hidden famicom disk diagnostic

[kite200]

while starting up a famicom connected to a disk system, press and hold start and select and it will check the functionality of the ram adaptor. to find out if you have version 1 or 2 disk system, press and hold start and select but before the ram adaptor check screen appears hit right on the dpad and the a button. if it says dev 2 it is the second version

[JC]

It'd be cool to have some screenshots of all this for a page on the site. Is this test possible with emulation?

[kite200]

Maybe, if not I can take a picture. Give me a few mins

[Nickv]

crazy. im gonna try it with my twin

[DevIancE]

Woah, this is cool info to know.

[JC]

Are there any differences between the versions?

[kite200]

If you are running a dev 2 version it will say so. if you are running a dev 1 it wont mention it. other then that there's no big difference between the two versions of the drive while in the diag menu. the big difference in functionality is one is copy protected better then the other. number 2 has better copy protection than a first version drive

[chimyfolkbutter]

Neat.  I want to check if that directly relates to the Drive Chip.  A 7201 or version 1 would be the "writeable" drive.  A 3206 or version 2 would be the "Copy Protected" drive.  Think about it.  You can ask the potential seller to check the version of the drive.  You want the version1.

I'll test this out.

-CFB

[Nickv]

im gonna try this out on my 3 fds and the twin

[JC]

I finally tried this on one of my Disk Systems. What's "PRAM CRAM," which is "OK"? And why do the numbers on the screen keep changing?

[uroko-sakanabito]

I finally tried this on one of my Disk Systems. What's "PRAM CRAM," which is "OK"? And why do the numbers on the screen keep changing?

same here ! does this say my disk drive is ok ?

[kite200]

yes it means your ram adapter is "OK"

[JC]

Errr -- a coup of my question. What the PRAM CRAM stand for? And what's with the numbers?

[kite200]

I dont have a fucking clue. I've told you all I know

[madman]

The FDS RAM adapter has 32k of RAM for program storage (PRAM) and 8k of storage for character RAM (CRAM).  The character RAM contains graphics.  Just as most NES/Famicom games have two separate ROM chips: PRGROM and CHROM.  Depending on the mapper, they could be in the same physical chip.