Famicom Disk System
The Family Computer Disk System , often shortened to the Famicom Disk System (FDS), is a floppy disk drive for the Famicom game console (released in Europe and the USA in a modified form as the Nintendo Entertainment System ) and was released on February 21, 1986 at a price of about 15,000 yen exclusively in Japan.
The Famicom Disk System was connected via the expansion port of the console and games could of 3 inches - floppy (disks) to play. In contrast to modules, these data carriers had the advantage of being much cheaper. The game disks were available in two ways: on the one hand, they were usually available in a small plastic box with a cover and instructions; on the other hand, you could buy an empty disk for little money and at a machine called Disk Writer yourself for a small fee select a game and have it written to the disk. The data could be deleted at any time and replaced by another game. Another advantage was that, thanks to the writable media, many games offered a storage option, while outside of Japan either passwords had to be used or there was no storage option at all. Examples are Excitebike , Kid Icarus or the first two games in the Castlevania series.
Since the manufacturers could only make a small profit with the disks, only a few implemented their developments exclusively for the disk system. Many published the games both as a module and as a disk or ignored the drive altogether. Even so, the Famicom Disk System sold about 4.5 million times. In addition, some of the best-known classic games in Japan appeared exclusively on FDS discs.
Well-known games
A selection of well-known games that have been released for the Famicom Disk System:
- Akumajō Dracula ( Castlevania )
- Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin ( Castlevania II: Simon's Quest )
- Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic
- Excitebike
- Hikari Shinwa: Parutena no Kagami ( Kid Icarus )
- Metroid
- Super mario bros.
- Zelda no Densetsu ( The Legend of Zelda )
- Rinku no Bōken ( Zelda II: The Adventure of Link )
