Identify this rarity!

[jamesholodnak]

I like to order famicom stuffs on yahoo auctions, and I have come across this.

http://i.imgur.com/EG10IVA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JPt7Pn3.jpg

It has a switch on it that I assume is for mirroring control.  Other than that I assume it is some kind of sample cartridge?  I'm looking for some information on these, was there more games/samples made with the switches?

[P]

Looks like a Fami Corder cart. So it's probably not a sample, but a pirate. Looks like it says Shougi on the label.

[L___E___T]

 

There's no official cart releases with that shape design, just to note.  So I wouldn't consider that a prototype at all.  Still, it looks interesting

[P]

Yeah it's a bootleg probably copied at someone's home (not a manufactured bootleg or prototype). You can copy mapper # 0 games with a Fami Corder to these carts. A very expensive way to do it though, since the Fami Corder isn't cheap (and I think you'll need an EPROM eraser to erase the carts).

I always wondered what the switch did. Mirror control sounds plausible since it's mapper 0.

[chowder]

I thought the switch might be a write protect toggle to prevent you from accidentally overwriting carts.  I've never even seen a Fami-Corder in person though, so who knows.

[Ninjanick999]

The switch is probably for to change mappers. That's my guess at least.

[fcgamer]

The switch is to change mirroring, between horizontal and vertical.  I have a couple of these carts, but I have no idea where they are at the moment, otherwise I would take some pics.

Like others have stated, you could use copy devices to dump copy games onto the carts.  Pretty fun to have now as a relic of the past, though not really useful otherwise.

[P]

As I thought. If you flip the switch in a game that scrolls you will notice immediately if it's changing mirroring (scrolling will be messed up if the wrong mirroring is used for the game).