The Gaming Historian (aka Norman Caruso) is back with ever more luscious hair to get us up to speed with the ill-fated Famicom Disk System. Nintendo considered the Disk System the future of the Famicom, and promised bigger, cheaper games through the hardware iteration.

To get a better understanding of how the Famicom Disk System came to be you need only survey the Japanese gaming industry back in the mid '80s. It's no exaggeration to say that Nintendo was the dominant force, effortlessly brushing aside rival companies and snapping up third party support from all of the nation's finest code shops.

By 1985 Nintendo was finding that gamers were so ravenous for new products that it was almost impossible to keep up with the intense demand; given this passionate interest in all things Famicom-related, it's easy to see why Nintendo started to investigate other avenues of making cash. Expanding the functionality of the millions of Famicom consoles already sitting in homes up and down Japan was the most logical course of action, so it was decided that the existing base unit should be augmented by a separate piece of hardware which would permit bigger and better games. With this objective in mind, Nintendo cast its gaze towards the home computing sector for inspiration.

Of course like the Nintendo 6DD, the Famicom Disk System was never to see a Western release as a NES add-on. The history behind all of this is fascinating, so sit back with a cup of coffee and let the Gaming Historian get you up to speed in the video below.

Further reading: Slipped Disk - The History of the Famicom Disk System

[source youtube.com]