SNES - Different cart styles?

[SlowCoder]

What is the significance of these two cart styles? Is it based on game release date, or developer, etc.?

[Gabriel]

What is the significance of these two cart styles? Is it based on game release date, or developer, etc.?

 

The bottom one was the first kind. It actually locked the cartridge into the system.

 

The top one came later. It came about because I imagine Nintendo started getting tons of customer calls about how the cartridge was stuck and wouldn't come out (because of user stupidity).

[jferio]

The top one came later. It came about because I imagine Nintendo started getting tons of customer calls about how the cartridge was stuck and wouldn't come out (because of user stupidity).

 

This would explain why my SNES (original owner here) doesn't have the locking tab installed, as well.

 

The original design you were supposed to press the button, which would withdraw the tab AND shove the cartridge upwards. Most people don't do that, they were already trained to just pull the cartridge out.

[tz101]

I thought the locking design came later as a result of the system blowing the power-on picofuse if a game cartridge were removed with the power still on. The locking cartridge design ensured that the system wold have to be powered off before the game could be removed.

[tz101]

This would explain why my SNES (original owner here) doesn't have the locking tab installed, as well.

 

Again, your original SNES did not have the locking tab feature. It was added after too many owners complained about blowing the infamous picofuse, not removed after people did not understand how to get the cartridges out, as has previously been reported in this thread.

 

 

The original design you were supposed to press the button, which would withdraw the tab AND shove the cartridge upwards. Most people don't do that, they were already trained to just pull the cartridge out.

 

Not true. I have taken many SNES consoles apart for cleaning and repair. The locking tab mechanism was integral with the power-on switch, not the push-down cartridge ejector button. They were separate mechanisms. Hence, my argument that Nintendo changed the cartridge and system design to lock the games into the console with power turned on. Only after pulling the power switch back would the locking tab disengage, allowing the game cartridge to be removed.

[Austin]

I like the SNES eject button. When I was a kid, I would smack it as hard as I could to see how high I could make the cartridges go. It wasn't very high, of course, but I still thought it was amusing.. Now that I think of it, I think I have only ever owned SNES systems that locked the game until you turned the power off. It's interesting to know that there are models that do not have the lock.

[Atariboy]

Nintendo removed the lock feature, they didn't add it later. People were breaking the thing trying to pull their cartridges out when they were locked in.

 

That's why the locking feature was removed in later revisions and is also why they went to a cartridge style that couldn't be locked in when used on earlier models of the system.

 

My SuperNes, bought new in late 1995, lacks the locking mechanism. My sisters yanked out or ejected a game when the system was powered on more then once at the time.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Atariboy

[NinjaWarrior]

Did Nintendo get sued about the Locking Thing??

[tz101]

OK, so I was wrong about the locking mechanism coming later in the console's life, but it never was part of the ejection system as was stated in an earlier post. Instead, it was integral with the power-on switch.

 

Also, why would your sister have ejected it with the power still on? Again, many blown fuses occurred because of removing games with the power still on. That is why Nintendo later issued consoles with the warning decal by the power switch. Whether they got sued or not over the locking mechanism, I do not know.

[Koopa64]

OK, so I was wrong about the locking mechanism coming later in the console's life, but it never was part of the ejection system as was stated in an earlier post. Instead, it was integral with the power-on switch.

 

*facepalm* It seems you've never opened a SNES before...

 

Anyway, I too haven't owned an SNES Model 1 without the locking feature.

[fiddlepaddle]

I, too, have wondered why the design change on the cartridge. I never considered that it was related to the lock; now that I look, I can tell that pulling out the cartridge in the top of the picture would automatically unlock the power switch as it came out. I didn't realize that some SNES units were built without the locking mechanism... I always thought the lock on those units was either broken through use, or someone intentionally disabled it (though I have many, they've always come second hand, and I've never opened one up).

[Atariboy]

Also, why would your sister have ejected it with the power still on?

 

Carelessness which I wasn't able to catch quick enough.

 

I've never heard of some significant problem with blown fuses on the console. I think it can take punishment like that better than you give it credit.

 

The consensus I've seen when this has been discussed at places like the Digital Press forums has been that it was implimented to prevent physical damage, not because of a failure prone fuse.

