Duel Disk

Duel Disks are a series of devices manufactured by KaibaCorp as a portable form of the Duel Arenas used in the early part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! second series anime. They use a portable hologram generator to display Duel Monsters cards, and in the case of the Mark 1, the player's hand. Since their introduction in the anime and manga, they have become a staple among duelists.

DiaDhank


The Duel Disk is based on an ancient Egyptian artifact called a DiaDhank, a golden device worn similarly to the Duel Disk that uses the user's Ba (life force) to summon Ka (spirit monsters) and control them. Unlike the Duel Disk, the DiaDhank can only control up to three monsters at once. In place of the Life Point counter is the Eye of Wadjet, which contains a glowing yellow meter that measures the user's Ka. It is heavily implied only Millenium Item bearers can use a DiaDhank.

The design of the second Duel Disk suggests that Seto Kaiba designed it based on memories from his past life as Priest Seto, who used the Millenium Rod. The Academy Duel Disk also seems to take elements from the DiaDhank, as its shape when in standby mode looks like the blades on the DiaDhank. Yubel's dueling arm looks like a demonic version of the ancient device, as well.

Duel Disk 1
During the Duelist Kingdom arc, Seto Kaiba developed the first generation duel disk prototypes as a means of countering Pegasus' mind reading techniques. Seto gambled that Pegasus needed face to face contact for his mind reading to work so as a feature of the disks, holographic projections of the cards obstruct the duelists from seeing each other.

This duel disk was physically and functionally different than the ones that would follow. Where the others are a single piece construct which houses the deck, graveyard, life point counter and cards in play, The first Duel Disk system had two components joined by a retractable cable, The wrist component houses the deck and life point counter, and the actual disk component holds 5 cards. Users would load the cards as explained later into the disk and throw it yo yo style, causing hologram to be projected from it.

The duel disk system also changed the rules of Duel Monsters. They followed Duelist Kingdom rules except for the following changes:


 * Both players draw cards until they have 5 in their "hand". If they have 5 then can draw no more.
 * One monster card is placed on the "Main card stage", the centre place on the disk. This can be in Attack or Defence position.
 * The other 4 cards are placed face down into the other places, the "Sub card stage".
 * The players can only attack with the monster in the main card stage, providing it is in attack position first. It can attack the opponent's main card stage monster or one of the sub stage cards.
 * Any monsters in the sub card stage are considered to be in attack position, and damage calculation is done accordingly. Spell and Trap cards are destroyed with no calculation done.
 * The players may shuffle their sub card stages at their discretion.

An early variation of this system is used in Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! movie.

Duel Disk 2
Prior to the Battle City Tournament, KaibaCorp developed the second generation Duel Disk, the first one to be released to the public. Issued to participants of Battle City, this Disk played the game according to the new revisions (which make it closer to the real world version.) Unlike the previous Duel Disk, it did not need to be thrown. (In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, sealers flew out of the Duel Disk to the sides of the dueling area. These disappeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.) When in use, it resembled an arm blade. Monsters that are in play are placed on the five slots on the blade either in Attack or Defense position. Directly underneath each Monster slot is another slot for Spell and Trap Cards. If a Duelist were to activate a Set card, they would activate a button on the round portion of the disk. Another slot can open on the front end of the disk that is used for the Field Spell Card. The center of the Disk includes the Deck and Graveyard slot and Life Point counter. The bottom part of the disk (the part that goes around an user's arm) also contains a retractable cable that could be attached to duel arena systems. Ever since their introduction, almost all duels were conducted with these, or with the later introduced Chaos Duel Disk.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, This version of the Duel Disk is shown being used by citizens of The Satellite, indicating that this model has become obsolete, replaced with the more modern versions shown in GX, as well as the D-Wheel and other Duel Disk versions that are shown. Also, the protagonist of 5D's, Yusei Fudo, is shown to remove a duel disk from his D-Wheel which has a startling resemblance to this version, possibly indicating that he has modified the obsolete model for use with his D-Wheel.

