A modern take on game cartridges was invented by Wallace Kirschner, Lawrence Haskel and Jerry Lawson of Alpex Computer Corporation, first unveiled as part of the Fairchild Channel F home console in 1976. The Hewlett-Packard HP-41C had expansion slots which could hold ROM memory as well as I/O expansion ports.Ī precursor to modern game cartridges of second generation video consoles was introduced with the first generation video game console Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, using jumper cards to turn on and off certain electronics inside the console. Other modules were specialized for financial calculations, or other subject areas, and even a 'games' module. The calculator came with a module that provides several standard mathematical functions including solution of simultaneous equations.

The Texas Instruments TI-59 family of programmable scientific calculators used interchangeable ROM cartridges that could be installed in a slot at the back of the calculator. In most cases the designs were fairly crude, with the entire address and data buses exposed by the port and attached via an edge connector the cartridge was memory mapped directly into the system's address space such that the CPU could execute the program in place without having to first copy it into expensive RAM.

ROM cartridges were popularized by early home computers which featured a special bus port for the insertion of cartridges containing software in ROM. The Fairchild Channel F was the first video game console to feature games on interchangeable ROM cartridges.

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