Famicom Basic... can I save to disk?

[towmater]

From last month's Akihabra haul:

The floppy plugs into the cartridge slot, and doesn't seem to allow passthrough to run the Basic language cart. Is there a way to save or load from disk Basic programs? Perhaps there is a different version of Basic that runs from disk? (I gather there is a tape option, but that can't be the only option.

[MrMaddog]

You can't plug both the disk drive & Family BASIC cart in the same slot so the answer's no...

 

TBH, I've always wondered why couldn't Hudson make a Family Disk BASIC to be loaded from a FDS that would have supported loading & saving on a disk.

[carlsson]

I think Nintendo only wanted to show proof of concept, that the computer part of Family Computer really had bearing. They never intended to become a full fledged computer manufacturer, so many else in Japan were doing that in various price ranges and they already had a best selling video game console. Besides, aren't FDS mostly read only or can games save progress to the disks?

[discgolfer72]

I think Nintendo only wanted to show proof of concept, that the computer part of Family Computer really had bearing. They never intended to become a full fledged computer manufacturer, so many else in Japan were doing that in various price ranges and they already had a best selling video game console. Besides, aren't FDS mostly read only or can games save progress to the disks?

early manufactured had the ability for full read/ write(tho nothing supported it )

pretty quick they changed the hardware so it would only write to a small section of the disk for saves

 

its pretty simple to make the early drives able to write new disks , the newer drives require a mod chip of sorts to make them be able to make new disks

 

as for op you can still save and run programs but not from disk you need a tape drive

Edited April 14, 2018 by discgolfer72

[carlsson]

... or any smartphone, computer etc that accepts recording. No need for a specific Nintendo branded tape recorder in case you wonder. Personally I've only used my Family BASIC for demo purposes with pre-downloaded programs stored on a MP3 player and then loaded into the keyboard.

[MrMaddog]

Didn't they have it so you can re-write FDS disks with different games from kisoks? And I'm sure it did games saves for Zelda & Metroid....

[discgolfer72]

Didn't they have it so you can re-write FDS disks with different games from kisoks? And I'm sure it did games saves for Zelda & Metroid....

yes but all the kiosks were owned by Nintendo

and so far it looks like every single one was returned to Nintendo as there is a massive search for one and no one has admitted to having one

[pacman000]

That's too bad; those kiosks look neat, & they're an important part of gaming history. It would've sad if they were all scrapped.

[discgolfer72]

That's too bad; those kiosks look neat, & they're an important part of gaming history. It would've sad if they were all scrapped.

Nintendo does still have several in storage , there was some pics on famicom world of the Nintendo's climate controlled storage , and it was pretty sweet