Nintendo Power (cartridge)

The Nintendo Power flash RAM cartridge was a Japan-only peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom and the Game Boy, which allowed owners to download Super Famicom/Game Boy games onto a special flash memory cartridge for cheaper than the full cartridge would have been.

Each cartridge's flash RAM is divided internally into eight blocks. Unless an 8-block game is loaded onto the cartridge, however, one block is reserved for the game selection menu, leaving only seven blocks for games. In addition, each cartridge has a small amount of SRAM for game saves, which is divided into sixteen blocks. Games are rounded up in capacity (i.e. a 10 megabit Super Famicom game needs three flash RAM blocks (12 megabits), a Game Boy game that needs 100 kilobits of save space would need 2 SRAM blocks (128 kilobits).) The system does have one limitation - games that utilize a special chip (such as the Super FX) cannot be placed on the NP cartridge, as the needed chip was not in the cartridge.

A user would first purchase the RAM cartridge itself, then bring it to a store which had an NP copier. The player would select games to be placed on the cartridge, and then had them loaded on. In addition, the store would provide the purchaser with a printed copy of the manual for the game. Game prices varied, with older titles being relatively cheap, and newer titles and NP exclusives being more expensive.

Super Famicom
Along with rereleases of hit Super Famicom games, several Nintendo Power titles were released exclusively for the service.
 * Mario's Super Picross
 * Wrecking Crew '98
 * Super Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country)
 * Super Donkey Kong 2 (Donkey Kong Country 2)
 * Super Donkey Kong 3 (Donkey Kong Country 3)

Game Boy

 * Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

Related links

 * Nintendo Corporation Ltd. Nintendo Power website (in Japanese)
 * Nintendo closes Nintendo Power