Okay, I don't know where to put this thread, so I put it here.

The Nintendo 64 was a good system, the last home system to have cartridges as games. I understand that back then in the early 2000's, that they thought that CD's were better for space, but now, I've seen 2 GB memory sticks the size of my index toe. and there are CD's that are big, scratch easily, and hold a smaller amount of space than an SD card or a Magic Memory Stick. I know that for some reason everything is going completely digital, but if it wasn't, the smart idea would be to go back into making the cartridges.

Any thoughts on this?

I think so, CDs gets scratched and broken to easily. N64 cartridges were awesome. Always liked cartridges more my camera uses them, my backup drive is one as well. Besides the space issue cartridges are a lot more durable.

The purpose of not using a cartridge is primarily so they are cheaper to make. Also, believe they are using DVDs now, not CDs. I personally like my games, controllers, and consoles to be armor plated and water tight, even if they are a bit heavy or bulky.

Yeah, they should go back to cartridges. I've have had so many of my Gamecube games stop working because they ended up scratched. Cartridges could survive a beating. =)

I'm with the CD thing going on with Video Games. Although you do make an interesting point about more space and less fragile.

This is why I like the psp cd's They're made in a way so they won't get scratched. Here's what they look like for those of you who don't know what they look like.

They have a plastic case around them that you just pop into the psp. I think they should do a similar thing with other systems.

They do, maybe just one or two for every console, to bring us back to the good ol days

I think they should bring back the cartredge too.Did you know they had must faster loading times?I mean do you ever remmember waiting on a loading screen on ocarina of time?

gameface138 : I know, that's actually almost the reason I made this thread. I also know that they would hold more space, AND they don't get scratched. It's overall better.

Zamiel : Those are nice too but they can still get scratched But I do like that a lot better then a unprotected disc. My old computer scratched the crap out of all my disks so sometimes its the devices fault for messed up discs. But I think cartridges still win the competition

I agree that cartridges are miles better than discs, a common let down with disks are scratches but this can be easily repaired just follow these steps.

1. Wipe down the damaged disk with soapy water to remove any dust or built up dirt.

2. Dry the disk.

3. Then use metal polish and wipe from inside to out so not to make the scratch worsen after a while the scratch should start to disappear.

4. Polish up.

5. Good as new.

it may be relatively easy to clean or repair but why waste your(or even money)on doing that when a cartridge is generally more cheaper and its more reliable?i think they should be for a few upcoming systems.

The odd thing with technology is that the cartridges were alot sturdier, blow some dust off the contacts was the only problem besides my dog getting ahold of one of the games and using it as a chew toy, but the card on the inside survived his vicious attack. Now just playing a game off a disc runs the chance of it being scratched or a smudge that will cause the game unplayble for a bit if not needing a replacement. The other day played some COD, after the game match on Live, screen popped up saying the disc was dirty and couldn't be read, it wasn't smudged or scratched going into the xbox but just spinning around on the inside it became dirty and had to be ejected just to clean so the laser could read the disc. And yes with the size of flash drives these days you could easily run a bigger game on a cartridge now then on disc.

cartridges can be fixed by blowing on them, no matter what the problem is. This is a win. 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit, that was good s***.

Personally, I would like to see a system that utilizes sd cards as the cartridge. Rather than using them to store memory, put the games on it. Of course, I think we are still a ways from that level but... maybe?

i think its a win for cartridges because i have old playstation games that don't run anymore because they get badly scratched where i cant get them to work anymore. if they were ran on cartridges then i think i would only have to blow out the dust then they should work fine.

um i think so its much harder 2 break a cartridge i thought it would be kewl 2 see nintendo make some new games for older systems and make some more of them it would be cool, great idea

Cartridges were decent. They could handle along of dropping and throwing (many an NES game suffered while I was a child) and with the 64 they proved they could pull off decent graphics with them (as well as with the DS) however, discs can hold my data, and allow for long and more in depth game play.

Yeah, cartridges defeniatly need to come back, discs are not only to easy to brake, snap in half, loose and scratch, but they are also used for movies so it can be easy to loose a game in a pile of CDs and movies, cartridges take a lot of presior ( is that how you spell it?) to brake, are easy to find kinda, and are popular among most or some people. And if it's broken, just blow in the bottom part to get it fixed! They don't get lost in a pile of discs either.

