As far as video game historical artifacts go, this one has to be one of the most stately I’ve ever seen – a true trophy statue of Ryu, case in solid bronze. The story behind it is interesting – it’s one of two ever made (a third on a larger scale was made for a […] More
The Barcode Battler II, released by Epoch in 1992, was released as a follow-up to the mildly successful original Barcode Battler. One of the major upgrades of the BBII model is that it had an output port for the Famicom and Super Famicom, allowing it to interface with Famicom or Super Famicom games designed with […] More
It’s known to many Famicom collectors that Sharp released several variants of TV set in Japan containing a built-in Famicom. It’s a lesser-known fact that Sharp released two variants of that TV in North America, redesigned to contain a North American NES. Here is one, in allegedly working condition. Since this is a CRT TV, […] More
Perhaps the most famous of Nintendo’s console addons next to the N64DD, the BS-X Sattelaview was a revolutionary device that supported game and content downloads in the pre-Internet world, much like Sega Channel. Unlike Sega’s cable-based strategy, however, Nintendo decided to take another option – sattelite transfer, via a now-defunct Japanese sattelite company named St. […] More
My sweet spot for obscure system peripherals continues. This time, we have the Famicom Network System Adapter, a modem for the Japanese Famicom that allowed the system to go online and download various news, jokes, and pre-internet miscellany. Interestingly enough, it also read a HuCard-like proprietary game format, allegedly to read cards containing online-enabled versions […] More
Another unusual peripheral (this seems to be a running theme with my posts lately), this time for the Game Boy Color (but also compatibile with GBA and GBA SP) – a cable that allows you to interface your GBC with a variety of Japanese mobile phones from the time period. The included software, Mobile […] More
One of only two third-party units that actually interfaced with the Famicom (the other being the Aladdin Deck Enhancer), which allowed the user to swipe cards included with the various compatible Bandai game cartridges. The unit was bundled with Dragon Ball Z: GekitÅ Tenkaichi Budokai, as well as the cards needed for operation. Truly […] More
The Disk-Kun games are almost the Famicom equivalent of the Nintendo World Championship cartridges, although much more common in theory. Back in 1987 Nintendo ambitiously wanted to link all of Japan’s Famicoms through a network similar to a much simpler Internet. To test out the system, Nintendo put off competitions where participants got to play […] More
Rockman 4 Gold Famicom Cartridge Only 8 copies around. Because the carts were issued as prizes for those who won the RM4 Japanese boss design contest back in 1991. Design one of the 8 Robot Masters (bosses in the game) and get a golden copy Famicom grail. Notes From Link From what I can dig […] More
Credit for this article goes to Derrick at CinnamonPirate.com The original NES has brought us many classic games. Super Mario, Punch Out and Legend Of Zelda are all games which spawned amazing series that are still around today. Sometime however, the same works in reverse. The ingenuity of Famicom pirate companies have brought the wonders […] More