy drive, and also included additional sound hardware featuring primitive FM synthesis capabilities. The floppy disks used were double-sided, with a capability of 64 kilobytes per side. Many games spanned both sides of a disk, requiring the user to switch sides at some point during gameplay. A few games used two full disks (four sides). The Famicom Disk System was capable of running on six C-cell batteries in lieu of the supplied AC adapter, even though the Famicom itself was not portable.

The primary appeal of the FDS was the cost: a disk could be produced for a fraction of the price of a cartridge. Disk-based games retailed for around ¥3,000, compared to approximately ¥5,000 or more for cartridges. Because floppy disks were less expensive than Nintendo's proprietary cartridge format, and because of the additional features offered by the Disk System's hardware, many developers produced titles for the system that were sold cheaply at kiosks in retail stores. Also of note was Nintendo's Disk Writer, a vending machine that charged ¥500 to write a new game onto blank diskette. With blank disks costing only ¥2,000 apiece, this approach had obvious advantages over a ¥5,000–7,000 cartridge.

Additionally, in 1985, the disks' 128K of storage space was quite appealing. The rewritable qualities of the disks also opened up interesting possibilities: games such as The Legend of Zelda (the first FDS game), Metroid, and Kid Icarus were first released to the FDS with a save feature. Many of these titles were subsequently ported to cartridge-format and released for the NES a year or two later, with the save feature frequently replaced with password-resume and battery back memory features.

The machine did not catch on very well in Japan. Nintendo turned off developers at the outset by demanding partial copyright ownership over any games developed for the FDS. This caused many licensees to simply ignore the system outright. Then, four months after the release of the FDS, the first 128K cartridge-based game, Ghosts 'n Goblins, was released. Transistor prices went down and battery backup technology improved a lot faster than Nintendo had anticipated, and all of a sudden, the FDS's storage capacity and saving abilities were no longer as appealing to developers. Publishers and retailers complained that the Disk Writer machines, while great for game buyers, were severely cutting into their sales. The final nail in the coffin was an unlicensed device that connected two FDS systems in order to copy games. After a brief surge of FDS sales following this device's release, Nintendo eventually pulled the plug on the system.

Errata

• The FDS disks were proprietary 3"×4" 64K/side floppy disks for data storage. These "Disk Cards", as Nintendo called them, were a slight modification of Mitsumi's "Quick Disk" format which was used in a handful of Japanese computers and MIDI keyboards.

• Square Co., Ltd. had a branch at one point called 'Disk Original Group' for producing FDS games. After a series of management blunders and shoddy games, Square pinned their survival on a well-crafted Dragon Quest-inspired title that they called, with tongue-in-cheek, Final Fantasy. This game was to be released for the FDS, but a disagreement over Nintendo's copyright retention policies caused Square to about-face at the last minute and release the game as a cartridge.

• Nintendo released a disk version of Super Mario Bros. as well as the cartridge one. A lesser known fact is that the disk version has extended minus world levels. The original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (eventually released abroad as The Lost Levels as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System) was a disk-only game.

• Nintendo used to hold game score contests, and the mascot was called Disk-kun (Mr. Disk).

• Nintendo provided service to rewrite Disk Cards until September 30, 2003.

See also

• List of Famicom Disk System games