How does famicom Arkanoid II save level edits?

Arkanoid II on the famicom has a level editor with load/save options. There's no sram or battery in the cart and choosing one of those options hangs the game. I vaguely recall a data recorder style device used with some Taito games but I can't remember more than that, or if that's even the right thing.

How sure of that are you? the article only mentions Castle Excellent, Excitebike, Mach Rider and Wrecking Crew as using that one. The docs also say data is read out on 4016.1 which is the same bit the famicom vaus uses. I suppose it could be unplugged but that seems like a less than optimal choice.

Does that require the keyboard to interface with the cassette unit?

It's possible it's one of the random other expansion-port memory things, like the Turbo File or the Battle Box. That said, nocash doesn't mention anything relevant about Arkanoid 2.

Also, the Famicom only has the one expansion port, so if it's got the wheel controller in it, it can't have whatever it records on, and vice versa.

If you look at the Arkanoid II box, it seems like the Vaus controller had a daisy-chain capability of some sort?
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/2/23093/2339952-arkanoid_ii_fc_box.jpg

It seems like scans of the manual would answer this pretty quick. Anyone know if there are good Japanese manual archives?

I asked on some other forums and the Turbo File was mentioned. That seems like a good candidate. Had not heard of the battle box, looks like it might also be a possibility.

The arkanoid 2 version of the vaus does have an exp port for connecting a second vaus for two player vs mode. I've seen a similar setup on other expansion devices as well, the 3D glasses driver for instance. They might have just relied on the user to unplug the vaus when editing.

Someone RE'd the passthrough: http://meganekun.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post_17.html
It only passes joypad 1/2 2s bit (i.e. D1), OUT0, Joy2/OE, and power+ground. So ... that's compatible with the data recorder, I guess, but not with either the Turbo File or Battle Box.

1. I found a picture of the back of the Arkanoid II box (from this blog post). Can anyone translate the Japanese text? Maybe the text next to the EDIT screen shot or the text below the barcode will mention what device is used to save.

2. I found a few short posts on this message board page:

Here, have something marginally better than Google Translate.
A.K.A. the Family Basic keyboard and cassette recorder. (Why do we call them that? They don't have "Family Basic" written anywhere on them...)

"Family BASIC Keyboard" because Wikipedia does too. "Family BASIC Data recorder" is probably my fault, although additionally because the recorder requires the keyboard to be used with the Famicom. (and 'Family BASIC Keyboard Data Recorder' is a bit too far)

Sometimes it's called "Family Keyboard" but that's not written on it either is it? I guess it's because it was always sold with Family BASIC anyway.
"Family BASIC Data Recorder" is even worse. That's just referring to the Nintendo-branded cassette tape recorder that Nintendo released some time after Family Basic was released. This always confuses people and make them think it's the only tape recorder that works with the keyboard. Maybe it should just say tape recording or something on the wiki.

Quoting myself:

http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index ... #msg136853

Kermel's site is the best site I know for that (PC Engine manuals as well). It doesn't seem to have Arkanoid II though.
http://www.videogameden.com/fc.htm

When I get time to unpack my Famicom, I will test with my keyboard if I can save.

[quote=FrankWDoom]Excitebike,[/quote]I'd been wondering all these years why it had that 'save' button that did nothing on my versions of the game.

I asked over at famicomworld too. One guy tried the turbo file and confirmed it did not work. Looking like it's probably the data recorder.

Yeha and it works on all versions of the game if you have some means to hook up a keyboard to it. I remember in the manual it said that the SAVE and LOAD functions are reserved for to be used with some future hardware.

The manual http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index ... #msg160680 confirms that the game can save to a tape recorder. I'm still intending to test this myself within a few weeks to make sure saving and loading actually works.

OK I tested it. But my level was scrambled when I loaded it. http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index ... #msg163390

Nestopia seems to have trouble with it too. I wonder how Mess does.