The Family Computer Disk System[3][4] is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computerhome video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" for cheaper data storage and it adds a new high-fidelity sound channel for supporting FDS games.[5] Its name is sometimes shortened as Famicom Disk System[6] or simply Disk System[7], and abbreviated as FCDS, FDS, or FCD.
Fundamentally, the FDS device serves simply to enhance some aspects already inherent to the base Famicom system, with better sound and cheaper games—though with the disadvantages of high initial price, slow speed, and lower reliability. However, this boost to the market of affordable and writable mass storage temporarily served as an enabling technology for the creation of new types of video games. This includes the vast, open world, progress-saving adventures of the best-selling The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Metroid (1986). It includes games with a cost-effective and swift release such as the best-selling Super Mario Bros. 2. And it includes nationwide leaderboards and contests via the in-store Disk Fax kiosks, which are considered to be forerunners of today's online achievement and distribution systems.
By 1989, the FDS was inevitably obsoleted by the improving semiconductor technology of game cartridges. The FDS's lifetime sales reached 4.4 million units by 1990, its final game was released in 1992, and Nintendo officially discontinued its technical support in 2003.
History
Diskun, the official mascot of the Disk System.
In 1983, the Disk Card's 112KB of storage space was quite appealing due to the high cost of cartridge-based solid state storage chips.[8] The rewritability of the disks also enabled the instant storing of game progress including scores, environment, and inventory. Therefore, a sea change was seen throughout the industry as the floppy disk was expected to become the dominant new home console game delivery medium. When beginning development on Super Mario Bros. in January 1985, Nintendo's development team intended for the 40 kilobyte game (drastically and ingeniously optimized for cartridge size)[9] to represent "the grand culmination" of[10][11] and "a final exclamation point" on[12] the Famicom's ROM cartridge medium in favor of the following year's FDS launch.
On February 21, 1986, The Legend of Zelda was launched alongside the FDS to a phenomenal reception, as the FDS's killer app. Zelda, Metroid, and Kid Icarus originated as FDS exclusives, with large worlds and progress storage features.
The FDS peripheral bore a steep initial price of ¥15,000 (more than US$100 at the time), but promised cheaper games on retail disks at ¥2,600-3000 (then about US$17) compared to cartridges at ¥2,500, ¥5,000, or ¥8,900.[2][8][13]:75–76 The Famicom's total lack of copy restriction for cartridge games gave developers free access without licensing, but third-party FDS licensees suddenly faced Nintendo's new and onerous restrictions: Disk Card copy protection; Nintendo's fees for creating proprietary floppy disks containing each third party game; Nintendo's sole determination of which games are allowed to be published on FDS; and Nintendo's half-ownership of copyrights of each FDS game.[13]:75–76 Some publishers, notably the publicly acrimonious Namco, were resentful of this additional level of control represented by FDS publishing, over Nintendo's already dominant video game market position.[14]
In early 1986, Nintendo of America preannounced the intention to internationalize the Famicom Disk System peripheral to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) within the same year.[15] The NES features a bottom-facing port for such expansion in theory, but which would ultimately never be utilized.[1][2][8]
In the following few years, cartridge capacities steadily increased far beyond the Disk Card's and prices dropped closer to the Disk Card's, while acquiring the ability of basic gameplay progress saving via passwords and onboard batteries. Only four months after the FDS's launch, the June 1986 release of Ghosts 'n' Goblins is the first Famicom cartridge to have already surpassed the Disk Card's storage capacity at 128 kB, and one month later Ganbare Goemon! had doubled that. By 1987, cartridge developers gained the option of battery-backed SRAM, just large enough to store the player's game progress. By 1988, even Nintendo's own FDS games were receiving concurrent NES cartridge releases such as Ice Hockey. By 1989, developers commonly opted for a memory management controller (MMC) chip aboard their cartridges[2] to expand the Famicom far more than the FDS can—with even more advanced sound, diagonal scrolling, splitscreen displays, and huge storage sizes as seen with Nintendo's own cartridge-only release[14] of Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). In 1990, Dragon Quest IV reached the largest size the Famicom library would ever have, at 1 megabyte which is 8 times that of a Disk Card. This is all with the instantaneous speed and physical durability which are inherent to the ROM medium but disabled by fragile floppy disks, and crucial to a child-focused toy. Many of the FDS games were subsequently converted to cartridge format and released for the NES one or two years after their FDS releases, though lacking the richer audio from the FDS's onboard extra wavetable sound channel.[1][13]:75–76
By 1989, the cartridge medium manufacturing process had returned to optimal profitability so publishers had returned to it, and stores complained about floor space wasted by Disk Writer kiosks that Nintendo had abandoned. The FDS was obsoleted mainly by the inevitable rapid proliferation of cartridge semiconductors, attributed by NintendoLife to Moore's Law.[8] In total, at a time when one third of Japan's households had a Famicom and Nintendo was Japan's biggest company,[13]:76–78[16] By 1990, 4.4 million FDS units had been sold, a considerable achievement for an expensive aftermarket peripheral sold only in one country.[13]:76 But as NintendoLife would recall, "the peripheral was not the runaway success Nintendo had envisaged".[14]
The drive's NES launch had never materialized, the final FDS game release was Janken Disk Jō in December 1992,[1] and Nintendo's technical support for the original FDS was discontinued in Japan in 2003. Long after the Disk Writer Kiosks had been removed from stores, Nintendo continued a Disk Card writing service via postal mail for ¥500.[17]
Hardware versions
The Sharp Twin Famicom is a Famicom with built-in Disk System.
