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Nintendo considered releasing a Famicom Disc System Mini, almost didn't release the Famicom Mini in Japan

by rawmeatcowboy
07 October 2017
GN Version 5.0

The following comes from a Famitsu interview with Nintendo's Kazuhiro Maruyama, Takao Shimizu, and Kazuyoshi Nishi...

- Nintendo considered releasing a Famicom Disc System Mini
- a mockup for the device was created
- if Nintendo went through with the system, the company would only be able to sell it in Japan
- it also would have excluded Zelda / Metroid, so they didn’t release it
- Nintendo only intended to release the NES Classic Edition/NES Mini in North America and Europe
- once representatives at Nintendo’s sales department saw what the device would be like, they proposed it for Japan as well
- NES Classic Edition was made 50 percent smaller than the original.
- Famicom Mini is 60 percent the size, due to the original size of the Famicom
- the boards were too big to fit in to the 50 percent scale form factor, and the controller would be too small to play
- the NES Classic Edition mockup had a USB connector to connect controllers
- this was removed due to standardization and to ensure safety

[Link]