Resurrect the cartdridges!

[Epona]

I think it would just be nice if I could load a full game into RAM if I have enough RAM. Why is it that when you emulate a game, like from the PS1, you still have the same load times when the entire game could easily run out of RAM.

Not that I would ever emulate PS1 games, just saying.

 

[viranimus]

In this case. I would rather see us take a step backwards than forward. Digital distribution is eventually going to strangle the life out of gaming while trying to wring its customer base dry. Its already happening. The worst negatives of the industry right now can be at least indirectly related to the progression of digital distribution.

Anyway, I am fine with disc based media. Its far from a perfect solution mind you, but it is like the happy medium between providing customers a tangible product vs providing publishers with an economical system of delivery.

 

[GeneWard]

I would love cartridges to be more widely used, man. They just don't break! Not to mention transfer speeds, of course.

 

[viranimus]

In this case. I would rather see us take a step backwards than forward. Digital distribution is eventually going to strangle the life out of gaming while trying to wring its customer base dry. Its already happening. The worst negatives of the industry right now can be at least indirectly related to the progression of digital distribution.

Yeah! Dang DD allows me to have my games avaiable whenever I want them, allows me to buy games from actual customer friendly stores compared to all the brick&mortar stores here! And not forget the fact that I can get the game whenever I want to!

Sorry, but would you elaborate your statement? How is DD actually bad? Moneygrabbing expansion packs existed before (looks at the hundreds of thousands Sims expansions), buggy unplayable products existed before, shovelware existed before, the urge to copy the most succesfull brand existed before... DD on the other hand at least gives another possibility for smaller studios to be successfull (hi Binding of Isaac, Terraria, Q.U.B.E and so much more).

.... yeah, this will end well.


Digital distribution is bad because the corporations behind it like steam, EAorigin, Microsoft, Sony, Etc are utilizing it to transform games from being a product, into being a subscription. In doing so they have the ability to ignore consumer rights that are applicable to a product, that are not applicable to a subscription or service. In things like "awesome steam sales" and "ease of use/access" are there, not out of being friendly to the consumer. They exist like a pusher luring in a potential new junkie. The hope is to get them hooked on the service, so they keep coming back for more. Then once they have em hooked, everything changes.

I dont doubt that there are some benefits to digital distribution. The method of delivery itself is not at fault. What is at fault is the people who are trying to cram it down the consumers throat, Eliminate any sort of competition to it wherever possible so that they can gain unreasonable control over their product (IE kill the used market) and strangle the industry by eliminating the distribution people (and thus killing jobs related to the game industry) that propped up the industry when gaming was just starting out, as well as any of its several lulls/crashes.

The problem is, it creates a very bad precedent, not just to gaming, but to any form of media. It is transforming the way corporations look at the way this industry does business and other unrelated industries are wanting to figure out how they too can exploit this to their advantage, all at the customers expense. EDIT: SO when products digitally distributed are protected under law the same way any physical counterpart is, Then I will get behind digital distribution. Right now, supporting it is like going out to bars looking for sex without a condom. Sure it can be cheap and easy, but you never know what negatives youll contract along the way.

I could go much deeper, but I think thats more sufficient to explain it. Its never about the next move, its about the moves being made 5 moves from now that you have to watch out for. Justifying giving people unmitigated power is always a bad idea. Doing so out of laziness or selfish entitlement is pure insanity.

 

[Saltyk]

While I do miss the nigh instant loads of cartridge games, I don't think the loading time in most games is that bad. Say whatever you want about companies like Square and Bioware, but they do something right when it comes to loading.

Square games rarely load once you start playing. Bioware games might take a minute to load, but the areas are very large, full of enemies, quests, shops, and what have you. Both companies do it right, in my mind. For that matter, the Uncharted series. One long load, and then you can play the rest of the game without ever seeing another loading screen.

The worst I've seen recently was Duke Nukem Forever (a friend's copy). That game had long load times, and made you reload after every death. It was really bad in some areas that had you dieing every 15 seconds if you failed a QTE only to have to load for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Anyway, DVDs are incredibly cheap to make while cartridges are not. Creating a whole console around the concept of cartridges would likely be expensive and risky. We'd likely see an increase in cost for such a maneuver. Especially considering the size of and time it takes to create many games.

I admit being somewhat nostalgic for cartridges since you brought them up, but they don't seem feasible.

I think it would just be nice if I could load a full game into RAM if I have enough RAM. Why is it that when you emulate a game, like from the PS1, you still have the same load times when the entire game could easily run out of RAM.

Not that I would ever emulate PS1 games, just saying.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that either. I don't even know where a person would find such a thing.

Hey, for a laugh. Where would a person find a good PS1 emulator? And where would this hypothetical person find games like, say, Legend of Legaia? Purely out of curiosity. I'd never do such a thing.

 

[Epona]

While I do miss the nigh instant loads of cartridge games, I don't think the loading time in most games is that bad. Say whatever you want about companies like Square and Bioware, but they do something right when it comes to loading.

Square games rarely load once you start playing. Bioware games might take a minute to load, but the areas are very large, full of enemies, quests, shops, and what have you. Both companies do it right, in my mind. For that matter, the Uncharted series. One long load, and then you can play the rest of the game without ever seeing another loading screen.

The worst I've seen recently was Duke Nukem Forever (a friend's copy). That game had long load times, and made you reload after every death. It was really bad in some areas that had you dieing every 15 seconds if you failed a QTE only to have to load for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Anyway, DVDs are incredibly cheap to make while cartridges are not. Creating a whole console around the concept of cartridges would likely be expensive and risky. We'd likely see an increase in cost for such a maneuver. Especially considering the size of and time it takes to create many games.

