On the bottom of a side loader NES.........

[DR. Luigi M.D.]

While my dad watched me replace the 72 pin on my side loader NES last night, which by the way works great now, he asked me what was under the little rectangular cover on the bottom of the NES. Underneath that removable cover is a tabbed plastic rectangle that looks like it could be broken off. We gently lifted the NES printed circuit board and looked under it to see another "connector" of some kind.

I have searched everywhere on the net for an explaination of what its for but have googled no results.

Somebody, please tell me what it's used for and feel free to go into extreme detail if needed.

You guys are the best, after all!!!!!!!!!

[long_shawn_silver]

It's the NES expansion port that never got utilized. Some say a CD based expansion for the NES. Same as the expansion port on the SNES was for sure to be used in a joint effort with Sony then Phillips the Sony Then Phillips then nobody :( So long story short, They are expasion ports that have no devices to use them.

[Bratwurst]

Ideally the expansion port would have been used for the domestic equivalent to the Famicom disk system, a peripheral that sat underneath the Famicom and loaded games from floppy disks. By the time Nintendo might have brought it over however, the costs of cartridges came down enough that there was no need for it.

Frankly I'm glad it never came over, I couldn't stand collecting magnetic diskettes that would have eventually corrupted, drive belts wearing out, etc.

[delafro]

Read David Scheff's Game Over for a lot on this topic. Basically it was going to be a communications port to make the NES into a multi-use, all in one machine, including online access through phone lines. IIRC one of the things they had planned was checking stock prices using the NES, for example. There was even a prototype somewhere that let you play the Minnesota Lotto through the NES.

I suppose that piracy concerns killed the Disk System as much as anything else. They were just too easy to copy.

Let's move this topic to the main board, I think it deserves more attention, and this really isn't a restoration topic anyway.

[GarrettCRW]

By the time Nintendo might have brought it over however, the costs of cartridges came down enough that there was no need for it.

Also, Ghosts 'n Goblins, the first 128K game, came out mere months after the FDS. And-you guessed it-the combined data capacity of a Disk System game was 128K.

[DR. Luigi M.D.]

Let's move this topic to the main board, I think it deserves more attention, and this really isn't a restoration topic anyway.

:/ I don't know how to do that.

If you'd like to explain that as well, feel free!

While we're at it we could change the topic name to "newbie doesn't know s**t from shampoo". LOL

[omnedon]

Zoooooooom.

Discuss!

[Jibbajaba]

While we're at it we could change the topic name to "newbie doesn't know s**t from shampoo". LOL

One makes your hair smell wird when you rub it on your head.






The other comes out of your butt.

Chris

[yuppicide]

That's funny.. I Google and get LOTS of info in under 2 seconds.

[Pantechnicon]

This post brought to you by the letter "M".

Unutilized expansion ports on consoles always make me sad. All that potential expansion screaming at you..."You're gonna get to plug something really cool in here one day! Just you wait! "...next thing you know the console is at the end of its life cycle, the games are in the bargain bin and Assembler is displaying the protos of the unreleased peripherals on his website.

Atari 5200, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, et al...we hardly knew ye.

[soniko_karuto]

lol, the cube has a lot of plugs underneath it all.

At least i know that some are usable.

[goatdan]

Unutilized expansion ports on consoles always make me sad. All that potential expansion screaming at you..."You're gonna get to plug something really cool in here one day! Just you wait! "...next thing you know the console is at the end of its life cycle, the games are in the bargain bin and Assembler is displaying the protos of the unreleased peripherals on his website.

Atari 5200, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, et al...we hardly knew ye.

Then again, we see systems like the Genesis that get a ton of this stuff, and then everyone hates them because the add ons were huge "failures" that "no one bought."

There is no winning, I guess :(

[Videogamerdaryll]

While my dad watched me replace the 72 pin on my side loader NES last night, which by the way works great now, he asked me what was under the little rectangular cover on the bottom of the NES. Underneath that removable cover is a tabbed plastic rectangle that looks like it could be broken off. We gently lifted the NES printed circuit board and looked under it to see another "connector" of some kind.

I have searched everywhere on the net for an explaination of what its for but have googled no results.

