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Topic: Should next-gen consoles go back to cartridges?

Posts 1 to 20 of 101

vonseux

With the news of 3DS cartridges having up to 8GB of storage, it made me think if its not the time to go back to cartiges.

  • Flashcards are cheap
  • They can store as much as a bluray
  • Same Audio and Video quality as discs
  • Data can be write on it, like DLC, Updates and Saves
  • Smaller games could use smaller (and cheaper) cards
  • Faster loading
  • Don`t scratch
  • Harder to make illegal copies

Let's Attack Aggressively!!

irken004

You lost me at "don't scratch" and "harder to make illegal copies"

Carts can easily get dirty, and pirates will always find ways to copy games.

ArmoredGoomba

I was just thinking about this a few days ago. I think they should!

ArmoredGoomba

CanisWolfred

vonseux wrote:

as for pirates, ive said Harder, not impossible ;p

Not really

Besides, cartridges are easy to get dirty, are too expensive to make, and take up too much space. If they break or get lost, there goes your save data. The way to go is all digital, man. Fixes all those problems.

Edited on by CanisWolfred

I am the Wolf...Red
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Cia

i vote "yes" for cartridges, if only for fast loading times.

Cia

Rensch

No, because within ten years everything will be downloadable.

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CanisWolfred

vonseux wrote:

@Mickeymac

The link youre posted is interesting, but why buying reproductions of new games over the originals?

It's cheaper for some games, and you can play Fan-translated roms on a console by doing that.

Anywho, besides using other carts to dump roms, having a cartridge slot alone opens up many opportunities for piracy and cheating. CDs and DVDs are actually safer since you'd need to modify the console itself in order to use a pirated copy. For a cartridge based machine, you only need whatever could fit into the slot. I think that reason alone is why they won't go back to cartridges, unless they can definitively solve the piracy problem.

Edited on by CanisWolfred

I am the Wolf...Red
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Wolfrun?

HeroOfTime007

vonseux wrote:

Mickeymac wrote:

Anywho, besides using other carts to dump roms, having a cartridge slot alone opens up many opportunities for piracy and cheating. CDs and DVDs are actually safer since you'd need to modify the console itself in order to use a pirated copy. For a cartridge based machine, you only need whatever could fit into the slot. I think that reason alone is why they won't go back to cartridges, unless they can definitively solve the piracy problem.

Today consoles have USB/SD slots... from where people run Jailbreak (ps3) USB loader (wii) or R4 (DS)

The MICRO SD slot is on the R4 and Acekard itself, there is nothing for a normal SD card slot that I know of.

Rensch wrote:

No, because within ten years everything will be downloadable.

This. This maybe could hurt piracy a lot especially in areas where people pirate games because there are a lot of taxes on games and other imports, the government seizes and bans sales, or the cost to travel to the store or shipping is greater then the price of the game itself. That would also stop the sale of physical pirated games and homebrew loaded consoles. Though it will likely not happen as too few people would go retail so we will get BS to prevent the retail industry from maybe collapsing.

Edited on by HeroOfTime007

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

dsmaster

Hmm, one key advantage of cartridges is that you don't need any kind of external memory device such as a hard drive or a memory card to save games, which could reduce the cost of consoles. However, I believe (although I'm not 100% sure) that a cartridge with the capacity of a blu-ray disc would probably cost more then a blu-ray disc with the same capacity.

Edited on by dsmaster

dsmaster

LzWinky

Cartridges are a lot more expensive, so no

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HeroOfTime007

dsmaster wrote:

Hmm, one key advantage of cartridges is that you don't need any kind of external memory device such as a hard drive or a memory card to save games, which could reduce the cost of consoles. However, I believe (although I'm not 100% sure) that a cartridge with the capacity of a blu-ray disc would probably cost more then a blu-ray disc with the same capacity.

Reduce the cost? 10 MB of save files isnt much, unless you want to have thousands of quicksaves like people who play Fallout 3. And cartidges being more expensive to produce, can you back that up?

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

JumpmanZ

Gaming could easily move to/stay with cartridges. If I'm correct, a DVD can hold 4GB and a Blu-Ray can hold 8GB (single layer). SD cards are very similar to the cartridges used in a DS except for larger capacity. SD cards and 3DS cards are almost identical (except physical appearance). Anyway, an SD card can hold up to 128GB currently. SD hybrid cartridges just seem like the natural evolution of the media used to store games. Note: I have excluded price from my example because DVDs have reached their minimum cost, but flash memory is decreasing in cost by the day.

I hate signatures.

WAM

They can store as much as a bluray? Um...how? 50GB on a cart? lol. And no I don't think we will ever go back to cartridges on a console, they cost more money and are harder to make

WAM

ItsFuzzyPickles

Only reason why I would care to see another console that support cartridge is for nostalgia. But my nostalgia isn't exactly the best way to help the gaming industry, so no.

We have to remember the Nintendo 64. Due to it being much more difficult to develop for then the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, it was massively overtaken by the PlayStation (102 million for the PlayStation to around thirty-five million for the Nintendo 64) and in Japan, sold the worst out of the three major consoles. Imagine if Nintendo were to do it this generation, it would ruin the reputation they built up with the Wii crowd this generation and would lose them a lot of money.

Furthermore, your statement about cartridges being as strong as Blu-Ray is false. When double-layer, Blu-Ray can go up to 25 GB, more then three times then the 3DS would ever do.

ItsFuzzyPickles

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Tasuki

Rensch wrote:

No, because within ten years everything will be downloadable.

I doubt that. There are still people out there like me who prefer a hard copy of a game to a downloadable one.

Edited on by Tasuki

RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.

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dsmaster

@HeroOfTime007
Sorry I guess I should have clarified my reasoning a little bit better, what I was really trying to go towards is that instead having to buy $30 memory cards to save your games or having to have a hard drive in the console, the save data could be stored on the cartridge. As for the costs of cartridges versus discs I was really basing this statement off of A.) the fact that a ds cartridge is $30 dollars less then a ps3/xbox 360 game but stores much less and B.) during the N64 era, cartridges were typically more expensive then PS1 games, although like I said I am not 100% sure so I may be incorrect.

EDIT: I just checked on Amazon and a 16GB SDHC card is around $30 while a pack of 25GB Blu-Ray Discs is around $25, so it would seem that in general discs are still cheaper then cartridges.

Edited on by dsmaster

dsmaster

7th_lutz

Back in the 32/64 bit days, N64 games were more expensive than Playstation and Sega Saturn games. I recalled N64 games being anywhere from $59.99 to $69.99 in the United United States depending on the game. I remembered Playstation games being 39.99 to 49.99 I believe it the same with the Saturn.

The cheapest I remember N64 game brand new in store was $39.99, but those games are players choice. Players Choice games are always cheaper than the non player's choice version of the same game

I am basically saying Cartridge games were more expensive than CD'S at the time. I don't know about SD cards compare to Blu Ray though.

Edited on by 7th_lutz

7th_lutz

Burning_Spear

What about preserving backward-compatibility? I'd be shocked if the next Nintendo console didn't allow all the casual gamers to keep playing their Wii Fit and Wii Sports Bowling. And forget them -- I'd still want to play my Wii games.

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TheChosen

I wish. Cartridges are sturdy and last longer. They might get dirty, but they're easy to clean compared to fixing scratched discs.

If the 3DS cartridges are gonna be 8 gigs or so, I could see possibility on using those kind of cartridges in the future. I'd prefer anykind of physical method instead of download only.

TheChosen

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