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Info for famicom


====== Nintendo Famicom / Famicom Disk System (1983) ======




===== Features =====

* CPU: Custom 6502 1.79 MHz
* Co-Processor: 8-bit PPU (Picture Processing Unit)
* RAM: Disk System + Keyboard + Basic: 1982 bytes free (Basic V2.0A), 4086 bytes free (Basic V3.0)
* VRAM: 4 kb
* ROM: 8 kb
* Text Modes: 28 x 24
* Graphic Modes: 256 x 240, 64 sprites on screen, but only 8 per scanline / sprite size : 8x8 or 8x16 pixels
* Colors: 52 Available / 16 On-screen / 4 colours per Sprite
* Sound: 5 channel sound (2 channels for square wave, 1 triangle wave, 1 noise channel and 1 PCM)
* Keyboard: Full-stroke keyboard with functions keys and arrow keys
* Built In Language: NS-HUBASIC V1.0, V2.0A, V2.1 or V3.0
* Peripherals: Expansion memory unit, tape-recorder (used also for few games), Basic cartidges, Lightgun, Robot, dancing carpet, additional controllers...



===== Usage =====

Famicom controller consists of an 8-way directional pad, two action buttons (labeled A and B), a Start button and a Select button. On the main unit, a Power and a Reset buttons are present.
Additionally, Famicom Disk System switching is mapped to Player 1 Button 3 (default key [space]).

== FDS error messages ==

| Err. 01 | Disk Set Err. | No disk card.|
| Err. 02 | Battery Err. | No disk power supply -- batteries and/or AC adaptor.|
| Err. 03 | Write Protect Err. | Disk card is write protected.|
| Err. 04 | Game Maker Err. | Disk card not authenticated (game maker ID).|
| Err. 05 | Game Name Err. | Disk card not authenticated (game name ID).|
| Err. 06 | Game Version Err. | Disk card not compatible (version ID).|
| Err. 07 | A,B Side Err. | Wrong side of disk card set in drive.|
| Err. 08 | Disk No Err. | Disk card #1 wrong.|
| Err. 09 | | Disk card #2 wrong.|
| Err. 10 | | Disk card #3 wrong.|
| Err. 11~19 | | There is something wrong with the Disk System memory.|
| Err. 20 | Disk Trouble Err. | Screen data wrong.|
| Err. 21 | Disk Trouble Err. | Disk card header block (Nintendo-HVC) wrong.|
| Err. 22 | Disk Trouble Err. | Disk card header block #$01 unrecognized.|
| Err. 23 | Disk Trouble Err. | Disk card header block #$02 unrecognized.|
| Err. 24 | Disk Trouble Err. | Disk card header block #$03 unrecognized.|
| Err. 25 | Disk Trouble Err. | Disk card header block #$04 unrecognized.|
| Err. 26 | Disk Trouble Err. | Unable to write to disk card.|
| Err. 27 | Disk Trouble Err. | Block end mark seen but ends prematurely.|
| Err. 28 | Disk Trouble Err. | File ends prematurely during read.|
| Err. 29 | Disk Trouble Err. | File ends prematurely during write.|
| Err. 30 | Disk Full Err. | No space left on disk card (full).|
| Err. 31 | | File count in header and number of files on disk card do not match.|
| Err. 40 | | Disk card is mess'd.|



===== History and Trivia =====

The Family Computer ("Famicom") was released in Japan on July 15th, 1983. The launch titles for the console were "Donkey Kong", "Donkey Kong Junior", and "Popeye". The console itself was intentionally designed to resemble a toy, with its bright red and white color scheme. It featured two hardwired controllers which were unusual, though not unprecedented, for consoles of this era. Additionally, the system had a 15-pin expansion port in the front side to accommodate add-on peripheral devices, such as the Light Gun, the Power Pad, the keyboard for BASIC programming, a Cassette Drive, and other specialized controllers. Among the devices produced for the console: a karaoke machine, true 3D glasses, and the Famicom Disk System (which incorporated the floppy drive dropped from the original specifications).

The system did not meet instant success: during its first year, many criticized the system as unreliable, prone to programming errors and rampant freezing. These critics were completely unfunded: Nintendo decided to recall most of the units and to reissue the system with a new motherboard. Quite soon the popularity of Famicom soared and it became the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. You can easily spot the recalled version of the Famicom because of its square buttons, replaced with circular buttons in all Famicom systems produced after the recall.

As the 1990s dawned, however, renewed competition from technologically superior systems such as the 16-bit Sega MegaDrive and Nintendo's own Super Famicom marked the end of the Famicom's dominance.

