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Famicom Disk System

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A peripheral device , or simply peripheral , is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core component of the computer.

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56-530: The Family Computer Disk System , commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System , or just Disk System , is a peripheral for Nintendo 's Family Computer home video game console , released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" for cheaper data storage and it adds a new high-fidelity sound channel for supporting Disk System games. Fundamentally,

112-400: A "brilliant puzzle game [disguised] as a sports game". Game Informer ranked Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! as its 14th favorite game ever in 2001. The staff noted that no boxing game since has been as "beloved". IGN named it the 7th best NES game. Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 74th in a list of greatest Nintendo games. On The Tonight Show on October 29, 2014, Mike Tyson

168-428: A 17-year-old boxer weighing about 107 pounds. The behavior of each opposing boxer follows a set pattern requiring trial and error and memorization to defeat them. The theme song for Punch Out!! is "Look Sharp-Be Sharp", composed by Mahlon Merrick. It originated with the radio and TV program Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1942–1960). The opening theme of some characters are classical and folk themes: Glass Joe has

224-443: A battery option is due to the likelihood of a standard set of AC plugs already being occupied by a Famicom and a television. The Disk System's Disk Cards are somewhat proprietary 71 mm × 76 mm (2.8 × 3 in) 56K-per-side double-sided floppy. They are a slight modification of Mitsumi 's Quick Disk 71 mm 2.8 in square disk format which is used in a handful of Japanese computers and various synthesizer keyboards, along with

280-470: A branch called Disk Original Group , a software label that published Disk System games from Japanese PC software companies. The venture was largely a failure and almost pushed a pre- Final Fantasy Square into bankruptcy. Final Fantasy was to be released for the FDS, but a disagreement over Nintendo's copyright policies caused Square to change its position and release the game as a cartridge. Nintendo released

336-412: A cartridge". A GameSpot reader poll ranked it as the 6th greatest NES game. Nintendo Power magazine ranked it as the 17th best game for a Nintendo system in its Top 200 Games list. In August 2008, Nintendo Power listed it as the sixth best NES game, praising it for putting arcade-style fun over realism. Historian Steve L. Kent called it the second major game of 1987. Author Nathan Lockard cited

392-597: A chance to fight a rematch. However, if he loses a Title Bout, he will fall in the rankings – one place for the Minor or Major Circuits, two places for the World Circuit. Losing a rematch causes him to fall one place (unless he is already at the bottom of his circuit), forcing him to fight his way back up. A third loss, or a loss in the Dream Fight, ends the game. Little Mac faces a total of 14 opponents: three in

448-653: A device inside the drive bay contains raised protrusions which fit into their recessed counterparts, ostensibly ensuring that only official disks are used. If a disk without these recessed areas is inserted, the protrusions cannot raise, and the system will not allow the game to be loaded. This was combined with technical measures in the way data was stored on the disk to prevent users from physically swapping copied disk media into an official shell. However, both of these measures were defeated by pirate game distributors; in particular, special disks with cutouts alongside simple devices to modify standard Quick Disks were produced to defeat

504-464: A disk version of Super Mario Bros. in addition to the cartridge version. The Western-market Super Mario Bros. 2 originated from a disk-only game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic . Nintendo utilized the cheaper and more dynamic disk medium for a Disk Writer exclusive, as an early advergame . Kaettekita Mario Bros. (lit. The Return of Mario Bros.) is a remastered version of Mario Bros. with enhanced jump controls and high score saving, plus

560-544: A few word processors. QuickDisk drives are in a few devices in Europe and North America. Mitsumi already had close relations with Nintendo, as it manufactured the Famicom and NES consoles, and possibly other Nintendo hardware. Modifications to the standard Quick Disk format include the "NINTENDO" moulding along the bottom of each Disk Card. In addition to branding the disk, this acts as a rudimentary form of copy protection -

616-686: A gold-colored Punch-Out!! cartridge. Nintendo of America announced plans to release the Disk System for the Famicom's international counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System , and began filing patents simultaneously. However, by the time these were approved in November 1988, Nintendo cancelled their plans to release the system stateside. Despite the Famicom Disk System's success and advantages over

