> What was the downside? Cartridges rocked. They were sturdy too. > > The only downside I remember was their limited capacity, but that was a product of > the time. > > > Interested into hearing why people think they sucked?
High cost and long manufacturing lead times. This manifested itself in various ways. Publishers would be reluctant to pay the setup costs for a production run of a game that they thought might not sell well. Poor demand forecast could lead to a game not being available in necessary quantities, or a big loss on oversupply if you overestimated demand.
Limited capacity. No it wasn't just a product of the time. ROM was expensive and this limited how much content you could fit in a game while keeping it affordable. Even then the bigger games were expensive.
I only ever ran into the reliability issues on NES and N64, but they were annoying when they happened. Also on-cart backup batteries are a PITA.