 

That doesn't mean that isn't the case, I wouldn't know. But that's what I've gathered from participating in similar discussions in the past. Never seen a mention of a fuse until now.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Atariboy

[SlowCoder]

I'm a little confused. Why would Nintendo install a cart lock to prevent physical damage to the cart or unit when the cart is pulled? By my definition, physical damage is damage to the cart case or the parts of the console, and not electrical damage. The only conceivable physical damage I can think of is the lock itself being broken. Obviously there is a high probability for electronic damage if a cart is removed while the machine is on.

 

And why would Nintendo get sued over having a lock mechanism? I would be happy they considered such a thing to save me from damaging my cart from stupidity.

 

I think the eject system for the console is a great idea. It allows for one-handed removal of the cart. Otherwise you're forced to hold thy unit down while removing the cart.

Edited April 9, 2011 by SlowCoder

[eseles]

My biggest complaint is, why did they change the cartridge (and console) style for the PAL release? Our SNES carts never sit quite right due to a slightly rounded front, and they don't have end labels. It's annoying. Also our consoles look boring. The US SNES is awesome looking.

 

Anyway, back on topic, I've never known a PAL console to lock cartridges in, so were ours shipped originally with no locking ability?

 

If only the toaster NES had an eject button, those things have an iron grip.

Edited April 9, 2011 by eseles

[chrisbid]

and if i remember correctly, the change to the newer style was made early on... 1992ish

[Emehr]

I don't recall any magazine coverage about Nintendo doing away with the lock mechanism in the SuperNES. It was a pretty quiet transition from what I remember. Seems like if there were lawsuits or mass consumer confusion about it we would've read about it in EGM. If I had to guess, it was probably a cost-cutting measure: less parts to install.

 

I liked the lock mechanism. It seemed clever at the time. But I also liked the new cart style and that chamfer where the lock would go. I never tried it but it looked like it was designed to turn off the power to the system as you pulled the cart out (for consoles with the lock mechanism, that is). Problem is, it looks like it would push the little lock tab after the cart connectors were already clear of the cart slot!

[tz101]

OK, so I was wrong about the locking mechanism coming later in the console's life, but it never was part of the ejection system as was stated in an earlier post. Instead, it was integral with the power-on switch.

 

*facepalm* It seems you've never opened a SNES before...

 

Anyway, I too haven't owned an SNES Model 1 without the locking feature.

 

Your judgment is not that astute. I have worked on many SNES consoles, inside and out. Replacing blown fuses is a common issue. Just because I had the timeline reversed does not equate to what you are saying. I admitted I was wrong on one count, but not on the other, more than many are willing to do. Facepalm yourself and get over it.

[SoulBlazer]

I never knew there was a different style of SNES without the locking mechanicsim.

 

Mine was one of the first ones released in late 1991 and it defentily had it. I rather liked the idea of hitting the Eject button to remove the cart -- that way I knew nothing would happen to my game if I accidently bumped the system, as sometimes I was prone to do.

 

I never even noticed the cart style changed later on. All carts fit just fine in my system.

 

When I finally got rid of my SNES in 2006 the eject button was still working just fine after thousands of pushes.

[tz101]

I've never heard of some significant problem with blown fuses on the console. I think it can take punishment like that better than you give it credit.

 

The consensus I've seen when this has been discussed at places like the Digital Press forums has been that it was implimented to prevent physical damage, not because of a failure prone fuse.

 

That doesn't mean that isn't the case, I wouldn't know. But that's what I've gathered from participating in similar discussions in the past. Never seen a mention of a fuse until now.

 

See here, and here.

 

It is the main reason for the warning label that came on non-locking SNES consoles.

[BrianC]

My biggest complaint is, why did they change the cartridge (and console) style for the PAL release? Our SNES carts never sit quite right due to a slightly rounded front, and they don't have end labels. It's annoying. Also our consoles look boring. The US SNES is awesome looking.

 

They didn't. The US release was the one changed. The PAL SNES uses the same carts and system design as the original Japanese SNES, the Super Famicom.

[Atariboy]

I'm a little confused. Why would Nintendo install a cart lock to prevent physical damage to the cart or unit when the cart is pulled?

