Electrician, Famicom Disk System

Electrician is a simple wire-connecting game originally made by Synapse Software for Atari 8-bit computers, and later converted to the Famicom Disk System by KEMCO in 1986.

The game is set in New York; the opening cut scene shows a beautiful and poignant pixel representation of the Twin Towers.

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Lutter, Famicom Disk System

Lutter is an obscure-but-interesting combination of platform game and maze game, but with RPG elements – like levelling – also thrown into the mix.

You play the titular Lutter, a knight of the realm on a quest to rescue the princess from a maze-like castle of platforms, ladders, doors and monsters.

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Ai Senshi Nicol, Famicom Disk System

Translating into English as “Love Warrior Nicol“, Ai Senshi Nicol is an obscure Konami shoot ’em up, released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987. It has, to date, never been released outside of Japan.

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Otocky, Famicom Disk System

Otocky is a cute and colourful side-scrolling shooter with a unique and interesting take on the subject. It was developed by SEDIC for ASCII Corporation and first published in 1987.

You see, rather than firing bullets, you throw balls at enemies to destroy them. And you can throw the balls in eight directions, so in effect you can shoot at enemies behind you (and above and below you) too.

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WorldRunner, Famicom Disk System

Known in its native Japan as Tobidase Daisakusen, in America as 3-D WorldRunner, and other territories as The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner – I’m sticking with the simpler and more familiar WorldRunner for this website.

WorldRunner is a third-person running and jumping game where you’re sprinting into the screen and must avoid hitting oncoming objects or falling into pits. It starts off easy but quickly gets very challenging. By stage two you’ll be tearing your hair out…

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Arumana no Kiseki, Famicom Disk System

Konami released Arumana no Kiseki in Japan in 1987. It is an action platformer with a cool rope mechanic that you use to climb to out-of-reach platforms.

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Knight Move, Famicom Disk System

Designed by the same guy who created Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov), Knight Move is a weird kind of puzzle game, with a bouncing chess piece knight who can only move in that funny ‘L’ shape that a knight moves in a real game of chess.

The knight must collect hearts by landing on top of them on the same square on the board.

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Eggerland, Famicom Disk System

HAL Laboratory‘s Eggerland is a brilliant overhead puzzle game that is also known as The Adventures of Lolo on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

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Druid, Famicom Disk System

Another weird one: a conversion of a British game to the Japan-only Famicom Disk System

Druid was originally created by Electralyte Software for Firebird Software on the Commodore 64, and was later converted to the FDS by Jaleco in 1988.

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Fire Rock, Famicom Disk System

Fire Rock is an obscure-but-interesting platform game that was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1988.

The game features a jittery main character who jumps and climbs around a cave-like environment.

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