What got you into famicom?

[pxlbluejay]

I had always thought that the Super Famicom looked much, much better than the Super Nintendo. But then, I decided that putting an NES next to a Super Famicom wouldn't be exactly right, even though personally I thought the NES looked better. One day, I stumbled over a Youtube video about how Famicom games had better BGMs than NES games(Castlevania III), and then I started to get interested in Famicoms. I began to find out that it actually had different accessories that make a Famicom an actual "Family Computer". With the NES being simply a "video game console", I began to realize how "technologically advanced" the Famicom was compared to the NES, even though they were basically the same thing in the inside. Then, I started to think that the Famicom actually looked better than the NES!  While the NES is just a big gray box, the Famicom was a colorful little toy(in a good way). Also, NES cartridges are unnecessarily enormous, making it harder to collect it in large quantities. Famicom carts are acceptable in size and most importantly, they come in a variety of colors, making it more, you know, nice. A few days ago, I was browsing through a flea market, when I found a Famicom and a Gamecube sitting next to each other. Ignoring the Gamecube, I handed the guy 15 bucks for the Famicom and walked home. Well, I still don't know whether it works, thanks to a 100V adapter and a topless RF Switchbox, but still, it was a nice old piece of electronics, and I think it will great next to my Super Famicom(My Super Famicom is in the US and I currently am in Korea)!  Well, thanks to Nintendo for not making a Disk System for the NES, I now am in love with the Famicom!

[P]

I had always thought that the Super Famicom looked much, much better than the Super Nintendo. But then, I decided that putting an NES next to a Super Famicom wouldn't be exactly right,

I don't know what you are talking about, SFC and SNES looks identical to me besides the logo.
I always used to have my SNES next to my NES.

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[pxlbluejay]

I had always thought that the Super Famicom looked much, much better than the Super Nintendo. But then, I decided that putting an NES next to a Super Famicom wouldn't be exactly right,

I don't know what you are talking about, SFC and SNES looks identical to me besides the logo.
I always used to have my SNES next to my NES.

Spoiler

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The american version of the snes looks very different from the pal snes and the sfc. It's the purple one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System

[(^.^)]

I don't remember exactly when I first heard about the Famicom, but I guess it either have had to been from Nintendo Power magazines (the Scandinavian one we had here) or maybe when they released the NES / Famicom GBA SP models. Because I remember wanting the famicom edition so badly, but realized it was impossible hence it never got released in Europe 
After that I probably learned a lot because I emulated MOTHER (earthbound zero) and some other games that weren't available here. 

And now - 16 or 17 years later - I FINALLY got my own real Famicom! 

[Dreammary]

It was 2004, I discovered Famicom by researching on the internet for NES which led me to a Japanese version called the Family Computer... my interest grew.

Then in 2005, I got on eBay and bought 2 games, Argus and Fudou Myououden; and a original Famicom which I couldn't figure out how to use as I wasn't aware of needing to run it on channel 95.

I kept trying to get it to work, and was sad; so I got a Gametech Neo-Fami which in the end introduced me to the first Famicom game play.

Then around a year later the Gametech Neo-Fami broke down, so I boxed my 2 games and the original Famicom up and placed them in my closet. And tossed the Neo-Fami in the trash.

Then around January 2008, I stumbled on this site... then lurked awhile and learned of channel 95; once my Famicom worked I got excited again and in March I joined the site and learned new things and became more interested in Famicom again.

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Continued:

I later bought a Hudson Expansion port controller, and restarted buying games again.

Then later 2009, I accidentally plugged one of my NES power adapters into my Famicom and blew it; I took it apart and saved certain parts and bought a second Famicom for use.

Then later in 2010, I decided to upgrade and ended up buying an AV Famicom, at that moment I retired my second original Famicom then eventually gave it to a friend.

2015: I upgraded again to a heavily modified original Famicom with AV ports, power LED and front based Controller holes. But I will be keeping my AV Famicom as the look cool next to each other.

Yes, I am the same person as NintendoKing (The Uninvited Gremlin).

[Daggerthorn]

Well, I was into retrogaming nearly my entire life. I was interested in Atari stuff when I was a wee lad. I found out about the NES and TG16 early on, but never had any. Fast forward to 11 years old, I decided to actually collect again. I got mostly American stuff. I had an NES with a Famicom converter since I was planning on getting import games, not much Famistuff to be seen by that time. There was a gaming convention in town where I saw Famicom games on sale, and I decided why not? I got a copy of FF2 (not sure why I bought it, I could've bought Gradius 2 at that time but didn't  ) and then a couple months later I got a Famicom proper and I still have it to this day 

[P]

Über expensive? Super Famicom is one of the cheapest systems you can get. Even more so nowdays when retro games are cheap.

[Miklo]

What got me into Famicom?

Easy...

Break dancing identical twins from the Philippines.

[portnoyd]

The NES did. I'm an insane used to be considered an insane NES collector (as the goobers at NintendoAge made me look sane, quite a feat) and after I finished NES, I branched out to other systems like Genesis, and more specifically really anything I could my hands on. Years later, my wife and I purged over half of our collection and sold a lot of that nonsense, leaving what really mattered, particularly NES. I had always had a small Famicom collection (30-40 games), then I noticed that shipping had seemingly come down from when I was NES collecting and prices were still dirt cheap for imports. So, Famicom collecting it was. I'm over 500 carts and 100 disks and man, it's like rediscovering the NES all over again. Criminal how many good, great or even just average games we didn't get. I just wish I signed up here a decade ago.

