Famicom Disk System

Modern Drive Solutions

Despite all of it's flaws, I love the Famicom Disk System. It's true, a Famicom Disk System isn't a bad investment if you're interested in Nintendo history or simply want to screw around with floppy disks. It's genuinely entertaining to load a game like Super Mario Bros. off of a floppy disk.

Unfortunately, it's also a forty year old floppy disk drive. Those have moving parts and rely on fairly volatile magnetic media. You're never going to find those disks at a thrift store or a pawn shop. Instead, you need to buy your games from across the Pacific or from some rando on eBay.

If you're still interested, my advice is to buy an FDS on eBay (preferably a game or two), and just screw around with it. Once you're bored, buy a drive emulator. You get the best of both worlds with this approach. You don't have to worry about not being able to play your games, and you can get that core FDS experience in.

I am no stranger to impracticality but even I have my limits.

Even if you never use your Famicom Disk System, it's drive belt WILL go bad. It takes about a decade, but there's no getting around it. Time makes fools of us all, friend. Replacing the belt is a nightmare; even for a professional like myself. I hate doing it, and sourcing a good belt was significantly harder now than it was in 2015 the last time I replaced it.

You can avoid these issues with a drive emulator. A drive emulator is a device that replaces a physical floppy, CD, or DVD drive by emulating its electrical and communication behavior. To the host system, it appears to be the original drive, but it reads disk images from modern storage such as an MicroSD card or it's own internal memory.

Most console drive emulators require the user to dismantle the console and install it. Thankfully, that's the not the case with the Famicom Disk System. Even if you're using a Twin Famicom, there's no need for any console modification. That is of course, unless you're using an NES. In that case, you'll need to mod the console regardless of what you're doing because it's not capable of outputting the Disk Systems extra sound channels.

With these, you can still use your drive. Just plug it back in whenever you'd like to play a disk game. It's pretty cool.

As far as I know, there are two different drive emulators out there. They're both perfectly fine devices and they're roughly equal in capability. However, they are not equal in terms of user accessability.

Given it's age, you may think that the FDS Stick is archaic or even completely inferior to the FDSKey. Really, it depends on how you intend to use it.

The FDS Stick requires you to use custom Windows software designed specifically for it. With this utility (Which doesn't seem to have a name) you can load disk images onto the device, use your computer to load data directly to the RAM Adapter, and dump disk images to PC if you build a special cable.

The program works flawlessly but this approach is fundamentally flawed. Windows has become increasingly useless over the years. FDS Stick released in 2015 and unlike then, Windows isn't widely used. Especially with how Windows 11 is turning out. It's no longer realistic to assume that users will have a Windows PC available. Development on this project is long over if "Last updated 2016" is any indication. There's no telling when a new version of Windows will break something that this program relies on.

After you've loaded your Disk Images, you simply plug this thing into your RAM Adapter and you're good to go. Upon powering on the console, you're greeted with a list of whatever is loaded onto it. Upon selecting your game, it loads up just like it would off of a disk. All the expansion audio there and it's accurate. Flipping the disk is easy, but unintuitive. Side A requires to press the button in the FDS Stick once. Side B requires you to double press it.

You can use the software to load .fds images directly from your PC. Simply plug the USB side into your computer and the FDS side into your RAM adapter. Doing this in combination with DuplFDS and a modded Disk Drive allows you to copy .fds files to disk with some cable swapping. Be careful with that "insert/eject" button and you'll be fine.

The FDSKey is an open source drive emulator for the Famicom Disk System that's more robust than the FDS Stick but not necessarily better. It doesn't rely on Windows software. Instead, opting for a simple MicroSD card format. simply load your .fds files onto your card and you're good to go. The device features four buttons and an OLED screen contained within a 3D printed casing. .stl files are available for those that wish to print their own casing. The OLED screen is tiny, and can be difficult to read.

FDSKey is entirely self contained so there's no reliance on outside software. Users can create blank disk images and easily copy data from physical disks. There is no need for users to create custom cables or utilize a Windows PC. Any device that can load files to an properly formatted SD card will suffice.

Gameplay wise, the FDSkey is just as good as the floppy drive and the FDS Stick. Disk flipping requires users to access the device and manually do so with the four directional buttons. The screen lights up whenever game data is being loaded off of the disk. If you look closely, it'll even tell you how far along it is.

TOP: The games Menu

Middle: Loading

Bottom: Disk Side Swap

The github repository is a useful resource even if you're not planning to build your own FDSkey. All kinds of important information can be found there. Users can learn about the menu system there if they're having trouble.

That's up to you. For most I'd guess it boils down to what kind of menu you'd like and whether or not you intend to copy/create disks. It's easier to manage your physical disks with the FDSKey, but it's OLED is tiny so it may be impractical for some. The FDS Stick is easier to buy, cheaper, and it's menu is integrated into the console. I'd say that if you're interested in preservation, the FDSKey is a no brainer. If you're simply looking to play games, go with the FDS Stick. That is, if you have a Windows PC. Playing a game with either one is basically the same experience. It's the interface difference that separate these two more than anything.

Because I can't promise you that it'll work. I found minor graphical problems within Bubble Bobble and Vs. Excitebike in my first 10 minutes of testing. I made sure to compare with both real disks and the two drive emulators. Only the Everdrive has these problems. Whether or not this matters to you is up to personal taste. Me? I don't personally care that Bubble Bobble has a different colored menu background every time it's accessed. However, what the hell else is going on that you can't see? We don't know, and that could end up costing you in the end. Different models of NES/Famicom also seem to produce different results. My Top Loader will consistently show a black screen for Bubble Bobble's background for example, but the AV Famicom doesn't.

Well then

The Everdrive N8 doesn't utilize the original Famicom Disk System BIOS presumably because it's under copyright. I have no idea what role the original BIOS plays if any at all, but I'd guess that the inbuilt BIOS is part of the problem. I only say that because the blue used in the Bubble Bobble menu is exactly the same as the one used in the N8's FDS BIOS background. Maybe I'm on to something, or maybe I'm just an idiot. Who knows? I'm sure you could replace the BIOS, but I don't know if it'd have any effect it's beyond the scope of this article. Just know that out of the box, the Everdrive leaves a lot to be desired.

If you own an Everdrive N8 Pro, you'll see that there's a button on the cartridge. You can use that to flip disk sides. The Everdrive N8 doesn't have this button. Generally, the Everdrive will detect when the disk needs to be flipped and do so automatically. I say "generally" because this doesn't work every time. It seems to fail more commonly while I'm playing random shovelware.

Probably not what you're thinking

Twin Famicom is fully compatible with both of these. in fact, there was a kit you could use to integrate an FDSkey into your console permanently. Sadly, it's no longer available. Why not build your own? Access to the built in RAM Adapter is facilitated via port C on the Twin Famicom. Cables can be built to interface each device directly to the Twin Famicom's in-built RAM Adapter.