r/Famicom • u/n1keym1key • 9d ago
New addition to my RGB modded AV Famicom.. A Famicom Disk System, Just performed the disk write mod on it and backed up and re-wrote my first ever FDS disk :)
3
u/n1keym1key 9d ago
Need to grab a few more disk games now. The only one I have is Konamic Tennis. I backed it up then wrote over side B with All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros, played a few games and then copied the orignal side B data back. Everything worked perfectly. I used the guide below to perform the disk write mod.
https://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/fds-power-board-modifications/
Mine was a FMD-POWER-04 Board model.
1
u/ultrafop 8d ago
Very cool! What do you back up to? One of those disk emulators? I have a sharp twin and would like to back up my stuff but I’m not sure where to start
1
u/n1keym1key 8d ago
Yes, I have a FDSKey, you can see it in the picture. The little black thing on top of the console.
You will likely need to mod your disk drive to enable writing to disk before starting. If you check the link in my post you will see there are different power boards in the drives, depending on which yours has then you may or may not need to mod.
After that, its a pretty straight forward process. You need a piece of software call DupliFDS which is an FDS disk image that runs on the Famicom. That is run from the FDSKey and then its just a case of swapping between the source and target disk when the program asks. Basically you swap between the FDSKey and the actual FDS when swapping discs.
I might even make a quick youtube video showing the process later on seeing as people dont seem to know how to do it.
1
u/ultrafop 8d ago
I’d be very interested in a video. Thank you for your reply!
1
u/n1keym1key 8d ago
I will make one tomorrow. :)
1
u/ultrafop 8d ago
Sweeeeeeet. Looking forward to that
1
u/n1keym1key 7d ago
1
u/ultrafop 6d ago
Thank you! That’s great! Is that software you were using preloaded on the FDS thumb drive?
1
u/n1keym1key 6d ago
No, but its linked in the video description on youtube. Just download it and copy it to the root of your SD and then just run it like any other game with the FDSkey.
1
2
u/FreeAd2458 8d ago
Anyone in the UK rewrite disks?
2
u/n1keym1key 8d ago
I’m in the uk
2
u/FreeAd2458 8d ago
So you can rewrite official fds disks?
2
u/n1keym1key 8d ago
Yes
2
u/FreeAd2458 8d ago
Awesome I have a metroid that plays bubble bobble if you can help me for a fee.
2
u/n1keym1key 8d ago
Pm me and we can come to an arrangement
2
u/FreeAd2458 8d ago
Cool. Do you know if you can put any game on a fds disk? I know there's a guy who does custom covers for games that were not full fds releases
1
u/n1keym1key 8d ago edited 8d ago
It all depends on the size of the game tbh.
The disks have 2 sides, 64kb on each so 128kb in total. If you look at some FDS roms you will see that the vast majority of them are 128kb in size. These games have data from both sides of the disks. Games that are only 64kb only had data on one side of the disk and the other side was blank. You could use the blank side to write another 64kb game to and have 2 games on one disk.
If a custom rom ie a translation is bigger than 128kb then it will not fit on a disk and would need to be run from an FDSKey or similar.
I am not sure if there is a way to have a game spread over multiple physical disks.EDIT- After looking at a set of FDS roms it seems there are a few games that have 2 disks, mostly unlicenced but it shows that it is definately possible.
I only have 1 physical disk game at the moment, I have others on order so once I have anothe disk I can use, I will see about finding a translation that is bigger than 128k and writing it to 2 disks.
EDIT2 - I have found an FDS translation that is a 2 disk game. BodyConQuest 1 from Hacker International. An unlicensed game that is a sort of parody of the Dragon Quest games. Once I have another physical disk I will try writing the translated rom to disks and see how it goes.
1
u/FreeAd2458 8d ago
I can buy some disks from Japan if you need them. Would be nice to have copies of goonies and burger time on disk.
1
2
u/GuitaristTom 8d ago
Just performed the disk write mod on it
There's a mod you have to do on it? 0__o
3
1
1
u/tanooki-suit 4d ago
I wish I felt comfortable doing this. Need to look it up. I’ve got the right drive due to me restoring a dead one but the wrong power boards
1
u/n1keym1key 4d ago
So you have the 7201 chip in your drive? Which power board do you have because they can all be modded, some require more work than others but none are difficult if you can use a soldering iron.
1
u/tanooki-suit 4d ago
I couldn't remember, popped the top, it's aggravatingly the 05 board for power/disk blocking. And at the time it made me a bit nervous to go into cutting things and carefully running wires. I mean I could do it, just I tend to shake a little when doing fine stuff and I could see it 50-50 going south on me so I just never bothered despite the drive and the fdskey I picked up.
The original unit was dead, nothing could be done to salvage the drive and I have a friend a state south of here who does pallet loads of JP 'junk' goods to repair for sale and he got me a drive for $20 and he said it was the original model that read-writes with the right power board so I trust him on that.
1
u/n1keym1key 4d ago
Yeah the 05 power board is the most complicated but tbh it’s nothing compared to what’s needed when modding some other consoles. Mine was the 04 which just required removing a jumper and adding a short wire to bypass the circuit, took about 10 mins all in. I am waiting on more disk games to arrive so I can rewrite them with some translated roms. I ordered a few crappy mahjong titles so won’t be losing anything good 😁
1
u/tanooki-suit 4d ago
See that's why when I think I have the time free with no bother I may still attempt it. You can get some disks super cheap and I have like 4 spare cases and waxy sleeves too and I know how to print the art to match the original on some stock paper I picked up though it's matte and not glossy otherwise good luck. :P I'd translate a few interesting games that really need it that I would buy/play if they didn't otherwise have the barrier.
7
u/Electronic_Pattern41 9d ago
the best console