Famicom and Super Famicom

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Does anyone else here love the Famicom (Japanese NES), and maybe the Super Famicom (SNES)? I love collecting Famicom games because the games come in all different colors and boxes. They're not like other video game consoles that have kind of a certain box layout. The same can't be said about the Super Famicom, but it's still fun to collect the games.

I also really like Game Boy games, to a lesser extent.

I've thought about getting a Famicom, but I already have a toploader, and a few frontloaders (and an EverDrive).

I would like to get a Super Famicom at some point though, mostly because I think that the American SNES is kind of ugly, and I like the R/G/B/Y motif of the controller.

If I had the money, space, and resources to do so, I would definitely collect Famicom and Super Famicom stuff.

The Famicom in particular is intriguing since it actually has a significant number of hardware differences from the NES. The 60-pin cartridge slot is the main difference, but there's also a different expansion port with a huge number of peripherals, a primitive microphone on Controller 2 (which is mainly used for defeating Pols Voice on the Famicom Disk System version of The Legend of Zelda), and the cartridges themselves can add extra sound channels, unlike the NES.

The aforementioned Famicom Disk System is also a pretty big deal, as it expanded the Famicom's capabilities and was the original platform for Zelda and Metroid. It also had no NES equivalent, and while it is possible to use one on an NES, it can be quite tricky, and you don't get the extra sound channels.

The Super Famicom isn't as intriguing since it's essentially the same as the SNES, but with some aesthetic differences, and a slightly different shape for the cartridges. The games however are another story, as the SFC got a number of great games, RPGs in particular, the SNES never had, or only had edited/censored versions of. Unfortunately, games started becoming more text-heavy around this time, so fan translations are essential for actually enjoying a lot of these games. The Famicom doesn't suffer from this problem as much, because more of its games have simple action/arcade-oriented gameplay that doesn't require as much reading.

I wish I could have a Famicom..... it is similar to our NES in North America. This is the gaming system that I will always <3.

You can mod the NES (or make a modified cartridge adapter) to add them. It's not quite the same way the Famicom does it though, so the volume levels will be mixed differently, and it won't sound 100% authentic.



The Everdrive supports loading FDS ROMs, though there are a few limitations. If I'm not mistaken, it uses FPGA to emulate the external audio, and though it's improving with every firmware update, it's still a bit off. Also, the side flipping is automatic, so you don't get to enjoy the intro stories for Zelda or Doki! Doki! Panic.

I love the boxes for basically all Nintendo stuff released in Japan, especially for the Famicom, Super Famicom and the N64. The boxes are quite different to what we have here in North America and I find them pretty awesome looking. Problem is, collecting them for me would be a huge challenge and they're quite expensive.

Everything is expensive for the SNES these days. I only got into it a couple of years ago and a lot of the prices are determined by popularity rather than rarity. I've managed to obtain a reasonable collection of games (loose) that cost £20 or under (most a lot less) each:

Super Mario World
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario Kart
Yoshi's Island
Tetris/Dr Mario
Pac-Attack
Starwing
Pilotwings
Super Tennis
Super Soccer
Sensible Soccer
Batman Returns
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing
Paperboy 2

For titles like Zelda, Harvest Moon and TMNT IV things start to get expensive (not because they're rare, but because they're mega popular). I'm thinking about getting a Super Everdrive to play these sort of games.

Actually, the first Harvest Moon for SNES was pretty rare. It came out around the same time as EarthBound, and US audiences weren't really buying RPGs anymore.

I thought Harvest Moon was actually released later in the SNES lifespan, like in 1997. Earthbound was 1995 IIRC.

That's right, Harvest Moon was one of the last SNES games released. I wish I could have gotten the original cart....but at least I have it on Wii VC.

My sister actually has a Super Famicom game, cart only modded to work on an SNES. It's a Sailor Moon fighting game. She bought it from a local vintage game shop ( no longer there....though the fact they were only open maybe twice a month may have been a factor there ) for about $20.

They modified the cart itself? Ouch, I would have just modified the SNES because those are at least somewhat common. SFC carts on the other hand, aren't.

I almost bought an SFC copy of Front Mission once, because it was like $10 at this one game store in the city, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to actually play it, since it's an extremely text-heavy game and as such would require translation. I kept playing my fan-translated rom of it instead.

Idunno, I remember them being in Nintendo Power around the same time...maybe I'm wrong.



It's a lot easier to mod an SNES, too. And a lot harder to accidentally destroy anything while doing so.

That reminds me, I do have one SFC game, it's Super Mario Picross (or whatever it's called).

I've played Famicom and the super variant with a good friend in the past. I really enjoyed the games we played on both consoles, but she also spoke fluent Japanese and could read Japanese, so it made anything confusing in text not confusing because she was able to explain it to me if necessary. The other thing was that she knew what the games were(like good exclusives) having deep interest in Japan while also having a fondness for retro gaming, where as, I'd have a hard time knowing what to collect that wasn't a Japanese version of something that I already have or have played on NES or SNES.

I've looked into Famicom to NES cartridge converters(Have a reliable top-loader NES from childhood), and even used amazon listings for the consoles themselves, but wouldn't know what to collect as far as games, so I've not gone ahead to humor the idea. If I'm not careful, I can easily collect things rather blindly and eagerly. So even having recently gone back to NES/SNES, I've had to set concrete parameters for procuring games to "Must be something I foresee to have replay value, and that I'd enjoy playing as a 30 year old adult"... or I'd just fall into collecting a bunch of solely nostalgic titles that I loved as a kid in addition, that would, more than anything, just be extra things in my room for dust to settle upon because many of the games I rather enjoyed as a kid wouldn't be particularly stimulating or entertaining to my mind now. So, without having much any clue about the games available on Famicom, nor history with it to reference, I wouldn't know how to hold similar guidelines for a controlled collection.

^You're lucky. I've always wanted to learn Japanese so that I could play games that were only released there, but the idea of actually learning the language intimidates me. There are like 3 or more different alphabets for it, some of which have thousands of different characters.

I don't know, I still love almost every game that I loved as a kid. Some of them make me say "How the heck was I ever any good at this game?? It's too hard!" though...maybe I am getting old

One of the things I love about retro gaming is playing and enjoying the games I didn't get when I was a kid. A game like Pilotwings would have been completely lost on me at the age of ten, but now I think it's one of the best games on the SNES.

And, if you buy loose games, they don't take up much space. All my SNES games fit just fine in a plastic bag from the supermarket and, unless money is no object, you need to be very selective with the games you buy in today's market anyway so you won't end up with a room full of SNES games unless you're mega rich.