The Famicom Disk System (FDS), Nintendo’s ambitious attempt at pushing gaming into the floppy era. It was cheaper than cartridges and even allowed for better audio in some games.  Players could event visit disk kiosks in Japan to rewrite old games with new ones—an early form of digital distribution! While the concept was ahead of its time, the system had its downsides: long load times, fragile disks, and eventual competition from more advanced cartridges led to its decline. But it left behind a fascinating library of games, some of which never made it to the West sadly, like so many great experiments in gaming history.
Some of my games, I’ll make another post dedicated to “Hack” games, some “bishōjo” unofficial games.
- Dead Zone: a text adventure with surprisingly solid visuals.
- Deep Dungeon (ディープダンジョン) is a classic first-person dungeon crawler where you’ll die a lot. You can also see this has a different packaging, closer to a NES game packaging.
- Dirty Pair: Project Eden: it’s based on the anime! Expect action, sci-fi, and futuristic destruction featuring the Lovely Angels.
- Golf: U.S. Course, before the Mario Golf we know today, there was… this.
- Zelda II: Link’s Adventure, the black sheep of the Zelda family. Side-scrolling combat, RPG mechanics.
- Kid Icarus (パルテナの鏡), a strange mix of platforming and RPG mechanics. Brutal difficulty, but also the first appearance of Pit.
- Kiki Kaikai Dotouhen (奇々怪界 怒涛編), the Pocky & Rocky series. Top-down action with a shrine maiden fighting yokai. Classic.
- Knight Lore, the Japanese FDS port of Ultimate Play the Game’s legendary isometric adventure.
- Professional Mahjong Goku, If you love mahjong, then this is… well, a professional mahjong game.
- Sokoban Tears Special (倉庫番スペシャル), it’s Sokoban, the warehouse puzzle game that has fueled frustration since the 80s.
- Super Mario Bros. Well, the game that needs no introduction. But hey, it’s here, so let’s acknowledge the king.
- Sword of Karin (カリーンの剣) is an obscure action RPG with a cool setting. If you know more, tell me in the comments!
- Idol Hotline Nakayama Miho Tokimeki High School, this was a dating sim where players could actually call a real phone hotline to get hints. There’s also a special edition telephone card in Japan, but quite pricey. 
- Ultraman, giant kaiju battles? Check. A legendary Japanese hero? Check. FDS limitations holding back the action? Also check.
- Yokai Yashiki is a horror-themed platformer where you battle Japanese ghosts and spirits. Basically, if Ghosts ’n Goblins had a cousin who loved folklore, it would be this game.
- Special guest: the FDS logo pin you can find at the Nintendo Museum 😍