different between cartridge vs multicart

English

Etymology

Corruption of French cartouche. Doublet of cartouche.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??t??d?/
• (US) enPR: kär?tr?j, IPA^(key): /?k??t??d?/

Noun

cartridge (plural cartridges)

1. (firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition.
2. (by extension) A prefabricated subassembly that can be easily installed in or removed from a larger mechanism or replaced with another interchangeable subassembly.
3. (computing) A vessel which contains the ink or toner for a computer printer and can be easily replaced with another.
4. (computing) Magnetic tape storage, used for storing (backup) copies of data.
   • 1983, Helpline (in Sinclair User issue 21)

     The program generates a catalogue of the files on the cartridge selected by the user, reads the catalogue into memory and erases the cartridge copy, so that an up-to-date copy is always generated.

5. (computing) A removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices, used for rapid loading of software onto a home computer or video game console.
   • 1981, Communication Outlook (volume 3)

     We would like to see someone market a low-power, text-to-speech cartridge that would mate with the Epson and use its internal battery pack.

   • 2002, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 (page 180)

     Nintendo made sure to loudly trumpet all of the advantages of the cartridge format, particularly the greatly reduced loading times and the sturdiness of the cartridges […]
6. (obsolete) A small paper package, e.g. in an old book about making printer's type: After all the type has been cast: "The Boy will paper up each sort in a cartridge by itself".

Derived terms

Translations

English

Etymology

multi- +? cart

Noun

multicart (plural multicarts)

1. (video games) A cartridge containing several separate games.
   • 2001, "Spud", FS/FT: Vectrex & Multicart! (on Internet newsgroup van.forsale)

     I have a Vectrex in great working shape along with a multicart that contains every game for the Vectrex except a couple of the lightpen games.

   • 2014, Rob Strangman, Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman (page 221)

     […] many of my friends also had their first on-hand experience of the game with this version, or via one of the numerous Famicom multicarts that inundated the black market […]