62 Vs 72 pin NES/Famicom-WTF are the other 12 pins for?!

[rbudrick]

Why on earth do the US and Euro carts have 12 extra pins? It sems the Famicom versions of these same games do just fine without the 12 extra pins. Are they just for show?

-Rob

[gamergary]

The title is wrong it is supposed to be 60 pins vs. 72 pins. Maybe is was for regional purposes.

[Ed Oscuro]

Some (a lot) of games seem to get along fine with the NES having dead pins, too; these bad connectors only get caught by NES test carts.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the lockout chip.

[spoon]

Heh. This reminds me of something that happened to me a few weeks back.

We all know that early NES games have all of the pins on the board, whil later releases are sometimes missing a few.

I was trading in some NES games when I went to pick up my pre-order copy of Ninja Gaiden. The clerk rejected a copy of TMNT 2 for the NES because it was "Missing Pins from the board". I finished up the transaction quickly so I could go outside and laugh my ass off.

[rbudrick]

The title is wrong it is supposed to be 60 pins vs. 72 pins. Maybe is was for regional purposes.

Yep, total typo. Hey, at least my math was right (12 pins), so I didn't look like a totally illiterutt |\|3wb.

Hmm, so I guess no one knows so far....very mysterious (twists end of moustache).

-Rob

[jonjandran]

Ok I'll take a crack at this.

I tried to modify a 72 to 60 pin converter and had a pinout diagram.

There were 4 pins that weren't connected. 15,16,50,51 (I think)
There were 4 pins that went to the same pinout on the 60 pin (2 grounds and 2 power)
One was a for the lockout and one was for different region.
I can't remember the others but if I find the diagram I'll update this post.

[kai123]

Stolen from a faq...

Unconnected NES pins (and why they are unconnected)
---------------------------------------------------

Pins 16-20 and 52-55:

These are the pins that go to the expansion connector in the bottom of
the NES. As Famicom doesn't have (this type of) expansion connector,
these pins are left unconnected. Only the NES pin 51 is connected to
the two (one) expansion pin of the Famicom.

Pins 34, 35 and 70, 71:

Famicom does not have the security chip so these are unnecessary.

Pin 37:

I don't know the reason why the equivalent of this pin is not
found in Famicom.

[Ed Oscuro]

Pins 34, 35 and 70, 71:

Famicom does not have the security chip so these are unnecessary.

w00t, I'm four for twelve! :D Better than being totally wrong.

That does make sense, though...the Famicom Disk System hooks up somewhere else.

[ApolloBoy]

Pins 34, 35 and 70, 71:

Famicom does not have the security chip so these are unnecessary.

w00t, I'm four for twelve! Better than being totally wrong.

That does make sense, though...the Famicom Disk System hooks up somewhere else.

Actually, you can get an FDS to work on an NES. Just run the RAM cart through a 60-to-72 pin converter, plug it in, and that's basically it. Somebody correct me if I happen to be wrong...

[spoon]

Yes, you can get an FDS to work on a toaster.

[rbudrick]

Yeah, I've gotten it to work on a toaster, I just run a 72-60 converter out then, a 60-72 then another 72-60, and it's over the lip of the toaster enough not to be a problem. Of course, making sure there's no dirty contacts or loose connections is a pain in the ass. My AV-modified Famicom does the job much better. ;-)

-Rob

[spoon]

I believe I used a game genie onmine. There is a walkthrough on how to use a FDS on a toaster on tsr's site I believe.