The era of direct downloads means that buying new games is more convenient than it’s ever been before, but we really lost something when we moved away from cartridges. Sure, optical media allowed for the storage space needed for bigger games as technology advanced throughout the 1990s, but we’ll never again know the satisfyingka-chunkof slotting a cartridge in and out of a console.
The Nintendo Switch, and its recent successor, keep the dream alive with their tiny, efficient game cards. They’re certainly the smallest cartridges we’ve ever seen, but what was the biggest? We decided to find out.
Most cartridges were irregularly shaped, and we’ve had to find dimensions from several, sometimes contradictory, sources; as a result, all measurements are approximate.
2003
2006
32mm x 24mm x1.4mm
1075.2 cubic mm
Switch Cartridge Size Comparison
0.55:1
Nowadays, the name Nokia is synonymous with unbreakable old phones, but the company’s foray into gaming is one they’d probably prefer we forget. The N-Gage was part phone, part handheld console, but its clunky design didn’t do it any favors.
Rather than designing proprietary cartridges like most of the other consoles on this list, Nokia formatted the N-Gage to take standard MultiMediaCards. Theoretically, that could have made piracy and unlicensed games a problem if the console had succeeded, but we’ll never really know.
31mm x 21 mm x 3mm
1953 cubic mm
1:1
Admittedly, most of us still get our games via the Nintendo eShop, but the Switch and Switch 2 have the last cartridge-based options for physical games. Popping in and out of the console with a lovely click, Nintendo’s game cards arefamously treated with a bittering agent to make them taste bad, reducing the risk that they’ll be swallowed.
2004 (DS), 2011 (3DS)
2014 (DS), 2020 (3DS)
35mm x 33mm x 3.8 mm
4389 cubic mm
2.25:1
Nintendo’s dual-screened handhelds were peak portable gaming, until we all gave them up for our phones. Their tiny game cards would pave the way for the Switch, originally billed as a home console that could be taken on the go.
1997
2000
38mm x 38mm x 6mm
8664 cubic mm
4.44:1
1987 (TurboGrafix-16), 1990 (TurboExpress)
1994 (both)
84mm x 53mm x 3mm
13356 cubic mm
6.84:1
Hudson Soft’s TurboGrafix-16 and its handheld version the TurboExpress (branded as the PC Engine in Japan), had some dedicated followings despite being smaller competitors in the late ’80s and early ’90s. They boastedsmall, powerful consoles, and their “HuCard” cartridges were far more compact than anything else on the market at the time.
1999
66mm x 41mm x 6mm
16236 cubic mm
8.31:1
The WonderSwan could be one of gaming’s biggest “what-ifs.” Produced by Bandai and developed by the legendary engineer Gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Game Boy, this Japan-only handheld seemingly had it all; a compact design, efficient battery use, and the breadth of Bandai’s impressive IP library, to say nothing of third parties like Square lining up to get on board.
Despite its initial buzz and success, the release of the Game Boy Advance drew attention away from Bandai’s nascent project in a big way, ultimately causing it to be a one-hit WonderSwan.
2001
2012
35mm x 60mm x 9mm
18900 cubic mm
9.68:1
The Advance was the last hurrah for Nintendo’s iconic Game Boy series of handhelds, and while it went through many iterations, including the foldable Game Boy Advance SP, its cartridges were compatible with any version of the console. It was alsobackward-compatible with all previous Game Boy cartridges.
1998
53mm x 46mm x 9mm
21942 cubic mm
11.24:1
While they were the undisputed rulers of the arcade in the ’90s, SNK was always looking for opportunities to get its share of the console market. The Neo Geo Pocket Color was their first foray into handheld gaming, supported by many of their classic franchises.
Unfortunately for SNK, the Neo Geo Pocket didn’t attract third-party developers, and entering the handheld market when they did meant competing with the meteoric rise of Pokémon. The console didn’t last long.
1989
65.5mm x 57mm x 7.5mm
28001.25 cubic mm
14.34:1
The Game Boy put handheld gaming on the map; it wasn’t perfect, but its low price point compared to its competitors and its stellar library of games made it an enduring classic. It also had an unbelievable fourteen-year production run, thanks to the global success ofPokémonlate in its life cycle.
Cartridges for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance had a specific brand name - “Game Paks.”
65.5mm x 57mm x 9mm
33601.5 cubic mm
17.21:1
Much of the original Game Boy’s success came from its lower price point compared to other handhelds, which was achieved in large part by using a monochrome liquid-crystal display, relying on quality games instead of an expensive full-color screen. By the late ’90s, color screens could be added to handhelds at a much lower cost, allowing Nintendo to release the Game Boy Color.
The GBC could play original Game Boy games with a limited palette, but cartridges designed specifically for its screen made full use of the technology. They wouldn’t work at all on an old black-and-white Game Boy, though, so the cartridge was made slightly thicker to prevent it from fitting into the original’s slot.
