NES games referred to as Nintendo Tapes?

[Osgeld]

look in the end, all tapes, including cartridge tapes have exposed tape

 

I dunno, I get that channel F's games are pretty much tape cartridges reused, other than that none of them really looked like tapes, and by the time the cd consoles were around no one was saying play that sega record

 

its just a odd thing

[CatPix]

Well it's just that the name become related to the purpose more than the accurate, physical media.

Like people call audio cassettes "tapes". Well it's not "only" a tape, so even calling cassettes tapes is technically not totally right.

But for many people, cassette or tape simply meant "that box I stuff in my player and it do music".

[Zookeeper]

I do remember 2600 carts being called 'tapes.'

[GameGirl420]

I haven't heard anybody use that term to describe game carts since like the 90's lol. When I think of the word "tape" I think of cassette tapes.

 

 

When you really think about it though,the term goes back to the 70's with 8-track tapes,which were actually a big influence on the design of video game cartridges.

 

 

Fairchild Channel F carts were shaped liked 8-tracks as well as the carts used for the Exidy Sorcerer.

[Eltigro]

I do remember people calling games tapes, but can't remember who or what games they were referring to. I don't think I ever used it. I probably rarely used the term cartridge until games started coming out on disc. It was just "game." I might have used "cartridge" if I was talking about the item itself as in, "The Sega cartridges are smaller than the Nintendo cartridges." But I really don't remember. I do know I never used the term "pak" or "gamepak."

[Good_Times]

Yep, back in the day, typically from the older folks....."Nintendo tapes", "Atari tapes", etc.

 

 

[mr_me]

I haven't heard anybody use that term to describe game carts since like the 90's lol. When I think of the word "tape" I think of cassette tapes.

 

 

When you really think about it though,the term goes back to the 70's with 8-track tapes,which were actually a big influence on the design of video game cartridges.

 

 

Fairchild Channel F carts were shaped liked 8-tracks as well as the carts used for the Exidy Sorcerer.

And Bally Astrocade cartridges were shaped like audio cassette tapes.

[Tanooki]

Yeah and Channel F looked like 8track if I remember right.

[empsolo]

Famicom cartridges (and Master System, and Megadrive) all have the form factor of casette tapes in a case. It's super convenient to repurpose storage boxes

In fact, in Japan famicom carts were referred to as cassettes.

[bradhig1]

I heard a lot of kids back in the day called them Nintendo tapes. The NES toaster worked similar to a VCR in the way the games were put into it.

[enoofu]

Don't forget that the Atari 2600 did have Tape based games

Also during this time Tapes were used in a lot of lower end computers for storage

Plus early systems were bought at Video Rental/Retail or Computer stores

[BydoEmpire]

I've never heard anyone refer to one as a "GamePak" (How do you not pronounce the "C"? Or rather, what does the "C" add in Pack?)

Hah, yeah, even thought that was the official name, I never heard anyone use it, either.

[Tanooki]

I did, but also just game or cartridge which were other terms they'd throw around. The C is irrelevant. Think of it like that southeast asian last name Pak. Just sounds like PACK which we don't pronounce it in anyway.

[godslabrat]

I used "game pak" quite faithfully. Though I always thought it was odd that there was no other kind of "pak". Always made me wonder if someone at Nintendo was cooking up a "movie pak" or a "music pak".

 

But since sega called their games "cartridges", so did I.

[carlsson]

Does the word "cartridge" have any previous use in English besides a load of ammunition for your gun or rifle? I can testiment the same as CatPix wrote, that "cassette" was a common way to describe even those solid state memory plug-in modules. I suppose the use of ink cartridges in printers came many years later.

 

Interesting note though that in Swedish, the word "patron" which is an ammo cartridge, was transferred to be used for ink cartridges, but when it came to solid state memory plug-in modules, the English word "cartridge" almost instantly was borrowed, except those who referred to those as "cassettes".

Edited July 20, 2017 by carlsson

[Osgeld]

a container holding a spool of photographic film, a quantity of ink, or other item or substance, designed for insertion into a mechanism.

 

 

seems valid that a video game cart is a container holding an item designed for insertion into a mechanism (along with tape carts, but to be nitpicky a tape is the item inside the cart, not the cart itself)

[0078265317]

 

seems valid that a video game cart is a container holding an item designed for insertion into a mechanism (along with tape carts, but to be nitpicky a tape is the item inside the cart, not the cart itself)

 

Exactly

[Eltigro]

Classic Gaming Quarterly did another "Let's Read". This time of Nintendo Power issue #1. Anyway, at the 1 hour mark, he's going through the letters section and reads one where a kid calls them "tapes."

 

[CatPix]

 

seems valid that a video game cart is a container holding an item designed for insertion into a mechanism (along with tape carts, but to be nitpicky a tape is the item inside the cart, not the cart itself)

Yep. The meaning is even wider in French. You can find the word "cassette" in books from the 17th to the 20th century, used in the meaning of a small box used to store valuables and papers.

Of course in that meaning it doesn't insert into anything except maybe a chest or later, a safe. But you get the meaning of a container.

And you're right,t he use of "tape" is a source of confusion. I've seen translated books from english in French where the translator first mention a "cassette" (perfectly legit translation) but later you read that "the tape left the spool and started to spin slowly on the player deck" (or something) clearly indicating it was a "tape" and not an "audio cassette".