The Famicom had limits — so Jaleco was the first to build a door through the wall.
In 1985, the Famicom could only hold so much. Developers worked within those boundaries or waited for Nintendo to expand the hardware. Jaleco chose a third path: they built extra circuitry directly into the City Connection cartridge, giving it capacity the console was never designed to hold. It was the first time anyone did this on the Famicom — the first memory mapper. Nintendo had planned to expand the platform with the Famicom Disk System; a third-party developer beat them to it with a door built into the cartridge itself. What started as one game's workaround became the standard for how developers would push the Famicom for the rest of its life. Sometimes the way forward isn't waiting for permission to expand — it's expanding the definition of what the walls were for.
About this game
City Connection (1985) is a platform-maze game where a 15-year-old named Clarice drives a Honda City hatchback across elevated roads around the world, painting every segment while evading police cars. First released in Japanese arcades in July 1985, the Famicom port arrived in September and became historically significant as the first Famicom cartridge to use a memory mapper — additional circuitry that expanded the console's capacity beyond its original limits. This marked the beginning of cartridge-based hardware expansion on the Famicom, a practice that would define the platform's technical evolution for years to come.
Key Features
The player controls Clarice's car, which can drive left or right and jump between platforms. The goal is to drive over every segment of road to paint it, similar to Pac-Man's dot-collection but viewed from the side. Police cars pursue the player; hitting them with oil cans temporarily stuns them. The game's music features an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.
The Story Behind
City Connection was developed by Tose and published by Jaleco, releasing for the Famicom on September 27, 1985. While Nintendo planned to expand the Famicom through the Famicom Disk System, Jaleco introduced cartridge-based expansion first. City Connection's memory mapper allowed the cartridge to hold more data than the console's standard design permitted, setting a precedent that became standard practice across the Famicom library. The game's use of additional circuitry marked a turning point in how developers approached the platform's limitations.
Tricks & Tales
The protagonist Clarice is a 15-year-old girl driving a Honda City hatchback — the car model is believed to be the source of the game's title. The game's music is an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. As the first Famicom game to use a memory mapper, City Connection predated even Nintendo's own use of cartridge expansion hardware, making a third-party developer the pioneer of a technique that would define the console's future.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Famicom and NES are the same hardware family but use physically incompatible cartridge formats — Famicom carts have a 60-pin connector and a narrower shell, while NES carts use a 72-pin connector with a wider housing. You cannot insert a Famicom cartridge into a North American NES slot without an adapter, and vice versa. The Famicom itself has no lockout chip, so any Famicom cartridge from Japan will run on a Famicom console regardless of origin. If you are buying a Japanese Famicom cart to play on a NES, you will need a 60-to-72-pin physical adapter; if you own a Famicom, Japanese-market software is your native format and no workarounds are needed.
Maintenance Tips
The gold-plated edge connectors on Famicom and NES cartridges pick up skin oils and oxidation over decades — a gentle wipe with a cotton swab dampened in 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol, stroking along the length of the pins rather than across them, is the accepted standard. Let the alcohol fully evaporate before reinserting. The old habit of blowing into a cartridge is folklore: the moisture in breath causes slow corrosion of the contacts over time, and any improvement you felt came from the act of re-seating the cart, not from the breath itself. Nintendo eventually updated its own troubleshooting guidance to say explicitly: do not blow into your Game Paks.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese City Connection copies regularly.
How do I know if a Famicom or NES cartridge is authentic and not a reproduction?
Authentic Nintendo cartridges have security screws — a proprietary gamebit pattern, not standard Phillips heads. The PCB inside should have a copyright year and 'Nintendo' etched directly onto the board. The back label of genuine carts has imprinted stamped characters (such as 11A or 03); reproductions typically have no imprint at all. If screws look jagged or the board inside is undersized with no Nintendo branding, treat it as a repro. When in doubt, ask the seller for interior photos.
My Famicom cartridge won't start — what should I try first?
Clean the edge connector with a cotton swab and 90%+ isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Do not blow into the slot. If cleaning does not help, re-seat the cartridge firmly and try again. Persistent read failures on a NES may also be caused by worn-out 72-pin connector pins on the console side, which is a separate repair.
Can I play Famicom games on a NES, or NES games on a Famicom?
Not without an adapter. The cartridge shapes and pin counts differ (60-pin for Famicom, 72-pin for NES). A 60-to-72-pin physical adapter allows Famicom carts to run on a NES. In the other direction, NES-format carts are too wide for the Famicom slot and cannot be inserted at all.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy City Connection
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is a Japanese Famicom cartridge with a 60-pin connector; a North American NES uses a 72-pin slot, so it will not fit directly.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Confirm it is genuine, not a reproduction
Sought-after titles are targets for reproduction boards with replacement labels.
Ask for a photo of the circuit board and look for factory markings. Favour a shop with a licensed second-hand dealer permit (古物商) — by law its stock has a traceable origin, your simplest guard against fakes.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See the unit we have →Unexpected Discoveries
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Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where City Connection sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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