I admit being somewhat nostalgic for cartridges since you brought them up, but they don't seem feasible.

I think it would just be nice if I could load a full game into RAM if I have enough RAM. Why is it that when you emulate a game, like from the PS1, you still have the same load times when the entire game could easily run out of RAM.

Not that I would ever emulate PS1 games, just saying.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that either. I don't even know where a person would find such a thing.

Hey, for a laugh. Where would a person find a good PS1 emulator? And where would this hypothetical person find games like, say, Legend of Legaia? Purely out of curiosity. I'd never do such a thing.

All I can say is that you can buy the games on Amazon, probably. Then the emulator will run the games right off the disc.

I can say no more.

 

[spartan231490]

I've been saying this for a long time. Another advantage is that it's somewhat difficult to ruin a cartridge, but you can scratch a disc into unread-ability without even realizing it.

 

[him over there]

I've been saying this for a long time. Another advantage is that it's somewhat difficult to ruin a cartridge, but you can scratch a disc into unread-ability without even realizing it.

On the flip side though cartridges run on an internal battery, all of the game is in there while cds are really more finding out what the game is and then everything happens on the system itself. If you ruin a console game it takes all your save files with you. My pokemon crystal cartridge's internal battery ran dry and now I can't save the game. I agree it's aggravating to ruin a cd because you touched it wrong but I think if you're responsible you can keep it in pretty good condition.

 

[Hyper-space]

I miss the old console games, back in those days you release a buggy game your company went out of business

Back in the day, companies released buggy games and had no means of ever correcting these buggs.

Hooray for the olden days.

 

[Tanakh]

Digital distribution is bad because the corporations behind it like steam, EAorigin, Microsoft, Sony, Etc are utilizing it to transform games from being a product, into being a subscription. In doing so they have the ability to ignore consumer rights that are applicable to a product, that are not applicable to a subscription or service. In things like "awesome steam sales" and "ease of use/access" are there, not out of being friendly to the consumer. They exist like a pusher luring in a potential new junkie. The hope is to get them hooked on the service, so they keep coming back for more. Then once they have em hooked, everything changes.

I dont doubt that there are some benefits to digital distribution. The method of delivery itself is not at fault. What is at fault is the people who are trying to cram it down the consumers throat, Eliminate any sort of competition to it wherever possible so that they can gain unreasonable control over their product (IE kill the used market) and strangle the industry by eliminating the distribution people (and thus killing jobs related to the game industry) that propped up the industry when gaming was just starting out, as well as any of its several lulls/crashes.

I was going to write a long sarcastic answer, but let's be direct. If what you are saying turns out to be correct:

- Steam "transform games from being a product, into being a subscription" and ... what? Start charging montly for steam?

- Small DD companies(Desura, GoG, maybe even Impulse) offer the same old service.

- Steam loses a good chunk of his 50% to 70% dominance on digital distribution, and part of his 1 Billion USD yearly sales

Yeah.... that sounds like a good plan.

The only way that steam will lock you out of the games you have purchased is if they go bankrupt, and TBH it's much more porbably ATM that the US goes bankrupt than Steam.

Anyway, i have heard arguments like yours many times, but... why would steam change his buisness model? They are reciving hundreds of millions a year in profits for the current one... i just don't see why the fuck would they change it. And how?

It's like saying you will never buy a car because then the manufacturer will just increase the price on all the parts, tecnically they could, but it's bad buisness.

As for the used game market, i would agree if we bought from small shops, but the current situation is that you are just making GameStop, a company that does nothing for videogames nor helped the videogames in its early stage, earn more from the industry that almost any developer.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Ahh, cartridges. Back in the days when a bug fix was taking out the game (you all just lost), blowing in in, and putting it back in the console.

I will admit, some of my favorite games of all time are on the SNES, but I don't think we should regress to that.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

Hmm, possible. It'd probably also make piracy a little more difficult, since you can't just stick a cartridge in your PC...Feel free to edit that consideration into your original post.

And yet there are roms of old style games.

Wonder how that happened >_>

...Holy crap, you're right. But I have a theory about this...

...Perhaps pirates can use magic? No, I'm serious. Magic.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Ahh, cartridges. Back in the days when a bug fix was taking out the game (you all just lost), blowing in in, and putting it back in the console.

I will admit, some of my favorite games of all time are on the SNES, but I don't think we should regress to that.

Ummm, no that isn't bug fixing. That is simply cleaning the contact point, nothing more. If their were bugs on the game, then they stay.

Apologies. Facetiousness does not translate well over the internet. That statement was my bad attempt at sarcasm (which I have never been good at).

 

[Tiger Sora]

Great idea, but they'd need to build new machines to produce the product and shipping costs would go up by a lot. So it's just not good economics. Yes they could pass costs on to us, but than we'd ***** out and many wouldn't buy.

And why change when things are going well, cept piracy. But when you make a product, it's gona be pirated or stolen and resold.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Except the costs would probably get bumped by an additional $10-$20 at least and the amount that could be stored on a single game would also suffer. Disc based means that mass production is easy and standardized. You move back to cartridges, and then a bunch of new factories have to go up specifically for making the product.

Also, I never really saw much of the appeal in cartridges. They're big and clunky, take up more space and are harder to organize then discs in boxes. It screws up my shelves in the same way a VHS messes with my DVDs spacing if I put them beside one another.