Jorpho wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Interesting. Is SNES the only system able ot use on-cartridge external CPU?

There were supposedly once plans to make an FPS for the NES based on he Hellraiser franchise, which would have included a Z80 on the cart to dynamically swap textures, or something. But the idea never even reached the prototype stage.

Any other released games had some co-cpu on NES cartridges?

No real processors, but I remember some NES/Famicom titles had optional support chips, mainly mappers.
But a few also had audio capabilities. Like Mr. Gimmick (SunSoft5B, Famicom) and Lagrange Point (Famicom).
The interesting thing is, that unlike the Famicom, the NES had no audio-in in the cartridge slot.
It was moved to the bottom connector, probably for a planned floppy drive which sadly was never made.
https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/List_of_g … expansion_audio

Speaking of sound chips, there was also a NES/SMS comparison thread:
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?1 … chip-comparison
Some of the games shown also supported the optional FM module for the SMS.

Edit: Some chess modules included their own processors, too. Samples:
http://www.mos6502.com/friday-commodore/chess … videopac-c7010/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qA5jtL_01U

Jo22 wrote:

No real processors, but I remember some NES/Famicom titles had optional support chips, mainly mappers. But a few also had audio […]
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No real processors, but I remember some NES/Famicom titles had optional support chips, mainly mappers.
But a few also had audio capabilities. Like Mr. Gimmick (SunSoft5B, Famicom) and Lagrange Point (Famicom).
The interesting thing is, that unlike the Famicom, the NES had no audio-in in the cartridge slot.
It was moved to the bottom connector, probably for a planned floppy drive which sadly was never made.
https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/List_of_g … expansion_audio

Speaking of sound chips, there was also a NES/SMS comparison thread:
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?1 … chip-comparison
Some of the games shown also supported the optional FM module for the SMS.

Edit: Some chess modules included their own processors, too. Samples:
http://www.mos6502.com/friday-commodore/chess … videopac-c7010/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qA5jtL_01U

Great info thank. I've listening some NES tune and some are great even if the original PSG version of the Master system games (I never liked the FM chip version) had their moments too. For example the Zillion soundtrack (intro and out planet and in planet), also Ax Battler the intro and the Ice Cliffs level soundtrack, also Master of Darkness the Epitaph level soundtrack but also many others of this game.

For the video chips differences I'd look these Master System games for example, Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 2 for this console. 😉

386SX wrote:

For the video chips differences I'd look these Master System games for example, Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 2 for this console. 😉

Thanks for the recommendation! I've just watched them at youtube. 😀
The SMS/NES versions of SF II are like day and night. I had no clue the SMS could do PCM, too!

I also found something interesting again, I think. It's not exactly on-topic, but also related to consoles/hardware and our classic PCs.:
An MD development cartridge, which ran on Windows 3.x at some point. And a development board, which, however, was a full-size ISA card.
A few years ago, a youtube user named Shane made a few videos about these monstrosities. You can watch them here if you like :
Cartridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak-G2ouUytk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9zQueGP4iI
Dev board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb2928JnKEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14gpE2PKm5M

Cartridge based systems have always fascinated me because of the expansion capability. You are literally inserting a device onto the system bus when you put the cartridge in. You can, within the limits of the power provided via the power pins, put pretty much anything on the cartridge PCB.

The drawback to using cartridge based systems is the cost and availability of the components.

The SNES certainly isn't the first to have an external CPU in cartridges. The earliest I can recall is the Commodore 64 getting the CP/M cartridge with a Z80 on it in 1983. There are probably even earlier examples.

Jo22 wrote:

Thanks for the recommendation! I've just watched them at youtube. :) The SMS/NES versions of SF II are like day and night. I had […]
Show full quote

386SX wrote:

For the video chips differences I'd look these Master System games for example, Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 2 for this console. 😉

Thanks for the recommendation! I've just watched them at youtube. 😀
The SMS/NES versions of SF II are like day and night. I had no clue the SMS could do PCM, too!

I also found something interesting again, I think. It's not exactly on-topic, but also related to consoles/hardware and our classic PCs.:
An MD development cartridge, which ran on Windows 3.x at some point. And a development board, which, however, was a full-size ISA card.
A few years ago, a youtube user named Shane made a few videos about these monstrosities. You can watch them here if you like :
Cartridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak-G2ouUytk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9zQueGP4iI
Dev board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb2928JnKEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14gpE2PKm5M

Great! It remembered me that old similar Creative 3DO Blaster card that basically was an entire console in ISA, those solutions were great. I always liked the expansion cards for a specific complex task, like the Creative DXR2/3 decoders.