Sharp released the Twin Famicom, a Famicom model that features a built-in Disk System.
Disk Writer and Disk Fax kiosks
Widespread copyright violation in Japan's predominantly personal-computer-based game rental market inspired corporations to petition the government to ban the rental of all video games in 1984.[18] With games then being available only via full purchase, demand rose for a new and less expensive way to access more games. In 1986, as video gaming had increasingly expanded from computers into the video game console market, Nintendo advertised a promise to install 10,000 Famicom Disk Writer kiosks in toy and hobby stores across Japan within one year.[13]:75–76 These jukebox style stations allowed users to copy from a rotating stock of the latest games to their disks and keep each one for an unlimited time. To write an existing disk with a new game from the available roster was ¥500 (then about US$3.25 and 1/6 of the price of many new games).[1][2][13]:75–76 Instruction sheets were given by the retailer, or available by mail order for ¥100.[1] Some game releases, such as Kaettekita Mario Bros. (lit. The Return of Mario Bros.),[19] are exclusive to these kiosks.[13]:75[further explanation needed]
In 1987, Disk Writer kiosks in select locations were also provisioned as Disk Fax systems as Nintendo's first online concept. Players could take advantage of the dynamic rewritability of blue floppy disk versions of Disk System games (such as Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race and Golf Japan Course)[20] in order to save their high scores at their leisure at home, and then bring the disk to a retailer's Disk Fax kiosk, which collated and transmitted the players' scores via facsimile to Nintendo. Players participated in a nationwide leaderboard, with unique prizes.[8][21]
The kiosk service was very popular and remained available until 2003.[5][8] In subsequent console generations, Nintendo would relaunch this online national leaderboard concept with the home satellite-based Satellaview subscription service in Japan from 1995-2000 for the Super Famicom. It would relaunch the model of games downloadable to rewritable portable media from store kiosks, with the Nintendo Power service in Japan which is based on rewritable flash media cartridges for Super Famicom and Game Boy from 1997-2007.
Calling the Disk Writer "one of the coolest things Nintendo ever created", Kotaku says modern "digital distribution could learn from [Disk Writer]", and that the system's premise of game rental and achievements would still be innovative in today's retail and online stores.[22] NintendoLife said it "was truly ground-breaking for its time and could be considered a forerunner of more modern distribution methods [such as] Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam".[8]
Technology
The device is connected to the Famicom console by plugging its RAM Adapter cartridge into the system's cartridge port, and attaching that cartridge's cable to the disk drive. The RAM Adapter contains 32kilobytes (KB) of RAM for temporarily caching program data from disk, 8KB of RAM for tile and sprite data storage,[1][2] and an ASIC named the 2C33. The ASIC acts as a disk controller, plus single-cycle wavetable-lookup synthesizer sound hardware. Finally, embedded in the 2C33 is an 8KB BIOS ROM. The Disk Cards used are double-sided, with a total capacity of 112KB per disk. Many games span both sides of a disk and a few span multiple disks, requiring the user to switch at some point during gameplay. The Disk System is capable of running on six C-cell batteries or the supplied AC adapter. Batteries usually last five months with daily game play. The inclusion of a battery option is due to the likelihood of a standard set of AC plugs already being occupied by a Famicom and a television.
