Photos: Early Famicom & FDS Systems + Missing Stuff on FW

[Xious]

Alright everybody, I finally made it around to taking photos of some of my oddities and early systems. The following photos are for these items:

Differences between Famicom Boxes
Differences between the VERY early (smooth) FDS and smooth RAM-Adapter
Bonus photos of a FDS Rev 3 Power Board
Photos of the logic board of a VERY early Famicom (rev 04)
Photos of the inside of the same SB Famicom, its controllers and its RF/Power board

First, I'll talk about the Very Early FDS:

You may know that the Famicom has different bottom shell textures, smooth and speckled, but what you may not know, is that the same is true of the FDS, and the RAM-Adapter. For roughly the first 600,000 units, Nintendo Co. Ltd (NCL) used a smoother texture on both the FDS case and RAM-Adapter. I know they changed this somewhere after unit #600,000 and before #1,000,000, probably because they showed scuffs too easily. Now, this isn't the shiny smooth 'glossy' look as on the Square-Button FC, but it's a matte smooth finish. The photos illustrate the differences, and these units are quite rare, especially in pairs (with the correct RAM-Adapter). Additionally, the early RAM-Adapter has a Rev# of 3 or lower.

Very Early (Smooth) FDS and RAM-Adapter Photos and Comparisons to Normal FDS

FDS Power Board Rev-03 Photos

Very Early (Smooth) Rev-03 RAM-Adapter Guts Photos



Next, while you may be aware that there are multiple versions of the Famicom, (six at the least), you may never have seen all the revisions of the Famicom box. These are the varieties that I have discovered:

Box with Purple Text and Square Button FC Artwork
Box with Purple Text and Round Button FC Artwork (no FF logo)
Box with Purple Text and Round Button FC (FF logo added)
Box with Blue Text and Round button FC (FF logo added)

I presume that this is the order of release. Also note that the SB FC box has a slightly lighter shade of Purple text than the round button version. The Square button manual shows the square buttons in every photo, and in the illustration of the system, whereas the round-button manual has round buttons in all photos *and* in the illustration. NCL certainly took great care and paid high attention to detail when updating the box and manual artwork. There may be other variations that I have missed. I think there is a blue text box with no FF logo as well, plus the New Famicom box as well.

Photos of Famicom Box and Manual Differences



Many of you have never seen an actual Square-button Famicom, or had the chance to examine one internally, and while FW has most of the facts straight, what's missing is the Rev-04 logic board (from what I can tell, it's the real first release) and photos of the other internal differences. here they are:

Rev-04 Famicom Logic Board and Square Button Guts Photos, Including Controller and RF Modulator



I am talking to a friend that does plastic and rubber moulding work about making a small run of replacement square button pads, as most of the original controllers have broken buttons, and no replacements are available. In fact, two of mine are toast, so I am going to use my nicest one to make a mould and reproduce them as closely as possible to the originals so that people with SB FC units can play them with the original controllers, as NCL intended. Photos of the button pads and the insides of a Player I controller are in the above link, and photos of the system (put-together) are here:

Very Clean Square-Button Famicom



Lastly, the Twin Famicom is rarely seen with the port cover for its DA-15 9controller) expansion port, so I included a photo of what this part looks like. The Twin systems also have a different cardboard dummy disk than the Nintendo-made drives, but i will have to photograph the difference later, as the battery in my camera died before I could photograph them. The Sharp Twin inserts have blue print, versus the red printed cardboard protectors for the FDS.

Sharp Twin Expansion-Port Cover Photo

I took these photos as a special gift for FamicomWorld. While I retain all copyrights on them, FW has my permission to use them for the site, and if the admins or mods would like hi-res photos for the technical data pages, please let me know and I will give you a special directory from which you may download them.

I will take more photos as time allows, and supplement any missing information.

[famiac]

That is simply amazing! That's really a nice contribution.

[NintendoKing]

Blue pin connectors weren't on the Square-button models, they had black connectors. It's a kit model, I have seen many square-button kit models.

People often convert there original Famicoms into square button clones and list them on eBay to trick unsuspecting buyers.

[UglyJoe]

No, there were square-button Famicoms with blue pin connectors:

http://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/square-button-famicom/

[NintendoKing]

No, there were square-button Famicoms with blue pin connectors:

http://famicomworld.com/workshop/tech/square-button-famicom/

Okay, well the other giveaway is the lack of a smooth shiny bottom half. I stand corrected on the blue connector part, sorry.

