Problems Using A Famicom Disk System With A Front Loading NES

Has anyone here tried to use a FDS with a regular Front Loading "Toaster" NES? The reason I ask is that I'm having some issues with mine. I got it working by using a 72-60 pin converter cart and two Game Genies so the whole thing would stick out far enough to use the FDS RAM apater. It's a pretty nasty looking kludge, but it appears to work.

The FDS BIOS comes up and the games appear to load, however now I seem to get graphical glitches in them. I first noticed these glitches on the BIOS screen itself, as some of the stars appeared to be odd blinking squares. These glitches carry over into the games themselves, usually looking like odd letters misplaced around the screen.

My first thought was that something was just dirty, so I cleaned everything well, but the glitches are still there. The really odd thing is that they seem to be pretty consistant. For example, the BIOS always has the same glitchy stars with the same exact graphical glitch in the same order. It's a very regular pattern. This is making me think that there might be some incompatibility with the FDS RAM Adapter and the converter or Game Genie. I don't have these problems when I use regular Famicom Carts with this kludge, so I guess it must be the RAM Adapter. Could it be a bad chip in the RAM adapter? The games seem to load fine, they just have graphical glitches.

Does anyone know of any incompatibilities? If so, is there a better way to use a FDS with a front loading NES? Keep in mind that I don't want to rip the poor NES apart to use the FDS. I also can't use a Top Loading NES as I have plans for the expansion port on the bottom (but that's another story).

Tempest

 

Maybe the problem is with using the Game Genies, you could get a pair of connectors (60 pin from some crappy adapter and goldenfinger from some broken 1 cent NES cart) and wire up a larger adapter.

 

Bad graphics = bad connection between the RAM adapter's CHR-RAM and NES, the Game Genies have nothing to do with it but you really shouldn't be daisy chaining game genies since they add a little propagation delay to the program ROM plus up the instability.

There were some 60->72 pin converters a long time ago that extended the entire Famicom connector to a box outside the NES, which is what you need for reasonable FDS use.

 

Interesting. Sounds just like what I need. Any idea what they were called or where I might get one these days?

Tempest

 

I did a Google search before I posted but I couldn't even find a picture of what I'm talking about. They will definitely be hard to find...

 

That's EXACTLY what I need. I actually wanted to build something like that, but it's beyond my limited skills. Is there any place where you can still buy something like this?

Tempest

 

That isn't what you need. What those adapters do is allow you to play one 72-pin game using another 72-pin game's lockout chip (e.g. NTSC games on a PAL NES) and are very easy to find. What I'm talking about extends the connector over a very large IDC ribbon cable (~60 pins) to another box.

 

Yeah I just read up on what those Magic Key things actually do. Bummer. Something like that though which had a large ribbon cable that came out of the unit to an adapter would work.

 

Maybe you should buy a cheap front loading NES, and modify it to install a 60pin famicom connector and mount it somewhere. You could even wire up the extra sound channel then too. You could actually connect the FDS directly to the NES though that's kind of a waste to solder them together when you could get a Famicom 60 pin connector off a cheap clone system.

You also could try just removing the lid of the NES and seeing if you can plug it in more directly. Anything could be dirty too. Maybe replacing the NES's 72pin connector would help?

 

Get that and use the 60 pin adapter in the outside end.

 

That doesn't make any sense since Famicom games don't have lockout chips and it doesn't solve the extension problem.

 

just buy a gadamn famicom mate

 

That's quitter talk! We must get him to try strange things all to play the same games he probably played the cartridge version of! =)

He's right though, simplest thing to do is just buy the damn famicom. Or a pirate system if you don't mind the shitty quality.

 

Yeah I thought about that. I might be better off using a Famicom with a NES > Famicom converter (I assume they make those). However then I couldn't use my US peripherals (light gun, rob, 4 score, etc.) without some sort of Famicom Expansion Port > NES Joystick Port adapter which I know doesn't exist.

My ultimate goal is to make a US NES compatible with a Famicom expansion port. Too bad no one else seems to want to do this...

Tempest

 

Get the AV Famicom. works with disk system and uses american controller.s

 

You can't adapt the Famicom expansion port to the NES joystick port because a lot of signals are missing. Also the 4 score is not compatible with any Famicom games, Hori made the adopted multiplayer adapter for FC and it's logic is quite different.

You can add this in no problem if you mod the console, it's just a matter of wiring.

But it doesn't work with the cheaper NES peripherals.

 

Yep, because besides the controller ports with an original famicom you will run in to that frequency issue with japanese tv's.
I never got my working famicom to work on my tv (and several others)

 

>>You can add this in no problem if you mod the console, it's just a matter of wiring.

I've been trying to find someone to help me do this for years now. I want to make the US Expansion Port compatible with the Famicom one so I can use my keyboard and 3D goggles. I also want to figure out how to get the extra sound channel from the FDS while I'm at it. Maybe this can all be accomplished with some kind of "add-on" device?

Tempest

 

You can make such a device if you could find a connector that would fit the expansion slot... If you mod your 60-72 pin adapter with a headphone jack to connect to such a device, you could get the expansion audio too.