Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game Pak
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game Pak is the system's default ROM cartridge medium. It is called Game Pak in most Western regions, and Cassette (カセット, Kasetto) in Japan and parts of Latin America. While the Super NES can address 128 Megabits, only 117.75 Megabits are actually available for cartridge use. A fairly normal mapping can easily address up to 95 Megabit of ROM data (63 Megabits at FastROM speed) with 8 Megabits of battery-backed RAM. However, most available memory access controllers only support mappings of up to 32 Megabits. The largest games released (Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean) contain 48 Megabits of ROM data, while the smallest games contain 2 Megabits.
The North American (top) Super NES Game Pak, and the Japanese (bottom) Super Famicom Cassette. The case designs of the PAL region Game Pak and Japanese Cassette are nearly identical. | |
| Media type | ROM cartridge |
|---|---|
| Encoding | Digital |
| Capacity | 48 megabits or 6 megabytes equivalent |
| Developed by | Nintendo |
| Usage | Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
Cartridges may also contain battery-backed SRAM to save the game state, extra working RAM, custom coprocessors, or any other hardware that will not exceed the maximum current rating of the console.