In 1992, Nintendo released the AV Famicom, a redesigned version of the Famicom. Two removeable controllers were included with the system, whose ports were now placed in the front of the system (while the expansion port was moved to the side).
The controllers are identical to the ones released in the US.

Nintendo of Japan kept producing new Nintendo Famicom units for a niche market up until October 2003, when it was officially discontinued.

== Famicom Disk System ==

The Family Computer Disk System (FDS) was released on February 21st, 1986 by Nintendo as a peripheral for their popular Famicom console in Japan. It was a unit that sat underneath the Famicom and used proprietary floppy disks for data storage. Sharp also released the Twin Famicom, a composite console of both Famicom and disk system under license. The unit was also announced, but never released, for the US Nintendo Entertainment System.

The device was connected to the Famicom deck by plugging a modified cartridge (known as the RAM Adapter) into the system's cartridge port, which attached via a supplied cable to the disk drive. The RAM adapter contained 32KB of RAM for temporary program storage, 8 kilobytes of RAM for tile and sprite data storage, and an ASIC known as the 2C33. The 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. The Famicom Disk System was capable of running on six C-cell batteries or 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 less than ¥3000, compared to approximately ¥5000 or more for cartridges. Because floppy disks were less expensive than cartridges, 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 a blank disk or a disk already written with a game. With blank disks costing only ¥2000 apiece, this approach had obvious advantages over more expensive cartridges.

In 1986, the disks' 128K of storage space was quite appealing. The rewritable aspect of the disks also opened up interesting possibilities; games such as "The Legend of Zelda" (the first FDS game), "Metroid", and "Kid Icarus" were 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 saving implemented with password resume or battery-backed memory.

Nintendo pushed the Disk System extensively in Japan, releasing all of its software exclusively on disk for nearly two years. However, the machine was not as successful as it was hoped. Nintendo turned off developers at the outset by demanding partial copyright ownership over any games developed for the FDS, causing many licensees to simply ignore the system outright. Four months after the release of the FDS, the first 128K cartridge-based game, "Makaimura", was released. Memory 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 profits. The final nail in the Disk System's coffin was an unlicensed device that connected two FDS systems in order to copy games. After a brief surge of FDS sales following the device's release, i
n 1993, Nintendo ordered all the vending machines to be dismantled.

While the Disk System was years ahead of its time in terms of a disc-format game console, the system and games both have reliability issues. The drive belt in the drive is a proprietary size, and standard floppy drive belts are too big. Until 2004, Japanese residents were able to send their systems to Nintendo directly for repairs/belt replacements.

== Regional differences ==

NES and Famicom were not exactly the same console, even if they shared most of the hardware.

* Case design: The Famicom features a top-loading cartridge slot, a 15-pin expansion port located on the unit's front panel for accessories (as the controllers were hard-wired to the back of the console) and a red and white color scheme; the NES features a front-loading cartridge slot, an expansion port was found on the bottom of the unit and a more subdued gray, black and red color scheme.

* Cart design: Differences between NES carts and Famicom carts are not only aesthetic! The original Famicom and the re-released AV Family Computer both use a 60-pin cartridge design, which resulted in smaller cartridges than the NES (and the NES 2), which utilized a 72-pin design. Four pins were used for the NES lockout chip, 10NES. Ten pins were added that connected a cartridge directly to the expansion port on the bottom of the unit. Finally, two pins that allowed cartridges to provide their own sound expansion chips were removed. Many early games (such as Stack-Up) released in North America were simply Famicom cartridges attached to an adapter (such as the T89 Cartridge Converter) to allow them to fit inside the NES hardware. Nintendo did this to reduce costs and inventory by using the same cartridge boards in America and Japan.



== Peripherals ==

A number of peripheral devices and software packages were released for the Famicom. Few of these devices were ever released outside of Japan.

* Famicom Disk System (FDS): popular floppy disk drive peripheral released for the Famicom in Japan only. Nintendo never released the Famicom Disk System outside of Japan (see above for more info on FDS).

* Famicom BASIC: It was an implementation of BASIC for the Famicom. In fact, the BASIC cartidge was sold together with the keyboard. The keyboard is connected to the expansion port situated at the front of the Famicom, while then BASIC cartridge must be inserted into the Famicom catridge slot. As the keyboard is almost "empty", most of the Famicom's hardware is used, along with the Basic cartridge RAM chips. The Basic delivered with the keyboard is the NS-HUBASIC, where "N" stands for Nintendo, "S" for Sharp and "HU" for Hudson, as they all contributed to this project. Once inserted there is only 1982 bytes free to play with! But it was possible to back-up the program into the cartridge itself by powering it with 3 battery cells. This saving method wasn't reliable as quite often the programs were lost because of bad contacts... Hopefully, a tape-recorder was available, but again, the adjustment of the input level was quite difficult to get. Some games using the built-in save/load feature of the Basic cartr
idge were released such as "Lode Runner" (edit mode) and "Challenge Race".

