gaming Should we go back to Cartridge based games?

[null1 606]

And I mean Cartridge based console games. For me, the olden days with the N64.

 

I had first though of the idea when playing Skyrim, I never liked the loading times for it. Then I got the idea that if the game was stored on a special solid state drive, it's loading times would be drastically shorter, if not instantaneous.

 

I read about ROM Cartridges and their disadvantages, why we went to CD based games. Thinking about it, our technology has advanced drastically since cartridge based consoles left the market. More and more laptops these days are being outfitted with SSDs instead of the standard hard drive. Although SSDs costs higher than a standard storage unit, they should become cheaper to make in time.

 

To summarize, I would like to return to cartridge based console games, even with online download games on the rise. There's a feeling with holding a cartridge game. The art on the cartridge, the feel of it brings back memories.

 

I'm sure there's more tech savvy people on the forum that could better elaborate the pros/cons of cartridge games, but you have to admit, the speed of an SSD is admirable.

[Skullbuster 1,906]

the thing is, while cartridges are more durable, CDs hold more information and take up less space, and they are easier to store, cartridges take up a lot of space

[Discordian 6,015]

I'd also like to add that if you are talking about durability Blurays exists for a reason. They aren't indestructible like cartridges but they don't scratch unless you intentionally try to scratch them and hold a ton of data on them.

[Titan Rising 2,156]

I prefer cartridges lol, I think having to put the cartridge in like for n64 makes the games more fun for some reason haha.

 

Now it's just like.. We have a bunch of discs we can't even see when we put them into the console... Not fun at all.

[PonyEcho 1,610]

well anyone can go back to cartrage based gaming i do on regular occasion to play Megaman ,

however you cant put a game like Skyrim, a 12 gb game onto a cartrage that can carry only a couple of megabites, games got alot bigger now and thats why we need disks and im not exsited for when all this decides to go digitl because i would like to actualy own my games,

 

also all the games you could get incartrage form, you can play online free

[Radiance64 7,053]

Well, you could always play a handheld if you enjoy the speed of cartridges(I know I do).

[WhiteLightning 339]

Well, It's gonna be hard to convince all the publishers and developers to do this, but I wouldn't mind having to use a cartridge again. I remember from the time I had a Gameboy Color, that if a game didn't start, all you had to do was blow in the cartridge and in the slot, and there, it worked again. These days, even the slightest problem breaks stuff.

Edited July 23, 2012 by WhiteLightning

[letterone 1,204]

the thing is, while cartridges are more durable, CDs hold more information and take up less space, and they are easier to store, cartridges take up a lot of space

 

CDs take up less space? HA. I don't remember any cartridges having loading screens. CDs have frickin' too many. (Sonic 06, I'm looking at you...)

 

So yes. Cartridges are better in my opinion. Much more durable AND no loading screens. The only annoying thing about cartridges is that ya have to blow out the crap on the insides if it doesn't work right. But hey, that's just part of the awesomeness. I guess.

 

Cartridges are still better though.

[null1 606]

 

I'd also like to add that if you are talking about durability Blurays exists for a reason. They aren't indestructible like cartridges but they don't scratch unless you intentionally try to scratch them and hold a ton of data on them.

 

Disc based media still has a rather slow loading time, Blu-Rays included. Albeit the production costs, modern day cartridges could be made to hold the same amount of data, or even more as SSDs advance.

 

Well, you could always play a handheld if you enjoy the speed of cartridges(I know I do).

 

I already do with my old Pokemon games once in awhile. But I want to see a modern day cartridge console.

[Discordian 6,015]

CDs take up less space? HA. I don't remember any cartridges having loading screens. CDs have frickin' too many. (Sonic 06, I'm looking at you...)

 

So yes. Cartridges are better in my opinion. Much more durable AND no loading screens. The only annoying thing about cartridges is that ya have to blow out the crap on the insides if it doesn't work right. But hey, that's just part of the awesomeness. I guess.

 

Cartridges are still better though.

 

I think he meant physically they take up less space. You can fit about ten discs in the space of one cartridge (assuming they were in a universal case and not in their own individual cases)

 

And also, I'm almost positively certain that the loading times don't necessarily have anything to do with being on a disc. I've seen games load just as fast as any cartridge back in the PS1 days. Going from one screen to the next in an RPG was the same as going from one screen to the next in a Pokemon game. The only thing that really took longer was saving which was little more than a "blip" on cartridge.

