Editing Famicom Disk System (section)

==={{anchor|Famicom Disk Writer kiosks|Disk Writer|Disk Fax}}Disk Writer and Disk Fax kiosks===
Widespread copyright violation in Japan's predominantly personal-computer-based game rental market inspired corporations to petition the government to ban the rental of all video games in 1984.<ref name="Why You Can't Rent Games in Japan">{{cite web | title=Why You Can't Rent Games in Japan | publisher=[[Kotaku]] | url=http://kotaku.com/5914749/why-you-cant-rent-games-in-japan | first=Richard | last=Eisenbeis | date=June 1, 2012 | access-date=June 26, 2014}}</ref> With games then being available only via full purchase, demand rose for a new and less expensive way to access more games. In 1986, as video gaming had increasingly expanded from computers into the video game console market, Nintendo advertised a promise to install 10,000 Famicom Disk Writer kiosks in toy and hobby stores across Japan within one year.<ref name="Game Over"/>{{rp|75–76}} These jukebox style stations allowed users to copy from a rotating stock of the latest games to their disks and keep each one for an unlimited time. To write an existing disk with a new game from the available roster was {{JPY|500}} (then about {{US$|3.25}} and 1/6 of the price of many new games).<ref name="Revisiting the FDS"/><ref name="Game Over"/>{{rp|75–76}} Instruction sheets were given by the retailer, or available by mail order for {{JPY|100}}. Some game releases, such as ''[[Kaette Kita Mario Bros.]]'',<ref name="Obscure Mario Bros.">{{cite web | title=Obscure Mario Bros. Famicom Disk System Game Gets Translated Into English | first=Gonçalo | last=Lopes | date=May 24, 2016 | work=Nintendo Life | url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/05/obscure_mario_bros_famicom_disk_system_game_gets_translated_into_english | access-date=July 29, 2019}}</ref> were exclusive to these kiosks.<ref name="Game Over"/>{{rp|75}}{{elucidate|reason=make a list|date=June 2014}}

In 1987, Disk Writer kiosks in select locations were also provisioned as Disk Fax systems as Nintendo's first online concept. Players could take advantage of the dynamic rewritability of blue floppy disk versions of Disk System games (such as ''[[Famicom Grand Prix#Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race|Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race]]'' and ''Golf Japan Course'')<ref name="Nintendo History">{{cite web | title=Nintendo History | publisher=[[Nintendo of Europe]] | url=https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html | access-date=October 12, 2019}}</ref> in order to save their high scores at their leisure at home, and then bring the disk to a retailer's Disk Fax kiosk, which collated and transmitted the players' scores via [[fax]] to Nintendo. Players participated in a nationwide leaderboard, with unique prizes.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

The kiosk service was very popular and remained available until 2003. In subsequent console generations, Nintendo would relaunch this online national leaderboard concept with the home satellite-based [[Satellaview]] subscription service in Japan from 1995 to 2000 for the [[Super Famicom]]. It would relaunch the model of games downloadable to rewritable portable media from store kiosks, with the [[Nintendo Power (cartridge)|Nintendo Power]] service in Japan which is based on rewritable flash media cartridges for the Super Famicom and [[Game Boy]] from 1997 to 2007.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Calling the Disk Writer "one of the coolest things Nintendo ever created", [[Kotaku]] says modern "[[Digital distribution in video games|digital distribution]] could learn from [the Disk Writer]", and that the system's premise of game rental and achievements would still be innovative in today's retail and online stores.<ref name="Digital Distribution Could Learn">{{cite web|last=Eisenbeis|first=Richard|title=Digital Distribution Could Learn from Nintendo's Disk Writer Kiosk|url=http://kotaku.com/digital-distribution-could-learn-from-nintendo-s-disk-w-1542718404|access-date=June 11, 2014|publisher=Kotaku|date=March 14, 2014}}</ref> ''[[Nintendo Life]]'' said it "was truly ground-breaking for its time and could be considered a forerunner of more modern distribution methods [such as] [[Xbox Live Arcade]], [[PlayStation Network]], and [[Steam (service)|Steam]]".<ref name="NLife"/>