Getting 1985 NES Games Count As First Famicom Games?

[Atariboy]

When I first got the NES with many first release games back in 1985 was soo fun and then in mid 80s I started to read up on Nintedno's Famicom in Japan and got me to thinking of trying to get the Japanese games. So in 86 I found some stores in NY flee market with Famicom and games but then later in the mid 90s I found out from a web site that title 'You may already have a Famicom-to-NES adapter' and it shows that the early NES in 85 has origanl Famicom chips in NES carts there for is it safe to say that getting these early NES cart with the Famicom chip was the first Famicom games we ever gotten? I know that its dont count with out the origanl little carts that house them but do you ever wonder?

Heres that old web site that shown me that Famicom chip in a NES cart
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/odd/scans/adapter.html

For more fun on this topic cheak out this page
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/39

[satoshi_matrix]

Yeah. The adaptor is the part that counts, and it works good too. What I did was cut my Gyromite cart in half so that one end has the adaptor exposed and the bottom half looks like any old NES cart. Put into a NES 2 or Yobo or NEX, you can play any Famicom game no problem.

[JC]

It would be interesting, as I think Atariboy is saying, to compare the Famicom boards in NES carts to those of regular Famicom games, even the same games. I'd be curious to know more about them...if the boards in adapted NES carts are the same as the Famicom cart versions, or if Nintendo made completely different boards for the NES versions.

BTW: The first Famicom games were released a year or so ahead of first NES games, so the ones in NES carts wouldn't count as the first Famicom games.

[133MHz]

Maybe he's talking about the first Famicom games he's got, and as far as I know the Famicom boards inside are exactly the same as their japanese counterparts, this was a cost-cutting measure: instead of manufacturing NES boards just take the Famicom ones and stuff them in pin converters . Look at US Gyromite's title screen, it says Robot Gyro just like the japanese version

[Atariboy]

133MHz is right that I mean the first Famicom games I ever got in the US or anyway before I found thouses in 86. For the record in 85 when I got the NES Deluxe set that same day my mother got me 8 games on November 23rd for my birthday then after we got the Nintendo stuff we then gone to Blimpies for lunch where as we was eatting I was trying to open one of the NES game but she told me in spanish not to open any of them cuase I had the large sub and could has mess up the games and when I got back the first NES game I ever hold was in the Deluxe set Duck Hunt and Gyromite and the first eight games I open was in order,

Super Mario Bros
Hogan's Alley 
Wild Gunman
Ice Climber 
Excitebike 
Kung Fu
Baseball
Pinball

Man Im soo lucky that I lived in NYC^_^

[Doc]

Yeah, I got my NES in 1985, too. My Mom took a trip to NYC and said "Look I found a video game system that maybe you'll like!".

What an understatement.

[satoshi_matrix]

There are two versions of Gyromite for the NES:

first release Gyromite that was packaged with the deleuxe version of the NES Control Deck which has a purple Gyromite logo. The titlescreen of this game reads Robot Gyro, just as the Famicom version is. This is because the board is identical to that of a Famicom board. In fact, it is a Famicom board. I don't have the Family Computer Robot, but if I did I could simply just put the bare board into my  Famicom and it'd work fine.

The blue label re-release is simply a 2" NES board. there is no adaptor and the titlescreen reads "Gyromite" as opposed to "Robot Gyro". This cart was the commerically avalible version of Gyromite for consumers who bought only the core NES.


Anyway,

As to exactly why early NES games used Famicom boards is up in the air and is speculation only. As I see it, it could have been:

-Nintendo of America could not produce sufficent numbers of Gryomite carts to package in with every deleuxe NES they made at launch, so they simply used Famicom boards (this is what I beleive)
-Nintendo of America found it cheaper to simply build adaptors for existanting boards than to manufacture their own.
-Nintendo fo Japan overproduced certain games such as Gyromite. The surplus boards were bought cheaply by NoA.
-Devine intervention.

Take your pick.

[JC]

Nice theories, but remember that Gyromite isn't the only game with the converters. I heard they had some problem with NES board orders and needed a quick solution in time for the holidays.

[Atariboy]

BTW as I was searching for more info on the Famicom in NES cart I found this page that you posted on http://www.famicomworld.com/Articles/NES_Cart_Converters.htm and theres more then just Nintendo made carts that house the converter soo I looked up on many of my NES games using your list and I did found more of thouse converters and Ill be using them to put many of my Famicom carts doubles like Supe Mario 2 the lost level piret cart by making a US type label using the SMB2 Disk label scan^_^

[MarioMania]

Speaking about the Converter..Some Famicom Cart dosn't fit snug in there like SMB & SMB3