Improved shell for NES-Famicom adaptor (72-60 pin)

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PLEASE NOTE:

I have only checked fitment on the AV Famicom personally.  Thanks go to @psyco359 for testing fitment on original Famicom and Twin Famicom as well.

 

 

This is a much improved replacement shell for one of the common styles of 72-60 pin adapters that allows you to plug a US or EU Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game cartridge into a Japanese Famicom system. See the pictures to see what specific type this is for. I've seen these on ebay (in 2024) and you can probably find it in elsewhere. I got mine years ago and that seller no longer carries them so I can't provide a source.

 

This particular adapter is a kind of a piece of junk as delivered, but can be made pretty good with some simple mods which my shell accommodates. The first huge problem is it only holds the huge NES cart by the edge connector and provides no support. The cart can flop around enough that if can glitch or crash your game if it gets bumped. Second is that you should add a ground plane to the board with copper tape to reduce interference and noise that causes glitches and lock-ups. Optionally you can modify the adapter to properly support expansion and MMC5 audio as well. For details and how-to's on the ground plane and audio mods see Barawer's post here.

 

I designed the initial "short" version first, but decided that I didn't like that someone could still plug in a NES cart backwards, so I redesigned it to be taller and keyed it so there's only 1 way to plug things in.

 

Prints with no supports and assembly is generally straight forward and fool-proof. If you don't mod your adapter board make sure you know (or label) the front so you know which way it goes in. Once you do the audio mods you can easily tell by the clearance cutout on the back side which way it goes. I also embellished the tall one with the Famicom label and "pulse" logo for some flair, but plain models are available so you can mod them yourself.

 

Whichever style you prefer the only other additional items you will need are screws:

✓ QTY: 4 - M3x8 (or M3x10)

 

Assembly:

 

Attach the front upper shell to the front lower shell and do the same for the back upper and lower shells. They just press snugly together and depending on your printer's tolerance it may take some gentle force. Then lay the front half face down and install the adapter board. The screw bosses should be flush inside the 2 screw holes of the PCB. Place the back half on and screw it all together.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Bambulabs

Printer:

Bambu X1C

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0.4 nozzle, 0.2 layers

Filament:

Voxel PLA Pro

Fire Engine Red, Gold, Black

 

Notes:

 

A note on printing the logo: The "pulse" has 5 lines that get progressively thinner and the last one is too thin to print correctly with a 0.4mm nozzle, so in my 3MF I made it the shell color to not print it. It is there and if you print with a finer resolution you can change it's color. Also the text is on the edge of being printable (nicely) by 0.4mm, but I found that using arachne wall calculation, printing outer first then inner walls, and also filling in the small diacritic mark (°) on the Japanese text made it work well in Bambu Studio.

 

 

Category: Video Games