* Famicom Data Recorder: Device for saving and loading programs onto standard audio cassettes for programs made in Family BASIC. Also used by few games either to provide additional data to the game, or to save edited data.

* Famicom TV-NET: Connected the Famicom to an online service.

* Famicom MODEM: It was a modem that allowed connection to a Nintendo server which provided content such as jokes, news (mainly about Nintendo), game tips, weather reports for Japan and allowed a small number of programs to be downloaded.

* Famicom Light Gun: produced by Nintendo, it was used by few games. Among these: "Duck Hunt", "Hogan's Alley", "Wild Gunman", "Gumshoe" and "Bayou Billy".

* Famicom Robot: Nintendo produced this Robot to provide an interactive medium between the TV screen and player. In the two games which supported it (i.e. "Gyromite" and "Stack Up"), Robot's actions affect gameplay on the screen and the player have to react to what happens in the game: in "Gyromite" Robot pushes and hold buttons on the second controller; in "Stack Up", the player has to press a button when Robot finishes a task.

* Famicom Four-way Adapter: accessory which allows 4 player to play the same game.

* Famicom 3D System: A liquid crystal shutter headset which gave compatible games the illusion of 3D depth.

* Datach Joint ROM System: Produced by Bandai, it consists of a barcode reader unit which can be inserted as a normal cart in the Famicom; it has a port to insert its own carts, but only few games were produced (among them "Dragon Ball Z", bundled with the unit, and "SD Gundam World"). The barcodes are are used in the game to increase characteristics and to give items.

* Karaoke Studio: Produced by Bandai, it consists of a microphone and a unit that operates on its own cartridges.

* Family Trainer: Released by Bandai, this is a floor mat controller consisting of eight/twelve (depending on the side) pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic. It was used by "Athletic World", "Aerobic Studio", "Running Stadium", "Manhattan Police" and others.

* Party Room 21 Controller: A quiz show buzzer controller for use of up to six people. Released in 1991 to use with "Gimmi a Break -Shijou Saikyou no Quiz Ou Ketteisen".

* Power Glove: Imported in Japan by PAX, the Power Glove was intended to work in place of a regular controller. The Power Glove can track motion of the glove in three-space, finger position, and has a set of buttons/switches on the top of the wrist. It has two modes “hires” and “lores”: in “hires” mode, it tracks 3d position, the rolling and the position of fingers along with the state of SELECT, START, A, B, D-PAD switches (which are a part of the Famicom standard controller); in “lores” mode, the glove reports only the position of the hand on the x and y axis and the buttons (thus emulating a Famicom controller completely and allowing one to use the glove with non-glove-specific games). In “lores” mode, it is also possible to map up to 14 combinations of the buttons to movements of the glove.

* Gun Sight: Produced by Konami, it is a head-mounted lightgun with a microphone and a crosshair that covered one eye. It was manufactured specifically for one Konami game, "Laser Invasion". Wearing the device on the head, the players had to shout "fire!" into the microphone to fire a shot at the on-screen object via the headset's crosshair. However, microphone technology was poor: saying almost anything else would cause the controller to react.

* Arkanoid Controller: specific controller with a knob in place of the D-Pad to control the paddle in the game "Arkanoid".

* ASCII Stick L5: Controller produced by ASCII, designed for one hand use, with RPG players in mind: you can hold it in your left hand, while taking notes or drawing maps with the other hand!

* Joycard Sanusui SSS: Controller released by Hudson Soft with adapter for headphones

* Toyo Stick: Arcade style joystick released by Toyo.



//(info from Wikipedia, FAQs, etc.)//



===== Links =====

* NESDev -- http://nesdev.parodius.com/
* NES World -- http://nesworld.parodius.com/
* FDS at Famicom World -- http://www.famicomworld.com/Disk_System/Info.htm
* [[wp>Nintendo_Entertainment_System]]
* [[wp>Famicom_Disk_System]]



===== Other Emulators =====

* Nestopia -- http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
* Nintendulator -- http://qmt.ath.cx/~nes/nintendulator/
* olafnes -- http://olafnes.1emulation.com/
* FakeNES -- http://fakenes.sourceforge.net/
* RockNES -- http://rocknes.kinox.org/
* SegaLi -- http://home.planet.nl/~haps/
* FCE Ultra -- http://fceultra.sourceforge.net/




Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009