What is a cartridge?

[Cyber]

In another topic I mentioned old Poisk PC, which had things that looked like cartridges. And I said that it's not a cartridges, but a cased expansion cards, which Poisk manufacturer decided to call "adapters". And then I got a bit cofused...

Most Poisk adapters truly was expansion cards, that allowed you to connect different devices like floppy, joystick, printer, etc. But some adapters expanded RAM. Other adapters contained ROM (for example BASIC). So looks like it's ok to call it a cartridge.

Then I thought about Commodore. Most Commodore cartridges were ROMs with games and other programs - common type of cartridges. But some of them added new functionality or expanded RAM or made some other expansion. Plus/4 had a floppy drive that connected directly to cartrige slot (similar solution used in Poisk).

I tried to search the web for a good cartridge definition, and found just too many. Looks like the only definitive cartridge feature is outer look and feel. So if you have some boxy (or not boxy) thing that you plug in some device, it would usually be called cartridge. And the word "cartridge" does not define its functionality at all.

But that is just dry definitions. May be there is more to that from culture or regional perspective? What do you think the cartridge is or was? For example in my childhood the only thing we called a cartridge was game cartridges for Famicom clone system. Share you experience.

[SlithyMatt]

A cartridge is a thing you stick into another thing. That's it. The jumper cards you put into a Magnavox Odyssey were cartridges just as much as the ROM cartridges you put in an Atari 2600. Butane cartridges in a lighter, bullet cartridges in a gun, even 8-track tapes.