Here at Superfami.com we "work" late into the night to check for compatability, functionality and entertainment value of every system, accessory and game we can get our hands on.  Just think of us as a "Consumer Reports" of the used game industry. (^_^)  No really, what this page is for is to let you know what works, doesn't work and also to show off weird stuff I have tracked down here in greater Tokyo.

Notes:

A "?" means I have not yet had the time or equipment to test that combination.

The Famicom Disk System is explained at TSR's site  He has done a much better job documenting it than I have time for right now. I am planning to translate the error code charts in the distant future.  I am told by Justin Ong (defiant@wenet.net) that the FDS will work with an American NES2 using a Honeybee adapter.

The Family Basic System is a keyboard and BASIC language cartridge for the Famicom. It will not work with an NES since the NES lacks  the Famicom's Expantion Port which the keyboard plugs in to.

The 3D System is a pair of goggles which plug into the expantion port of the Famicom and procude a 3D "flicker" effect when used with compatable cartridge or FDS games.  So far I only have three games which use the 3D System.  It's fun, but I got a weird headache after playing for about half an hour....

The Super 8 by Tri-Star is a nifty accessory I got in New York at Multimedia1 which lets you play Famicom, Superfamicom and NES games on your SNES/SFC.  It fits into the cartridge slot of the 16 bit system and has a AV cable which goes into the AV port as well, you then connect your SNES/SFC/N64 style AV cable to the back of the Super 8 to get output.  There are three slots on the top, one for 16 bit carts and two for 8 bit carts.  The NES slot works with the cart facing you, the Famicom slot requires you to insert the cartridge "backwards" with the label facing away from you.  The inside of the Super 8 consists of a passthrough slot for the 16 bit games and the guts of a NES/Famicom to play the 8 bit games. This accessory is not authorized by Nintendo Co. Ltd. or Nintendo of America.  Some later SNES relases (such as Yoshi's Island) do not work with the Super 8 and produce a warning message that "Copying Video Games is a serious crime!".  The game seems to believe that something like a Super Wild Card is in use.

The Super 8 is incompatable with all Famicom accessories which make use of the "expantion port" located on the front of the old style or side of the new sytle Famicom units.  It does not work with the Disk System because the RAM Pack of the FDS which plugs into the cartridge slot of the Famicom is not long enough to connect to the Famicom slot in the Super 8.  This may be able to be overcome with a "Honeybee" adapter and the NES slot, but I don't know since I don't have one here.

The NES expantion port (hidden on the bottom) uses a different type of connector than the Famicom expantion port.  This means that most Famicom accessories will not work with the NES.  The Disk System may work, but I don't have a Honeybee or original NES here to test with.

Email: chris@superfami.com