Given that Sony and Microsoft are chewing up the column inches with rumours of "updated" versions of their current consoles, it seems fitting that we should take a look at an amazing project by Swedish artist and programmer Arne Niklas Jansson for what he dubs "the NES 1.5" - a console which would have bridged the gap between the NES and SNES while adopting some of the features of the Japan-only Famicom Disk System.
Called the Famicube, the system was released in 1988, boasted a fast processor, up to a Megabyte of memory and a built-in floppy drive. It's not real, of course - it exists only in Jansson's fertile imagination - but he has created an entire backstory for the machine, as well as mocking up case designs and technical specifications:
Several factors pressured Nintendo into updating the popular NES in the mid-late 80's. Initially they were going to release a simple "New NES" with a slight memory buff and a new shoulder button joystick, but the project took several unexpected twists and turns as it developed.
The success of the Commodore 64 in Europe (and the MSX in Japan) eventually made Nintendo eager to branch out and capture some of the home computer market. Also, the graphically superior Sega Master System had gained much popularity in Europe and South America and rumours circulated that SEGA were already working on an even more powerful system, perhaps using a fast Motorola processor and 3.5-inch floppy drive technology.
Nintendo's new system actually started out as a joint project between Nintendo and Commodore. However, management problems at Commodore caused the partnership to collapse and Nintendo were left to their own devices. In the summer of 1988 they finally released the Famicube. No images of the Commodore co-designed case has ever surfaced, but sources suggest it was beige and dark brown.
Jansson hasn't just cooked up a scenario, he's also given a lot of thought to how the tech would have worked, how many colours the console would have been able to display and has even mocked up some screenshots which illustrate the kind of visuals the Famicube could produce.
The really cool thing about this whole project? Jansson is actually keen to make the Famicube in real life:
I do feel that the entire point of the project is to create, at least in imagination, a thing with presence. A compromise feels like... to take a RPi2, throw it in a card board box, hook up a SNES clone joypad and say, look, a retro console! That said, writing an emulator will be useful and I might share the sauce. FPGA might be fun to look into, but ultimately it feels fake. I don't mind if a released version appears to be a later revision (sort of like a Micro GBA or PS2 slim) that still uses the original Famicube case (now with more air).
Chips: I'd really like to have a custom PPU chip made (unsure about sound chip), rather than having software running in a generic powerful chip, or using an FPGA. Of course, it would be silly to blow a fortune (for me) on such an obscure retro-PPU ASIC, so I feel stuck. On the bright side, making custom boards has gotten very cheap, and surface mount pick and place isn't so bad either. A megabyte or two of RAM is just 1-6 dollars, and an EEPROM seems to be about a dollar. A CPU in my range generally seems to be about 4-15 dollars (I'm just using digikey here). Couple of candidates: A 680x0 because I like the Amiga and some versions have a Famicom'y brass plate on top. The Zilog eZ80 also has a larger addressing space, as does the simpler Z80180 which I'm currently considering.
PSU: With low power modern chips, I suppose one could get away with using a little neat switching power supply. It's on a separate board so it can be swapped for different regions, or if it breaks.
Floppy drive: While I like the MF2DD/HD floppy as it is, for this project I'd like them to be more substantial, cartridgey and proprietary. This creates problems because the drive needs to accommodate the fatter disks, and the drive head must be able to slide in and get close to the disk surface. Fortunately it's mostly a modification of dimensions and not technology. Who knows... perhaps floppy drive factory stuff is sold off cheap because it's an obsolete technology? If I can't have fatter floppies, I'd at least go for some relief on the casing. Maybe it would be neat to have the rear side in black, front in maroon, and metal in brass/gold, label in cream. I could also imagine them being a bit smaller (3" HD), which would make them feel thicker, relatively.
Plastics: Tooling for the plastic (case, joypads) is quite expensive, but I think it has come down in price quite a bit over the decades, and the mould for this is pretty low on detail.
IP: Another problem is that I'm using a lot of IP that's not mine as basis for the mockups.
Actual hardware design and BIOS+Driver programming is quite beyond my skills.
We'd love to see this system become a reality - how about you? Let us know by posting a comment below, and but sure to check out Jansson's other work.
Thanks to Aurelien Regard for the tip!
[source androidarts.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 37
This is wonderful. I really love things like this.
Lot of detail here.
OMG (:
I want it!!!
Cool and weird.
Looks very nice
Best thing I've seen for ages
It actually looks better than the SNES a little bit.
Really detailed, quite impressive. I'd probably buy that if it got released for an average consumer-range price. As in not like the Analogue NT...
I am kind of wondering what "Altered Bragas"and "Knickers of the Round" mean, though...
@ThanosReXXX they sound like a play on existing titles Altered Beast by Sega and Knight of the Round by Capcom..
Very cool stuff!
Awesome would have loved one of these.
This parallel universe seems sweet!
@Beardedgooslaps That's the first thing that came to my mind as well, thinking of SNES games, but even then, I still have no idea what "bragas" is. Must be something Swedish, I suppose...
Looks pretty sweet.
@Shiryu Well, according to quantum theory, that universe is already happening/has already happened. We're just in the wrong universe in that case.
I was already having a lengthy discussion on that very topic with @Captain_Gonru in another thread...
Damn, that's cool.
I'm not joking when I say that someone should make this.
I've honestly been thinking about something like this for a while, and while my idea maybe still wouldn't be quite like this, I still love this idea.
@ThanosReXXX If only I could freely jump between verses, I would find one where the Super Nintendo is still getting new games every month.
