Expansion Ports...

[christhegamer]

This is a question that has been troubling me for some time now. On almost every system I own, there's always something, most times on the bottom, labeled "expansion port". N64? yep, on the bottom. NES? again on the bottom, but for some reason covered by a sheild of plastic. my question to YOU is this; what are these strange devices used for? I've tried basically every cart I own, and still cannot figure out the mystery. please help!!!

thanx,
-chris.

[kentuckyfried]

Excellent question, I used to ask that myself.
I won't try to be specific, I'll be keeping track of this thread to see what the true-blue gamer-o-philes have to say, but I do know that a good company will always leave it's options open for expansion in the future, and that with systems that are the same design in Japan and NA (ie N64), our Japanese counterparts received such gifts as the Disk Drive for their Nintendo 64's.
It failed even over their so we never got to see it.

[CYRiX]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXTension_Port

[smokehouse]

Weren’t there add on’s for the Famicom? (other than the Disk System). I’ve always wondered what the NES port was for (like mentioned above, the one hidden under a piece of plastic). The SNES was going to be used for the CD attachment (again, according to EGM back in the day) and obviously the N64 was for the DD add-on.

[InsaneDavid]

Weren’t there add on’s for the Famicom? (other than the Disk System).

They all connected through the big expansion socket, the one the light gun, keyboard, etc. connected to.


I’ve always wondered what the NES port was for (like mentioned above, the one hidden under a piece of plastic).

Never used for anything as far as anyone knows but it was NES specific. Ten of the NES specific cartridge pins (that were removed later on - the middle pins sans the four that run to the 10NES lockout chip) run directly to the expansion interface. So if there was something down there, cartridges would directly interface with it.

[kentuckyfried]

Thinking about it now, I remember reading and seeing a picture for a piano keyboard expansion that used the port on the bottom of the NES. Don't remember if it was released or not.

[kentuckyfried]

I haven't seen any info regarding the connection of it to the NES, but apparently what I'm thinking of is the Miracle Piano Teaching System.

[JLukas]

The Super Famicom used it for the Satallaview, and the unreleased CD-ROM. N64 used it for the 64DD, and also by a few backup units.

[airraid]

The EXT port on the back of the original
Sega Genesis (fig. 1.)

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8316/genback5yf.jpg

was for the unreleased Tele-Genesis Modem

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/8359/1telegenesisarticle9uq.jpg


which *was* released in Japan for the MegaDrive, as the
'Mega Modem'

http://membres.lycos.fr/dreamandreality/images/MD_ACC_MegaModem.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/rx01/MD/md_megamodem.jpg

this was a good 5-6 years before the Genesis got
The Sega Channel or XBand, and only a couple of years after the Japanese NES, the Famicom, got a modem.

both the Famicom modem of the late 1980s and the
Mega Modem for the MegaDrive were used for online-banking. a handful of modem-playable games was released for the MegaDrive, and these did not use the internet, just used phone lines, modem to modem, kinda like Saturn's Netlink games which also did NOT use the internet, unlike Dreamcast's SegaNet and online games,
or Xbox Live which *do* use the internet.

[Raven1280]

The Sega MasterSystem also had one. As well as the Atari 5200.

[smokehouse]

Weren’t there add on’s for the Famicom? (other than the Disk System).

They all connected through the big expansion socket, the one the light gun, keyboard, etc. connected to.


I’ve always wondered what the NES port was for (like mentioned above, the one hidden under a piece of plastic).

Never used for anything as far as anyone knows but it was NES specific. Ten of the NES specific cartridge pins (that were removed later on - the middle pins sans the four that run to the 10NES lockout chip) run directly to the expansion interface. So if there was something down there, cartridges would directly interface with it.

No kiddin…

I always wondered about those games that were missing the center pins. Thanks for the info.

[Xizer]

Expansion ports are great. I use them to hide stuff.

I know people who use them to hide weed.

[MrRoboto19XX]

That wikipedia article says the GB has one, does anyone have a picture of it, or know if it was ever used?

[Kitsune Sniper]

That wikipedia article says the GB has one, does anyone have a picture of it, or know if it was ever used?

