> I agree cartridges don't make any sense today. I made the switch to downloading games > some time ago, so basically any physical media is a step backwards in that regard. > > But speaking in the past tense, they really were great - and the optimal solution, > imo. My use of them was in the era of the Atari 2600, and they far surpassed > alternatives at the time - which was either tape, or five and a quarter inch floppies > - which were slow and much more prone to error. > > Must say, I'm struggling to think of a single cartridge that failed because of dirty > terminals, even the ones I sometimes use now (I still have a 2600 and a bunch of > games). I'm sure it happens, but with minimal care cartridges last.
Well, cartridges started to suck right after the NES. I don't know who in their right mind consider "nostalgic" to blow NES, SNES and GameBoy carts. I never did something like that to my Atari 2600/7800 cartridges and neither to my SEGA Genesis games. There was also the thing with the CIC chip causing faulty errors. Region locking used to be a physical method (i.e. different slot shape) and anyone could build a cart without asking for permission nor "Seal of Qualities" Nazi restrictions.
I'm starting to think Nintendo rescuing the console industry back then was a major drawback and it only delayed what it's happening now. The "everything is turning to PCs" back then had a name: MSX standard. Not saying we could all be playing in Z80 based computers, but probably an evolution from it a lot earlier.
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