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672-501: A gold-colored Famicom cartridge titled Punch-Out!! in Japan, without Mike Tyson, as a prize for participating in the Famicom Disk System's Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course tournament held in September 1987. 10,000 units were produced—half were given as high score prizes, and the rest were given as a lottery prize. Its final opponent is Super Macho Man, who is also the final opponent in the arcade game Super Punch-Out!! . Around

728-409: A heart counter, which decreases upon being hit, blocking a punch, or throwing a punch that the opponent dodges or blocks. When the counter decreases to zero, Little Mac temporarily turns different shades of pink and appears tired/exhausted, leaving the player unable to attack but still able to dodge, duck, and block. At this point, Mac can regain some hearts and his normal color palette only by avoiding

784-534: A lot of money for both stores and consumers to purchase. Chip shortages also created supply issues. To satisfy these requests, Nintendo began thinking of ways to potentially lower the cost of games. Later in July of that year, Hudson Soft approached and pitched them a new add-on for the Famicom that played games using their patented Bee Cards , which was experimented on the MSX computer. Nintendo liked this concept, as it had

840-519: A new slot machine minigame co-branded for the Nagatanien food company. The final FDS game release was Janken Disk Jō in December 1992, a rock paper scissors game featuring the Disk System mascot, Disk-kun. The Famicom Disk System briefly served as an enabling technology for the creation of a new wave of home console video games and a new type of video game experience, mostly due to tripling

896-402: A powerful uppercut. The uppercut can only be used once the player earns a star, which is typically accomplished by counter-punching the opponent directly before or after certain attacks are launched. The player can acquire up to three stars, but loses them whenever Mac is hit or knocked down. To defend, Mac can dodge left or right, duck, and block punches by putting up his guard. Little Mac has

952-478: Is a 1987 boxing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Part of the Punch-Out!! series, it is an adaptation of the arcade video games Punch-Out!! (1984) and Super Punch-Out!! (1984). Differences from the arcades include the addition of former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson as the final boss. It received critical acclaim, and

1008-399: Is an 8KB BIOS ROM. The Disk Cards used are double-sided, with a total capacity of 112 KB per disk. Many games span both sides of a disk and a few span multiple disks, requiring the user to switch at some point during gameplay. The Disk System is capable of running on six C-cell batteries or the supplied AC adapter. Batteries usually last five months with daily game play. The inclusion of

1064-553: Is retrospectively considered one of the greatest video games of all time . Punch-Out!! features Little Mac , a young boxer fighting his way up through ranks of the World Video Boxing Association. After facing a series of colorful fictional opponents in three circuits and winning the championship in each, Little Mac enters a final "Dream Fight" against a highly skilled boxer. In the Gold Version,

1120-661: The French national anthem, " La Marseillaise "; Von Kaiser, Great Tiger, and Super Macho Man have " Ride of the Valkyries " by Wagner ; Piston Honda has Japanese folk song " Sakura "; Don Flamenco has the prelude to the opera set in Spain, Carmen by Georges Bizet ; and Soda Popinski has Russian folk song " The Song of the Volga Boatmen ". Before the public release of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! , Nintendo released it in

1176-633: The NES Classic Edition , and on the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service (which Mike Tyson humorously contested). More than 2 million copies of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! were sold in North America by 1988. It is one of two NES games to reach this sales milestone that year, along with The Legend of Zelda . Punch-Out!! was well received by critics. In 1989, Computer and Video Games magazine said

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1232-745: The Super Famicom . It would relaunch the model of games downloadable to rewritable portable media from store kiosks, with the Nintendo Power service in Japan which is based on rewritable flash media cartridges for the Super Famicom and Game Boy from 1997 to 2007. Calling the Disk Writer "one of the coolest things Nintendo ever created", Kotaku says modern " digital distribution could learn from [the Disk Writer]", and that

1288-523: The Twin Famicom , a Famicom model that features a built-in Disk System. Widespread copyright violation in Japan's predominantly personal-computer-based game rental market inspired corporations to petition the government to ban the rental of all video games in 1984. With games then being available only via full purchase, demand rose for a new and less expensive way to access more games. In 1986, as video gaming had increasingly expanded from computers into

