First of all, I wanted to say thanks to this site for giving me reading material for years. I finally bit the bullet and bought a Famicom Disk System for my AV Famicom on eBay for $120 with a fixed belt. It comes with an aftermarket power supply. I hope it doesn't fry my machine! (And yes, I already purchased and own a transformer so I am not feeding my FDS and AV Famicom 120V). I have been a huge Nintendo fan all my life, and feel like it's inexcusable for Nintendo to have a console out there that I don't own!
I was wondering what the best method to preserve the functionality of the Disk System is? I know the belts melt like butter, but I figured maybe there's something I can do to prolong the life of the belts. I am surprised none of the 3rd party ones last longer than the Nintendo-made ones. I say that because I'm just surprised someone hasn't figured out a better material to use.
Do I have to worry about anything else routinely breaking in the system? Reading lots of articles, I've read the games can crap out fairly easy, too. This makes sense because I recall 9 out of 10 of my floppy disks (3.5") from back in the late 90s are unreadable. I hope this isn't so frequent on the FDS! I also read there were special "blue versions" of games that had a protective flap over the disk. The Super Mario Bros. version of this is incredibly expensive.
Also, does anyone have a place they'd recommend a US citizen to buy FDS games? I've been trying eBay but stuff is very scarce on there. Even something popular, like Zelda 1, has barely any copies on eBay (there's a few, but not as many as I expected). I also seem to be paying an arm and a leg for games. I just bought Super Mario Bros. 1 and it cost me $40! That seems very steep for what was probably the number 1 selling FDS game. Since that's probably the most common game, it looks like I won't be getting many games for much cheaper than that. Unless of course someone here knows a place better than eBay? (As a side note, the SMB1 I bought has SMB2 on side 2. Is that some bootleg thing? Or is SMB2 a game Nintendo allowed to be written to a blank side of a disk?).
I'd also appreciate an FDS fan to recommend me games that also had a US NES release, but were better on the Famicom Disk System. I already know about Castlevania 1 (thanks to this site), Zelda 1 and 2, and Metroid, but what others are there? Especially ones with better music or additional stuff!
Finally, if anyone has any cool storage ideas for the FDS games, or even knows about a legitimate FDS game organizer, I'd love to know about it. I'm picturing like the old ones they used to have for floppy disks that would stand up straight and you could flip through them! Searching for something to hold FDS games yields no results for me.
Thanks a bunch for any help you can give to this FDS newbie!
I take it I got ripped off pretty bad for both the system and the Mario disk? I did a bunch of checking, it took a while to find it even for those prices.
I buy FDS games once in a while on eBay, the prices are usually decent, overpriced but not horribly so. I'm always looking for obscure stuff though, the popular ones might be a different story. Yeah, they are like floppy disks. Keep them out of the light, away from magnets and extreme temps. They still only last about 25 minutes :)
Quote from: crade on April 24, 2012, 08:03:09 am
I buy FDS games once in a while on eBay, the prices are usually decent, overpriced but not horribly so. I'm always looking for obscure stuff though, the popular ones might be a different story. Yeah, they are like floppy disks. Keep them out of the light, away from magnets and extreme temps. They still only last about 25 minutes :)
Last 25 minutes you mean the disks themselves? I can handle buying a few belts and replacing them once in a while but I don't think I'm going to bother with the FDS if I have to buy games over and over again and again.
Quote from: Hamburglar from MC Kids on April 24, 2012, 08:07:30 am
Quote from: crade on April 24, 2012, 08:03:09 am
I buy FDS games once in a while on eBay, the prices are usually decent, overpriced but not horribly so. I'm always looking for obscure stuff though, the popular ones might be a different story. Yeah, they are like floppy disks. Keep them out of the light, away from magnets and extreme temps. They still only last about 25 minutes :)
Last 25 minutes you mean the disks themselves? I can handle buying a few belts and replacing them once in a while but I don't think I'm going to bother with the FDS if I have to buy games over and over again and again.
Yeah, I was just kidding, obviously they last longer than that. Some are still working since the 80s. It's just that they aren't the most reliable medium on the planet.
