If you have a Famicom Disk System, Nazo no Murasamejo is a cool one that never came over here back in the day. The same way the first Kid Icarus is a “close cousin” to the first Metroid, this is a close cousin to the original Legend of Zelda.
It’s kind of like an arcade take on Zelda with levels instead of an overworld + dungeons. Sorta like Gauntlet.
Oh yes - I have the Famicom Classics version of it on GBA! Will see if I can pick it up on FDS, should look much better without the squished image.
It should sound better on original hardware too.
Amazing.
Do you have an FDS then!?!
Not yet - but that’s the plan.
Still undecided between AV Famicom and FDS combo, or the Sharp Twin Famicom…
Just some questions for the Famicom initiated -
1 (stupid question) what does the RF modulator exactly do? Just seems to go to the standard analogue video in connection seen in systems to the GameCube - but why?
2 - is the official head cleaning spray at all necessary unless you’re a collector?
3 - In the second photo, does anyone have any idea what the thing is in the purple bag?
Thanks!
Picked up the following Famicom games today!
…this was quite the rabbithole to have jumped down. But I’m so excited to get playing these!
I assume it’s just how you get an RF connection from later systems like the N64 and GCN when composite became the default. They had no RF capabilities out of the box. In case you weren’t around back then, RF was an even lower quality connection than composite. It was very lossy and produced a ton of artifacts.
No, I don’t think so. I’ve never needed to clean a disk game or the lens. The drive belt is the most fragile thing.
Yes that’s an antenna adapter. This is a connection for TVs that pre-date the RF standard or that had an RF input with issues. Here’s what it looked like:
I’ve never actually seen one of these used in person before, although we had this adapter with our NES for some reason. It should go without saying - you don’t need this.
Oh wow! That’s crazy - would never have guessed that’s what it was!
I think I’ll go for an AV Famicom then with disc system, since the belt is an area of contention I’d rather have the disc component be modular!
I did see an original Famicom for 1000 yen (missing cables, but I have a Super Famicom AC adapter and video cables already) but it sold by the time I got back to buy it…
Huh, never seen an AV Famicom coloured RF modulator. Now I kinda want one! Would be for Japanese RF though…
Makes sense as many in that era would still be running RF, particularly bargain buyers who would be the primary market for a Famicom in 1993. Hence why the US model was RF-only, it was for the ‘old TV in the kids bedroom’ segment.
Ha, I played NES for ~6 years and Genesis for ~4 years using these: had to pull out the wood cabinet RCA crt, unscrew it a bit, pull out and put the new one in. I think at one point I decided to just screw down both systems so I didn’t have to change it, lol. Not recommended!
What was the quality like? Was it basically RF or was it worse?
I played my NES with this kind of antenna adapter. Actually, I had a box with this on one end and RCA inputs on the other for my SNES and PS1 after that. I don’t remember it looking like garbage, but it must have.
It’s just exactly the same RF signal, via a balun to adjust the impedance.
The socket is for 75 ohms sources and it adjusts to 300 ohms for older style wire inputs.
As @D.Lo said, it’s the same as RF. I think it seemed like maybe a bit worse, but only as a function of the old wood cabinet TV - that was a hand me down from my grandma lol.
Love that this sparked a mini conversation!
At least I know that I don’t need it - I’m not too bothered about the pixel crawl that comes with RF but it seems there’s no easy way just to get RF output to my PVM.
You’d need an RF modulator to convert the signal to composite / stereo.
Or one of these new RGBBlaster carts?
That’s where I’m confused! The RF Modular I saw in the store goes from RF to the standard Nintendo AV-in connection for the AV Famicom…not sure what happens with the other end that goes into the PVM!
I think you have it backwards. That converts the console’s composite signal to RF. The other RF port is a passthrough for a cable tv signal.
