My declining interest in modern video games.

[Dhalsim18]

I appreciate all the attention my little article has generated. It seems I am not the only one who feels this way about video games. Although I am assuming that most of you who share my sentiments are likely late thirties up to mid forties? I am 45.

On a side note, I am actually looking forward to upcoming games. Dark Souls remastered and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection, as well as the SNK Neo Geo Mini. But then it dawned on me... those are not "new" games!

[GTS]

I appreciate all the attention my little article has generated. It seems I am not the only one who feels this way about video games. Although I am assuming that most of you who share my sentiments are likely late thirties up to mid forties? I am 45.

I'm 43. For me it started with the 2600. I then kept gaming with the NES, Genesis, SNES, PS1. My gaming interests went dormant gaming around the time of the PS2. I partially came back around the Dreamcast launch, and then came back 100% around the time of the Wii launch. That was also a time when retro gaming became popular for me (and others.) I started buying old games and consoles, but also a few modern releases. Sorry, I didn't mean to give my entire biography.

[Dhalsim18]

No it is cool. I like hearing about other people's video game interests. I also started with Atari. So our interests have some parallels. Although I strongly dislike Nintendo for the most part. I am a Sony fan boy. Microsoft annoys me with their online all the time angle. But they really ticked me off when they tried to pull the pay an additional fee to play used games on their system. I am so glad that went over like a lead balloon.

[Stalvern]

Systems like the PS1 had to have secondary solid state media (memory cards) just for save states. So, the optical format needed to work in tandem with solid state, and that was true for two generations of optical media. This was actually going backwards, as earlier ROM carts had battery backups. This is a sort of hybrid system which showcases that cartridges, because they could add hardware, could add to the system's ability.

This means nothing, since N64 games not only lost much, much more for being on cartridges than they gained from the possibility of battery backup but also barely even used it, typically relying on the Controller Pak.

What storage size is adequate or inadequate is a matter of opinion.

It actually isn't. It's not a matter of opinion that N64 ports of PlayStation games are severely cut down in their audio and video. It's not a matter of opinion that the GameCube lost a lot of multi-platform games, like the Grand Theft Auto series, because its tiny disks couldn't hold all the assets. It's not a matter of opinion that ptdebate's examples of Doom '16 and L.A. Noire require much of their base content to be downloaded, rather than being on the games' ostensible medium of distribution. The adequacy of storage size is extremely easy to determine: Does the game fit, or does something have to go?

Normal single layer Blu Ray discs only hold about 25 gigs.

Single-layer Blu-Rays haven't been "normal" in years.

The Switch might only have 32 gigabytes, but that is still huge relative to most games of even a generation ago.

The Switch is a current-generation system.

Its also Nintendo, who is not looking at pushing technological frontiers. Solid State continues to advance, and no reason to think that will stop.

You're ignoring the entire point of what you quoted, which is that no matter how much solid-state storage advances, its capacity will always be behind optical media's because of the natures of the technologies. But you're also ignoring why I said that, which was to illustrate that the N64's problems were fundamental, not accidental. Going beyond the N64 - and beyond the Switch - I don't think that the conditions involved can persist much longer.

The progression of gaming hardware makes current industry models unsustainable (and I made some related points with my first post in this thread) - we're fast approaching a likely point when the rising costs of top-level game development, plus the decreasing real purchase price of games as a result of inflation ($60 in 2000 is $85 today, but the price tags haven't changed at all), can lead to another industry crash. If Nintendo produce a cartridge, say, seven years from now, that holds 128 GB or more, developers will be hard-pressed even then to exceed that capacity. Fifteen years from now, I'm not confident that they'll be able to try.

Optical media are inherently fragile. The disc could be damaged by things like strong sunlight, which alters the dyes molecules or flexing the disc, but its scratches that often lead to failures. These scratches are common from just the hazards of handling the disc. The media is read by mechanically spinning a disc, using a motor and a belt. Everything needs to be working, and in alignment to be read. A solid state drive, in contrast, has a direct physical connection to the rest of the hardware, put into an often snug receptor. A cartridge can be tossed about in careless fashion, and be no worse for wear.

The way you make it out, CDs are a careless drop away from unreadability, and CD drives are ready to fly apart at a wrong look. The massive amount of used PlayStations and PlayStation games still on the market (let alone music CDs from a decade earlier) would seem to indicate that durability is not so great a concern. Besides, it's easy to make the opposite points. A scratched disk can be buffed or sealed, while a broken cartridge is a broken cartridge. The very first PlayStation models had a cheap plastic laser assembly that overheated easily and caused a lot of failures, but every full-sized NES has a cartridge slot that degrades easily with normal use. But the truth is that none of these issues matter; for the most part, both technologies basically work, because they were designed by very smart people who knew what they were doing.

[scotland]

But the truth is that none of these issues matter; for the most part, both technologies basically work, because they were designed by very smart people who knew what they were doing.

Yes.

[Atarifever]

I'm on team cart. Discs are quickly falling out of favour in every industry they were in because they are absolute garbage. Streaming movies and shows, SD cards, downloads for music, etc. Every one does not abandon good technology, only junk. The fight is already over. Discs lost. They suck. Everyone knows it. The winner and still champion: Anything else at all.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to listen to a vinyl record and play a 30 year old, failed videogame console on a tube TV.

[Retro STrife]

The "cartridges" of today (i.e., Switch carts) are not really fairly comparable to cartridges of yesteryear (i.e., NES, Genesis, N64, etc.). We shouldn't be treating them like they're the same thing. For anyone debating Switch carts vs. XONE/PS4 discs, I'm sure there's good arguments on both sides (but count me on Team Discs). On the other hand, for anyone attempting to say that old cartridges are a superior medium to discs, you're just being drunk. Old cartridges should never come back, except maybe as a novelty. I thought the PS1 already settled this debate when it massacred the N64.