1344-499: The Disk System featured a yellow mascot character named Diskun, or Mr. Disk. The Famicom Disk System sold over 300,000 units within three months, jumping to over 2 million by the end of the year. Nintendo remained confident the Disk System would be a sure-fire success, and ensured that all future first-party releases would be exclusive to the peripheral. Coinciding with the Disk System's release, Nintendo installed several "Disk Writer" kiosks in various toy and electronic stores across

1400-405: The Disk System serves simply to enhance some aspects already inherent to the base Famicom system, with better sound and cheaper games — though with the disadvantages of high initial price, slow speed, and lower reliability. However, this boost to the market of affordable and writable mass storage temporarily served as an enabling technology for the creation of new types of video games. This includes

1456-462: The Disk System to a standard cartridge; towards the end of development, Square ported Final Fantasy over to the Famicom as a cartridge game, with its own battery backup save feature. Nintendo officially discontinued the Famicom Disk System in 1990, selling around 4.4 million units total. Disk writing services were still kept in operation until September 30, 2003, while technical services were provided up until October 31, 2007. Sharp released

1512-501: The Disk System was released, Capcom released a Famicom conversion of Ghosts 'n Goblins on a 128k cartridge - larger than the Disk Card's 112k capacity - which, as a result, made consumers and developers less impressed with the Disk System's technological features. Retailers disliked the Disk Writer kiosks for taking up too much space and for generally being unprofitable. The Disk System's vague error messages, long loading times, and

1568-541: The FDS's additional sound channel. Peripheral A peripheral can be categorized based on the direction in which information flows relative to the computer: Many modern electronic devices, such as Internet-enabled digital watches , video game consoles , smartphones , and tablet computers , have interfaces for use as a peripheral. This electronics-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Punch-Out!! (NES) Punch-Out!! , originally titled Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! ,

1624-431: The FDS's writable and portable storage technology served as an enabling technology for the innovation of online leaderboards and contests via the in-store Disk Fax kiosks, which are now seen as the earliest forerunners of modern online gaming and distribution . Within its library of 200 original games, some are FDS-exclusive and many were re-released one or two years later on cartridges for Famicom and NES, though without

1680-477: The Famicom Disk System was inevitably obsoleted by the improving semiconductor technology of game cartridges . The Disk System's lifetime sales reached 4.4 million units by 1990, making it the most successful console add-on of all time , despite not being sold outside of Japan. Its final game was released in 1992, its software was discontinued in 2003, and Nintendo officially discontinued its technical support in 2007. By January 1985, Nintendo's Family Computer

1736-460: The Famicom itself, it also imposed many problems of its own. Most common was the quality of the Disk Cards; Nintendo removed the shutters on most Disk System games to reduce costs, instead placing them in a wax sleeve and clear plastic shell. The disks themselves are fragile, and the lack of a shutter made them collect dust and fingerprints, eventually rendering them unplayable as a result. Piracy

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1792-554: The Minor Circuit, four in the Major Circuit, six in the World Circuit, and Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream. All character sprites except King Hippo are reused for two characters each, with changes made to colors, head, or special moves. Mario has a cameo as the referee. Three opponents from the Minor and Major Circuits reappear in the World Circuit, with new attacks that force the player to devise a new strategy. Punch-Out!!

1848-616: The NES version of "the great boxing arcade game" had "big, brilliantly drawn and animated sprites, a brilliant control method and utterly superlative gameplay", making it "definitely THE best boxing game available on any machine". ACE magazine in 1989 listed it as the second highest-rated NES game, after Super Mario Bros. They stated it bashes "the proverbial s@*t out of any other home boxing game on any other console or computer" and it proves "that even if Nintendo's hardware may be technologically naff, they can still squeeze an excellent game onto

1904-455: The ability to save player progress. The add-on itself was produced by Masayuki Uemura and Nintendo Research & Development 2 , the same team that designed the Famicom itself. Following several delays, the Famicom Disk System was released on February 21, 1986, at a retail price of ¥15000 (US$ 80). The same day, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda as a launch title, alongside disk re-releases of earlier Famicom games. Marketing material for