I think the port the article's talking about is the Game Link port.

But feel free to prove me wrong. :embarrassed:

[InsaneDavid]

Weren’t there add on’s for the Famicom? (other than the Disk System).

They all connected through the big expansion socket, the one the light gun, keyboard, etc. connected to.


I’ve always wondered what the NES port was for (like mentioned above, the one hidden under a piece of plastic).

Never used for anything as far as anyone knows but it was NES specific. Ten of the NES specific cartridge pins (that were removed later on - the middle pins sans the four that run to the 10NES lockout chip) run directly to the expansion interface. So if there was something down there, cartridges would directly interface with it.

No kiddin…

I always wondered about those games that were missing the center pins. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, 10 run to the expansion port, 4 run to the 10NES lockout chip and 2 were removed from the Famicom design that allowed the cartridges to contain their own audio expansion onboard - dropped from the NES. So 60 to 72.

[Pantechnicon]

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.

[CosmicMonkey]

Consoles with expansion ports:

Master System - Floppy Disk Drive (unreleased)

MegaDrive - Mega FDD (unreleased), Mega CD

Super Fami - CD ROM (unreleased), BS-X Satellaview

N64 - 64DD (Jpn only), CD-based back-up units (unofficial!)

PC Engine - CD Rom/Super CD, Tsushin Booster (unreleased)

Dreamcast - Modem (33/56k included), BBA, Zip Drive (unreleased)

Saturn - Video CD Card

Super A'can - unused

NES - unused

That's all I can think of atm

[XYXZYZ]

I knew a guy with a complete NES test center, even had board component replacement parts and stuff. It came with an NES unit that had the port in the bottom exposed. So I assumed it had to do with some diagnostic procedure.

Also, I remember reading (I think in an old Nintndo Power) that in some countries, NES units were used to drive knitting machines. Maybe that port was the interface to the knitting hardware.

[c0ldb33r]

Also, I remember reading (I think in an old Nintndo Power) that in some countries, NES units were used to drive knitting machines. Maybe that port was the interface to the knitting hardware.

They do that with gameboys too. I remember reading that not too long ago.

[Jorpho]

There was at least one modem-like device released that used the NES expansion port. It's listed somewhere on http://nesworld.parodius.com . The exact location of the URL is left as an exercise to the reader.

[rbudrick]

Also, I remember reading (I think in an old Nintndo Power) that in some countries, NES units were used to drive knitting machines. Maybe that port was the interface to the knitting hardware.

Well The GB Color was used with the Singer Izek sewing machine. You can no longer buy the GB carts from them, but they will sell you the instruction book for about $15 or so. Pretty weird book, I must say. I never have heard about NESs used for knitting....link, anyone?

As for the NES exp port, it was used for a couple things, only none of which was released. They were modems and one was used for Minnesota's state lottery for people to play online, and the others were just modems. I think I heard David Scheff had a big section on this in his book Game Over.

Some other DPer I think had a big article on his site about this...had pictures of the modems and everything.

-Rob

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

As for the NES exp port, it was used for a couple things, only none of which was released. They were modems and one was used for Minnesota's state lottery for people to play online, and the others were just modems. I think I heard David Scheff had a big section on this in his book Game Over.
I think it would have been used for the Tele-Play modem, which never made it to market despite the fact that there was ads for it in various gaming mags back then (then = 1991 or so?). It was a cool idea since people would have even been able to play against each other across platforms, like someone on the Genesis could play against someone on the NES in special games made for their respective systems. Really great idea.


PC Engine - CD Rom/Super CD, Tsushin Booster (unreleased)
Also the Turbo Booster and Turbo Booster Plus


Dreamcast - Modem (33/56k included), BBA, Zip Drive (unreleased)
And the DreamKara unit, though I don't know if it actually *USES* it's connection through the expansion port for anything besides stability.

Then there's the Jaguar which had and expansion port that was used for the networking (Jaglink or Catbox) and could have even been used for a Jaguar-Lynx hookup.


...word is bondage...

[Trumpman]

Doesn't the GameCube have one that is used by the Game Boy Player?

