BillyHW Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 But Dragon Warrior was already 3 years out of date by the time they released it in NA, and it did look out of date when you started playing it. Phantasy Star had already come out by then and was by far a better game. Maybe if they brought it out on time and didn't miscalculate the number of carts to produce, things wouldn't have been such a disaster and the execs couldn't blame the genre and the customer for their own incompetence. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 No doubt NOA was slow on the RPG ball, but again it was all related to sales. Anyway guys, don't forget to check out part 5! Link is in my previous post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarilovesyou Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Great stuff, Matrix. Now that the word is getting out on your blog (lots of responses on your top ten so far), just remember that with success comes TROLLS, lol...try not to feed them, but it's great to see you're willing to back up your statements. Your Final Fantasy write up is spot on: I bought that baby back in summer 1990 and it cost $110 dollars!!!...my gaming buddies who cut their teeth on Ultima titles on C64 beat it in only three days, but it took me three months...I wanted to get my money's worth, after all! Overall, it might be my fave NES rpg, but I'm not a huge rpg fan. I did like DW 4 for the NES, but it lost me in the later chapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Great stuff, Matrix. Now that the word is getting out on your blog (lots of responses on your top ten so far), just remember that with success comes TROLLS, lol...try not to feed them, but it's great to see you're willing to back up your statements. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. My aim was never to appeal to everyone or else I would be writing a top 100 FPS games sprinkled with a few dozen Madden titles. Afterall, boy do I sure love Call of Duty, Halo and Madden! Yessirie! They sure are better than anything classic gaming has to offer! I think I should do a top 100 Atari 2600 games to see how the trolls react. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 OMG FPS 17 is teh best game of all time way better then FPS 16 you don't no anything!!!!11! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Entry #4 http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/top-100-nesfamicom-games-list-4/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I didn't know that the Famicom disk drive had extra audio hardware. The FDS is one of the few console expansion products that achieved moderate success. Were there ever any prototypes for the NES? That Famicom is one ugly mother****** though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I didn't know that the Famicom disk drive had extra audio hardware. The FDS is one of the few console expansion products that achieved moderate success. Were there ever any prototypes for the NES? The Famicom Disk Drive was rather popular, and at the same time, Nintendo realized pretty quickly that its technical limitations combined with the ease of piracy meant it wasn't a great long-term solution. By the time Nintendo would have been contemplating bringing it stateside, it was already being strongly de-emphesized in Japan. That doesn't mean a prototype wasn't cooked up in a lab somewhere, but it really wouldn't have been needed. A US version of the FDS wouldn't need to be more than the Japanese one in a new case, and with a differently-shaped cart adaptor. I suppose it's possible it could have been designed to go in the expansion slot, but there would be no reason to do so. Interestingly enough, there was a prototype of an NES cassette drive: http://www.allnes.com/img/avs.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Hm, I don't think any prototypes of the Nintendo Disk System were ever actually created, but I know support was planned. Rather than the RAM Adapter attaching to the cartridge port, the NES version would have attached to the expansion port on the bottom of the system that was otherwise completely unused. the US attachment would have sat directly under the system like the Stelleview, N64 Disk Drive, or Nintendo GameCube GameBoy Player. Here's an example of the expansion audio in the FDS Zelda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBEkwRTFfHw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I didn't know that the Famicom disk drive had extra audio hardware. The FDS is one of the few console expansion products that achieved moderate success. Were there ever any prototypes for the NES? The Famicom Disk Drive was rather popular, and at the same time, Nintendo realized pretty quickly that its technical limitations combined with the ease of piracy meant it wasn't a great long-term solution. By the time Nintendo would have been contemplating bringing it stateside, it was already being strongly de-emphesized in Japan. That doesn't mean a prototype wasn't cooked up in a lab somewhere, but it really wouldn't have been needed. A US version of the FDS wouldn't need to be more than the Japanese one in a new case, and with a differently-shaped cart adaptor. I suppose it's possible it could have been designed to go in the expansion slot, but there would be no reason to do so. Interestingly enough, there was a prototype of an NES cassette drive: http://www.allnes.com/img/avs.jpg Those AVS controllers make my eyes want to bleed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Hm, I don't think any prototypes of the Nintendo Disk System were