The Disk System's Disk Cards are somewhat proprietary 71mm × 76mm (2.8 × 3 in) 56K-per-side double-sided floppy. They are a slight modification of Mitsumi's Quick Disk 89mm 2.8 in square disk format which is used in a handful of Japanese computers and various synthesizer keyboards, along with a few word processors. QuickDisk drives are in a few devices in Europe and North America. Mitsumi already had close relations with Nintendo, as it manufactured the Famicom and NES consoles, and possibly other Nintendo hardware.
Modifications to the standard Quick Disk format include the "NINTENDO" moulding along the bottom of each Disk Card. In addition to branding the disk, this acts as a rudimentary form of copy protection - a device inside the drive bay contains raised protrusions which fit into their recessed counterparts, ostensibly ensuring that only official disks are used.[23][24] If a disk without these recessed areas is inserted, the protrusions cannot raise, and the system will not allow the game to be loaded. This was combined with technical measures in the way data was stored on the disk to prevent users from physically swapping copied disk media into an official shell.[24] However, both of these measures were defeated by pirate game distributors; in particular, special disks with cutouts alongside simple devices to modify standard Quick Disks were produced to defeat the physical hardware check, enabling rampant piracy.[1][8][23] An advertisement containing a guide for a simple modification to a Quick Disk to allow its use with a Famicom Disk System was printed in at least one magazine.[23]
Startup screen
Nintendo's flagship mascot brothers Mario and Luigi make an appearance in the FDS's boot firmware. After turning on the system, a "battle" between the two characters begins over the color scheme of the Nintendo sign and screen border, until a disk is inserted into the FDS.
Reliability
The moving parts of the drive and the magnetic medium of the floppy disk both have reliability issues which the cartridge medium is immune to.[14] Even more fragile than every other floppy disk inherently is, the shutter-less Disk Cards must be handled "with almost painstaking care" and are prone to damage by elements of everyday life such as fingerprints, dust, scratches, and proximity to magnets such as those in TV speakers.[8] The drive belt in the drive is a proprietary size, smaller than standard floppy drive belts. Due to a flaw in manufacturing, the old belts have a tendency to break, decompose, or occasionally melt.[2][8]
In an effort to save money on production, Nintendo opted to not use disk shutters (a feature seen on 89 mm (3.5 in) floppy disks) to keep dirt out, instead opting to include wax paper sleeves as with the older 133 mm (5.25 in) disks. The only exception to this were certain games that were specially released on blue disks, which do have shutters.
Error messages produced during disk read operations are unusually simple, to the point where it is difficult to know what the exact problem is. Most in-game error messages during loading are often displayed as "Err. ##", with "##" being the designated number for the type of error message; the most common ones are Err. 02 (the Disk System's batteries being low on power or with no batteries put in altogether), Err. 07 (Side A and B reversed when trying to load the disk), and Err. 27 ("Disk trouble", usually involving the disk surface itself, but can also be due to a belt replacement from an inexperienced technician, resulting in the disk drive's head being inaccurately aligned). However, the error messages themselves consist of little explanation (Err. 27, for example, only gives the accompanying message "Disk trouble") and in most cases within gameplay itself, such as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the error message is not given at all, with only the number code shown.
Until 2004, Japanese residents were able to send their systems to Nintendo Co, Ltd. for repairs. In modern times, the entire Disk Card medium has been replaced by the third party retrogaming market in the form of highly reliable and convenient flash storage accessories for the FDS.[2]
There are about 200 games in the Famicom Disk System's library. Some are FDS exclusives, some are Disk Writer exclusives, and many were re-released years later on the cartridge format such as The Legend of Zelda for NES in 1987 and for Famicom in 1994. The most notable FDS originals include The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Kid Icarus, Ice Hockey, and Akumajō Dracula (Castlevania).[1]
Square Co., Ltd. had a branch called Disk Original Group, a software label that published Disk System games from Japanese PC software companies. The venture was largely a failure and almost pushed a pre-Final Fantasy Square into bankruptcy. Final Fantasy was to be released for the FDS, but a disagreement over Nintendo's copyright policies caused Square to change its position and release the game as a cartridge.[citation needed]
Nintendo utilized the cheaper and more dynamic disk medium for a Disk Writer exclusive cobranded advertisement-based game, a genre now called advergames. Kaettekita Mario Bros. (lit. The Return of Mario Bros.) is a remastered version of Mario Bros. with enhanced jump controls and high score saving, plus a new slot machine minigame branded for the Nagatanien food company.[19]
The final FDS game release was Janken Disk Jō in December 1992, a rock paper scissors game featuring the Disk System mascot, Disk-kun.[1]
Launch games
These games accompanied the Famicom Disk System's launch to market. Some had been adapted from cartridge, but The Legend of Zelda and Akumajō Dracula (Castlevania) are FDS launch originals whose development was enabled by the large storage space of the Disk Card.