[InsaneDavid]

Doesn't the GameCube have one that is used by the Game Boy Player?

'tis be a modern system. ;)

[Ze_ro]

The CD32 has a rather huge, 182-pin expansion port on the back of the machine... apparently, it's a whole MCA bus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchannel) (Which is a little odd, since I don't think any other Amiga used MCA anywhere...). This one actually was used for quite a bit of stuff though (FMV card and a bunch of breakout boxes to turn the machine into a full computer).

> Dreamcast - Modem (33/56k included), BBA, Zip Drive (unreleased)

I think the Dreamcast's expansion port was also used for the karaoke module that was released in Japan. I might be wrong about this though.

--Zero

[vulcanjedi]

Hmm

My favorite was always the Colecovision port. After all you could convert it into a lowly Atari 2600 or turn it into a real computer with the Adam :)
VJ

[christhegamer]

That wikipedia article says the GB has one, does anyone have a picture of it, or know if it was ever used?

I think the port the article's talking about is the Game Link port.

But feel free to prove me wrong. :embarrassed:

Yep, it was even on the gameboy pocket, light and color.

Not trying to jack my own thread, by the way, but anyone care to tell me what the h3ll THIS thing is?!? (It's labeled with a number "1".):

http://www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/Nintendo/gbc/gbc_top.jpg

[ubersaurus]

That's the infrared port, used to transfer data between games. Offhand I know that Pokemon G/S used it for the Mystery Gift.

[kedawa]

I can understand why these ports get removed with later hardware revisions/redesigns, but at this point I find it odd if a console doesn't have some kind of expansion port, at least in it's initial form.
I was really surprised when the XBOX came out, and had no expanability options whatsoever.
Of course, we all know how expandable the machine really is with a little bit of hacking and soldering, but the lack of any sort of standard expansion on what is basically a PC seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

[X SMF X]

Expansion ports are great. I use them to hide stuff.

I know people who use them to hide weed.

Oh man, that made me laugh becuase it brought back old memories, a friend of mine used it to hide money, then later smokes then later on in life weed. Good to know he was not the only one.

[Jorpho]

That's the infrared port, used to transfer data between games. Offhand I know that Pokemon G/S used it for the Mystery Gift.

Mission Impossible actually let you reprogram it for use as a remote for your TV, VCR, et cetera.

[ProgrammingAce]

I can understand why these ports get removed with later hardware revisions/redesigns, but at this point I find it odd if a console doesn't have some kind of expansion port, at least in it's initial form.
I was really surprised when the XBOX came out, and had no expanability options whatsoever.
Of course, we all know how expandable the machine really is with a little bit of hacking and soldering, but the lack of any sort of standard expansion on what is basically a PC seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

The xbox has an expansion port, you just don't notice it. Ever notice the video cable connector has about 30 more pins than it needs? Those can be used for data. If microsoft had decided to expand the xbox, the connector would have gone in there.

[kedawa]

Nope, they're all for video, I'm afraid.
Click this link for details.
http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/xbox.htm

[scorch56]

Expansion ports are great. I use them to hide stuff.

I know people who use them to hide weed.

Oh man, that made me laugh becuase it brought back old memories, a friend of mine used it to hide money, then later smokes then later on in life weed. Good to know he was not the only one.

You can practically hide a whole ki in a PS2's expansion bay.. it's huge. ;)

[kainemaxwell]

As for the NES exp port, it was used for a couple things, only none of which was released. They were modems and one was used for Minnesota's state lottery for people to play online, and the others were just modems. I think I heard David Scheff had a big section on this in his book Game Over.

Some other DPer I think had a big article on his site about this...had pictures of the modems and everything.

-Rob
It's funny, I just read through tha tpart of game Over and then saw this topic. LOL

[aaron7]

Yah, I've seen the ads for the "Tele-play" system for the NES and Sega. You could play Atari-esque games against a friend thru the phone line!

[HardcoreGamer]

Expansion ports are great. I use them to hide stuff.

I know people who use them to hide weed.

DRUGGS R KOOL MKAY

Anyway, the expansion ports for consoles were developer's contingency plans - more than likely, someone would develop a peripheral to use the ports.