I wonder if graphics will suffer if they return to cartridges and wouldn't the cartridges be to fat to haul around or store anywhere? It's true that CD's are far more fragile however if they make them small enough, I'm all for it.






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I wouldn't mind a return to cartridges (or something similar to them) for consoles. It would eliminate problems like disk grinding. Also cartridges load faster than disks.

TheOmegaDragon : The graphics only take up more space, and since that technology has evolved a ton over the past 10 years, I was thinking that there are 32GB SD cards out there, and the capacity of an average Xbox 360 game is 8/16GB's, and the average PS3 game is 25GB's (Blu Ray is a bit more space demanding), so the cartridge would be either GBA game size or DS game size. Back in the age of the N64, the N64 cartridges only held a few MB's, and today, the average Xbox game is a few GB's (Which would've been huge back then).

metal572 : I know! That's a huge reason to bring them back, virtually no loading time.

Blue ray would be a nice alternative to the scratching problem but those discs are just too damn expensive.

they could go back to the cartridges but im sure whoever tried it would take a while for people to really trust it was better people would see it as a step back.

Lagslayer : They are using DVDs, with the exception of the PS3. The PS3 uses Blu-Ray, I think. Either way, the purpose of optical media in gaming is obviously the cheapness. We are so scared of losing a bunch of trees, that we only let the Chinese use plastic anymore. I mean, sure, trees give oxygen, but do we need to be a bunch of wusses over it?

At least gamecards will live on for a bit... As much as I find them annoying in size.

MegaRevolution1:

Unless you lose cases that easy, and are a hemasn in strength, CDs are only as dainty as the owner. They lose the ability to work properly over years just like those cartridges we love so much, that we blow into. I mean, you can damage a Pokemon game for the Gameboy fairly easy if you are stupid. Same with CD and DVD based games. Not sure how durable Blu-Ray is yet, but it probably is like all optical media.

Really, the only discs that are like the panda bear population is the Gamecube games. I mean... I have freakin' discs just like those for my old PC. Those things are tiny, and just ask for death. I even got the same type of disc with an MP3 player I own. No joke. The only reason for making such little discs on Nintendo's part had to be the longing to out do the child it abandoned(the Playstation consoles). All it did was outdo the minds of idiots who wanted to play heman with the games.

Yeah cartridges rule cd's drool I mean at lest cartridges don't get scratch and read disc error all the time.

I think that Cartridges need to be the new thing, I find them easier to keep track of them than ds games, and they don't get ruined as easily as Disks do.

I agree too, they should come back, I had to buy games so many times because the disc broke, and now patches are preventing to use of a no-cd crack.

I believe that Cartridges will help lower no=cd crack uses and well.... won't it be cool to pop a cartridge into my PC ?

Most of these claims that discs are too easy to break seem more like waabulance calls. I've been using optical media since I was a little kid, and I was able to take care of the games. Yes, discs are easier to break, but saying they are so easy to break, you can't hold them crooked is just saying you broke it and it was your fault for leaving it out or not putting it in cases. Yes, they need cases to live longer, but a simple jewel case for CDs is easy to buy.

A cartridge in a computer sounds cool, but what about us who are big users of our computer? What if we has, say, a burned copy of Microsoft Paint and then it overheated. Cartridges are more prone to overheating, and dust. A CD is only as fragile as the owner's ability to care for it. If you had to buy multiple copies of the same game just for snapping it in half... That is no fault of the CD. The only time it can be the disc's fault is when it's one of those shaped ones some bands put out.

Cartridges are very easy to break if you're not careful. Plastic molded around a chip? That can be a bad idea in some cases.

Retro, how many times have you had issues with a non-used disc? Please, tell me. If it wasn't for a new system, or is taken care of poorly, you are the cause. Not the disc. Also, that chip in the cartridge... That thing is pretty easy to break. I've broken those things in electronics, and have taken apart a controller. I know.