Despite other models of Duel Disks being used primarily in each series, this version of the Duel Disk has appeared in all three anime series, as shown with all the students who tried out for Duel Academy prior to receiving the Academy-issued Duel Disk and the residents of Satellite.

The toy company Mattel produced replicas of this Duel Disk. There are a couple of notable differences between the Mattel Duel Disk and its fictional counterpart. The spell and trap cards are loaded into the bottom of the blade, but most notably, it cannot project holographic images.

While the toy Duel Disk was advertised as being compatible with the TCG, there are a few flaws that make this impractical:


 * Most pro players used card protectors to prevent damage to their cards. Cards in protectors will not fit into the Duel Disk.
 * The Deck Zone can only hold about 50 to 59 cards safely. The Academy Duel Disk can hold 65 cards in total. While most players stick to the minimum, there are those who use bigger decks and cannot use the duel disk.
 * The graveyard can only hold about 20 cards. This would present a problem when playing against someone who relies on running an opponents deck out.
 * No place for fusion decks or out of play cards. (This is also true in the anime, however fusion cards have been seen in the player's hand, and removed from play cards can be seen to go in the player's pocket in one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.)
 * The Life Points counter can only go up to 9990 life points. While both players start with 8000, 4000, or 2000, it could rise to 9000 or 10,000+ Life Points due to card effects. The reason for the zero at the end is because while there are four buttons on the disk, only 3 of them change the counter, the last one lights up the display. This also serves the problem that some cards can cause the Life Points in the ones place to be a number different than zero.
 * There is no protection on the bottom of the duel disk so your opponent could see your facedown Spell and Trap Cards.
 * The way the duel disk moves from stand-by to in use is also different. In the anime, the graveyard is locked over the deck, and the two field parts are retracted into the main part of the disk. When triggered, the field parts and graveyard are unlocked, and the central piece rotates the graveyard and field into play position. The toy however does not have a rotating center, and the two halves of the field aren't locked in closer to the central piece. When the player triggeres the toy into play mode, the smaller half of the field, which is spring loaded, is released from it's lock at the same time as the larger half which has a weaker spring, and thus, the samller part pushes the larger part into play position.

Chaos Duel Disk
The Chaos Duel Disk is a Duel Disk designed for the members of the organization called Doma in the Waking the Dragons saga. (Doma was named Paradias in the english dub.) Functionwise it is identical to the Battle City duel disks except that except for projecting holograms of monsters, it appears to cause the monsters to physically manifest. It looks different to the Battle City disk in that it resembles a scythed blade. It is believed to be modeled after the scythes on the armour of the Orichalcos Soldiers.

Like the Duel Disk 2, The company Mattel manufactured replicas of the Chaos Duel Disk for use with the real TCG, however the same flaws in the Battle City disk. These include not being able to use card protectors, lack of a fusion deck zone and not being able to have more life points than 9999 even though a card effect such as "Solemn Wishes" can boost your Life Points beyond this. Therefore in order to calculate the user's Life Points if they exceed this the user must use some way to keep track such as a calculator. It also folds in different, instead of the front tip folding into the center, the monster zone closest to the field spell zone is visible. In the anime, the Chaos duel disk folded in on itself until the field was completely folded into the hinged 'spell trigger' part of the disk, and then folded into the central part of the disk, creating a compact form. The toy is much the same, but cannot fold all the way as the anime disk can, but instead leaves the first card space out. The hinge on the toy is the whole of the first and second card spaces, which pushes to the back of the central part, and though not as compact as the anime Chaos disk, it is still the most compact and light-weight of the toy duel disks.

