Seeing the cartridge images in the new “Family Computer & Nintendo Entertainment System” photo book (img above) motivates me to explain the masthead image of my Bluesky account (img 1 below). As many of you know, some early NES cartridges—circa 1985—actually contained a Famicom cartridge board plus a 60-to-72-pin adapter (img 2).
Nintendo soon stopped doing this, and only released true 72-pin cartridge boards for NES. Less known is that Nintendo filed a patent in 1986 for a standalone adapter that could’ve allowed any standard Famicom cartridges to be played on the NES console (img below).
There probably wasn’t enough commercial value, however, so Nintendo never brought it to market. It didn’t stop some 3rd parties from releasing similar products though.
Image sources in alt text; link to original patent here.
[Originally posted on 2026-10-01 Pacific Time]