 

I'm saying that the locking mechanism was removed to prevent physical damage when someone trys to forcibly remove a cartridge that is inserted without correctly powering down the console beforehand (Which would disengage the locking mechanism). Clearly, Nintendo felt like that was more of a problem than the risk of a blown fuse.

 

I'm not sure why some had difficulty changing how they removed games and would forget that they're supposed to turn the system off first. But clearly, Nintendo at the very least felt like some gamers did tend to forget to do it properly or they wouldn't of eliminated the locking mechanism and redesigned cartridges so they wouldn't be locked in.

 

and if i remember correctly, the change to the newer style was made early on... 1992ish

 

It came a tad bit later. Early runs of Star Fox used the older style of cartridge, for example. But I think you're pretty close. I imagine it happened over the course of 1993 since I have games with 1993 copyrights that use the old style and newer style of cartridges in my collection.

 

Whenever it disappeared, it seemed to coincide with losing those plastic cartridge dust protectors. Every cart I ever got new in the old style came with one, and none that used the newer design did.

 

There was a later 3rd cartridge revision that Majesco used. The information on the back of the cartridge was molded in the plastic, rather than the typical sticker (Although Nintendo's Player's Choice releases from the era continued to use the sticker version of the redesigned cartridge).

Edited April 10, 2011 by Atariboy

[eseles]

My biggest complaint is, why did they change the cartridge (and console) style for the PAL release? Our SNES carts never sit quite right due to a slightly rounded front, and they don't have end labels. It's annoying. Also our consoles look boring. The US SNES is awesome looking.

 

They didn't. The US release was the one changed. The PAL SNES uses the same carts and system design as the original Japanese SNES, the Super Famicom.

 

Oh my, you are correct. Strange that I actually knew that, apparently I am bad at connecting dots. Anyways, I far prefer the USA's design.

[johannesmutlu]

Well it's actually strange that Nintendo removed the lock system of the snes in their snes mini, thus defeating the purpose of it's own snes cartrides to be locked into place.

Also it's strange that later snes cart revisions lacks the lockible feature, it was not cheaper to produce.

However removing the eject butting and locking tab on the snes did saved nintendo tons of money.

Now i understand that some people did & do get confused overtimes to not be able to insert or remove a cartride due the locking tab in the way once in on position,but at the other hard you don't want to get a hazzard when pulling off or inserting a cartride while the system is on,mmmm.

[spikeworks]

After recently coming across this discussion and looking at my snes, my console seems to have no lock on it to keep the cartridge inside. I have a model one. Am I missing something or is there a chance mine didn’t have one? It’s late so I could just be tired 

[CatPix]

On 4/9/2011 at 3:08 PM, eseles said:

My biggest complaint is, why did they change the cartridge (and console) style for the PAL release? Our SNES carts never sit quite right due to a slightly rounded front, and they don't have end labels. It's annoying. Also our consoles look boring. The US SNES is awesome looking.

 

Anyway, back on topic, I've never known a PAL console to lock cartridges in, so were ours shipped originally with no locking ability?

 

If only the toaster NES had an eject button, those things have an iron grip.

Tastes and colours, but they didn't changed the style for PAL, they changed it for the US.

The PAL design is the Japanese design.

Apparently, Nintendo wanted to use the US design for Europe but (thankfully, IMO) since it required a different shell and thus a different assembly line, they couldn't churn out enough consoles for the US and European market, so they shared the load with the Super Famicom production line.

This is also reflected on the console hardware design since like for Sega consoles, the SNES is the only Nintendo console that can be hardware switched between PAL and NTSC modes (NES can't, the N64 can't either. And from the N64 era, it's "digitally" switched).

 

(early picture in a 1990 magazine)

 

And for this design, apparently they were fine with the early, "always locked" design.

I think the SUFami original design make it also easier to use that feature.

When using an US SNES I found the eject button to be much narrower, and weaker than the SuFami/SNin design, which in turn make is harder to eject carts.

The weakness probably due to the fact that the US design is on a pivot, when the SuFami design is a "press vertically down" one, which gives a much more "solid" feedback.

 

That may be a reason why they changed the design on US models but not the others, rather than "user dumbness" (or perhaps in addition to it... I can't believe that Euro kids would be that smarter than their US counterparts )

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by CatPix