Nintendo had planned to release a NES version of the Famicom Disk System but decided against it when they saw the investment it would make and the piracy rampant in Asia for copying disks. But how wuld their hardware interface with the NES unit? If you recall, the Famicom Disk System had a RAM adaptor that plugged into the cartridge slot and a wire leading to the disk drive.
My guess is that it would have a RAM cartridge, which you insert into the NES and a unit that uses the NES expansion port. The unit may be able to take power from the expansion port or it may require a separate power brick. The unit would communicate to the RAM adaptor using the ten extra pins that travel from the NES cartridge connector to the Expansion slot (instead of a wire sticking out of the cartridge and preventing the hinged door from closing.) Do I see an idea in this?
Well, the EXP port on the bottom of the NES does not provide any address lines, so you could not just have the FDS plug into that.
I would imagine, if the FDS came out in the USA, it would have a cart that plugged into the NES, similar to the Famicom.
I would imagine they would use the EXP below, and would not need a cable to go between the disk system and RAM adapter, because there are extention lines that they could use (between the cart and EXP slot below).
[quote]
Well, the EXP port on the bottom of the NES does not provide any address lines, so you could not just have the FDS plug into that. [/quote]
That is why I did not mention it. Not only does it lack that, it also lacks some other cartridge required signals.
The cable from the RAM adaptor to the Disk Drive uses twelve wires. There are 10 pins that go from the NES cartridge connector to the expansion connector. Two pins are VCC and Ground, so you have just enough to send unmodified signals from the RAM adaptor to the disk drive unit.
Nw that that is settled I am waiting for someone that could implement this. You transfer the contents of the RAM adapter to a NES cartridge and you create a new housing for the disk drive with an adapter that sends the signals through the expansion port. It can be done I tell you!
NES cannot play FDS audio. All games would have to be hacked to use internal tone generators instead.
Actually, the FDS cable only uses 9 wires, and a common, I believe. (I'll have to check that again).
And if you made a simple adapter that could connect an EXP pin from the cart edge connector to the Audio in, on the bottom of the NES, you could have FDS sound FX and music.
My NES has been hacked (internally, instead of externally using the EXP port on the bottom), so I get FDS music and sound FX, using my home made adapter, but a hacked Famicom -> NES adapter will work just as well.
I was thinking about a floppy-disk version. Laptop floppy drives can be REALLY small and would fit in an NES cart nicely, still leaving room for a ROM/RAM chip to load the game.