Nintendo Entertainment System

Every good boy deserves Famicom

• Nintendo Entertainment System models

ファミリーコンピュータ or ファミコン (Famicom)

A PAL version of the Famicom sold in Hong Kong.

Disks are based on Mitsumi’s Quick Disk format. You can use QDs via an adaptor¹⁾. Not sure if the data is stored in the same format; Famicom uses a linear layout structure format, so it's like tape.

• https://www.famicomdisksystem.com/
• The Famicom Disk System Cleaning Extravaganza | Things of Interest

Made by Sharp. Single unit incorporating Famicom and the disk drive. Have mono composite out.

Two main versions. Original has that nice curved bump on top, and no power light. Disk drives in these have no write restrictions, so are good if you want to write full games to disks. Revision has turbo-fire on the controllers.

All the NES waveforms are a bit wonky, but my favourite NES sound is the triangle wave. Nice bassy, airish, 'bah' sounds.

• How NES Music Was REALLY Composed - Info. on tools musicians used on the NESdev forums.

• Why Is Your NES A TV Station? (That's Weird) - Video by Cathode Ray Dude on the NES's RF output.

There's nothing like getting a box of brightly coloured Famicom carts in the post.

• Famicom Games - Details like serial number, cart colour, controller compatibility…

• Bootleg Games Wiki

• https://www.retrorgb.com/romcarts.html

• Everdrive - Expensive. Can do basically anything you'd want from a flashcart. Can do disk games too, but not sure how it handles their extra audio channel (emulated in the FPGA? Does it pass through to Twin Famicom?. Lots of iterations. Versions for NES and Famicom.
  NB there are two official shops:
  • everdrive.me
  • krikzz.com
• PowerPak - Another FPGA cart, also plays FDS.
  • https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/PowerPak
• KrzysioCart - Cheaper cart, less mapper support than Everdrives.
  • https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/KrzysioCart
  • http://krzysiocart.com/
  • https://hackinformer.com/2022/05/25/hardware-review-krzysiocarts-flashcarts-for-nes-famicom/

• FDSStick - popular, cheap little drive emulator that connects to a PC via USB. With some DIYing you can use it to write ROMs to disks too.
  • https://3dscapture.com/fdsstick/
  • How To Read / Write Nintendo Famicom Discs with FDSSTICK + Twin Famicom
  • Reading and Writing Famicom Disks with the FDSStick
• Magic Wild Card
• Famicom Disc System Game Re-Writing: Using FDS Loader to repair non-working Famicom Discs!
• FDSKey - Open-source hardware alternative to FDSStick.
  • ClusterM/fdskey

Regular-sized Famicom carts are about the same size as an audio cassette, so racks and cases made to hold those are great for storage. Note that Famicom carts come in a variety of heights, so drawers and cases won't hold everything unless you lie stuff down, but racks (where carts are held horizontally) should have no problems.

People 3-D print a variety of little racks (sometimes called display stands) on Etsy, and I assume other places like that.

Main issue I've run into is games just needing a clean. First steps is to just try cleaning the connector with some isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds/swabs. If that's not successful and they still look dirty you can use an eraser to try remove whatever junk is on there, but you'll have to open the cartridge to do so.
NES carts are held together with screws, but Famicom carts are held with clips and will need to be pried open. Heat and/or pressure in the right spots help a lot here. Still, sometimes you may end up breaking a plastic clip :(

• I Bought 7 BROKEN NES Games - Let's Try To Fix Them - Guy's not an expert, but tries to fix a few different kinds of problems. Shows testing connections with a multimeter. Good info in the comments too.

• Diskun yellow is (CMYK) M30%, Y100%. So Hex #FFB300.

• Notes on NES Games

• Famicom World
  • Famicom / Disk System Game List
• NESdev Wiki