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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Would anything have been any better had the N64 had discs instead of Cartridges?

newwil7l said:
They would have won the gen easily


Haha, no. By the time N64 came out PS1 already conquered the market.



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Cartridges on the N64 was the worst move Nintendo ever made. They lost a ton of third party support because of it, and have never really gained it back.

Sony won the generation primarily from gaining Capcom, Square, Konami, and other companies to their side. This all happened because of Nintendo's cartridges. If that hadn't had happened. Playstation would have just been another Wonderswan or Neo Geo.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

The Graphics would have been better



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

fordy said:
S.Peelman said:

 Going further back though, they shouldn't have bullied Sony during the development of the SNES-CD and should have went for this deal in the first place. They created their own worst enemy.

How exactly did Nintendo bully Sony during the SNES-CD development? Keep in mind that the contract was revealed from Sony that would have essentially forced Nintendo to become a 2nd party developer for Sony's CD addon.

Sony also considered Nintendo a competitor long before the SNES CD. You just need to read the transcripts of how upper management grilled Ken Kuturagi for "working with the enemy" when he designed the SPC700 sound processor for the SNES.

What I meant was, that Nintendo went to Philips behind their backs and dropped Sony suddenly when development of the CD addon and the stand-alone system was basically done.

The development of the sound-chip for the SNES was before Sony had any interest whatsoever in going into the video-game industry. They almost didn't want Kutaragi to do it. When that project became a success, Nintendo returned to Sony for the CD addon and Sony went for it. It wasn't until after that when Sony became interested in video-games and started to develop their own systems (at first together with Nintendo) and they became competitors (afterwards).

Nintendo would've kept their own line of consoles plus the CD addon but allowed Sony to use Nintendo's console technology to create their own stand-alone system that incorporated both. It's not like Nintendo wouldn't have gotten any money off of that. Nintendo would've remained 1st party, Sony would've had a device compatible with Nintendo games and both would be compatible with the CD's. Also, Nintendo would've been the one that had control over the content of both systems. Similar to how the Colecovision got an addon that allowed Atari 2600 games to be played. Or how different companies licenced Philips' tech to create their own CD-i's.

How all that would have affected the 5th generation is impossible to know. There likely wouldn't have been an N64 and PS1 as we know it.

But anyway, Nintendo wasn't only poking with sticks in Sony's side, that's true .



the ps1 also had an onslught of games coming out every week, and they were cheaper than the n64, i remember doom 64 being litterally $80 at walmart. yeah it was about $60 at then electronics boutique, when all ps1 games were $50 or less and had cgi which cartridges didnt support well then and the big grip in magazines then was about cartridge limitations and how much it cost compared to a 10 cent disc.



 

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S.Peelman said:
fordy said:
S.Peelman said:

 Going further back though, they shouldn't have bullied Sony during the development of the SNES-CD and should have went for this deal in the first place. They created their own worst enemy.

How exactly did Nintendo bully Sony during the SNES-CD development? Keep in mind that the contract was revealed from Sony that would have essentially forced Nintendo to become a 2nd party developer for Sony's CD addon.

Sony also considered Nintendo a competitor long before the SNES CD. You just need to read the transcripts of how upper management grilled Ken Kuturagi for "working with the enemy" when he designed the SPC700 sound processor for the SNES.

What I meant was, that Nintendo went to Philips behind their backs and dropped Sony suddenly when development of the CD addon and the stand-alone system was basically done.

The development of the sound-chip for the SNES was before Sony had any interest whatsoever in going into the video-game industry. They almost didn't want Kutaragi to do it. When that project became a success, Nintendo returned to Sony for the CD addon and Sony went for it. It wasn't until after that when Sony became interested in video-games and started to develop their own systems (at first together with Nintendo) and they became competitors (afterwards).

Nintendo would've kept their own line of consoles plus the CD addon but allowed Sony to use Nintendo's console technology to create their own stand-alone system that incorporated both. It's not like Nintendo wouldn't have gotten any money off of that. Nintendo would've remained 1st party, Sony would've had a device compatible with Nintendo games and both would be compatible with the CD's. Also, Nintendo would've been the one that had control over the content of both systems. Similar to how the Colecovision got an addon that allowed Atari 2600 games to be played. Or how different companies licenced Philips' tech to create their own CD-i's.

How all that would have affected the 5th generation is impossible to know. There likely wouldn't have been an N64 and PS1 as we know it.

But anyway, Nintendo wasn't only poking with sticks in Sony's side, that's true .

Actually, both Sony and Nintendo were the ones talking about an all-in-one entertainment system in the home. This was Sony's way of saying that they wanted in on the games market. Nintendo were on board too, until they found out that they'd be relegated to 2nd party status and would lose ALL of their licensing rights to Sony. The reason why Nintendo went to Philips was for that very reason. What, were you expecting them to roll over and take it?

Read up a little on the initial agreement. Nintendo had full licensing of the cartridge side, but the agreement stated that any games made for the SNES CD would be licensed by Sony. Nintendo were afraid that their licensing model would be bypassed for an even cheaper medium, since at the time, they DID believe CDs were the future. It wasn't until later that they got a bad taste towards optical technology, after the joint agreement between Nintendo, Sony and Philips much later.

Sony always had intent to enter the game market in the 16bit era, following in the footsteps of all the other electronic giants. The difference was, they almost got the market leader on their side to make it happen.



No. That is the best thing which has happened to the industry.



Turkish said:
newwil7l said:
They would have won the gen easily


Haha, no. By the time N64 came out PS1 already conquered the market.



Lmfao the delusion

Among many hundreds of other titles, the Playstation would not have had Final Fantasy 7 or 8, Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross, Resident Evil 2 or 3, or Metal Gear Solid if N64 went CD.

The N64 would have had those games along with Goldeneye 007, Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, and Banjo Kazooie.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Playstation and the Saturn would still have released. But I think Devs and Nintendo would not have been held back or restricted as much be the Cartridge. Would Final Fantasy had come to the N64? I still think that many Nintendo gamers were growing up, and despite the decent amount of M and T rated games that the N64 had, I think the PS still would have become just as popular.

But, at least the GC would have went straight to CD's instead of Mini discs. I know that Nintendo likes to be different, but I doubt they would take one step back.