Just found this strange famicom adaptor. Looks familiar...

[soop]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/?iid=122138213949&&&dispItem=1&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=pla-142405559106&abcId=&adtype=pla&merchantid=115070806&poi=&googleloc=1006567&device=c&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0&chn=ps

Have no idea what it does, but yeah, coincidental design choice?

[Necromancer]

Google says it was an adapter for connecting a Famicom to various online services based on the card inserted.  Lots of stuff here: http://jironosuke.cocolog-nifty.com/, including a second version and similar devices.

It definitely looks PCE-esque, and the second version even more so.

[SignOfZeta]

Dang, yeah, especially the cards. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a connection to Hudson.

[Black Tiger]

Hudson did make the Tsushin Booster, so maybe they had a hand in this as well.

http://www.chrismcovell.com/TsushinBooster/

[exodus]

that's weird and neat!

also that blog linked above has tons of neat stuff I've never heard of, so this thread is worth it just for that!

[esteban]

Damn, yet one more item I had never seen before.

[roflmao]

That's super cool!