Multicart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

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[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.

Other popular video game systems also have their own share of unique pirate multicarts. Unlike the Famicom, the Nintendo Game Boy multicarts have a variety of different, innovative multicart designs. Standard-sized Game Boy multicarts have either a game selection menu like the NES multicarts, or require quick toggling of the Game Boy power switch to select through games. Most of them incorporate an external soft reset button (not available on any original cart), so you can reset the game without powering off the system. To overcome the storage limitations of a standard-sized pirate cart, huge pirate carts such as this one [1] were invented. These unusually large and thick carts,more than 2 times the height and depth of a standard Game Boy cartridge were able to store many of the larger new games, such as Donkey Kong Land easily. One drawback of these carts is they lack any battery backup, so saving games on these carts is impossible. Most of these carts were produced in China, Singapore and Hong Kong.

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. Normally, the 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. Older multicarts produced from 2001- Q1 2004 often had no real GBA games, while later the manufacturers threw in one or two GBA games, at the most incorporating three GBA roms. Popular NES games found in most GBA multicarts are Spelunker,Spy VS Spy and either the authentic version or a hacked version of the bestseller Super Mario Bros.

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

These multicarts were published with the consent of the owners of copyright in the games themselves, but without the console maker's consent:

  • 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.[citation needed]
  • 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.
  • The North American versions of the Quattro series by Codemasters, published by Camerica

[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] Game Boy

  • Galaga and Galaxian: contains the two arcade classics.

[edit] Sega Master System

  • Hang On/Safari Hunt: Dual cart bundled with Sega Master System sets.
  • Hang On/Astro Warrior: Dual cart bundled with Master System "Base System" sets (those without the Sega Light Phaser gun).
  • Marksman Shooting/Trap Shooting: Contains two games for the Master System light gun, the Light Phaser.

The official Master System multicarts were labeled "The Combo Cartridge" on the box, as opposed to the "Mega Cartridge" and "Two-Mega Cartridge" labels placed on single-game cart boxes.

[edit] Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

  • MegaGames 3 in 1 - Vol 1: Includes Columns, Super Hang-On and World Cup 90
  • MegaGames 3 in 1 - Vol 2: Includes Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and Revenge of 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
  • 6-Pak: Includes Columns, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage and Super Hang-On
  • Sonic Classics: Includes Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

[edit] Super Nintendo

[edit] Game Boy Advance

  • THQ has published a series of "Double Packs" containing two previously released games.
  • Phantasy Star Collection: contains Phantasy Star I, II, and III.
  • Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls: contains Final Fantasy I and II.