1960-543: The ability to store full games and overwrite existing ones. However, as the technology for it was expensive, and that they would have to pay royalties for each card sold, Nintendo instead decided to pass on Hudson Soft's proposal. Continuing their research, Nintendo turned towards the home computer market for inspiration; They specifically looked to floppy disks which were quickly becoming the standard for storage media for personal computers. Floppy disks were cheap to produce and rewritable, allowing games to be easily produced during

2016-520: The country. These kiosks allowed customers to bring in their disk games and have a new game rewritten onto them for a ¥500 fee; blank disks could also be purchased for ¥2000. Nintendo then decided to make an early form of online gaming; In 1987, they introduced special high-score tournaments for specific Disk System games, where players could submit their scores directly to Nintendo via "Disk Fax" machines found in retail stores. Winners would receive exclusive prizes, including Famicom-branded stationery sets and

2072-452: The disk to a retailer's Disk Fax kiosk, which collated and transmitted the players' scores via fax to Nintendo. Players participated in a nationwide leaderboard, with unique prizes. The kiosk service was very popular and remained available until 2003. In subsequent console generations, Nintendo would relaunch this online national leaderboard concept with the home satellite-based Satellaview subscription service in Japan from 1995 to 2000 for

2128-498: The final boss is Super Macho Man, who was also the final opponent in Super Punch-Out!! . Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! features Mike Tyson , the real-life World Heavyweight Champion at the time. After the license to use Tyson expired, he was replaced by the fictional Mr. Dream. Little Mac has a limited repertoire compared to most of his opponents. His punches are limited to left and right jabs, left and right body blows, and

2184-419: The graphics, violence, controls, and the variety for making it a "true classic" and one of the best NES games. In 2005, Punch-Out!! is on GameSpot 's list of the greatest games of all time. Editor Shawn Laib of Den of Geek ranked it 7th out of the 15 Best NES Games of All Time, and Esquire 's Dom Nero and Cameron Sherrill ranked it fifth. GamesRadar ranked it the 11th best NES game ever made, calling it

2240-491: The manufacturing process. Seeing its potential, Nintendo began work on a disk-based peripheral for the Famicom. For its proprietary diskette platform, which they dubbed the "Disk Card", Nintendo chose to base it on Mitsumi 's Quick Disk media format, a cheaper alternative to floppy disks for Japanese home computers. The Disk Card format presented a number of advantages over cartridges, such as increased storage capacity that allowed for larger games, additional sound channels, and

2296-426: The opponent's punches. He immediately loses all of his hearts upon being knocked down, but can regain some by getting up. A bout can end by knockout (KO), if a fighter is unable to get up within ten seconds after being knocked down; by technical knockout (TKO), if a fighter is knocked down three times in one round; or by decision, if the bout lasts three full rounds without a clear winner. In order to win by decision,

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2352-655: The physical hardware check, enabling rampant piracy. An advertisement containing a guide for a simple modification to a Quick Disk to allow its use with a Famicom Disk System was printed in at least one magazine. There are about 200 games in the Famicom Disk System's library. Some are FDS exclusives, some are Disk Writer exclusives, and many were re-released years later on the cartridge format such as The Legend of Zelda for NES in 1987, and for Famicom in 1994. The most notable FDS originals include The Legend of Zelda , Zelda II: The Adventure of Link , Kid Icarus , Metroid , and Akumajō Dracula ( Castlevania ). Square had

2408-416: The player must accumulate a certain point total by punching the opponent. Some bouts cannot be won in this manner and will automatically result in a loss for the player if the opponent is not knocked out. Mac can only get up three times during any one bout; if he is knocked down a fourth time, he will be unable to rise and thus lose by knockout. When Mac loses his first bout to a ranked opponent, he will have

2464-498: The poor quality of the rubber drive belt that spun the disks are also cited as attributing to its downfall. By 1989, advancements in technology made cartridge games much cheaper and easier to produce, leaving the Famicom Disk System obsolete. Retailers were critical of Nintendo simply abandoning the Disk Writers and leaving stores with large kiosks that took up vital space, while companies began to release or move their games from

