J-Cart

{{Short description|Video game cartridge}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}

File:Mega drive j-cart.jpg

File:Jcart.jpg

The J-Cart is a special ROM cartridge developed by Codemasters for the Sega Genesis console. It held not only the game data but also came with two additional gamepad ports. This effectively allowed four players to play simultaneously without any extra adapters. The first J-Cart game, Tennis All-Stars, was released in early 1994.{{cite news|date=30 March 1994|title=Quadro-Power|language=de|page=29|work=Megablast|publisher=Joker Verlag|url=https://retrocdn.net/images/a/af/Megablast_DE_1994-03.pdf}}{{cite magazine|date=June 1994|title=Four-Player Fun|page=184|magazine=GamePro|publisher=IDG|issue=59|url=https://retrocdn.net/images/b/bf/GamePro_US_059.pdf}}

Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament also allowed up to eight players to play simultaneously using up to four gamepads, each player using only the D-pad or face buttons.{{cite magazine|title=A Small History Of Micro Machines|url=https://archive.org/stream/retro_gamer/RetroGamer_113#page/60/mode/2up|magazine=Retro Gamer|location=Bournemouth|publisher=Imagine Publishing|issue=113|pages=60–67|issn=1742-3155}}

The J-Cart came relatively late in the life cycle of the console. In addition, Codemasters never licensed the technology to other publishers. Thus the number of games released as J-Carts was limited.