 

On top of that people act like the loading times in most games are horrible. Oh no, you have to wait five seconds for the game to load! So scary!

 

Sonic 06 is an exception, it had long loading times because they didn't program it correctly to load well enough. Same with the other Sonic games though they aren't as bad as 06, though the thing is they load really long levels so you can play them without interruption. Sonic moves fast so they have a huge level to load, it just doesn't seem huge because Sonic moves so fast through it.

[Fizz. 1,078]

On top of that people act like the loading times in most games are horrible. Oh no, you have to wait five seconds for the game to load! So scary!

 

The problem is, when you're getting really into a game, the worst thing to have happen is suddenly be stuck on a waiting screen for ten seconds. Kills the momentum. Dead Island especially, that game has ridiculous loading times.

 

As for on topic, yes, I miss cartridges. They were just...fun.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Cartridges just don't have all that much space compared to to CD's. They'd have to completely revamp the old style cartridges to an extreme just to compete with the CD.

 

Here's a pretty good example there. The game FF7 was originally supposed to go on the Nintendo 64. But if they had stayed there the game would have gone to more than 20 cartridges just to store all that data. The CD took only three of them. The loading time on the PSX wasn't all that bad either, just a few seconds really. Comparing that to the 64 is more realistic than comparing a 64 to a modern day console as well.

[null1 606]

 

On top of that people act like the loading times in most games are horrible. Oh no, you have to wait five seconds for the game to load! So scary!

 

 

Way more than five seconds, especially for the big games. CD based storage is fading already, with games growing bigger and bigger. It's starting to become inefficient.

[Discordian 6,015]

I think that's more of an issue of the programming or console hardware more than it is the disc's fault.

[A Blithering Div 247]

Cartridges are expensive, especially for the amount of space needed for modern games. We're talking the difference between cents per unit and dollars per unit. The inherent problem with CDs isn't the read speed but the seek times which is usually over half a second, where most modern hard drives are all of 8 milliseconds and flash memory is well within the single digit nanoseconds. The cheapest way of reducing load times is with game installs on consoles. Second cheapest would be giving consoles more effing RAM like they should have had in the first place.

 

Side note: The loading screens in Skyrim last all of a second for me and this is with a good old mechanical hard drive. Then again, it's on PC.

 

Edit:

Way more than five seconds, especially for the big games. CD based storage is fading already, with games growing bigger and bigger. It's starting to become inefficient.

 

A dual layer Blu-Ray disc holds 50 Gigabytes of data.

Edited July 23, 2012 by A Blithering Div

[Discordian 6,015]

Cartridges are expensive, especially for the amount of space needed for modern games. We're talking the difference between cents per unit and dollars per unit. The inherent problem with CDs isn't the read speed but the seek times which is usually over half a second, where most modern hard drives are all of 8 milliseconds and flash memory is well within the single digit nanoseconds. The cheapest way of reducing load times is with game installs on consoles. Second cheapest would be giving consoles more effing RAM like they should have had in the first place.

 

Side note: The loading screens in Skyrim last all of a second for me and this is with a good old mechanical hard drive. Then again, it's on PC.

 

Edit:

 

A dual layer Blu-Ray disc holds 50 Gigabytes of data.

 

This is more or less what I was trying to get it. I don't think it's necessarily that discs are becoming obsolete or even that it's the disc's fault that loading times are as bad as they are, it's more the console's fault rather than the disc's fault that the loading times are what they are on top of possible bad programming too. It's that consoles aren't made to run high-grade graphics and other functions as efficiently as it should. That's why PC gamers usually have faster running games because they have the power to back up the programming.

[Teh Boi 113]

I prefer discs.

I love my Old School vidya collection, but CDs are just so much better.

And you are a bunch of hipsters. *hornrimmedglasses.png*

[FizzyImp 1,838]

The game cards for the 3DS can apparently get up to 8GB, which is fairly big considering how small it is, and I'd guess that within the next few years that capacity will go up by a lot.

Most modern games tend to be around 8gb, so it should be fairly simple to make a cartridge based console with the power of an Xbox 360/PS3.

