The disc drive is more than just a common issue, it's pretty much every unit the plastic in the drive is extremely brittle and has broken. If you get one that's ever seen any use you're likely replacing the plastic rails of the disc drive.
Japanese "Junk" means more along the lines of "as is, untested" than any indication of cosmetic condition. I've read my fair share of sellers saying "i don't know how to use this thing, so selling as junk"
The 3.5 inch drive on the Sharp twin Famicom is for the Disk System games such as Legend of Zelda and the main reason it probably doesnt work is because the rubber band that operates the disk reading function is broken
@@DuneRunnerEnterprises I can tell you that at least most floppy drives still work as long as you replace the belts. Can't say that about the lasers in most consoles. PS1 is barely holding out, but gamecube already failed twice.
is not a Floppy Drive its a Quick Disk Drive. Even though the Quick Disks that Nintendo used for this look like floppy disks on the first look, they work completely differently than a floppy disk. While a floppy disc works with sectors and individual files can be accessed directly, a quick disk is more of a data cassette drive that uses a disc instead of a tape. These drives are also a horror to calibrate when the rubber drive belt needs to be replaced
On the Sharp Twin Famicom: it's not a 3,5" floppy drive. It's a proprietary system by Nintendo and was originally sold as an add-on for the Famicom called the Famicom Disk System. The Sharp just combines these two in one system.
@@XxMiNeCaRtPhOeNixXnot as mainstream, but I'd say especially for arcades and marketing/showtime presentations. Two areas where they excel over everyone else imo
@@NicotineRosbergnot who you were replying to but I'd also say "was". I'm basing my opinion on the fact that Japan in the 80s- early 90s was THE worldwide leader in tech and electronics. They were the ones at the forefront of innovation and quality and nobody even came close. Arguably the US was their closest competitor but they were still a whole decade ahead of them. All that stands in stark contrast to today. They no longer are the de facto tech leaders of the world. Even a country like South Korea has leapfrogged them in every possible way. Just ask anyone living in Japan today. They'll tell you that the country is practically living in the early 2000s. Mobile/smartphone banking and payment is practically nonexistent among other things.
That Japanese SNES and the PS1 are both giving me nostalgia. The Japanese SNES is the one that I'm more familiar with than the US models since it was the one given to us by my uncle who used to worked in Japan.
Judging by the physical size of the drive, I think there might also be a good chance of just replacing the drive entirely, with a random old floppy drive from a beige-box PC. Uh... if your idea of a belt replacement doesn't work. 'Cause I wouldn't want to ruin the factory appearance of the machine.
@@Dee_Just_Dee The disk system used a proprietary disk so trying to replace it with another floppy drive wouldn't work. It'd physically fit but a standard floppy drive wouldn't be able to read the disks themselves.
17:39 to be clear, the Famicom Disk System did pretty well in Japan--it's just that the Sharp Twin Famicom didn't sell as much as the regular FDS add-on. A lot of popular NES games actually released as disks in Japan. However, pretty soon the cost of making cartridges dropped enough that the disk system really didn't have a reason to exist anymore. Thus, we never got the FDS in America and games were tweaked for a cartridge release--including in Japan, where games like Zelda, Metroid and Castlevania got cartridge rereleases after originally coming out on disk. The only real bummer about this is that the FDS had an extra sound source that sounded pretty neat, and also a lot of games that saved on the FDS switched to a password (Metroid) or nothing at all (Castlevania) when they came out in the west.
17:00 That is a 7 pin Din connector. Din connectors have been used for keyboards, joysticks, midi, and in todays world ADJ still uses the 5 pin Din as the remote line for their fog machines. In this case... that is for an RF-switch... if you recall the original Nintendo could only plug into your TV using the cable line, you had an adapter that you plugged your cable into, and then plugged it into the tv, and you had to select channel 3 or channel 4 as the channel the Nintendo would work on. That is what this Din port is for... and yes, it is a form of RF.
One of the first things I ever bought on Ebay was a Twin Famicom. It still works 👍 I wanted one when I was a kid and we were visiting Japan, but my parents said no.
In Japan, "junk" can also mean: Damaged products Products that stores haven't been able to sell Old and used things that have little value and that you do not want any more
Yep! You bought the power adapter separately because northern Japan is on 50hz and southern Japan is on 60hz, so you buy the power adapter specific to your region! (At least, that's how I understand it!) It saves the manufacturer money so they don't have to make two different boxes of the console and can ship the same box country-wide!