2520-582: The price of many new games). Instruction sheets were given by the retailer, or available by mail order for ¥100 . Some game releases, such as Kaette Kita Mario Bros. , were exclusive to these kiosks. In 1987, Disk Writer kiosks in select locations were also provisioned as Disk Fax systems as Nintendo's first online concept. Players could take advantage of the dynamic rewritability of blue floppy disk versions of Disk System games (such as Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race and Golf Japan Course ) in order to save their high scores at their leisure at home, and then bring

2576-460: The size of cheap game storage compared to affordable cartridge ROMs, and by storing gamers' progress within their vast new adventures. These games include the open world design and enduring series launches of The Legend of Zelda and Metroid (both 1986), with its launch game Zelda becoming very popular and leading to sequels which are considered some of the greatest games of all time. Almost one decade ahead of Nintendo's Satellaview service,

2632-405: The system's cartridge port, and attaching that cartridge's cable to the disk drive. The RAM Adapter contains 32  kilobytes (KB) of RAM for temporarily caching program data from disk, 8 KB of RAM for tile and sprite data storage, and an ASIC named the 2C33. The ASIC acts as a disk controller , plus single-cycle wavetable-lookup synthesizer sound hardware. Finally, embedded in the 2C33

2688-415: The system's premise of game rental and achievements would still be innovative in today's retail and online stores. Nintendo Life said it "was truly ground-breaking for its time and could be considered a forerunner of more modern distribution methods [such as] Xbox Live Arcade , PlayStation Network , and Steam ". The device is connected to the Famicom console by plugging its RAM Adapter cartridge into

2744-475: The time the Gold Version was released for a Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course competition, Nintendo of America 's founder and former president Minoru Arakawa attended a boxing match during the Heavyweight unification series that featured its future champion Mike Tyson . Arakawa became so astonished with the athlete's "power and skill" that he was inspired to use his likeness and the tournament itself in

2800-614: The upcoming game. Tyson was rumored to have been paid $ 50,000 for a three-year period for his likeness. This transaction was something of a risk for Nintendo, as it occurred before Tyson won the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship from Trevor Berbick on November 22, 1986, which greatly increased the profit for the game. Nintendo would release the Mike Tyson version of Punch-Out!! in Japan soon after its North American release. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

2856-406: The vast, open world , progress-saving adventures of the best-selling The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Metroid (1986), games with a cost-effective and swift release such as the best-selling Super Mario Bros. 2 , and nationwide leaderboards and contests via the in-store Disk Fax kiosks, which are considered to be forerunners of today's online achievement and distribution systems. By 1989,

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2912-420: The video game console market, Nintendo advertised a promise to install 10,000 Famicom Disk Writer kiosks in toy and hobby stores across Japan within one year. These jukebox style stations allowed users to copy from a rotating stock of the latest games to their disks and keep each one for an unlimited time. To write an existing disk with a new game from the available roster was ¥500 (then about US$ 3.25 and 1/6 of

2968-438: Was also rampant, with disk copying devices and bootleg games becoming commonplace in stores and in magazine advertisements. Third-party developers for the Disk System were also angered towards Nintendo's strict licensing terms, requiring that it receive 50% copyright ownership of any and all software released — this led to several major developers, such as Namco and Hudson Soft , refusing to produce games for it. Four months after

3024-483: Was developed by Nintendo Research & Development No. 3 . Genyo Takeda (the producer of the Punch-Out!! arcade games), was the director of the NES game. Because the NES was not as powerful as the arcade hardware, they could not recreate the arcade graphics. Instead of making the playable boxer wire-framed or transparent in order to see the opponent, they made the playable boxer smaller and named him Little Mac ,

3080-459: Was dominating the Japanese home video game market, selling over three million units within a year and a half. Because of its success, the company had difficulty with keeping up demand for new stock, often getting flooded with calls from retailers asking for more systems. Retailers also requested for cheaper games; the cost of chips and semiconductors made cartridges expensive to make, and often cost

3136-498: Was rebranded to simply Punch-Out!! , and re-released in the U.S. and Europe in 1990 and 1991, respectively. When Nintendo's license had expired with Mike Tyson, his likeness was replaced by a fictional character named Mr. Dream. His visual likeness and undefeated record are based on Rocky Marciano . This version of the game was used in all major re-releases, including the Virtual Console , Animal Crossing for GameCube,

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