School me on Famicom Disk games

BanishingFlatsAC

BanishingFlatsAC

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I owned a twin famicom before, but never owned any actual disks for it. I'm toying with snagging one for my AV famicom and was wondering if the disks are something that are going to last or are they going the way of 5.25 and certain 3.5 diskettes and erasing themselves. Also, is there a source where you can just get the few key games on repro carts? Not looking to go the everdrive route either, but if you do, do these disks have expanded audio that I'll miss out on?

Thanks in advance.
 
Tw3ek

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DecepticonZero said:
I owned a twin famicom before, but never owned any actual disks for it. I'm toying with snagging one for my AV famicom and was wondering if the disks are something that are going to last or are they going the way of 5.25 and certain 3.5 diskettes and erasing themselves. Also, is there a source where you can just get the few key games on repro carts? Not looking to go the everdrive route either, but if you do, do these disks have expanded audio that I'll miss out on?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The way that Nintendo made them, they can go bad easier than regular 3.5 disks if you don't take care of them as they left the shutter off the disk to save some money on some of the earlier disks. Honestly, the belt in the disk drive is far more likely to fail than the software, as that thing is trash. I still have most of my Disk System games and they all work just fine, but the belt in the drive needed to be replaced as it turned into a gooey mess haha.

Just as a side note, skip Castlevania 2 on the disk system unless you REALLY like load times!
 
Opethian

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I think the worst problem you would have a read errors on the disk that can sometimes be fixed by someone writing the info back on the disk if it isn't physically damaged.
Bio Miracle Baby sounds better on FDS to me
Aruma no Kiseki
Murasame no Nazo

2 good FDS exclusives
 
BanishingFlatsAC

BanishingFlatsAC

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Opethian said:
I think the worst problem you would have a read errors on the disk that can sometimes be fixed by someone writing the info back on the disk if it isn't physically damaged.
Bio Miracle Baby sounds better on FDS to me
Aruma no Kiseki
Murasame no Nazo


2 good FDS exclusives
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info so far. So there are people in the US that can rewrite these disks?
 
J

Jon

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Opethian said:
Bio Miracle Baby sounds better on FDS to me
Click to expand...

Have you seen how much even a loose Famicom cart version of Bio Miracle: Bokutte Upa! goes for? It's prohibitive...and what do you get over the FDS version? Easy mode (optional) and worse music, no thanks.

FDS version is definitely the one to get.

Jon
 
Tw3ek

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Opethian said:
I think the worst problem you would have a read errors on the disk that can sometimes be fixed by someone writing the info back on the disk if it isn't physically damaged.
Bio Miracle Baby sounds better on FDS to me
Aruma no Kiseki
Murasame no Nazo

2 good FDS exclusives
Click to expand...

No love for Otocky?
 
NeoSneth

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they go bad. You can often load the game just fine, but then it craps out mid game. That's really frustrating.

There's not a long list of gems on the FDS, so it's more of a novelty for me.
 
cdamm

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there is a fds rewriter mod out there for normal systems and a win98 computer. it does wonders.
 
Electric Grave

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Super Mario Bros 2 is a great game to able to play no matter how you do it. As for the Castlevanias...well...I'm happy with the carts, at less there's something I dunno.
 
madman

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DecepticonZero said:
so you just plug the ram adapter into this and you're done? That's awesome. Do you lose any of the audio by doing this?
Click to expand...

The audio chip is contained in the RAM adapter, not the disk drive unit.
 
madman

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DecepticonZero said:
Word thanks dude. I'll be going with one of these. Seems better in the long run!
Click to expand...

Yeah the FDS is a neat system, years ago I refurbed a bunch putting in new belts, calibrating the heads and setting the proper motor speed. It's a cool little system, but ultimately took up too much space and wasn't much more than a novelty. I mostly played SMB2 and there are much easier ways to access that game these days.
 
BanishingFlatsAC

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madman said:
Yeah the FDS is a neat system, years ago I refurbed a bunch putting in new belts, calibrating the heads and setting the proper motor speed. It's a cool little system, but ultimately took up too much space and wasn't much more than a novelty. I mostly played SMB2 and there are much easier ways to access that game these days.
Click to expand...

I just wanted it for Metroid and SMB2, but now that I see this Indiana Jones style game I want to play that too.
 
Last edited:
DNSDies

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I already have a adapter and top loader NES that can do expansion audio, so this is pretty great.

Thanks, Madman!
A+ thread.
 
Tripredacus

Tripredacus

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Beware of boots.
Spoiler:
tumblr_kzp3qwMO8F1qzp9weo1_1280.jpg
 
Opethian

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the expanded audio on the everdrive is inaccurate
 
DNSDies

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Oh, and as someone who collects old PC games that are frequently on magnetic media:

Even if the disk looks fine, it can still be damaged beyond repair. There's no way to know whether it is usable or not.

I've had some 5.25" floppies from the mid 80s survive like champions to this day, while a more modern 3.5" hard case floppy from the mid 90s will lock up my old 486 and needs the internal media replaced.

Floppy emulators and archive quality rips are the way to go.
 
A

Alpha Skyhawk

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Opethian said:
the expanded audio on the everdrive is inaccurate
Click to expand...

I use a PowerPak, and I've never had a problem with the expansion audio. I don't have any experience with the original hardware and how that sounds, but what you don't know, you won't miss.

And I don't care what anyone says, PowerPak makes the Japanese Castlevania 3 sound awesome.
 
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