Twin Famicom: Difference between revisions

Twin Famicom
	The Sharp Twin Famicom in black
Manufacturer	Sharp Corporation
Type	Video game console
Generation	Third generation (8-bit era)
Lifespan	JPN July 1, 1986
Media	Cartridge; Famicom Disk Card
Controller input	2 controller ports

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 03:41, 28 July 2012

The Twin Famicom (ツインファミコン) was produced by Sharp Corporation in 1986, and was only released in Japan. It is a licensed Nintendo product, and is basically the Family Computer (Famicom) and the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) which have been combined into a single piece of hardware.

Overview

The basic parts of the Twin Famicom include a 60-pin slot for Famicom cartridges, a slot for Disk System's Disk Cards, a switch located right below the cartridge slot which allows the player to choose between "Cassette (カセット)" or "Disk (ディスク)", the power button, the reset button, and the eject buttons. FDS disks can be removed using the yellow button below the disk slot. The mechanism that it uses is similar to ones that are used in modern-day floppy disk drives. The eject button for cartridges is located between the power and reset buttons. It usually causes the cartridge to "pop" out of the slot, much like the way bread slices do when coming out of a pop-up toaster.

The system does not allow both slots to be used at the same time. The switch that changes the mode from disk to cartridge works in a manner in which choosing to use the cartridge slot will block the disk drive, and vice versa. However, in some systems, only the cartridge slot will be blocked, but it is impossible to change to cartridge mode while the disk is being read.

Specs

Main Processors: 6502 modified at 1.79 MHz
RAM: 2 KB work RAM, 2 KB video RAM, 32 KB extra work RAM in FDS mode, 8 KB extra video RAM in FDS mode
ROM: Game Paks and FDS BIOS
Audio: 5 voice, two channels square wave, one channel triangle, one channel noise, one channel PCM
Graphics: 256x240 pixels, 64 sprites, display 25 colors out of 53

Unique features

Besides the very fact that it has put together two pieces of video game hardware into a single package, the Twin Famicom comes with some extra features. It has a port (like the Famicom) that allows games like Moero TwinBee to support more than the usual two players and to which the matching version of the NES Zapper can be attached. There also is a second port of a slightly different shape for connecting another Famicom via the black RAM unit that comes with the standard Famicom Disk System. This allows another standalone Famicom to use the disk drive on the Twin Famicom.

Another unique trait of this console is its color. Whereas most Famicom units come in the familiar red and white color combination, the Twin Famicom was sold in two colors: red with black highlights (AN-500R), and black with red highlights (AN-500B). There is also a re-released version with a slightly different case design, turbo controllers, and different color schemes, black with green highlights (AN-505-BK) and red with blue/grey highlights (AN-505-RD).

References

External links

Video of Twin Famicom features from FamicomDojo.TV

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 The basic parts of the Twin Famicom include a 60-pin slot for Famicom cartridges, a slot for Disk System's Disk Cards, a switch located right below the cartridge slot which allows the player to choose between "{{nihongo|Cassette|カセット}}" or "{{nihongo|Disk|ディスク}}", the power button, the reset button, and the eject buttons. FDS disks can be removed using the yellow button below the disk slot. The mechanism that it uses is similar to ones that are used in modern-day floppy disk drives. The eject button for cartridges is located between the power and reset buttons. It usually causes the cartridge to "pop" out of the slot, much like the way bread slices do when coming out of a pop-up [[toaster]].
-The system does not allow both slots to be used at the same time. The switch that changes the mode from disk to cassette works in a manner in which choosing to use the cassette slot will block the disk drive, and vice versa. However, in some systems, only the cassette slot will be blocked, but  it is impossible to change to cassette mode while the disk is being read.
+The system does not allow both slots to be used at the same time. The switch that changes the mode from disk to cartridge works in a manner in which choosing to use the cartridge slot will block the disk drive, and vice versa. However, in some systems, only the cartridge slot will be blocked, but  it is impossible to change to cartridge mode while the disk is being read.
 ===Specs===