Somebody, please tell me what it's used for and feel free to go into extreme detail if needed.

You guys are the best, after all!!!!!!!!!

:D That removable cover on the bottom is a good hiding spot for things too.. :D

[Querjek]

Wasn't there also some sort of lotery adapter for some us stae that was being made for the NES's expansion port? Whatever happened to that?

[boatofcar]

Wasn't there also some sort of lotery adapter for some us stae that was being made for the NES's expansion port? Whatever happened to that?

Too many people thought using a kid's toy to buy lottery tickets was ethically innapropriate. Also, parents were afraid that their kids might accidentally (or on purpose) buy tickets en masse without their knowledge.

[daynum]

Although the Minnesota lottery modem was never released this one apparently was, although I haven't heard of anyone owning one.

http://www.nesworld.com/acc/telenes.jpg

Heres an article about it:

http://www.nesworld.com/nesmodem.htm

[rbudrick]

Ideally the expansion port would have been used for the domestic equivalent to the Famicom disk system, a peripheral that sat underneath the Famicom and loaded games from floppy disks. By the time Nintendo might have brought it over however, the costs of cartridges came down enough that there was no need for it.

Frankly I'm glad it never came over, I couldn't stand collecting magnetic diskettes that would have eventually corrupted, drive belts wearing out, etc.

It is doubtful they'd use this port for the FDS, since the Japanese one plugged in the cart port. It would have to be completely reengineered, I would imagine. Easier just to have it go through the cart port.

I recall there being 2 or 3 modems that never really saw release. Here's an article by Dave Allwein (TRM) on one:

http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/teleplay.html

-Rob

[Jasoco]

Let's see. The NES had a port. Never used.
Famicom had one that was used.

SNES had one that was never used. Was gonna be used for the PlayStation add-on that was cancelled.
But the Super Famicom was used. The SatellaView thingy thingamajig.

N64 (US) had the port that was never used.
The Japanese version got a 64DD drive that was never brought over.

The GameCube finally got to be used in both the US and Japan. Of course, the Cube has three ports. Only two are used that I know of. GB Player and Modem add-ons. But what's the third for? Who knows?

The Genesis' had one too. They got the Sega CD.
But did the Master System's ever get used?

Lots of systems have ports that either get used or they don't. Bottom line is they put them in there for the slight chance that they'll actually decide to use it one day.

[Dimitri]

SNES had one that was never used. Was gonna be used for the PlayStation add-on that was cancelled.
But the Super Famicom was used. The SatellaView thingy thingamajig.
It was also used to connect the control box for the Exertainment Bike games. These were US releases and licensed, so it did get used here.

N64 (US) had the port that was never used.
The Japanese version got a 64DD drive that was never brought over.
Not licensed in any way, but some N64 copiers (CD64, Dr. V64...) used this port as well.

The GameCube finally got to be used in both the US and Japan. Of course, the Cube has three ports. Only two are used that I know of. GB Player and Modem add-ons. But what's the third for? Who knows?
I believe the third port (along with the digital AV out) has been removed on later-model Cubes. I read something about that when I was ordering my component cable...

[Jasoco]

Ah, yes. Forgot about the excercise bike.

[Gapporin]

But did the Master System's ever get used?

I don't believe so. I think it was for the FM Unit (something that already came standard on Japanese SMS's).

[ghostangelofcky]

While my dad watched me replace the 72 pin on my side loader NES last night, which by the way works great now, he asked me what was under the little rectangular cover on the bottom of the NES. Underneath that removable cover is a tabbed plastic rectangle that looks like it could be broken off. We gently lifted the NES printed circuit board and looked under it to see another "connector" of some kind.

I have searched everywhere on the net for an explaination of what its for but have googled no results.

Somebody, please tell me what it's used for and feel free to go into extreme detail if needed.

You guys are the best, after all!!!!!!!!!

:D That removable cover on the bottom is a good hiding spot for things too.. :D

you could put your weed there

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=adam+sandler+the+hot+chick/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=128914n2t/EXP=1111271496/*-http%3A//abcdane.net/AS/ASnews/0211/hotchick_adam1.jpg