@ThanosReXXX "Bragas" means Panties in spanish (although that's a word used mostly in Spain and nowhere else). So there you go! Makes total sense with those "pants-less" women sprites in Altered Bragas.
Wow!! So it comes the time when parallel universe can actually happen in this universe and this time in 20XX!! What else can imagination and a labour of love bring to us?
I loved the pixel art, specially how rich the pallete was created! Many coloring shades and some pretty nice depth effect with simple and detailed touches! Quite impressive!
Overall it really makes me think how things in world of gaming cold be if it actually happened in this universe!
@DanteBQ So it's Altered Panties and Knickers (also panties) of the Round then. I guess that makes it pretty clear what this guy's fixation or fetish is, then...
And, I love the limits placed on the graphics and tech, so you don't have to worry about making multi-million dollar games that are trying to compete with next-gen consoles, but it's also just good enough that the visuals don't suffer from that slightly under-the-threshold colour limit that most NES games suffer from but most Master System games don't. You can make a whole lot of amazing games within the limitations of a system that's somewhere between the NES and SNES. Also, that logic applies to the controller too, where it has just enough buttons to do most 2D games full justice but not so many that it's just off-putting to most people. The SNES pad was probably the pinnacle for achieving that balance, imo, because it even allowed for basic dual control type games like Smash TV and fps games like Doom, while still being a simple enough design that basically anyone could pick it up and get it immediately.
Yeah, a new console that's somewhere between the NES and SNES (and really just as simple too, with simple cartridges, or maybe game cards, and without all the setting up user accounts, inputting credit card details, worrying about online stuff, having to put up with constant firmware updates, or any of that junk, AND total ownership and control of the software you've actually paid your hard earned money to own)—I'd be well into that.
Like I said, I think my idea would still be a little different to the example above, but it's almost exactly the kind of simple and elegant console and gaming experience I long to see, hear, play, and feel again.
@Shiryu {drooling...}
Feel free to come back and share the coordinates if it ever happens.
Now I want a Famicube. I mean, look at the shading on those sprites. Look at those colors!
wish that had been a real thing seems tottally believeable as welll! what a talented guy!
I'd probably buy this if someone made a Metroid game that fits in this altered universe and looks just like what is pictured. Sadly... copyright and stuff.
In a just world --dream with me here--Nintendo would see this and decide, right now, to make a retro system that plays all of it's previous games pre-N64 games AND play along with the premise this guy came up with. Get third parties on board to make retro "what if" versions from the scenario that there was a console between NES and SNES. Capcom could finally make another Mega Man game (and use that Mega Girl sprite because it's awesome) and Metroid and excitebike and you know what exists in this alternate space already? Shovel Knight. So, one more version of that because Konami probably won't make any of its games.
While I'm dreaming let's make it super open and full of editors like that hobby portable system with pico-8 (pocketCHIP).
Back to reality I'll just be fascinated if this project goes physical and functional.
Boy how I wish I had this guy's sheer talent for turning something that's in your head into actual reality in terms of all the hardware mockups and concept art and stuff.
If I did, I honestly would have kickstarted something like this by now.
I really hope this guy does indeed make this thing happen.
@aaronsullivan Dude, I 1000% wish that would happen.
It's kinda what's been in my head for ages, and I bet, to some degree, in many other people's heads too.
And, it might sound strange, but that's sort of what I was going for with my idea for NX (in some ways), while still trying to keep with the times too (so, still trying to make a device that takes all of Nintendo's modern consoles into account too, but tries to consolidate absolutely everything into one simple unit):
http://www.inceptional.com/2015/06/26/heres-the-gist-of-my-idea-for-nintendos-nx/
But, I'd honestly rather just go with the simpler 8bit-16bit console and the way you're envisioning it right now. I don't need all the other modern crap if I could have a system basically just like you're imagining.
This needs to get made!!
So basically a PC Engine from Nintendo?
I wish this guy luck as this is a pretty cool fantasy project.
Personally I'll just be happy if he starts making and selling those controllers.
"Don't Copy That Floppy!" - ROFL
Priceless...
Im interested now in buying a famicom system with the floppy drive!
Will buy when real. Who knows how he'll get that Sonic project off the ground with the Mega Drive's imminent release, though...
It's pretty cool, but there's one problem with it: in 1988, Nintendo already knew that floppies weren't the future, and started releasing their big releases on cartridges again. Sure, the FDS came out at the beginning of 1986, but it was really only popular for about a year, maybe two. In 1988, pretty much only 3 kinds of games were made for the FDS: ports of older cartridge releases, adventure games (by which I mean Portopia-style games), and cheap stuff that nobody had any faith in to begin with. There were a few exceptions, sure, like Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (which got a cartridge release later anyway), but none of them were by Nintendo. Arguably their biggest game that year, Super Mario Bros. 3 was also released on a cartridge.
I really love stories about parallel universes and stuff, but since this is only imaginary, it's not even newsworthy in my opinion.
If and when that guy actually makes a real Famicube, it would be news, but still only a footnote.
There's really nothing to see here.
Love this. Absolutely love this. Added to my not-so-long list of things I didn't knew I wanted.
Is it strange how much I love cubes for game consoles? I still find the Gamecube and even the Ouya as very attractive systems. Shame more hardware doesn't come in cube form.
Also wanted to comment I found it alarming that the alleged console in 1988 was to sport HDMI and USB ports, then read the rest and realized those are the 'today' real world schematics, not the 1988 mockups.
Wow!
@Kirk Awesome post. (:
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