120$ is okay, though you can find it cheaper on this forum.
smb for fds is a bit rare -- though someone recently tried to convince me a game isn't rare unless you can't find it -- not very rare, but anyways people would have little reason to buy this common game on the fds when they had it on a cart.
You will see that smb 2 japan is a lot more common.
Zelda is quite common if you are happy with just the game disk. Getting it complete is a bit more expensive. I sell loose copies (with sleeve) for 15$, and I think that is fair.
I wouldn't worry too much about the system breaking. With a new belt it will last a good 10 years or so, and then you can buy a new belt for 6$.
The disks last better than some people (even on this forum) want to make you belive. Virtually every original disk I have works as expected, except if they come loose , have labels that are not straight, or other weirdness. In those cases, they may contain a different game. Usually a worse game...
In fact, I have rarely encountered a broken disk yet, and I don't know what kind of disks people buy that are so often broken? Maybe their system isn't calibrated correctly, or they keep disappointing themselves with pirate disks.
I have a couple of disk games and I sell them quite cheap, but I mostly sell domestically.
There are other online stores such as japangamestock.com. More expensive than me, but a lot bigger selection. I think you can search the forum for online stores, there's a thead about it.
> FDS fan to recommend me games that also had a US NES release
Search the forum, I know threads about it exists. Search for "Jackal".
> As a side note, the SMB1 I bought has SMB2 on side 2. Is that some bootleg thing?
Whew, must you ask all questions in one post? Anyways, SMB2 was a disk writer game. It is one reason why it was so common. You can search the forum for disk writer, too.
Well, of course when I buy it the disk works.. Who sells broken disks? I would expect disks with bad sectors would mostly get tossed
But I don't expect them neccessarily to last forever after I buy them, because I have a good idea know how well floppies last and about half the read only game disks I had from the 80s and all the writable ones are toast now.
Sorry for asking so many questions in my first post. I am very forgetful and if I don't post the questions and save some for later, I will forget some of them.
I will check out your website, fredJ. Thanks. The only storage device I was able to find for FDS games was a tower that holds like 20 games and it is a miniature Disk Writer kiosk like they used to have in Japan. Very cool, and I'd love one, but on eBay they go for big, big money (one in crappy condition is like $90).
The only bad disks I've ever found (that couldn't be rewritten) have some sort of physical damage to them--dents, gouges, scrapes, etc.
The best thing you can do if you want a reliable FDS collection is to learn how to rewrite the disks yourself.
I agree with ericJ on this one. Ihave yet to find a disk I couldn't rewrite, unless it has PHYSICAL damage. :)
Quote from: kiwidaveinjapan on April 24, 2012, 11:49:08 pm
I agree with ericJ on this one. Ihave yet to find a disk I couldn't rewrite, unless it has PHYSICAL damage. :)
Lets just say that a disk does have physical damage. Can one crack open the case and swap a new platter into it?
I know that a blow dryer or goo-gone could do wonders for a simple label swap if you don't mind damaging the original media to harvest the label safely in mint condition, but some games have unique disk shells?
Quote from: Phosphora on April 25, 2012, 01:03:15 am
Lets just say that a disk does have physical damage. Can one crack open the case and swap a new platter into it?
Yes, you can crack a FDS disk case open and swap the disk media. It works easiest if you bend it near the edges all the way around to break the adhesive and then use a thin knife or razor blade to get them apart.
Quote from: ericj on April 25, 2012, 08:43:35 am
Quote from: Phosphora on April 25, 2012, 01:03:15 am
Lets just say that a disk does have physical damage. Can one crack open the case and swap a new platter into it?
Yes, you can crack a FDS disk case open and swap the disk media. It works easiest if you bend it near the edges all the way around to break the adhesive and then use a thin knife or razor blade to get them apart.
That's nice info to know in case such an issue were ever to ever arise. Thanks! :)
I had no idea the manuals were in a different, larger case. I thought they came inside the plastic where the game was. Very glad now that I did not buy that $80 "Disk Writer" tower! This thing wouldn't have fit! (I got Super Mario Bros 1. with the manual).
Also, Super Mario Bros. 2 is indeed what's on the 2nd side. It's very cool; it has a sticker you can tell was affixed at a later date, but is definitely an official Nintendo sticker saying Super Mario Bros. 2 on it.