What happened to game cartridges? #Shorts

Why don't we use those old ROM cartridges for our video games anymore? #Shorts

[ZeldagigafanMatthew]

I'd rather see cartridges on handhelds anyways. Less moving parts means less things to break and go wrong.

[danholli]

Devils advocate though... the switch has a good reason to use cartridges, they're more power efficient than a umd drive, a LOT quieter, and you don't risk them getting becoming useless by being scratched

[le]

Today, we should probably bring carriages back. Technology in data storage has MASSIVELY IMPROVED since the 1970 and beyond. Just think of the ssd in your gaming pc!

[MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

What's wild is now ROM can hold even more data than even the beefiest dual layer disc so we'll be going back to that and have already gone to straight download only discless.

[ruegore]

You didn't talk about access times being the "pro" for cartridges. That should have been the other side of the argument since you spoke about data volumes as the "pro" for discs.

[tharaxis]

I mean we basically almost universally use cartridge-like technology these days anyway. It's only consoles that remain stuck using disc based media. Today we have SSDs, flash drives, SD cards, etc. they're all memory-based solid state media, just like cartridges, and as a result they're quieter, more resilient and faster than disc based media. It's no wonder that modern consoles have to install the games to your drive (which is solid state) compared to just streaming it off a disc like it used to.

If anything I'd like to see consoles go _back_ to removable/interchangeable solid state media now that the costs to produce have gone way down and the ability to store hundreds of gigabytes on a small cartridge is now possible.

[rubenjorge]

The switch cartridges are literally a perfect physical media except for the cost of producing them. They are tiny so they do not occupy a lot of space, they are plug & play (you don't have to install anything like discs in ps and xbox nowadays that make them useless) and they have roughly the same amount of space as a disc

[flamityy]

It’s interesting how we did full circle. Physical media was worse at first on cartridge but now cartridges can have way more capacity if needed

[wishmaker]

Played a game that was digital, then out of the blue, The company decided to call it quits!... After investing $200 on digital game, I lost Everything... Not even a replay value to enjoy!

RIP: RWBY-AA

So glad LIMITED RUN GAMES is out there Making this Stuff happened!

[sevenarazmus]

The older cartridges tasted a lot better than the new ones used in the Switch.

[lethauntic]

The only handheld that used discs was the PSP, which while kinda cool, isn't really conducive to a small form factor. Imagining the Switch with a disc drive on it gives me heartburn, though I wouldn't mind seeing someone make a mock-up of it just to see how silly it is.

[TheDealer]

Load times on disc's where really bad. You left that part out.

[Velkanis]

i like cartridge media... much much more than cloud or discs, there's a pile of movies and ps1 games dead to scratches and hell even my killzone collection discs died the very brutal way cuz someone got careless an left them in sunlight warping the disc making it unreadable... i appreciate nintendo's aproach for the switch and i absolutely respect it

[Bro]

shoutouts to the Nintendo Famicom Disk System
an add-on to the Famicom that was supposed to solve the lack of storage in cartridges at the time with disks that can hold up to 112kb of data
but technology decided to advance about a year later after the Disk System released which made cartridges cheaper and could store more data than a disk which made the disk format outdated

[jigsound]

Just wondering, if the choice was to be made in this day and age, perhaps all the console manufacturers would go with SD cards due to the speeds and reduced cost?

[kingoftherevolution]

Every portable console worth a lick has used cartridges. It's the same as any flash storage, far as i can tell and might one day be the norm for large enough games who knows

[Alex-R]

Rim cartridges can be useful if they get a reboot with nand chips just because of there durability

[iknowdawae]

Switch cardridges: roughly the size of an SD card
Their boxes: "big chungus - switch edition"

[colewelden]

In the days of 1TB flash drives I would have expected cartridges to make a comeback. They had one thing going for them, durability. I have plenty of working Super Nintendo cartridges and yet I've tossed countless discs that got too scratched up to play properly.

[albinjt]

please do make more such shorts, shorts are a great way to get reach of new audiences on YT and this channel is perfect for general audience