[Teh Boi 113]

The game cards for the 3DS can apparently get up to 8GB, which is fairly big considering how small it is, and I'd guess that within the next few years that capacity will go up by a lot.

Most modern games tend to be around 8gb, so it should be fairly simple to make a cartridge based console with the power of an Xbox 360/PS3.

 

But the DS/3DS cards are cards, not cartridges. They work similarly to SD Cards, and are cheap to produce.

Cartridges are too expensive, CDs are convenient.

[Crispy 5,563]

Though the novelty of playing Skyrim off of a cartridge the size of a F-150 sounds hilarious, I don't think it's the best idea in practice.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

Instead of cartridges, it would be better to begin thinking in terms of using flash drives and portable HDD to support game content. Now that flash drives can hold several GB worth of information, the primary advantage of a CD is circumvented. Blu-ray permits discs to hold more information and content, but it also increases the cost of production. Portable drives are relatively cheap and would allow people who like modifying games easier access to content. Unfortunately, game companies---specifically those producing consoles---are threatening to become increasingly restrictive in order to combat piracy. In my eyes, it's a fool's errand; and now they'll end up sinking millions of dollars into security systems which will likely be broken within hours of their release.

 

Without engaging in excessive adulation, companies like Valve and, strangely enough, Hasbro have the right idea. They encourage user created content within their respective realms, with Valve going so far as to let content creators to cash in on their work. Stifling creativity is become increasingly difficult in the digital age. Sony, Microsoft, and, to a lesser extent, Nintendo should learn this learn lesson sooner rather than later. (I add that condition for Nintendo as they seem content with creating shovelware and otherwise using outdated material and content, both technologically and creatively, instead of revolutionizing console gaming.)

 

The era of the cartridge has long since passed; but the capacity for rethinking the basic principles of cartridge technology exists.

[null1 606]

Though the novelty of playing Skyrim off of a cartridge the size of a F-150 sounds hilarious, I don't think it's the best idea in practice.

 

Current day Solid State Drives can hold up to 240GB, Skyrim's full size is over 8GB. It would work fine.

 

If it was installed on an N64 class cartridge, yeah, it be the size of an F-150.

Edited July 23, 2012 by DeltaTangent

[DerpyBrainz 3]

Instead of cartridges, it would be better to begin thinking in terms of using flash drives and portable HDD to support game content. Now that flash drives can hold several GB worth of information, the primary advantage of a CD is circumvented. Blu-ray permits discs to hold more information and content, but it also increases the cost of production. Portable drives are relatively cheap and would allow people who like modifying games easier access to content. Unfortunately, game companies---specifically those producing consoles---are threatening to become increasingly restrictive in order to combat piracy. In my eyes, it's a fool's errand; and now they'll end up sinking millions of dollars into security systems which will likely be broken within hours of their release.

 

I kinda like the idea of using flash drives to hold games. Even if cartridges never make a comeback, I'd rather store a game on a flash drive rather than a disc. Flash drives can fit in pockets and bags easier and, last I checked, can't get too scratched up to the point the data on it doesn't work correctly (like freezing game screens or skipping music tracks) as with CDs. Plus all the flash drives I've seen are rewritable unlike some CDs where once you put some data on it, even if it's one small file that you accidentally hit the "write to disc" option with, you're pretty much screwed if you ever change your mind and want to put something else on.

[Twiliscael 3,960]

I prefer cartridges for the novelty and nostalgia. For example, I'll pop in my old Ocarina of Time or Pokemon Emerald and when I hear that satisfying click that proves that it's snapped in, I just go "ahhhhh." It just feels so...right. If every game was like that the novelty would become more of an annoyance.

[Fire_Fly 499]

For a lot of gamers, cartridge-based games are a fond memory. Not just because they marked the debut of a lot of the gaming franchises we support today, but also because there's a nostalgic feeling about using cartridges, rather than the impersonality of inserting a disc halfway into a system, and letting machines do the rest.

 

Not only are catridges more nostalgic, but maintenance was a lot easier. They might seem low-tech, but fixing a cartridge is considerably easier than disc repair. Most of the time, repairing a cartridge was as simple as blowing some air into it.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Fire_Fly