Metroid nes vs Metroid Famicom Disk System

[@PhirePhlame]

Specific hardware fact: the FDS contains a 2C33 chip inside the connector that attaches to the base unit's cartridge slot. It's a one-channel sound chip that essentially rapidly repeats a wavetable given to it by the CPU. It's similar to how channel 3 of the Game Boy's sound chip works, but is more robust. The 2C33 chip produces its audio fully, and then sends it down the Famicom's "sound expansion" pins which merge it into the base unit's audio line. These pins can also be used to add extra sound capabilities to a normal Famicom cartridge, such as Konami's famous VRC series of expansion sound chips. However, the NES rerouted the sound expansion setup to instead go through the never-used expansion port on the bottom of the system, effectively breaking this functionality on that version of the hardware (though modding can restore it).

[@doublex85]

6:00 "One has a battery save" Well, no. Batteries are used in cartridges to preserve a region of RAM after the cart is disconnected from a powered console. FDS games are magnetic diskettes that write save data directly. You could even go to a Nintendo kiosk and overwrite the game data with a different game. "There are not many more differences in the game." The biggest difference is the NES port breaks randomized enemy behavior. The floor fireball shooters, lava jumpers, lava dragons, and, crucially, Ridley, all jump or shoot randomly in the FDS version.

[@gooseygoose604]

you are right about the battery save that was poor wording on my part. I wasn't aware about the Enemy Patern that's interesting for sure. As a whole playing FDS versions of the games have been for sure more fun.

[@flamespear86]

That extra sound channel adds so much.

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

Still to this day. There's no videos that bring up the PAL version.

[@gooseygoose604]

I'll actually maybe pick up a copy. I didnt know if there was a difference is there?

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

The PAL version was mostly optimized to play at the same speed. The difference being that they play at a lower temp and the tracks that weren't optimized and thus play at a slower speed have a higher temp. The Escape music was given a drum beat which made the escape music sound so much better. When listening to the NTSC version of the escape theme, it sounded very average. In general, I prefer the PAL versions of the tracks for one main reason. Metroid was advertised as a much darker game, essentially the closest to a horror game on the Nintendo, and the lower temp of most of the songs makes for a much creepier game. I remember when I first played the game, I legit did not want to explore Ridley's Lair because the music was genuinely terrifying.

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

@@ultrairrelevantnobody1862 The Escape theme in the FDS release is shorter since it lacks the "C" section, as it goes back to the "A" section after the "B" section finishes. Also, the NES version's beeping could've been instead similar to in Hogan's Alley whenever you either missed the correct target or shoot the wrong target (i.e. shooting an innocent person).

[@GamerFromJump]

Boy the translators fell down on that opening text.

[@chanceForNotBeingRapper]

japanese version title screen is like a smart phone vibration

[@baldpipesmoker1]

I would say some of the sound effects on the disk version are better, but the music on it sounds like someone used a cheap keyboard! Lol

[@SuperBrain1997]

Nice gameplay quality capture, what do you use?

[@gooseygoose604]

I'm using a system called the retro avs. For the disc system version I have an actual Famicom disk connected to the AVS. The capture card is the El Gato hd60s

[@sebastianhernandezvazquez4922]

Why this Game on nes versión din't have internal battery to save game like the legend of Zelda on nes versión

[@EthanPHX]

It didn't have the storage nessesary to save

[@legostar55]

Because Nintendo developed a password system as a workaround method for not having the ability to save games. Also at the time battery backup saves were considered too expensive by Nintendo.

[@CptJistuce]

The SNROM board used for Metroid supported an additional 8KBytes of work RAM. This is where the battery backup in Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy 1(which both used the same board) would've been. What I've been told is that Metroid's use of work RAM wasn't compatible with persistent work RAM. This seems strange, though. Given they had to rework a significant portion of the game's code anyways, adding a routine to initialize the non-save portions of work RAM on game start doesn't actually sound like a showstopper to me. it is possible they just didn't want to spend the money on a coin cell and the supporting power circuitry, but it seems doubtful with Metroid's US release coming just one month after Legend of Zelda did it. It is also possible that Metroid and Zelda intentionally used different mechanisms so they could see which worked out better, but the continued prevalence of both password and battery-backed RAM over the Nintendo's life would seem to imply that the results of any such experiment were inconclusive. In conclusion: only Nintendo of America employees in 1987 could tell you why the decision was made. We're all just guessing wildly.

[@ArmandoDoval]

Nintendo decided only one of the two games was going to get battery saves to cut costs. Zelda won.