If anybody is wondering, the Panasonic Q is probably the hardest console to take apart. It's literally multiple motherboards on top of each other, as you can kinda see from taking off the sides. Even people who are skilled at repairs hate working on these, thus why so many stay broken.
I grew up in the Philippines, where the Family Computer was sold under that name and without the modifications that would turn it into the NES in the West, so I actually find them more nostalgic for me than seeing the NES in most English-language vids about video games on YT. I had the original white and red model with the red rectangular controllers mounted on the sides.
Your video on the Panasonic Q was the first tech video I ever watched on RU-vid. Ever since that day, the Panasonic Q has been probably my favorite console of all time.
The Gameboy cartridges most likely have flat CMoS batteries. You can open them up and replace them (most often cause of broken cartridges) as they also power the drm which is why the save and cartridges then don't work
You might find it cool to know that the theme for that disk system start up screen is the same theme as the Gamecube menu, it's just slowed down 16x on the Gamecube.
This video is pure nostalgic aside from the things I’ve never actually seen before like the Famicom mixed with floppy disk‘s. Didn’t know those existed lol
Matt saying, “it’s got a bush, what the (hugs)” shows as being the most replayed part of the video haha. Of course I noticed that by replaying that part..
With the SNES you could replace the cartridge slot and do a deep clean to remove the yellowing. I know it's been done a million times on youtube, but I reckon you'd make a good video of the process.
@thehalflow-qualityhalo1130 I didn't hear "ness" the entire video? He only mentioned it once and he clearly said N.E.S. The only time he said "Ness" was literally for the character Ness, not the console.
The Sharp Famicom console probably just has a dirty head in the 3.5" floppy drive. It might only need to have a 3.5" floppy drive head cleaner run on it to get it working properly.
I remember hearing the Panasonic Q is very prone to getting damaged in shipping, like your chance of it still being working when it arrives in the US is pretty low. This is on top of it being a massive pain to work on due to how much stuff is crammed in there.
I assume from Austin's reaction that he never experienced the top loading NES we got over here after the SNES launched. It was pretty much identical to that famicom, complete with the rounded controllers.
I bought a panasonic Q from japan complete in box about 10 years ago for about what you payed for that one. It is wild how much they jumped in price. mainly bought it as a cool novelty.
I bet the diskdrive works just fine but as it seems like he doesn't have any clue on what the twin famicom even is, i fear that he simply tried to cram a regular good old 3.5" floppy disk in there which wouldn't work anyway since nintendo's famicom disk system (FDS) games where differently shaped
First off it is not a 3.5" disk drive it is a 3" disk drive. The Quick Disk were originally used in midi music equipment such as the Roland S-10. In most cases the belt will break or stretch over time and will need to be replaced. It is a very easy fix and console5 sells replacements. You should be able to replace the belt and test in about 10-15 minutes.
Panasonic Q was born from Panasonic’s partnership with Nintendo. Panasonic helped Nintendo with optical media, and in return, Panasonic got to make the Q.
I’ve had so much fun refurbishing sold of my old consoles, de-yellowing, cleaning the contacts. This would be a fun project for anyone who like doing that kinda of stuff. I might have to give this website a try
I buy Japanese versions frequently since they’re usually nicer and in better condition than the American counterparts. They’re also a 1/2 the price, but once in America sell for more after some adjustments. Video gaming is a strange market
I had a Panasonic Q! I imported it from Japan upon release. It was modded to allow multi-region DVDs too, which meant I used it as my DVD player as well as my Gamecube (I'm in the UK). It does mean I played Mario Sunshine in Japanese, and I don't speak the language. Mine was in perfect working condition, sold it last year just because there comes a point after 20 years where you wonder why you still have this stuff in your garage...
Game consoles can be returned to the original color. Using Peroxide to Clean Yellowed Plastic Pour straight peroxide in a container. Put the plastic in the container. Allow the plastic to soak in the sunlight until the stain lifts. Rinse and dry.
Nintendo came out with the first floppy drive for the Famicom which plugged into the cartridge receiver. It was also matched in color. The Sharp was then introduced to be an all-in-one console. The 3.5" floppies were proprietary - they had an extra 1.5 cm added to the top of the floppy that had a keyed "NINTENDO" as part of the disc. You could save games, which was the big draw. You could also go to a local toy store and have your disc overwritten for like 300-yen to get a new game.
The Panasonic twin is just a mashed together original famicom and the famicom disk expansion. The hardwired controllers were originally put on the first gen famicom then the later models like the one u had went to detached controller. The disk was an attempt to increase storage for famicom games. Taking the original cartridge max from 32kb to 64kb per side of the 2 sided disk.
