The japanese Famicom is the equivalent of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), they later released a Disk System to go with the Famicom, and after that Sharp produced this Twin Famicom which had the Disk System integrated with the console so you didn’t have to have two power adaptors. It was first released in 1986 :)
I recently bought three more Twin Famicoms! Don’t ask me why I need to have four Twin Famicoms, but they are just all so pretty! And I really love the Famicom so I just figured I’d collect the hardware as well ^_^ The Twin Famicom is definitely my favorite Famicom system :) Then again, I don’t have the toploader to compare with yet.. I think I’m only missing one Twin Famicom now though :)
Two of the consoles are Twin Famicom Turbo systems :D This means that the controllers have built in Turbo buttons. One of them is pale orange, I thought it was sunfaded but was told it comes in this color! The one I had before is brighter red. They also have different colours on the controllers. You can see the difference here, the right one is my old one, the left one is the new Twin Famicom Turbo:
I will call it orange from here on. The orange Twin Famicom Turbo from Sharp has a darker red eject-button and beige / blue-grey elements. This one is called Sharp Twin Famicom AN-505.
Another system I got was the darker version of the Twin Famicom Turbo. This one is black with green and grey-purple elements. This one has the same name as the orange one, Sharp Twin Famicom AN-505.
The third one I got a bit earlier is a regular Twin Famicom without Turbo buttons on the controllers. This one has a matt finish in dark grey with pale red and green details. This one has the same “Famicom” text on the top as my old red one. I like the design of this text better than the straight one on the Turbo’s. This one is called Sharp Twin Famicom AN-500B. The name differs from my first red one which is called AN-500R, but I’m not sure what the technical differences are.
What’s interesting is that all the Twin Famicoms have led lights in the power button, except for my red Twin Famicom. Here’s the various fronts of the consoles:
Edit: The dark grey Twin Famicom is supposed to have a red power button without the light, it’s been modded ;)
And here’s some more pictures to compare the versions:
Now I just need to find some space for all these beauties in my game room ;D Also if you wanna see some more pictures of my red Twin Famicom that I got a long time ago you can find them here >>
So which one is your favorite? :D
Retro Video Gaming 
I think I agree with you. I like the shape of the non-turbo famicom. Both the black and red look very nice. But the turbo’s still look good. I would love to have one if I didn’t fear getting into too many different systems!!
Is the only difference between the turbo and non-turbo console the turbo buttons on the controllers? (As far as function is concerned)
Can you use the turbo joysticks on the non-turbo famicon? If I were to guess I would say they work; even the rapid fire switches. Yes?
And I love the giant numbers on the controllers! Very stylish. I think it looks way ahead of it’s time for design :)
I think my favorite is still the red one ^_^ But from the new ones the dark grey and red is my favorite ^^ I guess it’s mainly the straight “Twin Famicom” logo that turns me off :/ But yeah, they all have the same functions. I don’t know if the performance is in any way altered but I doubt it.. All four have an extra output for a controller on the side, so you could plug in whatever turbo joystick you’d want ^_^
Some great photos there. Seeing as you are responsible for my Famicom addiction I think I should add a twin famicom to my collection so I can get some of those amazing disc games. Your fault!! :)
Yes! Do it! ;D Hahaha ^__^ The Twin Famicoms are beautiful though, you won’t regret it :D Which one is your favorite? Which one would you get? :)
Ha! Yes they are, their design still looks great now! Think I prefer your original red famicom twin. Which one is that?
If you look at the last picture in the post it’s the one on the far right, the one with black details ^__^ it’s my favorite too ;) even though it’s not a turbo, but you can connect a turbo control on the side :)
they look very clean. :) But I think the non-turbo dark console doesn’t have a LED in the power button as standard. It has a red button. Does it light up?
Nope, it’s been modded, I just forgot that the seller mentioned that but I was reminded ;D
Twin Famicom. Must. Have.
Twin Famicom. GET! ;D
My favorite is totally the orange one! I just got the regular Disk System setup for my Famicom, but a Twin Famicom would´nt hurt to own. ;)
You should definitely get one! I haven’t used my FDS since I got a twin ;D It’s just so much more convenient!
I remember seeing one of these in your collection photos. I was instantly jealous ;)
I like the looks of the darker ones, but there just aren’t that many orange or red consoles, so I’d have to pick one of those!
AN-500B(LACK)
AN-500R(ED)
Thats the difference.
Funny, I read many posts in your blog (since I’m into Family Computer/Twin famicom and google always lead here) and always assumed you’re a guy. When I looked at your gameroom pictures I thought “OK, that’s his cute girlfriend, how does she let him keep all this stuff?!” but after a second look at the pictures I realized, yeah, she’s the geek, look at her nerdy face :-) I’m a big fan of japanese gaming stuff, and it looks like you turned your house into a Akihabara shop. Even got a candy cab and all. Maybe just missing a SONY PVM/BVM? Just kidding.
I do enjoy reading your articles, and the pictures are the cherry on top.
Reading your “about me” for the first time, I realized you never got games as a kid, just like me. It’s never too late I guess :-D
Hey Daniel! Haha, many people assume I’m a guy, it’s just a male dominated hobby I guess. But I’ve always loved video games, and I especially love retro games since it was something I really wanted to have as a kid and never got.. I did play a lot of NES and also Sega with my friends as a kid, so I have a lot of memories :) Today I just want to try every game there is! So my collection has just continued to grow ^_^ My game room is made to play games, I have 28 screens in there that you can play games on today and I throw a lot of parties where friends come over and get to try out a bunch of obscure titles ^_^ I believe that games are made to be played, and not just collect dust on a shelf for being valuable. Of course I can’t play every game in there in a week, but I have tried every game in there (over 6000+) and I keep them for when people visit an are looking for something in particular :) It’s nice to be able to give them the nostalgic feeling of replaying something from their youth ^_^
“I have 28 screens in there that you can play games on”
WOW now that’s cool. Guess I’ve never seen a gameroom with so many screens. I have about 20 CRTs (Sony and Ikegami) which I got from a broadcast company but most are in storage. Now that I’ve seen your gameroom I am considering using most of them (or as many as I can fit).
and
” I believe that games are made to be played, and not just collect dust on a shelf for being valuable.”
That’s so true, and, sadly, so many people forget about this, hoarding valuable stuff (sometimes games that aren’t even rare or good at all) just to keep it for years on a basement/box.
I understand some people like to keep stuff mint in a box, even buy sealed stuff to keep it sealed :-p but if you think about it, these games/consoles become as useful as a brick on a shelf.
I must add, very polite of you to answer all comments on your blog. Keep up the good work :-D
One interesting thing: Nintendo was OK with SHARP completely removing Nintendo’s logo/brand from the console, even from the FDS boot software. I guess “Big N” wasn’t so big back then, and SHARP was a much better known brand. Maybe this also had to do with a bigger business deal, since SHARP provided lots of hardware to Nintendo. When SONY tried to do the same with the SNES CD, Nintendo was already a big name, the biggest in gaming industry, so they refused to do so.
Hello from Brazil! :-D
I never thought of that! But you’re right :)