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The Famicom Disk
System (HVC-022) was released in on February 21, 1986, by
Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Mitsumi Electronics Co., Ltd.
Though 212 Disk
System games were officially licensed by Nintendo over the years, some argue the Disk System isn't
really its own console but instead a Famicom
accessory. You have to plug the Disk System into the
Famicom to get it to work using a RAM adaptor
(HVC-023).
The Family Computer
Disk System.
The Family Computer Disk System
RAM adaptor.
The Disk System
connects to the Famicom via the RAM adaptor. It can be powered with
C batteries or a
power adaptor. Disks (officially called "disk
cards") were inserted in front, like the standard
'80s
floppy drive, and were
removed using a yellow eject button.
The FDS hooked to the
Famicom.
Nintendo created the Disk System for various reasons, in part because Famicom
gamers were begging for a way to save their progress
in games. But Nintendo also wanted to increase the
size of games. Cartridges had failed
to provide the luxuries disks could provide.
Yellow and blue were
to two main colors of disk cards.
Another awesome
feature provided by the use of disks was that they
could be easily rewritten with new and different
games. Nintendo placed Disk Writers in stores around
Japan where gamers could push their disk into the
machine and write one of nine games from any
particular Disk Writer onto the disk. Over 100 of the
games licensed for the Disk System were, at one time or
another, available in Disk Writers.
Many popular Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES) titles were released for the Disk System.
Zelda? Check. Zelda 2? Check. Castlevania? Check.
Super Mario Bros. 2
(Super
Mario USA in Japan)?
Check. Many
games that were never released for the NES, however, also were released for the
Disk System. Ever heard of Doki Doki Panic, the
prequel, if you will, to Super Mario USA? It was
only released in the disk format. Interestingly, Castlevania was much
easier in disk form because it had save states, and I bet you didn't know that
it has different music and gameplay, too! The music is fantastic!
Japanese games by the same title as their NES
counterparts
often have gameplay and graphic differences.
A box of 20 brand new
Othello disks.
At the height of the
Disk System's few years of reign, Nintendo exploited
the system's save feature by hosting nationwide
tournaments, where gamers could purchase one of the
blue disk versions of a game, such as F1 Race,
and compete to get the highest score. A gamer could
play at home as many times as he wanted, then save
his score and later "fax" it into Nintendo of
Japan's headquarters. Prizes were given to high
scorers (see
The Holy Grails Shrine).
The Disk System also
led to the creation of Nintendo's only official
mascot, if Mario is seen as a mascot by default.
This mascot, Disk-kun (or Mr. Disk), was used widely
on Disk System advertising during the mid- to late-80s.
Disk-kun (AKA: Mr.
Disk).
Yet,
the disk format was too good to be true, eventually
failing in so many ways, including as a viable
commercial product for Nintendo.
Why did the Disk System
fail? Well, it had its faults. Having not been built
sturdy enough, many gamers were plagued by the infamous disk error
messages on their TV screens. Sometimes
it was the game; other times it was the disk drive; and most times it was the
delicate drive belt inside the Disk System, which would break or
turn to mush. Even more painful, sometimes it was the
ability to save
that caused a problem, which on occasion could erase a gamer's hard-earned save
state.
One Disk System
message.
Gamers also complained
about the slow loading times
for games. With cartridges, the loading time always
was instant. With the Disk System, the initial
loading of the game could take 10 or more seconds,
and during gameplay, the game would sometimes stop
to load the next scene or stage. Plus, many games
utilized both Side A and Side B of the
disk, so gamers would have to eject and switch back
and forth between sides. The slow loading and
switches sometimes caused the Disk System to err or
turn off. Japanese gamers
got really impatient,
never mind that today's
Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 have just as slow loading times,
if not slower.
Another reason for
the fall of the Disk System were the ease with which rouge companies
could make pirated disks. Those disk usually came
out of Hong Kong and saturated the Asian market (see
Spelling Nintendo).
Six disk card pirates
of popular games.
The Disk System's swift and sad end
came by around 1989, though some games were
released after that date and Disk Writers were still
in stores through the turn of the century. Because the Disk System
failed to catch on, some of the disk games that had
been
made exclusively for the Disk System, such as
Konami's Bio
Miracle
Bokutte Upa,
were later re-released in cartridge form.
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