If Cartridges become the new thing, how can that make sense? They were dying out for a reason. Technology advancement. They could be made to hold the entire four discs of Final Fantasy 8 in one somehow, but who really wants to bother? We left cartidges for discs, and now we are going to become big in digital media. Times change.

Cartridges do not need a come back, I can remember many times playing Sega Genesis or Sega 32x or Super Nintendo and N64 and the games would FREEZE up in the middle of heated GAMEPLAY, CDs just get scratched and that is usually the users fault.

KlawedFlaw : I agree that people should take care of their disks, but sometimes a game system can grind a disk. I've heard multiple stories about xbox 360s grinding disks. But yes, people should take care of their disks.

metal572 : Yeah. I know of those consoles. The PS2 has had issues with that, but mine isn't one of those, luckily.

Meh, I personally disagree. Don't get me wrong, the N64 is an amazing console, but I don't personally enjoy blowing on games to make them work. I have enough of that with my SNES, which I'm surprised even works, because I've had it since I was 3.

I want cartridges back i hate cds

diabeticzach : That's kinda a spammy post. why do you want Cartridges back? Besides hating CD's.

I am in total agreement with cartridges, i don't care how many times yo gotta blow in and pat them down into the system when you get it working it continues to work, the problem with my wii is that it cannot read the disc, and after we FINALLY get it to work 3 seconds later it cannot read the disc.. YOU WERE JUST READING IT WII!! Cartridges definitely need to make a comeback!

Totally. I finally beat Event Match 51 on SSBM and i went to play it today and it was scratched! > I love cartridges anyway.

cob : Actually, we aren't that far away. DS games are pretty much specialized SD cards :/.
jmc1097 : Um, don't forget rubbing those CDs/DVDs clean .

So, yeah, I'd be all for it .
I mean seriously... the only reason that we switched in the first place is that CDs used to hold more... but looks like that's been reversed, eh? At least cartridges can't be destroyed by letting them sit on the shelf for too long.

I liked carts for the reason that you could abuse the crap out of them and with a little alcohol and a q-tip they'd work. I think you forget you have to put the name of the game onto the sd card and unless you have super eyesight,you cant read the tile or cover art. CD's and DVD's are nice but just take care of them and you should be okay.

yes cartridges need a comeback best games are on cartridges lox oot

bigNATE : Yeah good call. Scary stuff man! Scarrryyyy stuff.

I don't mind if anyone thinks that cartridges need a comeback, but lets keep it in your head. I can understand that cartridges can be more durable and overall more convenient than a disk, but lets not loose sight of what's important here. Currently, and Single sided, dual layer Blu-Ray Disk can hold around 50GB while a double sided dual layer DVD can hold about 16GB. Bringing back cartridges would seriously limit not only the graphics displayed, but complex game mechanics that you don't see. I think these are more important to gaming than anything. There's only so much to be done with the capabilities of a SNES cartridge. in time, even disks will be become obsolete, and be replaced with something else. Video game companies don't need to look backward, but forward.

SefirothPH : Currently, they have 64GBs the size of my thumb. That's a ton. And there's a ton of room left for accelerators.

Wow, for serious? What about the awsomeness of Blueray? But cartridges are NOT more durable than discs. The bits inside can become loose, if you step on a cartridge it can break or you can break the components inside... Just treat your discs with care. Buy a cd case for a few dollars at Wal-mart and store the discs in there.

Also, for the guy that blew out the dust in his cartridges, that's really bad. Spittle can get in there and cause problems. Try buying a small thing of condensed air and use that instead.

Cloudsnakeskin : i did that with sean white snowboarding and it still dosent work, damn disks!

Yeah I do also think that cartridges are alot better! They should definitly bring them back! There was no loading on cartridge! & scratches on CD could cause glitches!

Yes, the cartridges must come back, you can not fix the "red ring of death" of the Xbox 360 with a cotton swab and alcohol as the NES. N64 was great, the cartridges must come back.

Bobbynibbles : Yes, but that only seems to happen if you treat it like dirt. If you just leave your discs anywhere, they could get scratched, but if you leave a cartridge anywhere, they just stay the same. I have about 50 or so games that are on cartridge.

