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DEMO & ARCADE UNITS
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HARDWARE SECTION
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PAGE DETAILS
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CREATION INFORMATION
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| CREATED |
MAR.17.2002 |
| UPDATED |
NOV.10.2007 |
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FAMICOM BOX
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JAPANESE HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT UNIT
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Sometime in the mid 1980's Nintendo invented a device called FamicomBox. The idea was to sell these things to hotels as an entertainment center for their
customerts. The device is a heavy metal box which can hold up to 15 games. It works pretty much like the M82 demo unit, though the games is chosen on the screen
from a small menu instead of pressing a button.
The FamicomBox came equipped with 2 standard controllers and a Zapper. One would think that a device for use in asia would be a Famicom, but this device uses
NES controllers as well a NES cartridges, although not standard NES cartridges. The board used in the FamicomBox is a custom "SSS" board which won't run on a
standard NES console, and to avoid any confusion and comparison to a normal NES cartridge, FamicomBox cartridges are black instead of grey and they all have the
same yellow label with the game title written at the end side.
Of course hotels had to earn money off this thing if they wanted to, so a coin box could be attached on the right hand side of the unit and dip switch on the
back could be altered to change the length of play time, I think it was from 10 to 20 minutes of play on one coin. A nice yellow operating manual hosted a quick
manual for each game included in the unit.
The games were changable, the unit usually came with the following games: Super Mario Bros, Mahjong, Golf, F1-Race, Duck Hunt, Adventure Island,
Ghosts N Goblins, Commando, Baseball and Famicom Pro Wrestling.
Other games available were: 1943, Bomber Man, Devil World, Donald Land, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Excite Bike, Fighting Golf, Gradius, Hogan's Alley,
Ice Climbers, Ice Hockey, Knight Rider, McKids, Mario Bros., Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Ninja Ryukenden, Operation Wolf, Rock Man; Rygar, Super Chinese 2,
Tecmo World Cup Soccer, Tennis, Twin Bee, Wild Gunman and Wrecking Crew.
Just like a regular NES won't play FamicomBox cartridges, the FamicomBox also only accepts games released specificly for it. But the FamicomBox also has it's
limitations, such as not being able to run MMC3 games, a memory mapper used by a great deal of NES games released.
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M82: GAME SELECTABLE WORKING PRODUCT DISPLAY
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DISPLAY UNIT - TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
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The M82 is probably the most known of the demo units, a display unit that holds up to 12 various games. I remember this one from my childhood, back then every
major toy store had at least one of these and in front of it were a kids fighting each other to play the games. The unit has 4 different time limits, being
30 seconds, 2 minutes, 6 minutes and 128 minutes. I think the most used setting was 2 minutes, but I remember one toy store back then had set the timer to 30
seconds which made it pretty much impossible to play a game, good way to avoid kids fighting each other for a game of Ikari Warriors, the one game I remember
the store had in their M82.
Well anyway, a game is selected by pressing a small red button on the unit. Each of the cartridge slots are numbered so the deal was to press the red game
select button until you've reached the number of the game you'd like to play. Once the time limit was over the M82 would reset itself and display a very nice
looking intro screen.
The system itself is about the size of an old desktop PC, it has two joypads as well as a Zapper light gun attached to it. Because the M82 was a display unit
it was of course not available for purchase by customers. I had been looking for years for an M82 before finally getting from from a guy in France, I had even
contacted the Scandinavian distributor only to hear the devastating news that most M82 units were returned to Bergsala to be destroyed when shops stopped
selling NES games.
An accessory for the M82 was some sort of Arcade cabinet look alike. At least two different versions exist, one made completely out of wood (chipboard) and
another a lof nicer looking one with plastic sides molded with the Nintendo logo.
Special thanks to Andreas Karlsson, Joona Pöhö and "Mr. X" for their pictures of the cabinet for the M82.
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PLAYCHOICE-10
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NES GAMES IN THE ARCADES
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The PlayChoice-10 brought NES games into the arcade. It was released in 1996 as multi game system where the user could select from up to 10 games, hence the
name PlayChoice-10, very clever thinking Nintendo hehe. Various version were released such as a table top version and a normal arcade cabinet with either one
or two monitors.
Games available for the PlayChoice-10 were: 1942, Balloon Fight, Baseball, Baseball Stars, Captain Skyhawk, Castlevania, Contra, Double Dragon, Double Dribble,
Dr. Mario, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Fester's Quest, Gauntlet, Golf, The Goonies, Gradius, Hogan's Alley, Kung Fu, Mario Bros., Mario's Open Golf, Mega Man 3,
Metroid, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II, Pinbot, Power Blade, Pro Wrestling, R.B.I. Baseball, Rad Racer, Rad Racer II, R.C. Pro-Am,
Rescue Rangers - Disney's Chip 'n Dale, Rockin' Kats, Rush'n Attack, Rygar, Shatterhand, Solar Jetman, Super C, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2,
Super Mario Bros. 3, Tecmo Bowl, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, Tennis, Track & Field, Trojan, Volleyball,
Wild Gunman, World Cup and Yo! Noid.
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