Questions tagged [game-cartridge]

For questions related to cartridge-based games and applications

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33 votes
3 answers
4k views

Reconditioning and cleaning old Nintendo (and other) game cartridges

I used to blow the dust out of the cartridges but I heard that can actually damage the cartridge or the system itself. I am looking for the proper way to clean old Nintendo game cartridges (such as ...
Tim Penner's user avatar
24 votes
3 answers
7k views

What causes the glitchy sound when a GBA cartridge is removed?

Example in mGBA (mirror) — SOUND WARNING. When you remove a game cartridge from a powered-on GBA, it makes this horrible, loud glitching sound. I can tell that a small portion of the looped sound is ...
leetbacoon's user avatar
85 votes
1 answer
56k views

How exactly does Sonic & Knuckles' 'Lock-On Technology' work?

The cartridge of Sonic & Knuckles is a little special. It flips open to allow you to connect another Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in US) cartridge to the top of it like so: Click for larger images I ...
Robotnik's user avatar
  • 1,020
54 votes
7 answers
12k views

Why use static RAM addresses instead of the stack?

I'm studying the 65c816 assembly for the 1994 game, Super Metroid. A hobbyist studied the game in-depth and created a RAM map. From it: 7E:0B56 - 7E:0B57 Moves Samus this distance horizontally, ...
Andrew Cheong's user avatar
35 votes
7 answers
14k views

Why did Commodore 64 cartridge games disappear?

The Commodore 64 has a cartridge slot, but by the mid-eighties, cartridge games disappeared; everything was on tape or disk. Why? One answer that suggests itself is that by that time, a larger ...
rwallace's user avatar
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19 votes
6 answers
6k views

Can removing a cartridge from an NES (or any other cartridge-based game system) damage the hardware or software?

On some cartridge-based video game systems (NES, Game Boy Color, etc.) it is possible to remove the cartridge while the game system is still powered on. What kind of damage can this behavior do to ...
JAL's user avatar
  • 9,432
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Did all NES "Black Box" games come in carts with five screws?

When the NES was released, there were a list of original titles from Nintendo such as Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros. and Metroid. These titles came in a distinctive box that was mostly black. Plus, the ...
cbmeeks's user avatar
  • 8,411
11 votes
2 answers
10k views

How did Satoru Iwata compress Pokemon GS to fit two regions on a single cartridge?

Satoru Iwata's story of saving the development of Pokemon Gold & Silver by compressing its assets to fit on the GameBoy Color cartridge is something of a legend. Iwata optimised the game so much ...
shortstheory's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

Did any SNES games use the fast ROM?

According to the transcript at https://fabiensanglard.net/another_world_polygons_SNES/ ... I could get the software running again to run at about 30 frames per second if of course I'm using a fast ...
rwallace's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
3k views

How is it possible that this "Polymega™" console will "not support" Everdrives?

I'm reading here: https://polymega.com/faq/ WILL EVERDRIVES, GAME GENIES AND MULTI-GAME CARTS WORK WITH POLYMEGA™? Polymega™ does not support Game Genies or Everdrives. How is that possible? What's ...
Nysire's user avatar
  • 99
2 votes
2 answers
434 views

How to clean (or prep) Atari 800 or any old computer

I recently got my hands on a couple of Atari 800's and peripherals (disk drives, printer, cartridges, floppy disks). Before I start using this equipment, can someone point me in the right direction as ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 177