I am new, can somebody explain that the difference between 72-pin and 60pin?

[doctorlai]

I have seen such converter to convert 72-pin to 60pin,

could anybody explain in more details? what are they used for?

which one is used by famicom?

Thanks!

[Ghegs]

It's simply a converter that allows you to play NES (72-pin) games on your Famicom (60-pin). You plug the adapter to the NES game cartridge, and plug the whole thing to your Famicom, and the game plays.

The adapter is needed because the NES cartridges use 72 pins, while Famicom games use only 60, so they're not directly compatible with each other, even though they are the same games software-wise. Slightly different hardware.

[nerdynebraskan]

As I understand it, the FC and NES share 58 pins. The NES lacks the FC's last two pins, which were related to extra hardware that made it possible to enhance graphics and sound beyond what the FC was originally intended for. But those expansions weren't used until almost the end of the 80s, so when they redesigned the system for North America (NES, 1985) they left the expansions out.

The remaining 14 pins on an NES connector? They're split between the security lockout chip (which the FC didn't have) and the phantom expansion port (which was never used). Whatever Nintendo may have had in mind for its expansion port, it never materialized and even later NES carts don't even have the pins that would've corresponded to the pins in the console that go there.

[Ghegs]

later NES carts don't even have the pins that would've corresponded to the pins in the console that go there.

Oh, I didn't know they stopped including them altogether, interesting. Makes sense though, at that point they knew the expansion possibilities would go unused, so leaving the pins out probably saved them a few bucks.

[P]

http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Cartridge_connector
More exactly those two extra Famicom pins (45 and 46) gives Famicom games the possibility to mix in audio from an extra sound chip on the cartridge with the audio output. It's not for graphics. I heard it was actually designed with Famicom Disk System in mind (which has an extra sound chip), but as Nerdynebraskan said it wasn't released until 1986. Later, some third party developers made use of these pins and included extra sound chips on some of their games. Namely Konami's VRC6 and VRC7, NAMCO106 and Sunsoft FME-7. Nintendo later also made the MMC5 boards which also included extra sound chips.

It's possible to mod a NES to be able to play games that use this extra audio as well.

[nerdynebraskan]

Ghegs,

Yeah, pick up a late NES cart sometime and take a look at its pins. There's a conspicuous gap in the middle of the board, where the plastic is naked of pins.

P,

I stand corrected. I thought I'd seen something somewhere saying the expansions were related to the enhanced graphics of Crisis Force, but I could be mistaken about that.

[P]

Yeah that wouldn't be possible, because pin 45 is connected to the CPU's sound output (already amplified). Then the cartridge has to output the sound from that pin (mixed with extra sound or not) through pin 46 which goes to the TV speakers. Games that doesn't use extra sound, just bridges pins 45 and 46 inside the cartridge and doesn't touch them.