Carts or Discs?

Remembering the games of yesteryear.

Carts or Discs?

Postby Thoul » Sat Dec 15, '07, 4:56 am

We all know that games used to made as cartridges, which were circuit boards enclosed in plastic cases. The PlayStation introduced the concept of games on CDs, which has evolved to games on DVDs. Which of these methods do you think is better, the cartridges or the discs? Both have benefits and drawbacks, but which way would you prefer for games to be made today?
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Postby SparkyIII » Sun Dec 16, '07, 6:00 am

I like carts better, they have more protection, and are easier to take care of. Instead of improving on disc space they could improve the quality of carts, plus its probably less expensive.
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Postby Neithird » Mon Dec 17, '07, 8:24 pm

I'd rather have disks as we do now. They are a more common technology, so it is easier for game companies to make. Every few years there's a larger type of disk available to allow for bigger games, as well.

Carts are unique to each system, so they cost more to create games with. To get the cart shells, third party companies have to buy them from another company (like Nintendo) and pay licensing fees as well.
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Re: Carts or Discs?

Postby LordShibas » Thu Dec 20, '07, 4:24 pm

Thoul wrote:The PlayStation introduced the concept of games on CDs


Say what? How about the 3DO? Sega CD? TurboGrafx 16 cd addon? CD-i? The Sega Saturn was out before the PS.

Anyway, to answer the question. I prefer the CD/DVD format since it's pushing things forward. Carts became very stale, and too expensive to make. Even though I do love how easy cart games are to pirate.
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Postby SparkyIII » Fri Dec 21, '07, 4:45 am

You sure? Then why are all the carts so much chearper to buy? Wouldn't they be losing money that way?
Everything has a pattern. Something set. Even random things. They aren't random at all, its complex mathematics. The trick is to find the pattern. Then you can exploit it.

People think things have a certain end. Taxes. Work. Due dates don't really exist. Trust me. When you put a band of world scholars in the same room, and set them on talking about anything, the most interesting topics come up. The existence of negative time. The probability of "random occurrence". The government's involvement in the media. And falsified due dates. They aren't real, trust me....
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Postby Thoul » Fri Dec 21, '07, 8:40 pm

Say what? How about the 3DO? Sega CD? TurboGrafx 16 cd addon? CD-i? The Sega Saturn was out before the PS.


I forgot about the Sega CD and didn't know there was a Turbografx CD. I thought the rest of those came out after the PS, the Saturn included. I suppose "popularized" would be better than "introduced."
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Postby Chris8282 » Sat Dec 22, '07, 11:47 pm

I like CDs because I can make my own backups and they hold much, much more. And since I never put my original in a drive, other than the first burn, I'm not worried at all about scratches. Plus, if you're extremely careful with your CDs, it'll probably last longer than the batteries in the carts.
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Postby Chris8282 » Sat Dec 22, '07, 11:50 pm

I just read through all the posts... I gotta get outta this double post habit.

CDs cost less than 2 cents to make. That's the top quality presses that games are hopefully made with. Carts cost a lot more, some of the bigger ones added a considerable amount to the retail price. PS4 for example was so expensive because of the cart (so I've heard)... A 3MB Genesis game is insane.. that's a even a lot for an SNES game with had bigger, more improved cartidges.
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Postby SparkyIII » Sun Dec 23, '07, 8:49 am

So why are they so much cheaper? Trying to get rid of them or something?
Everything has a pattern. Something set. Even random things. They aren't random at all, its complex mathematics. The trick is to find the pattern. Then you can exploit it.

People think things have a certain end. Taxes. Work. Due dates don't really exist. Trust me. When you put a band of world scholars in the same room, and set them on talking about anything, the most interesting topics come up. The existence of negative time. The probability of "random occurrence". The government's involvement in the media. And falsified due dates. They aren't real, trust me....
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Postby Neithird » Sun Dec 23, '07, 3:00 pm

They're just easier to make. A CD is a lot less bulky than a cart. To make a cart, you've got to have the plastic shell, gold for the pin connectors that plug in the system, memory chips, batteries (if the game has saves), and a circuit board to put it on. Each cart is specific to a certain system, so they can only be made by specialty machines.

CDs and DVDs are more standard, so the machines used to print the games can also be used for movies, music, and whatever.
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