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Bee Card (game cartridge)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 178.249.197.59 (talk) at 12:28, 10 October 2016 (List probably came from generation-msx.nl website, the "Magical Computer Music" entry was incorrect, it is actually a Music CD and has nothing to do with BeeCard.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

128-kilobit BeeCard telephone card manufactured by Mitsubishi Plastics.

A Bee Card (ビーカード, Bī Kādo) is a ROM cartridge developed by Hudson Soft as a software distribution medium for MSX computers. Bee Cards are approximately the size of a credit card, but thicker. Compared to most game cartridges, the Bee Card is small and compact. Because of the card's size, Atari Corporation also adopted it for the Atari Portfolio, a handheld PC released in 1989.

Only a small number of MSX software titles were published on Bee Card. In order to accept a Bee Card, the cartridge slot of the MSX had to be fitted with a removable adapter: the Hudson Soft BeePack. The first mass-produced Bee Cards, however, were EEPROM telephone cards manufactured by Mitsubishi Plastics; these were first sold in Japan in 1985.[1] The trade names Bee Card and Bee Pack derive from Hudson Soft's corporate logo, which features a cartoon bee.

MSX software published on Bee Card

Hudson Soft and other software publishers distributed at least eleven MSX software titles on Bee Card:[2]

Title Catalog number Publisher Year
Baseball Craze BC-M1, BC-M1E Hudson Soft 1985
Star Force BC-M2 Tehkan 1985
Jet Set Willy BC-M3 Hudson Soft 1985
T-Plan BC-M4 Hudson Soft 1984
Pooyan BC-M5 Konami 1985
Bomberman BC-M7 Hudson Soft / Japanese Softbank 1986
Star Soldier BC-M8 Hudson Soft 1986
Champion Takahashi's Adventure Island BC-M9 Hudson Soft 1986
Videotel 128-8 5509 ? ?
E-Piano III ? ? ?

HuCard

Main article: HuCard

Hudson Soft later collaborated with NEC to develop a video game console called the PC Engine. The companies elected to use Hudson Soft's slim ROM cartridge technology to distribute PC Engine software. Hudson Soft adapted the design for their needs, and produced the HuCard. HuCards are slightly thicker than Bee Cards; also, whereas a Bee Card has 32 pins, a HuCard has 38.

References

  1. ^ U.S. patent D305886
  2. ^ "BeePack". MSX Resource Center. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
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