Survey Results

I voted for the fact Nintendo did’t use the Cd rom instead of Cartridge, but honestly speaking most of the best games in the two past generatios (psx and N64, just to understand) did not came from cd rom…but were on cartridge
Nintendo demonstrated that a cartridge could be a limitation, but only if the developer has limitations in mind
Ocarina of Time were 32 Megs of pure joy
for example…

I think the only mistake they made, other then VB, was releasing their consoles ridiculasly late. If the N64 released the same time as PS, carts or not, I think the pS would have gone the way of 3DO.

THe cartridge was the main problem for Nintendo, because developers had to spend $15 for a blank card from nintendo and $3 for a blank cd from nearly 20 brands.

Nintedo kiddie image was way before n64. Ask any Mortal Kombat fan about it.

The Virtual boy was a mistake for not being portable. had they released it as a helmet, maybe we would be playing Virtualboy Advanced (with Colors!). Nintendo likes little updates every once in a while, not jumping generations of technology to get the best, and I think they are right. Look at all the Gameboy competitors. DEAD. The all even look a like Gamegear, Lynx, Turbografx Express, even the PSP looks like that Black, Big LCD, somekind of tv mode, expensive, NO GAMES, except for the neogeo pocket (white) which curiously has been the most sucessful one…

I appreciate what people are saying about Carts as compared with CDs but I really don’t think its as simple as that.

Square, specifically, would have probably gone with Sony no matter what (even if the N64 used CD-ROM). They wanted all the FMV extras and going down the story-driven interactive entertainment route. Square also wanted to go with use Sony Pictures as a vehicle for promoting their Final Fantasy films.

I don’t need to tell people here that RPGs are huge in Japan and how damaging the Square episode was, but what was even more damaging was that the N64 arrived just too late.

In Japan, the N64 actually missed not one but TWO ‘Xmas seasons in a row. And as groundbreaking as they were, two games for a launch just weren’t enough (even if they were Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64). Nothing matched the brilliance of Mario 64 for literally months and years to come.

If you still don’t think timing was a factor, consider this: the PS had already built a commanding lead of 10 million units sold even before even one N64 unit had been sold.

The rest is history.

Incidentally, Nintendo repeated the same mistake with GC: it also arrived a full year-and-a-half after PS2.

I’ve read everyone’s comments, but I still don’t see the HUGE problem you’re all talking about with cartridges. Sure it cost a bit more, but cartridges had practically no loading times! (If any at all!) And regardless of specs, I swear the 64 had much better than the PlayStations. I always had an N64 at my house, and my friend had a PS. I remember going there and playing 5 minutes of coolboarders, getting bored, then playing Mario64, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Bond — Endless!

My favorite Nintendo systems were the SNES and the 64 – both with cartridges! And look at the Nintendo system that did the worst? The one with discs! Though, I love my GC and its loading times, graphics, controller, and gameplay. Still.

Oh and about third party stuff, you’re all right; the GC had poor third party support. But the N64?! There were ENDLESS games on that thing!!

The Revolution is going to kick MAJOR ass, even if the new controller sucks, cuz I’ll be able to play all my Nintendo classics.

“VB wouldn’t have been successful had it been portable. The eye strain was too much. So if u make it portable, u’ll have eye strain AND vertigo.”

I don’t know, no one reality said anything when the Gameboy was all different tones of green. I remember when I played one the main problem was the backache, not the red lcd. But that’s my opinion.

“Square, specifically, would have probably gone with Sony no matter what (even if the N64 used CD-ROM). They wanted all the FMV extras and going down the story-driven interactive entertainment route. Square also wanted to go with use Sony Pictures as a vehicle for promoting their Final Fantasy films.”

Square, was working on Final Fantasy 7 fpr the N64 but the main problem was rom size was to small for such a big game (without video which came way later), and nintendo was reluctant to develop such a big cart for for this game. Also Sony offered to Give some money for advertisement so the rest was history.

Nintendo always said loaing was it’s main advantage but, gamers didn’t care about it. They wanted full motion video, so they got it. remember Resident Evil intro? That’s was the first time I tought a video game was low budget. Even today, the main games carry a big portion of fmv instead of real-time like most gamecube games used.

Anyways. Let’s hope Nintendo has a 24x dvd on their Revolution or they might have some loading.

The internal flash-ram in the Rev console is for game saves and the storage of downloaded games.

It has nothing to do with “Load time reduction”.

Also, please get your terminology right. What is a “Flash drive”?

Mo

I didn’t “know” what you meant but I “thought” I knew what you meant. Which is why I asked for clarification.

Don’t take it personally, but when people don’t take the time and care to think about what they’re writing, it leaves it open to confusion and doubt (and God knows the internet forums are full of that). :o)

I believe (and don’t quote me on this) the Rev will use similar (though more powerful) architecture to the GC. ie data will be streamed from the disc into the video and the main system RAM. I believe Nintendo will still be using Mo-sys one transistor S-RAM.

Mo

Carts are the reason you dont have to worry about scratches or long-ass load times.

Ungrateful punks.