Why ROM Cartridges Mattered

7 responses to “Why ROM Cartridges Mattered”

1. 

   jamesh

   September 12, 2016 at 5:01 pm

   If the NX uses cartridges, I doubt they’ll contain anything more than ROM and perhaps a little flash for saved games, like all the recent cartridge based handhelds.

   While sticking a second CPU inside a cartridge is a neat way to add extra capabilities to a system, it is also kind of expensive. Also, most modern systems don’t give games free reign over the system in order to enforce their DRM/trusted computing model. Giving extra hardware full access to the memory bus would make that kind of thing difficult.

   Reply
   1. 

      edenist

      September 12, 2016 at 7:43 pm

      Yes and no.

      But even as recently as the DS/DSi, they have been able to use cartridges to expand on features. For example, the Pokemon Black/White cartridge had an IR communication LED/photodiode built in to enable that feature for old DS consoles [it was added to the DSi].

      You can still have DRM in the cartridge while allowing low-level hardware expansion as well, just have some extra pins put on an I2C or SPI bus at a minimum, while leaving the rest for the game data.

      Reply
2. 

   leigh

   September 12, 2016 at 5:03 pm

   During the last weekend alone, I found a lost game cartridge in amongst a bed spread (saving it from the washing machine), almost stepped on one that blended in with the carpet, I’m still trying to track down a cherished Nintendogs and Cats cartridge that may as well require a poster down the shops with my number on it anyway, plus I’m trying to figure out whether or not I want to nuke/save over current save files for about half a dozen games for replay purposes.

   So yeah. I’m 50/50 on having to go through all this again.

   Reply
   1. 

      pointzeroone

      September 12, 2016 at 5:10 pm

      Go through all what again? I’m not sure I understand your problem here.

      Also the Vita uses carts and it saves, your saves to a memory card not the cart.

      Reply
      1. 

         anthonyp69

         September 12, 2016 at 8:03 pm

         Yes the PS Vita does use a cartridge, I would more than likely call it a memory card that is read like a disk, I really don’t think it places itself in addressable memory space.
         But what I find interesting is that everyone bagged the PS Vita for using a cartridge, yet we see people going ape shit over the fact that the Nintendo NX use a cartridge and how great that will be. Really?

         Reply
         1. 

            mrtaco

            September 12, 2016 at 9:59 pm

            everyone bagged the PS Vita for using a cartridgeThey did? I must have missed that, I thought everyone was bagging the PSP for using a disc.

            Reply
            1. 

               gregorvorbarra

               September 12, 2016 at 10:36 pm

               Not nearly as much as they bagged the PSP Go for NOT having a disc.

               The section about the PSP Go in the Wikipedia article on the PSP seems to originate in a different reality, It almost completely ignores the abject failure of the platform.