Nintendo held game score contests for certain games that were released on blue-colored Disk Cards.[8] Some of the prizes to these contests included two gold prize disks, one for the game Golf US course, and one for Golf Japan course (not to be confused with Golf). These two gold disks have metal shutters on them, like the blue Disk Cards. Nintendo's historically rare prizes at 10,000 total awards each include a stationery set, and gold colored Famicom cartridge versions of golf games and Punch-Out!!.[1] In the gold version of Punch-Out!!, the final opponent is Super Macho Man, before Nintendo used Mike Tyson and Mr. Dream instead in later NES versions.[citation needed]
Legacy
The Famicom Disk System briefly served as an enabling technology for the creation of a new wave of home console video games and a new type of video game experience, mostly due to tripling the size of cheap game storage compared to affordable cartridge ROMs, and by storing gamers' progress within their vast new adventures. These games include the open world design and enduring series launches of The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Metroid (1986), with its launch game Zelda considered to be one of the greatest games of all time due mostly to its expansiveness. Almost one decade ahead of Nintendo's Satellaview service, the FDS's writable and portable storage technology served as an enabling technology for the innovation of online leaderboards and contests via the in-store Disk Fax kiosks, which are now seen as the earliest forerunners of modern online gaming and distribution.[8][22]
Within its library of 200 original games, some are FDS-exclusive and many were re-released one or two years later on cartridges for Famicom and NES, though without the FDS's additional sound channel.
In subsequent console generations, the system and its Disk-kun mascot would be recognized by Nintendo and others. The background music to the GameCube's main console menu is actually the FDS boot-up jingle slowed down by a factor of 16.[25] In Super Smash Bros. Melee, switching the language to Japanese enables a Disk-kun trophy.[citation needed] The FDS boot up theme is briefly played in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door when Princess Peach inserts a floppy disk into Sir Grodus's computer during the fifth chapter's interlude.[citation needed] Disk-kun appears in Super Mario Maker as an unlockable Mystery Mushroom costume via an update.[citation needed]
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a 1986 side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Nintendo as the first sequel to their 1985 bestseller Super Mario Bros. The games are similar in style and gameplay, apart from a steep increase in difficulty. Like the original, Mario or Luigi venture to rescue the Princess from Bowser. Unlike the original, the game has no two-player option and Luigi is differentiated from his twin plumber brother with reduced ground friction and increased jump height. The Lost Levels also introduces setbacks such as poison mushroom power-ups, counterproductive level warps, and mid-air wind gusts. The game has 32 levels across eight worlds, and five bonus worlds, each of which also has four levels.
The Legend of Zelda is a 1986 action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda from the antagonist, Ganon. During the course of the game, the player navigates throughout the overworld and several dungeons, defeating enemies and uncovering secrets along the way.
The 64DD is a magnetic disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. It was originally announced in 1995, prior to the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, and after numerous delays was finally released only in Japan on December 1, 1999. The "64" references both the Nintendo 64 console and the 64 MB storage capacity of the disks, and "DD" is short for "disk drive" or "dynamic drive".
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of two systems: the Nintendo Family Computer and the Sega SG-1000. When the Famicom was released outside of Japan it was remodelled and marketed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) This generation marked the end of the North American video game crash, and a shift in the dominance of home video game manufacturers from the United States to Japan. Handheld consoles were not a major part of this generation, although the Game & Watch line from Nintendo had started in 1980 and the Milton Bradley Microvision came out in 1979 though both are considered second generation hardware.
Following the popularity and longevity of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the system has seen many clone video game consoles. Such clones are colloquially called Famiclones, and are electronic hardware devices designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Famicom. Hundreds of unauthorized clones and unlicensed copies have been made available since the height of the NES popularity in the late 1980s. The technology employed in such clones has evolved over the years: while the earliest clones feature a printed circuit board containing custom or third party integrated circuits (ICs), more recent (post-1996) clones utilize single chip designs, with a custom ASIC which simulates the functionality of the original hardware, and often includes one or more on-board games. Most devices originate in Asian nations, especially China, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia, and to a lesser extent, South Korea.
