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Will Game Cartridges Make a Comeback?

Posted by Soulskill on from the as-long-as-we-don't-have-to-blow-on-the-contacts dept.

sk8pmp writes "With the cost of solid state memory going down, will we see the return of the game cartridge? Or will digital distribution reign supreme and transition our entertainment into the cloud? This editorial explores the beginnings of the cartridge vs. disc battle of the '90s and theorizes a second one in the future. 'Imagine if you could marry the vast spaces of discs with the blazing fast speeds of solid state memory. Can you say "no more load times"? You pop the game into the top of the console, so the game is sticking out the top like in ye olden times, and you could see the sweet artwork on the front of the cartridge. The nostalgia is killing me!'"

10 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. They never went out of style by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't see how cartridges ever went out of style. Nintendo DS games come on cartridges. PSN on PSP downloads games to a Memory Stick PRO Duo. Wii downloads games to SD. And there are even still new NES games coming out, like Sivak's Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril and ProgAce's Bio Force Ape vs. Dur Butter.

  2. Don't blow by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    Blowing is a horribly inefficient way to clean cartridges. It's not much better than just pulling out the cartridge and reseating it, and over time, the humidity in your breath can make the problem worse by attracting more dust. If your console's cartridges don't have those idiotic tiny plastic teeth *cough*DS*cough*, use rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab instead. It's fairly close to the method used in the official NES cleaning kit.

    1. Re:Don't blow by MBGMorden · · Score: 3, Informative

      Practical experience reigns of theoretical in this case. As 25-35 year old can tell you, you could pull and reseat NES cartridges till the cows came home and they wouldn't work. A blow from the side though (and usually a 2nd cartridge wedged into the unit to hold the loaded one against the contacts tighter) would get it going in a jiffy.

      Seems the NES was the only system with this problem though (no doubt due to their goofy front-load spring-loaded design). SNES, Genesis, N64, etc worked every time you tossed a cartridge in.

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    2. Re:Don't blow by Pojut · · Score: 2, Informative

      Seems the NES was the only system with this problem though (no doubt due to their goofy front-load spring-loaded design). SNES, Genesis, N64, etc worked every time you tossed a cartridge in.

      As I recall, the top-loading NES didn't have a problem either.

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    3. Re:Don't blow by Chyeld · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's because the problem in those cases were not the cartridge but the connector in the console.

    4. Re:Don't blow by hldn · · Score: 2, Informative

      what you had to do was instead of pushing the cartridge all the way in, only slide the cartridge in far enough to clear the edge and then push it down. no need to wedge it in with another cartridge.

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  3. Re:Disc shaped plastic cartridges? by bugi · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, but it sure would be nice to replace DVDs with flash drives. The disks I get from netflix are often unreadable. Recently, I went through seven replacements for a particular disk and eventually just gave up.

  4. 50gb BR disc : 3$ - 16gb USB key : 30$ by AwaxSlashdot · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pressing a BluRay disc costs less than 3$ per disc (price for just 1000). Such a disc can hold 25 to 50 GB. A DVD is around 1$ and holds 5 to 9 GB.
    A 16GB USB key is at 30$ and 8GB is 15$ on Amazon. I know this is rewritable but a ROM version won't cut its cost by 90%.

    So we won't see SSD replacing discs on data heavy console games anytime soon.

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  5. Re:I dunno by Hatta · · Score: 2, Informative

    IPA is ok, but a lot of greasy particulate stuff that might have accumulated on your carts is not terribly soluble in alcohol. Better to use some contact cleaner (tv tuner cleaner). It's mostly lightweight hydrocarbons, which will dissolve non-polar material better than IPA, and it evaporates when you're done so there's no residue. I've been using the same can from Radio Shack for the past 10 years, and I have a lot of cartridges.

    It's almost empty now. I've heard really good things about Deox-it contact cleaner, so I'm going to give that a try next. In any case, a quick trip to radioshack will do you a lot better than IPA.

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  6. Re:I dunno by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's almost empty now. I've heard really good things about Deox-it contact cleaner, so I'm going to give that a try next. In any case, a quick trip to radioshack will do you a lot better than IPA.

    I use QD electronics cleaner when alcohol doesn't work (it usually does.) QD is available at most auto parts stores and won't damage PCBs or plastic, yet is probably the strongest electronics cleaner I've yet used. I think it's made by CRC.

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