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−Table of Contents
Nintendo Entertainment System
Every good boy deserves Famicom
Models
Family Computer
ファミリーコンピュータ or ファミコン (Famicom)
PAL Famicom
Famicom Disk System
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.
Sharp C1 / Sharp Nintendo Television
Twin Famicom
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.
Famiclones
Audio
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.
Video
- Why Is Your NES A TV Station? (That's Weird) - Video by Cathode Ray Dude on the NES's RF output.
Library
Pirate Carts
Playing ROMs
Flashcarts
- 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: - PowerPak - Another FPGA cart, also plays FDS.
- KrzysioCart - Cheaper cart, less mapper support than Everdrives.
Disk
- 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.
- Magic Wild Card
- FDSKey - Open-source hardware alternative to FDSStick.
Storage
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 indifferent heights.
People 3-D print a variety of little racks (sometimes called display stands) on Etsy, and I assume other places like that.
Trivia
- Diskun yellow is (CMYK) M30%, Y100%. So Hex #FFB300.