Mega Man Was Originally a Famicom Disk System Game

Mega Man Game Planner Akira Kitamura shared on social media some information about the development of the game, and said that the game was originally planned as a Famicom Disk System title.

Kitamura said that, since Mega Man was the only Capcom title at the time that was progressing according to schedule, its format was changed form a disk game to ROM cartridge, in anticipation of end-of-year sales. This is in reference to the original Mega Man’s release date of December 17, 1987.

The idea to change Mega Man from a Famicom Disk System to a regular ROM cartridge was most likely made to capitalize on the original Famicom (or NES outside on Japan) having a bigger player base than the Japan-exclusive peripheral device. Unlik the Famicom or NES, the Famicom Disk System device allowed to insert floppy disk games into the Famicom system.

The game developer revealed this information after answering a question on his X (formerly Twitter) personal account. The original question inquired about the position of “game planner” in the original Mega Man game. Kitamura revealed that planner is what we nowadays would call a game director. The developer added that nowadays, a producer’s duty is to manage the project, while the director is the person put in charge of overseeing development.

As a reminder, classic Mega Man T-shirts will appear on July 13, 2024 among other Capcom franchises as part of a new And Chips (&CHIPS) apparel collection.

The original Mega Man came out on December 17, 1987 in North America for the NES and Japan for the Famicom (where it is known as Rockman,) December 13, 1989 in the UK and June 22, 1990 in the rest of Europe.