Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Famicom Fright Night: A Most Hideous Freak of Nature!

Yes, readers, you may well cower in fear. For I am about to unveil the most hideous freak of nature human eyes have ever been exposed to.

BEHOLD:
Just a dirty old Famicom console you say? Well then, let me show you a little something else:
Agggghh! Evil!! Spawned in the pit of ultimate darkness by the nefarious Sir Simon Milligan and his manservant Hecubus! A Famicom with both a square button and a round button controller!



Well, OK. Not that evil. Just kind of.....interesting I guess.

I found this in the junk bin yesterday at Omocha Souko. I was quite psyched when I saw the two player controller and thought `Oh great, a square button Famicom! Those things are really hard to find and.....GASP!`

The glass of sherry I had been sipping while strolling the aisles slipped through my fingers at that moment and smashed into a thousand pieces on the floor below, splattering droplets of the fortified wine on my shoes and a partial boxed set of Full House DVDs (seasons 1, 2 and 4) that had the misfortune of being displayed nearby.

It was the other controller, which had round buttons, that startled me so.

It also made me curious - was this a round button Famicom that somebody had added a square button controller to or the other way around? As there was only one way to find out, I bought it.
There are a few clues on the outside that suggested it was a square button Famicom. It didn`t have the `FF` mark on the front nameplate. Then I had a look underneath:
Yup, a smooth bottom, just like a square button Famicom.

These weren`t really proof though as some of the early round button Famicoms also sported these features. I had to open it up to check out the revision number:
Somewhere on there it had the number 3 printed, which meant that this was in fact originally a square button Famicom that at some point had its 1 player controller replaced with a round one.

I`m curious about what the story is behind this. Did somebody break their 1 player controller, send it in to Nintendo and then get it back like this? I was always under the impression that Nintendo had recalled the square button Famicoms and replaced both controllers on them rather than just one.

Or, did somebody do this on their own - cannibalize an extra round button Famicom`s controller and use it to replace the broken one? This seems more likely.

Anyway, it is now another Famicom on my pile of Famicoms. I`ll have to clean it at some point as it really is filthy. And filthiness is after all the root of all.....evil.

12 comments:

  1. Pleasure. My name is Johnny (Little John).
    I am from Sao Paulo - Brazil ... I love reading your blog.
    Do you recommend a blog about cartridges
    Game Boy blogger or you could do a post on
    stores cartridge Game Boy in Japan ..
    The Famicom was my first game, I won my father's childhood.
    But the Nintendo Game Boy was the first game
    I played in school, I bought my first
    first paycheck, stormed my house in 2008 and took
    After that my Game Boy married and rode in the new house
    a new collection of Game Boy now has
    6 Game Boy (s), 126 cartridges, accessories and all three months
    buy new cartridges.
    Thank you for sharing your experiences with the Famicom.
    In Brazil, Nintendo launched the Famicom (Japan), then the 8-bit Nintendo (USA), then the TopGear (Nintendo Famicom Nintendo 8bits + USA) ... they all played a lot ... nice to meet you.

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  2. TOP GAME = Nintendo 8-bits USA + Nintendo Famicom JAPAN

    LINK=
    http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-214569369-console-top-game-nes-_JM

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  3. BRIK - not sure, I haven`t tested it yet!

    Joaozinho - thanks. Sounds like a nice Game Boy collection you have there.

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  4. BTW, the Top Game is an unlicensed FamiClone, the NES was released simultaneously with the SNES in Brazil by Playtronic in 1993.


    Also, are you ever going to talk about N64 games one day?

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  5. Thanks, RW64. I might about the N64 someday, I have a lot of games for it;)

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  6. Woof! That is one dirty Famicom. How will you clean it, by the way? Do you use something like bleach, or just a bit of soap and water?

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  7. I`m not too sure. I usually use these wet tissue things that are supposed to be used for cleaning furniture. That gets the dirt off, but the yellow remains, so it isn`t a perfect method!

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  8. My first thought was, "Who would ruin a square-button with this filth? ...or worse, who would amputate a square-button's right arm to fix such a heap!?"

    But really, though. As disheartening as it is, I'm glad someone played their Fami THAT much. And then someone repaired it instead of just throwing it out. That is... assuming the donor was already deceased of natural causes.

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  9. I agree Alec. Better to have a console you can use than a relic with a broken controller!

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  10. Blimey! I didn't even realise the Famicom controllers were hard-wired into the console... shows how much I know! :P An interesting find though as you say :)

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