/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.2240784]

I received an old gem in the mail today, so I figured I'd talk about it a little bit. Anyone recognize the box yet?

[Anonymous No.2240786]

Twin Fami.

[Anonymous No.2240787]

This is the Twin Famicom, a variation of the Famicom that was produced by Sharp rather than Nintendo. I purchased it from an American game enthusiast living in Japan. The box is in surprisingly good condition for its age.

The Twin Famicom was released in 1986, just after the NES made its stateside release. Naturally, it was only available in Japan.

[Anonymous No.2240792]

Being a variation of the Famicom, naturally, it can play Famicom games. But the 'twin' prefix comes from the fact that the Famicom Disk System is built into the device.

For those who aren't aware, the Famicom Disk System was an add-on for the original Famicom that allowed the player to play games off of floppy disks. This made it a tiny bit more convenient than buying the original platform and the add-on seperately.

[Anonymous No.2240795]

Of course, aside from being produced by Sharp rather than Nintendo, there's quite a bit of difference in design between the Twin Famicom and the original Famicom, as you can see. The Twin Famicom is rather large, and a little on the heavy side--meaning it may be less practical to order from Japan than the original console.

The Twin Famicom's design reminds me more of SEGA's consoles than Nintendo's, to be honest.

Though I have the original release of the Twin Famicom, there was a red variation released, and later a 'turbo' variation with a slightly different design and turbo buttons on the controllers.

[Anonymous No.2240796]

Here's a better shot of the consoles from the top. I was supposed to post these first and split the above post, but I forgot.

You can see it's a rather drastic difference in design.

[Anonymous No.2240801]

Both the Twin Famicom (left) and the original Famicom (right) feature a pair of controllers built directly into the machine.

The controller has a three foot cable length, which is less than half that of the NES release we're more familiar with. This is because the Japanese typically had smaller rooms, as opposed to American homes.

[Anonymous No.2240803]

It's not specific to the Twin Famicom, but the player 2 controllers on both devices have microphones built into them. There were a few games that used this as a feature, such as the Legend of Zelda and Kid Icarus.

The NES ended up abandoning these, usually making minor modifications to the games that were affected during localization.

[Anonymous No.2240807]

One of the most important differences between the Twin Famicom and the original Famicom is the support of composite output.

The original Famicom only supported video output via RF, which is kind of lacking in regards to quality. There was a later model of the Famicom, commonly known as the A/V Famicom, which DID support composite video output--but it's rather expensive and hard to find these days.

The Twin Famicom isn't really any more common nor cheaper, but it does support composite video output, as you can see. The device is also supposed to come with an RF modulator, but it appears that mine did not come with one.

[Anonymous No.2240808]

Here's a look at the Famicom Disk System's drive, on the left side of the unit.

It's worth noting that both the original disk drive AND the Twin Famicom's disk drive are prone to breaking down. They aren't terribly hard to repair, but it's something to keep in mind if you ever think about purchasing one.

[Anonymous No.2240812]

All that's left is to pop in a good game, plug in the console, and enjoy it.

Famicom games are fortunately pretty cheap and common compared to their NES counterparts, and few of them require reading. It's a fun platform for those who want to pick up the odd game here and there for personal play.

Thanks for reading.