[UglyJoe]

Okay, well the other giveaway is the lack of a smooth shiny bottom half.

I can't tell from the photo whether it's smooth or textured.  Regardless, I'm more curious about the "HVC-CPU" branding on the board, as the old ones that we have pictures of are "HVC-CPU-05".  I've not seen one without a number following it.

[senseiman]

Excellent post, thanks for putting this up here! 

[Xious]

Oh please, there's nothing 'kit' about this unit: There are two photos of it, taken with a flash to show the reflective surface at:
Reflective #1
Reflective #2

Taking photos of the underbelly with a flash produces the hard reflections you are used to seeing, as opposed to soft-lighting with studio lamps, but it also blankets out the serial label (which is silver, after all) and the serial tells you everything you need to know about how this unit was configured from the factory, if you know the numbering. I didn't do a side-by-side shot with another FC, as this quality is already well-known, and it was an unnecessary step.

Those two sets, with the SB FC and the opened SB FC are of the same unit; the boxed system is a different unit (later REV#--Rev-05, IIRC), so I didn't bother opening it, as we know what a Rev 5 looks like. The mask on the logic board in this set, 'HVC-CPU' marks it as a Rev 4, which can be clearly seen here.

That tiny number is the board revision code. If you know where to look, it's on every Nintendo PCB, somewhere. Additionally, the controller PCB, made by Mitsumi, is interesting as well, as is the RF/Power board. Everything about it screams 'Early', and 'Small Company'... Very different, just compared to the Rev 5 Famicom, which followed right behind this version.

[jpx72]

NICE!  
Thanks for posting those photos! BTW that's the first time I saw square-buttoned famicom cardboard box.
I was wondering, if that small capacitor on the bottom of the FC PCB was manufactured like that or added later...
And about the small number - I've never noticed those, my 1989 GMP-02 has "02F" on the bottom.

Those are really one of a kind photos, and one of the first on the net ever, you're so lucky to own these beauties 

Ahh.. one day I will buy me a square-buttoned FC. Just the PCB and two controllers would be enough. Non working and damaged are ok! Anybody?  

[Xious]

That's factory done: Probably an in-design-post-production addition. The Rev 5 board has little additions on it as well, as I recall. (I'll add taking detailed photos of the Rev 05 and Rev 06 boards to my to-do list.) Remember that, at the time, the Famicom was still brand new. You could count the entire library of games on your hands, and Nintendo was still a small-time outfit. They outsourced all of their PCB manufacturing, as far as I can see; perhaps they made the mainboards, but everything else was manufactured by a third-party for them. This meant that if they made a change after finishing a design, they had to impliment it on the already-made PCBs to save money. 

I am pretty sure I've seen an 03 board in the past, as I stated before, or maybe it was an 02, but the only way to tell is to find the revision marker, as the first-run boards don.t have the board revision on the silk-screen, as you can all now see. I'm not sure of the 4 board was part of the recall or not, but it may have been, which would explain why the 05 is more common.

Additionally, the Rev 06 is rarer than the Rev 05, from what I have seen. It was a stop-gap release between the 1983 design and the 1984 redesign that lasted up through 1989/90. Somewhere around 16-Million Famicoms were made before the VCCI redesign of 1989, and of these, approximately 13.5-Million or more were Rev 07. The Rev 06 may be almost as small a run as the Rev 04, but the recall may have made the 04 (or earlier) revisions far rarer in the end.

So, to all those doubters that told me that there was no release before the Rev 05, your proof is above.

I'll also have to pay closer attention to the VCCI boards. I've seen 02, but I don't think I've ever seen 02A-F on any of them. I suspect that NCL made around 5 to 6-Million VCCI units, before finally redesigning the FC in 1992/3 and releasing the New Famicom.

I've seen photos of SB FC boxes before, albeit not that clean, but never a Rev 04 PCB, or comparisons of the boxes and manual to later versions. I have also never seen any reference to the smooth-cased FDS drives and RAM-Adapters on any website, although there may be a site in Japan dedicated to it. One never knows...

[jpx72]

Got a HVC-CPU-GPM(yes I've noticed it also)-02 with a small number on the other side - 02C. So yes, there are several revisions in this run too. Photos later.

[Xious]

Looks as if I'll need to open all of my VCCI systems and document toe revisions...

I'm also curious how many people are interested in this kind of thing, and if there are any requests...