60-72 Pin Famicom-NES Adapter"Family Converter" |
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60-72 Pin Famicom-NES Adapter"Family Converter" |
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The Family Converter is a device which allows the user to connect game cartridges for the American or European Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo Famicom system. The Famicom is the Japanese equivalent of the NES.
Accomplishing this task is rather simple, when compared to the alternative of connecting Famicom game cartridges to your NES system. Whereas the NES includes a "lock out" chip designed to prevent the use of unlicensed video games, and also sports a primarily unused expansion port on the bottom of the system, the Famicom does not include these features. As a result, the game pins corresponding to these connections are not included, meaning fewer pins on each cartridge (Namely, 60 in place of 72). The Family Converter allows NES games to be played in the Famicom system by providing interconnects between the corresponding pins on the NES and the Famicom systems, essentially ignoring the game pins which correspond to the NES "lock out" chip and the NES expansion port. For those interested in the technical specifications of these interconnects, pinouts for the NES and the Famicom are available in documents written by Kevin Horton and Siudym'2001.
Use of the Family Converter device seems (and is) rather simple. You plug your NES game cartridge into the wide end of the converter, and then plug the narrow end (sporting metal pins on a circuit board) into the Famicom video game system. Perhaps the only confusion relates to which direction the game must face.
When connecting your game, insert the Family Converter into your Famicom system with the words "Family Converter" facing towards you (the front of the system). The game cartridge should be inserted such that it faces away from you, towards the back of the system. This setup can be seen in Figure 1.