ever actually created, but I know support was planned. Rather than the RAM Adapter attaching to the cartridge port, the NES version would have attached to the expansion port on the bottom of the system that was otherwise completely unused. the US attachment would have sat directly under the system like the Stelleview, N64 Disk Drive, or Nintendo GameCube GameBoy Player. Here's an example of the expansion audio in the FDS Zelda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBEkwRTFfHw I'm also amazed that the thing could last 5 months on batteries with daily use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Well, a good 95% of the time you use it, the FDS isn't actually doing anything other than lighting an LED. The system reads the disk sectors and loads them into the RAM adapter. Then you play your loaded game via the RAM Adapter, which gets 5v from the Famicom itself. The initial loading process, as well as any saving you do are the only times when the FDS actually really requires power. You could even remove the batteries when the system has already loaded the game data to the RAM adapter and it still would work fine. Basically, the FDS is just a terminal to transmit data from the 64K floppy disk to the RAM Adapter which then sends the data to the Famicom. Once the data is transmitted, the FDS has done its duty for king and country and can just chill out. This is why to me at least, it isn't surprising that the FDS lasts that long at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Were the FDS games any cheaper to buy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Yes - FDS games were cheaper by quite a wide margin. The Famicom Disk System was created to address a chip shortage at the time which caused production of cartridges to be rather expensive. Because they were not using solid state mask roms, FDS games could be produced far more quickly and more importantly, far more cheaply than cartridge based games. Since the production costs were so low and Nintendo was pushing the attachment as a must-own, FDS games were sold for an average price of 20,000 yen vs the typical cartridge game that sold for 48,000 yen. In addition to that, FDS cames could be rewritten at special kiosks all across Japan for only 500 yen. This meant that Japanese kids could use their own spending money to get new games once they got bored of their old ones. There were even blank disks sold strictly for this purpose. In 1986, the double sided disks with 64K on each side offered more storage that cartridges could, allowed users to save, and were much cheaper. On the other hand, the magnetic belts in the disks themselves were exposed to the air and were extremely succetable to corruption, which renders the disk unplayable. To add to that, the FDS itself requires a special drive belt that can and will melt or snap with normal use. Nintendo sold replacement belts, but they are a pain to install and eventually, there will be no more replacement belts to fix the FDS. By late 1987, the chip shortage had passed, battery backed s-ram could be implemented into cartridges, and mask rom sizes soon exceeded what the FDS was capable of. With each passing month prices continued to fall and the FDS soon found itself outmatched by the very format it was created to replace. It was for these reasons as well as concerns about piracy that Nintendo of America never produced an NES Disk System. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Sorry it's a little late. Here's #3. http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/top-100-nesfamicom-games-list-3/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 #3!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 My local video store had an imported Fam cart and adapter available for rent, so I found all 3 flutes before The Wizard was even a twinkle in a Nintendo of America marketer's eye. I was one of the coolest kids on the block for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 You need to create a separate page with a reference list of all 100 games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'll list a run down with screenshots just before I give the #1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Matrix Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 annnnnnnnnnd #2. http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/top-100-nesfamicom-games-list-2/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Dude, if #1 is Deadly Towers, I will hit you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Friday the 13th! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 annnnnnnnnnd #2. http://satoshimatrix...m-games-list-2/ Great review. I've actually never played Mega Man 2, though I had a similar 'Christmas moment' with Mega Man 3. The Mega Man 3 box art was actually pretty cool, which is why I think I hinted I wanted it for Christmas. I don't think I would have ever picked up parts 1 & 2 because of the terrible box art. Anyways, I definitely look forward to playing the rest of the NES Mega Man series. Music is such a huge component of the game for me. So much so that, that I could never play a game on mute. My brother used to always tell me, "You don't need the music." Oh how wrong he was. I think a lot of companies dropped the ball on music and sound *cough* Atari 7800 *cough*. The kid in the video didn't look too interested in Ironsword, lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Dude, if #1 is Deadly Towers, I will hit you. Since Trojan is better than MM2, #1 must be Trojan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.