Bobbynibbles : yeah, cd's may have more space and memory,but original cartridges came in cases too. and tha blu-ray cd's cant be fixed. watch any video on youtube about "how to tough are NES games" and be suprised. NES carts are much more resistant than standard cd's. if you abused the crap out of carts, a q-tip and alcool solves it.

Alex, I have music CDs that I have had from before you were ALIVE that still work great. You say that cartridges will only break if you treat them bad and guess what? CDs will work great if you treat them with care as well. Don't ever put the glossy side of the CD down and don't scratch the top of the CD were the label is.
You are trying to say that cartridges last longer than CDs, but both will get messed up if you treat them bad. Just treat your games well and you don't have to worry about messing them up!

i think that those carts can work for longer than cd's, i've seen N64 carts being abused to the crap out of them and work as new. the solution for all this would be if game companies placed 1 or 2 games onto a single memory stick. like the super mario bros/ duck hunt game for NES.

I like that idea, yet they are so big, that they are hard to find places for them. Also, CDs are just for the game, the N64 wasn't like the Wii, it didn't store the data, the Chips (the game itself) did. so they'd have to go back to those systems.

i completely agree some cartridge consoles in my opinion are better than today's disc consoles like n64 in my opinion is better than the Wii

hackerman : Well, this isn't really about which console is better, it's more of the durability and space holding on a cartridge compared to a disc.

I prefer cartridges than CDs, because.. Of course, because of the fact CDs break easily. 

Although, the N64 did have a problem... The dust problem. You have to blow in the slot, and the hole in the cartridge, and try to press it in, hope for the best for it to work, and if it doesn't, repeat the process. I miss that.

I agree that they need a comeback. Just think about it. There are memory sticks about the size an sd card that hold upwards of 4 gb of space.

I like Cartridges better then disks. I prefer the durability much more then the "space" factor. However, I believe a lot of people are missing one major factor.


Cartridges screw up very easily. I don't remember how many times on the SNES I lost progress because the game "malfunctioned" simply because my cat of all things poked the cartridges lightly with it's nose just to smell it. At that time, my SNES and the games were fairly new and were in rather good quality.

The N64 was a bit better, but it still had some problems. The cartridges could be abused in some games, I.E. the crooked cartridge trick. You can really skip out on a lot of the games like Zelda by lifting the left side of the cartridge out slightly, allowing you to clip through many objects and in some cases when the cartridge is trying to possibly copy data, end up with a glitched file when a lot of crap can happen.



While I prefer cartridges over CD's, there are a few little mishaps the cartridges have themselves involving game-play.

Vincent Swiftstrike : Thats true. So why  not make it so you can't mess with the cartridge during game play. Have something similar to the PS2 Slim. 

2112tomsawyer : Because it's not that easy to just go and fix. Think of it this way: What if they created a sensor to be able to determine if the cartridge was removed even slightly? Then you have the same problems you have with the disks. Even if the cartridge was in, if the system or cartridge got even a little bit poked, it would shut itself off because it thought it was being removed. Then you have the same problem the SNES had; unstable cartridges.


Now and the case of closing something, for one, that would be one big fat system. Now that may not be a problem, but this is: Such a big thing that has to close around the cartridge is going to cook the cartridge. How will the heat that such a large system would generate possibly release the heat in a closed off area? It could be done, but then you would have to design to system to be even bigger.

Vincent Swiftstrike : That makes sense. It made sense in my head, but now that you mention it, over heating would be a problem. 

Cartridges would be interesting to have nowadays. We still have them, for the DS and some even survive for the GBA. For consoles, I guess they would be able to hold much more space, but CD's just seem so much more sleeker I guess.

now that you put it that way the ds cards the best since they are still cartridges and cd really do break to easly.

Nice thread!  I had never considered this before, but it's a great idea!  The cost of making them couldn't be that much different could it?  Plus it would probably help the overheating problems many of the new systems have faced, not to mention the noise.  Those old consoles were almost completely silent when turned on, my xbox sound like an air conditioner or something!  How do we get someone to consider this?