1988 saw many sequels and prequels in video games and several new titles such as Super Contra, Super Mario Bros 2, Assault, Altered Beast, Mega Man 2, Double Dragon II: The Revenge,and Super Mario Bros 3
Multi-memory controllers or memory management controllers (MMC) are different kinds of special chips designed by various video game developers for use in Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridges. These chips extend the capabilities of the original console and make it possible to create NES games with features the original console cannot offer alone. The basic NES hardware supports only 40k of ROM total, up to 32k PRG and 8k CHR, thus only a single tile and sprite table are possible. This limit was rapidly reached within the Famicom's first two years on the market and game developers began requesting a way to expand the console's capabilities.
The history of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) spans the 1982 development of the Family Computer, to the 1985 launch of the NES, to Nintendo's rise to global dominance based upon this platform throughout the late 1980s. The Family Computer or Famicom was developed in 1982 and launched in 1983 in Japan. Following the North American video game crash of 1983, the Famicom was adapted into the NES which was brazenly launched in North America in 1985. Transitioning the company from its arcade game history into this combined global 8-bit home video game console platform, the Famicom and NES continued to aggressively compete with the next-generation 16-bit consoles including the 1988 Sega Genesis. The platform was succeeded by the Super Famicom in 1990 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, but its support and production continued until 1995. Interest in the NES has been renewed by collectors and emulators, including Nintendo's own Virtual Console platform.
Family BASIC is the consumer product for programming Nintendo's Family Computer video game console of Japan. Family BASIC was launched on June 21, 1984 to consumers in Japan by Nintendo, in cooperation with Hudson Soft and Sharp Corporation. A second version titled Family BASIC V3 was released on February 21, 1985, with greater memory and new features.
The Nintendo Power flash ROM cartridge is a Japan-only peripheral which was produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom and the Game Boy. The now defunct service allowed owners to download Super Famicom and Game Boy games onto a special flash memory cartridge for a lower price than that of the full cartridge.
Mario no Photopi is a creativity video game released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 exclusively in Japan. With a variety of photo retouching and image composition functions, SmartMedia storage card slots, and planned 64DD floppy disk compatibility, the game was intended to supplant the Japanese market's desire for a personal computer.
Famicom Data Recorder (HVC-008) is a compact cassette tape data interface introduced in 1984, for the Famicom which had been introduced in 1983. It is compatible with four Famicom games, for saving user-generated content to tapes. As Nintendo's first rewritable storage medium, it was replaced by the Famicom Disk System in 1986.
The Twin Famicom is a video game console system that was produced by Sharp Corporation in 1986 and was only released in Japan. It is a licensed Nintendo product that combines the Family Computer (Famicom) and the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) into a single piece of hardware.
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to simply as a cartridge or cart, is a removable memory card containing ROM designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electronic musical instruments. ROM cartridges can be used to load software such as video games or other application programs.
The Family Computer Network System, also known as the Famicom Net System or Famicom Modem, is a video game peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer, released in September 1988 only in Japan. It uses a card based format, reminiscent to the HuCard for Hudson Soft's and NEC's PC Engine or the Sega Card for the Master System. It allowed the user access to a server that provided live stock trades, game cheats, jokes, weather forecasts, horse betting, and a small amount of downloadable content.
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced, released, and marketed by Nintendo. It is a remodelled export version of the company's Family Computer (FC) platform in Japan, commonly known as the Famicom, which was launched on July 15, 1983. The NES was launched in a test market of New York City on October 18, 1985, followed by Los Angeles as a second test market in February 1986, followed by Chicago and San Francisco, then other top 12 American markets, followed by a full launch across North America and some countries in Europe in September 1986, followed by Australia and other countries in Europe in 1987. Brazil saw only unlicensed clones until the official local release in 1993. The console's South Korean release was packaged as the Hyundai Comboy and distributed by Hyundai Electronics.
The Nintendo Entertainment System Game Pak is the software storage medium for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo. The successor to the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros., it was released in Japan in 1985 for the Famicom, and in North America and Europe for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 and 1987 respectively. Players control Mario, or his brother Luigi in the multiplayer mode, as they travel the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser. They must traverse side-scrolling stages while avoiding hazards such as enemies and pits with the aid of power-ups such as the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman.
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