Why were some games on FDS and some on Famicom?

[BetaWolf47]

I don't get why some games were released on Famicom while others were on FDS. I understand FDS had advantages over Famicom, so why limit games by making them for Famicom?

For example, SMB 1 & 2 J were for FDS while SMB 3 was for Famicom. This doesn't make any sense to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

FDS:

- Save to disk instead of expensive battery-backed RAM
- In sound hardware, extra configurable waveform
- "save money" but Nintendo reportedly took half ownership of games and they wanted you to buy disks from them, even for development
- PIRACY

Received wisdom: In practice, (nearly?) all of the DOG (Disk Original Group) games (the group was headed up by Square but I just read that they maybe did two games for it, all the rest were by other devs; I have one DOG disk myself) FAILED in the market, which led to Square's last-ditch effort, something called "Final Fantasy"

Famicom cart:

- Expensive but reliable
- Expansion options via chips blow away the non-expandable FDS (since the FDS already uses the expansion port and I'm not aware of any way of plugging in a cartridge at the same time - doesn't the Sharp Twin Famicom lock out the cartridge slot if you switch to disk mode? I forget...)

Cartridges started out as the only option from 83 on, from 86-87 or so you see a number of high profile FDS releases (coincident with the release of the expansion system) - enough new titles to make the add-on a must-have for everyone interested in the Famicom unless you like tracking down the later, expensive cartridge versions of Dracula and Legend of Zelda (two name two games that started on disk; many never were re-released as cartridges) that lost features (Dracula, aka Castlevania, lost saving I believe and I think Zelda must've switched to battery-backed RAM). After piracy was seen to take a big chunk out of sales most people switched back to cartridge (take a look at the original cartridge release for cartridge in 1988, just a year after Konami finished its big FDS push; everything else was on cartridge from here on out).

The main reason the FDS died was economics, but the death of it is beneficial to long-term players and collectors as well because the FDS units are inherently unreliable (horrible internal design with a hard-calibrated drive (yuck! Score one for Apple, shame on IBM and everybody else) whose rubber belt goes bad over time, and the actual FDS adds no features that can't be one-upped with a good ROM mapper chip. Also, cartridges simply last longer than disks.

I think that basically Nintendo screwed themselves up - they could have had a great thing but between their greed and the disk already in use by Yamaha for MIDI keyboards, developers weren't seeing nearly enough profits and hackers were able to write disks illegally with relative ease.

I hope that answers the question.

[Tron 2.0]

Simply a cheaper way to make games was the reason for some titles,to be on disk.In those days it was expensive for nintendo to manufacture games on cartridges.At least that is the impression i get when i read any info at any site on the fds.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I understand FDS had advantages over Famicom, so why limit games by making them for Famicom?

Because the FDS had many disadvantages as well...pretty much what Ed Oscuro said. The disk drives and the disks themselves were prone to failure, but more importantly, the games were very easy to pirate.

One of the reasons Nintendo developed the Disk System in the first place was to deal with the rising costs of producing cartridges (there was a shortage and price spike in the cost of PCBs and/or ROM chips at the time). The FDS seemed like a good way to address this problem, but the sharp increase in pirating of games on the disk format (along with the other problems) ultimately led Nintendo to abandon it and return to producing games on cartridge.

[Ed Oscuro]

Simply a cheaper way to make games was the reason for some titles,to be on disk.In those days it was expensive for nintendo to manufacture games on cartridges.At least that is the impression i get when i read any info at any site on the fds.
You posted before I put mine up, but I guess a tl;dr version of my post won't hurt:

1983 launch to 1985: Carts are the only option
1986-87: Hooray disks! Lots of good games!
1988: But everybody is pirating them and Nintendo is being dicks about licensing. Back to carts then!

Edit: Heh, I did it too. I totally forgot about the story of the ROM shortage, thanks Pingvin!

Between the two of us I think we covered the bases.

[chrisbid]

ahh, the rom shortage, wasn't that the reason why zelda ii was delayed for so long in the US?

[tom]

And also in those days experimenting with other media was something almost every company did (Atari, Coleco, Intellivision)
Nintendo even released cassette and tape recorder for Famicom, reminds one of Supercharger perhaps?

[UK Collector]

Nintendo also briefly tried to store games on specially designed pieces of bread. These would come in loaves which contained whole games. Unfortunately it turned out that these quickly burned out when placed in a toaster.

[rbudrick]

There was an extended period of time in the 80s when the cost of ICs were extremely expensive and were eating into profit margins. At the time, there were not a lot of different mappers for the NES, so Nintendo decided that an add-on system, the FDS, would be an affordable (for them and the consumer) way to get games to folks. They were right. The FDS even had extra sound, you could save to disk (this was way before battery memory, and passwords were invented for Kid Icarus and Metroid, iirc, which were both FDS disks, originally), you could recycle the disks and get new games on them cheaply in shops (NOJ had iTunes beat by nearly 20 years!). Not long after the FDS was released, maybe a year or so, maybe a bit more or less, ICs came down in price, 128kb was no longer enough memory (the capacity of an FDS disk), and many newer, better mappers were available for the Famicom. So, the FDS died, and cartridges continued to thrive. Along the way, many FDS-only games got converted to carts.

Thus endeth the history lesson.

-Rob

[Tron 2.0]

You posted before I put mine up, but I guess a tl;dr version of my post won't hurt:

1983 launch to 1985: Carts are the only option
1986-87: Hooray disks! Lots of good games!
1988: But everybody is pirating them and Nintendo is being dicks about licensing. Back to carts then!

Edit: Heh, I did it too. I totally forgot about the story of the ROM shortage, thanks Pingvin!

Between the two of us I think we covered the bases.
Yeah you did but you pointed out the pro and cons to it so np.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thus endeth the history lesson.
No mention of Nintendo's licensing? Or the piracy that drove everyone back to cartridges?

I admit I don't always read a full thread before posting, but man, you can do better than that! :D At least tell us if you think we're off base.

[GarrettCRW]

Not long after the FDS was released, maybe a year or so, maybe a bit more or less, ICs came down in price, 128kb was no longer enough memory (the capacity of an FDS disk),

Actually, it took four months. Ghosts 'n Goblins was the Famicom's first 128K cart.

[rbudrick]

No mention of Nintendo's licensing? Or the piracy that drove everyone back to cartridges?

I admit I don't always read a full thread before posting, but man, you can do better than that! :D At least tell us if you think we're off base.

Ah, yes, of course. You know, I thought I left that with something missing, but I was on a chat at the time. Touche!

As Ed said, there were various copying devices and do-it-yourself dubbing using two units and custom cables and such. Also, there were disks you used solely to copy other disks.

-Rob

[JohnnyBlaze]

If I'm not mistaken, certain FDS units have a chip that can be used for disk dumping. I've only vaguely heard of this and have no idea otherwise.

I saw it here:

http://www.famicomworld.com/Workshop/Twin_Famicom_Repair.htm