Will Game Cartridges Make a Comeback?

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!'"

Comments

I dunno

[jmknsd]

Blowing into a USB port just isn't the same.

No.

[Locke2005]

Downloadable content is the future, not bits permanently etched into chips or optical disks.

Whatever makes the most sense

[adeft]

The medium switched to disks because they were cheaper to make, held more information, and worked. If cartridges take on these qualities, then there would be no reason to avoid them.

Re:Don't blow

[Killall -9 Bash]

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.

true story:
>
Once upon a time when I was 14, I wanted to clean the connectors on my NES cartridges... reading the NES instruction booklet, and the booklets of the individual games, I learned that I shouldn't use water or alcohol to clean with, because these solvents may damage the circuit board. So instead of a $.99 bottle of alcohol, I paid $10 for a tiny bottle of cleaning solution with a crappy applicator, because it had the NINTENDO seal of approval. Ingredients contained in the cleaning solution: alcohol mixed with water. FUCK YOU NINTENDO.