Yu-Gi-Oh! R
In the spinoff manga Yu-Gi-Oh! R, the Duel Disk 2 is used, identical to the ones used in the series proper, with one notable exception. The Black Disk is a special Disk owned by Yakou Tenma, and given to the strongest of his Card Professors, currently Twelfth Professor Richie Merced. The Black Disk's color cannot be changed to anything else. Following Richie's defeat, Bandit Keith takes the Disk, as he has proven himself to be stronger than Richie. He uses it in his duel with Jonouchi.

Academy Duel Disk
A streamlined version of the second Duel Disk. This is the standard Duel Disk issued to students of the various Duel Academies established by Seto Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series. Aside from the obligatory alternate folding feature, and a cosmetic refit, this Disk functions identically to the second Duel Disk. A new set of Academy Duel Disks are coming out, with colors of red, yellow and blue reflecting the dorm colors of the Academy. In season four, the duelists are using these new duel disks.

As with the Duel Disk and Chaos Disk, the toy company Mattel made replicas of the Duel Academy Disk. They fixed one of the main problems of the Disks in resizing the card zones, along with deck and Graveyard to fit cards with protective sleeves without problems. Although this problem was addressed, many of the other problems remained.
 * The underside of the disks are still exposed, leaving Spell/Trap cards in full view.


 * No place for removed from play cards and fusion cards.


 * Straps are one size only. This was a major problem for players who were bulky in the wrist region and used the Academy Disk in order to save space and not use a table (this was also a problem for fans of the anime series who cosplayed as characters and decided to use the toys in their cosplays).


 * The Life Point counter is still limited to 9990.


 * Owners of the Academy Disk accounted that between different Academy Disk that there was a variance of 34 - 40 cards held within the deck zone.

Though the main flaw with the Duel Disk was addressed in the new Academy Disk, many of the major flaws still remained unaddressed. Though the duel disks are perceived as "toys" few to many players use the Academy Disk in place of taking up space on a table. It should be noted that Mattel made a special edition Academy Duel Disk for Walmart (simply a darker blue version of the standard Academy Disk). None have been noted to be released. Along with the release of the Academy Disk Mattel produced a specialized carrying pack for the new disks, though none have been actually seen used or in stores. Due to past sales of the Academy Disk and the limited popularity with the toy as a dueling medium Mattel discontinued the production of the Academy Disk several months after its release, thus there will most likely not be releases of the special themed Disks that appeared throughout the series, nor will there be a release of the V2 within the states (which is simply a recolor of the V1 that is if no improvements were planned).

Academy Duel Disk V2
An updated version of the Academy Duel Disk which now has the color of the user's respective dorm on it.


 * Slifer Red Duel Disk


 * Ra Yellow Duel Disk


 * Obelisk Blue Duel Disk

Others
There is also another Duel Disk released in East-Asian markets labeled as "Fight Disc for Card Games." It had a larger, static blade with slightly bigger card stages and additional slots for Monster and Spell cards as well as a space for the Fusion/Extra Deck in the main body of the disk. In addition, it had room for removed-from-play cards, a 4 digit life point counter (lacking the LED backlight of the international releases), and enough room in the Deck and Graveyard slots for over 100 sleeved cards (it worked just as well with sleeved and unsleeved cards), with the deck raised as each card is drawn. However, since it was a limited run, unlicensed accessory, it has become a rare item to find. It was also even more heavy and unwieldy than the officially licensed version, and international shipping rates prevent most fans from ever getting one.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Duel Disks in Neo Domino City are sharper looking than the previous types, and have a compartment worn on the wrist of the duelist that holds the hand. They are compatible with a type of motorcycle known as a D-Wheel. Customized duel disks also exist in Neo Domino, as seen on Takasu. As well as Takasu, the duel disk he uses has a pale blue version, which is presumably standard as shown in Episode 6 of the 5D's. Unlike the previous Duel Disks, there is a chamber for cards that go into the Extra Deck. Where the Extra Deck was stored prior is unknown. In the opening intro of the anime, the deck zone is shown to be able to shuffle cards while locked in.