Cairo's Corner for NES Cartridges and Genesis Classics
We revisit the cartridges and consoles that defined a golden era, one blinking cursor and one blast-processed sprite at a time.
Browse ArchiveWhy Fans Keep Coming Back
A blog built by collectors who still blow into cartridges out of habit
We focus on physical media, box art, and pin contacts, not just game footage. The plastic and the pixels both matter to us.
No editorial board, no clickbait quotas. Just a small Cairo crew of enthusiasts writing about what we actually still play.
We go past the obvious hits to cover overlooked cartridges and forgotten Genesis library entries worth another look.
We track PAL, NTSC, and import variants, because a cartridge's story often changes depending on where it was sold.
Ready to dig through some cartridges with us?
New retrospectives on NES and Genesis library titles land regularly. Come see what we're revisiting this week.
What We're Revisiting This Month
A rotating shelf of cartridges pulled back into the spotlight
Bio Hazard Battle
A rarely discussed NES puzzle-battler that never left Japan on cartridge, worth a look for its odd two-player mechanics.
Sword of Vermilion
An early Genesis RPG that gets overshadowed by later titles, but its first-person dungeon crawling still holds up as a curiosity.
Bucky O'Hare
A licensed NES platformer built on solid Konami-style mechanics, often skipped over in favor of flashier cartridge releases.
Gunstar Heroes
Treasure's Genesis run-and-gun still gets cited for its set-piece design and tight controls, a genre high point worth revisiting.
Little Samson
One of the rarest and priciest NES cartridges, remembered as much for its scarcity as for its tight platforming.
Phantasy Star IV
Often called the Genesis RPG's high point, its comic-panel cutscenes and battle system still get cited in genre discussions.
What Readers Are Saying
Found the piece on Sword of Vermilion at 1am and ended up digging my old Genesis out of a closet the next morning. Didn't expect a blog post to send me on that errand.
The write-up on Little Samson actually explained why the cartridge costs so much now, not just that it does. First time I've seen someone break down the print run numbers.
I've read a lot of retro sites that just rehash the same ten games. This one covered Bucky O'Hare, which I hadn't seen written about anywhere in years.