Multicart

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In video game parlance, a multicart is a cartridge that contains more than one game. Although generally associated with pirated Famicom cartridges and systems, there have also been legal multicarts over the years.

The emphasis on NES and Famicom multicarts above should not in any way imply that other game consoles have never seen multicarts - this was simply the most prolific platform for these to appear on. Multicarts, both legal and otherwise, have appeared for many cartridge-based systems, among them the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Super NES. In fact, Nintendo's own Mario Party and WarioWare series play a random selection from dozens or hundreds of minigames.

1 Pirate multicarts
2 Unlicensed multicarts
3 Official multicarts

[edit] Pirate multicarts

In the world of pirate Famicom games, multicarts often advertise an inflated number of games on their labels (such as "76-in-1," "200-in-1," "1200-in-1," and even "9999999-in-1"), but in reality only have anywhere from five to one hundred truly unique games. The list is padded by different variations of these games, hacked to start at different levels or to start a player with different power-ups. The games are usually first-generation Famicom titles, several of which were never officially released in America, and in typical pirate fashion have either had their names deliberately misspelled, or their copyright notices/logos removed, or both.

More recently there have been Game Boy Advance multicarts with several GBA games and several or even hundreds of NES roms. These carts are known to include some bootlegs, hacks or variations of games, advertising them as different games and giving them incorrect box arts on the main boxart. Many of these also claim to have Pokémon games, but these are usually NES games with sprites replaced with Pokemon characters or items. With that said multicarts are the only way to get modified versions of Pokemon games like Pokemon Quartz and Chaos Black in a cartridge form, or at least they were- it has been confirmed that now both games were available in China on their own cartridges. Safest way to know what games are on the multicart is by looking at the back of the box where the GBA games are usually highlighted and the start of the list.

Game Boy Advance multicarts work on all versions of GBA including GBA SP and Game Boy Micro and are compatible with Nintendo DS and DS Lite consoles.

[edit] Unlicensed multicarts

Maxivision 15-in-1, which contained fifteen games from unlicensed NES manufacturers such as Color Dreams and American Video Entertainment.
Action 52, from Active Enterprises. This ambitious project attempted to put 52 unique games into a single cartridge, but shoddy programming and heavy code reuse between games - combined with a hefty $200 (USD) retail price - resulted in perhaps the single worst NES release ever.
Sunday Funday, from religious game developer Wisdom Tree. The last NES game released commercially in the United States, this three-in-one cartridge featured the title game (a graphics hack of Color Dreams's old Menace Beach), Fish Fall (a previously-unreleased Tetris-style puzzle game), and a karaoke program featuring a Christian pop song, "The Ride," by 4Him.

[edit] Official multicarts

Nintendo themselves even released multicarts, often bundled with their NES systems or peripherals. By far and away the most common of these is a two-in-one cartridge Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt, which was the pack-in cartridge for most of the system's heyday. Another common one adds World Class Track Meet to those two games; this was boxed with NES systems that included the Power Pad accessory. Other Nintendo-released multicarts include Short Order/Eggsplode, Donkey Kong Classics, and Nintendo World Cup/Super Spike V'Ball.

[edit] Nintendo Entertainment System

The Quattro series, from UK Codemasters (released by Camerica in the US). There were three in this series (Arcade, Adventure, and Sports), each containing four original games that fit the appropriate theme.
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
Final Fantasy I-II: A rare game released only in Japan containing the first two Final Fantasy games.

[edit] Super Nintendo

Super Mario All-Stars: Includes remade versions of the three Super Mario Bros. games on the NES, as well as the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. These games featured remixed soundtracks of their NES/Famicom counterparts. A later version included Super Mario World as well.
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy: Contains the three NES Ninja Gaiden games with an improved color palette and a remixed (and slightly reordered) soundtrack.
Super Scope 6: Contains six games for the Super Scope.

[edit] Sega Megadrive

MegaGames 3 in 1 - Vol 1: Includes Columns, Super Hangon and World Cup 90
MegaGames 3 in 1 - Vol 2: Includes Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and Revenge of the Shinobi
MegaGames 3 in 1 - Vol 3: Includes Super Thunder Blade, Alien Storm and Super Monaco GP
MegaGames 4 in 1: Includes Flicky, Gunstar Heroes, Alexx Kidd and Altered Beast