[dingsbums]

I had a NES as a kid in 1989/1990. Remember that Im in Germany and the NES / Famicom was not as strong in Europe as it was in the US & Japan. I read a lot of German video game magazines and was always interested when they wrote about an import game on the Famicom that we did not get. And so I started collecting with the main focus on the Famicom (NES only when the game was not released in Japan or is different from the Japanese release). I will post my collection here shortly in the "Show your stash" thread.

[Famiboi101]

The games are SO much cheaper then the NES. Also there's basically no import costs since I live in Australia, meaning I can pick up most famicom games from $5-$20. So yeah really just the cost.

[Preki]

So it all began as per usual in 1990s Poland - around 1995 or so parents bought us a famiclone, the famous "Pegasus", bundled with the equally famous 168 in 1 multicart, I remember also having one of those random "God-knows-how-many-games-in-1" multicarts. The first games I've ever played were Nuts & Milk, Duck Hunt and F-1 Race. Aside from me and my siblings, our parents also enjoyed playing games, my mom loved Lode Runner and Tengen Tetris especially. But by the end of 1999 we've ditched Pegasus in favor of a PC, much like everybody else did at the time. I don't really remember what happened to the console, did we give it to someone or just simply disposed in trash after it suffered a failure? I really don't know, but I remember I was nostalgic for these games. Without any knowledge of emulation, I thought I will never get to play them again...

Come 2005, when I came across a website called Emu-Russia (RIP). This is where I learned about emulation which allowed me to experience the games of yesteryear once again without the need of buying dedicated hardware and cartridges. I've learned a lot about games never seen before by me such as the Megaman and Castlevania series or the other Super Mario games. I was also surprised to learn that Pegasus wasn't a genuine console at all. For some time I played on the emulator more often than dedicated PC games, mostly because our PC was hopelessly outdated at the time and thus we couldn't afford ourselves a new one (to play the most recent releases, obviously). After buying a new rig in 2008 my will to play old 8-bit games diminished once again, though I still played Contra or Super Mario Bros from time to time. At that point I was certain that I played pretty much everything on the system...

Fast forward to 2013, another website (Hardcore Gaming 101) sparked my interest in oldies again. And boy, how I was wrong - all the games for NES/Famicom I played so far are just a fraction of its vast library. I also started emulating other consoles, mostly 16-bit systems. One day in 2017 I was listening to various NES/Famicom soundtracks uploaded by grad1u52 on YouTube and this particular one caught my attention and I wanted to know more about the game, which eventually led to me writing a review for HG101. That was the moment when I knew I'm gonna return to the 8-bit Nintendo for good. In the same year I attented a NES/Famicom fan convention. This event made me think that emulation is not enough and half a year later the king of classic electronic entertainment was back at my home, this time in its original incarnation.

[TDownit_Strider]

I'm actually just jumping into the Famicom this month, mostly because of looks, the Disk System, and just because it's cool to have 

But what actually started my interest in the Famicom, after I already had an NES and was fine with it, was how cool the games for the FDS looked. Having the Nintendo logo actually pressed INTO the plastic was just really neat, and that led me to find a great deal on an FDS with a Famicom from Japan, so I started looking for nice games to import(which will probably start me learning Japanese-rest my weary soul )

...I can't wait for that thing to arrive so I can clean it. It's just too nice to see it wiped up. I don't have a problem you have a problem.

[LessThanZero]

The Famicom commercials on Youtube. Especially the videos Satoshi Matrix posted. Famicom commercials are literally heroin in terms of pleasure and addictiveness but they don't kill you. It's such an adreneline rush to hear the announcer say T  A  N  O  S  H  I  I  K  A  S  E  T  T  O  J  O  U  H  O  U and while marveling at the Japanese 80's aethestics.

[TSDXIII]

Here in Russia we had unlicensed but very popular famiclone called Dendy. Majority of games were pirated Famicom-like cartridges manufactured in Asia.
Multicards contained Nuts & Milk, Popeye, Japanese Ice Climbers (one with seals), Dig Dug, Antarctic Adventure, Circus Charlie, Wild Gunman. I also do remember playing Hi no Tori and trying to play a Saint Seiya game.
Please don't get the impression that some pesky Russky tries to take a dump on your childhood but EU/US NES was kinda underwhelming. It looked like a tombstone but was all over the internet in mid-2000s, while my favorite games like Adventure Island 4 (Takahashi meijin no bouken jima 4) and Ganbare Goemon were left in obscurity.
Thanks to emulation I discovered some new Famicom stuff like Mother, Megami Tensei, Sweet Home, Nekketsu series. Early games like Challenger and Konami's Gorilla Fist Massacre Game (King Kong 2).
And I'm probably missing a lot.

Here's some points that I like about Famicom the most:

- Aside nondetachable controllers - much more interesting hardware and accessories
- Japanese obscurities and overall bigger library of games
- "Non-castrated" versions of games like Zelda 2, Contra, Akumajouvania 3
- DISK SYSTEM
- Looks and aesthetics of the system