I think that it is just a personal preference as to whether you want a cartridge or not. Everything is going digital. I think that the wisest thing would be to put the games on SD cards, because it is simply more practical than a Giant cartridge or an easily scratched CD. Eventually though, the concept of a physical storage for games and media will be a thing of the past because in the name of efficiency, everything will eventually be downloaded rather than purchased in a store. Some people might say that it wouldn't be a good thing to do this, but most of those people upon questioning will only come up with a reason like, "it just looks cool" or "it's tradition!" or "its just plain better" without any real reason. Games and all other forms of media will all be downloaded rather than used in cartridges or CDs in the future when computers and systems are high tech enough that the standard for downloading movies and games will be met on all consoles and computers even if they are old. But I think that for people without Internet, a simple solution would be to carry a flash-drive or external hard drive or what ever new computer storage software is available at the time around so if you don't have Internet, then you can go download what ever the thing is in either a store, or more likely an automated machine that has all of the available media for download and you just put your drive into the machine and pay, then download whatever it is you are looking for. No more collectors boxes, or physical things, but it sure is efficient.

I'm rather neutral, as both sides of the argument got various valid points. While the traditional cartridge is faster, sturdier, and more reliable...the fact is they are incapable of reading like a disk would, and they costs more to manufacture en masse. I love the legend of dragoon, for my PS1, but two of the disks are damaged so a certain part if the game will not read properly. In contrast, I've acquired an old NES recently, and without replacing any parts was able to repair it and the game by hand, for free due to nothing major being shattered.

Perhaps we should go with the USB format (or that styling), as some people suggested. I got a thumbstick that I bought for about 10-15 dollars, it is fairly solid, holds 8gb of memory, and is extremely compact. If we can use the USB drives effectively, we got all the advantages of cartridges, yet the memory of Blu-Rays. If necessary we could make them a bit bigger, but we could easily make the consoles smaller. If we can make the consoles smaller by using the USB sticks, we are saving materials that way as well.

I'm rather neutral, as both sides of the argument got various valid points. While the traditional cartridge is faster, sturdier, and more reliable...the fact is they are incapable of reading like a disk would, and they costs more to manufacture en masse. I love the legend of dragoon, for my PS1, but two of the disks are damaged so a certain part if the game will not read properly. In contrast, I've acquired an old NES recently, and without replacing any parts was able to repair it and the game by hand, for free due to nothing major being shattered.

Perhaps we should go with the USB format (or that styling), as some people suggested. I got a thumbstick that I bought for about 10-15 dollars, it is fairly solid, holds 8gb of memory, and is extremely compact. If we can use the USB drives effectively, we got all the advantages of cartridges, yet the memory of Blu-Rays. If necessary we could make them a bit bigger, but we could easily make the consoles smaller. If we can make the consoles smaller by using the USB sticks, we are saving materials that way as well. 

EDIT: actually, usb based games could render the concept of consoles obsolete as it can be plugged right into the computer, and the controllers would simply be sold...this of course would cause problems as it would be very easy to emulate something held on a USB drive...

DeltaEdge : Yeah, you just said what I would've brought up (), about physical media (cartridges, CDs, etc.) eventually becoming a thing of the past. In an age when everything is on Virtual Console, even current-gen stuff.


For now, the best we have (as of said physical media), excluding digital downloads that will eventually rule gaming, are DS (and 3DS) cartridges; scratch-resistant blu-ray discs; and SD cards (er, that's part of the DD . . . erm, takeover I guess).



One more thing I wanna mention: I imagine DDs (both present and future) have heavily encrypted copy protection that will really keep pirates and hackers OUT. Like a zombie safe house.

AnthrozilWarroir3 : Yeah, the digital downloads will probably all have that DRM crap like certain CDs and albums had. Inconvenient for the customers but great for the companies. If these restrictions were placed on the media, then it would be much more difficulty to pirate it since all of it would be equipped with that DRM crap. If you can't get the game without the DRM then you have no freedom with the game except playing it. So that means pirating it becomes virtually impossible.

DOWN WITH DISCS!!!!

Really though, the best years of my gaming were spent on that Nintendo 64. I didn't want to touch the slow station with it's ez break discs and endless load times that put me to sleep while trying to play a game. I always felt cartridge to disc was a downgrade and we really need our carts back!