What if the Nintendo 64 used discs instead of cartridges?

BigBrain

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BigBrain on 14 June 2014

spemanig said:
It's not a question of discs. It's a question of CDs. The PS1 did well because it doubled as a CD player. No CD player, no difference. I mean, they'd have FF7, but they already had Goldeneye, OoT, Mario Kart 64, and Super Mario 64. One more mega hit wouldn't suddenly have made them sell 100m consoles.

LMAO no ,juts no leave it to nintendo fans to once again proclaim nintendo god and sony only doing well because nintendo messed up. Sony had jhuge third party support would still have done very well.

Amazes me how people keep underestimating sony and PS despite pretty much dominance since they started in 1995.

justinian

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justinian on 14 June 2014

Soundwave said:

Turkish said:

XanderXT said:
Would the PlayStation have been a flop? Would Sega still be making consoles? Would Microsoft have joined the console wars? Note: When I mean discs, I mean CDs

What the hell. How could the PS1 have been a flop when it was already above 20 million while the N64 had 0 consoles sold? The N64 didnt flop because it used cartridges, it failed because the PS1 was so dominant.

Pretty sure your numbers are off there. Playstation had a pretty slow start.

Numbers way off. By early 1997 Playstation had 12m shipped.

Playstation was off to a very good start. This was 1995/1996. When compared to the rate other consoles was selling at the time the PS was far from slow.

It's unfair to compare that time with the generations after when gaming became far more mainstream in the internet era.

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justinian on 14 June 2014

archer9234 said:

justinian said:

archer9234 said:

justinian said:
From what I gathered the cartridge pissed off developers because of cost and they only held from 4MB up to 48MB.

Sony was new to the market yet got the lion share of games.

The problem with CDs at that time was that they scratched easily.

The Carts also introduced very early onboard flash memory. Since it was 1997, that was massivly expensive. Which is why games like Pokemon Stadium was $120 retail. And why they created the memory pak for companies to lower the costs on them. One way, thinking ahead. Another, stupid as hell.

That's exactly what I meant.

The thing was also expensive to program.

The opinion of the chief hardware guy should also be taken into account and he admitted that there were many mistakes made with the hardware design of the N64.

Totally. The damn carts all have metal RF shields and fancy plastic end covers for the cart connector hole from dust getting inside. rediculess to have all that stuff in a cartrage. The designers went with the "Porche" factor, VS consumer friendly.

On YouTube there is - or was - an American made documentary on the history of video gaming. On the program the Reggie of the day was reflecting on the N64 and seemed to be saying that CD was the desired option, afterfall they had been working with Sony to develop the thing.

When Nintendo pissed Sony off by going behind their backs and working with Panasonic (or was it Philips) Nintendo couldn't then backtrack and use the CD format designed by Sony. Philips already had the CDi.

Nintendo then decided to use the cartridge system they had been working on prior to plans that included the CD.

I obviously left a whole of the details out but that was the meat of it.

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Turkish on 14 June 2014

justinian said:

archer9234 said:

justinian said:

archer9234 said:

justinian said:
From what I gathered the cartridge pissed off developers because of cost and they only held from 4MB up to 48MB.

Sony was new to the market yet got the lion share of games.

The problem with CDs at that time was that they scratched easily.

The Carts also introduced very early onboard flash memory. Since it was 1997, that was massivly expensive. Which is why games like Pokemon Stadium was $120 retail. And why they created the memory pak for companies to lower the costs on them. One way, thinking ahead. Another, stupid as hell.

That's exactly what I meant.

The thing was also expensive to program.

The opinion of the chief hardware guy should also be taken into account and he admitted that there were many mistakes made with the hardware design of the N64.

Totally. The damn carts all have metal RF shields and fancy plastic end covers for the cart connector hole from dust getting inside. rediculess to have all that stuff in a cartrage. The designers went with the "Porche" factor, VS consumer friendly.

On YouTube there is - or was - an American made documentary on the history of video gaming. On the program the Reggie of the day was reflecting on the N64 and seemed to be saying that CD was the desired option, afterfall they had been working with Sony to develop the thing.

When Nintendo pissed Sony off by going behind their backs and working with Panasonic (or was it Philips) Nintendo couldn't then backtrack and use the CD format designed by Sony. Philips already had the CDi.

Nintendo then decided to use the cartridge system they had been working on prior to plans that included the CD.

I obviously left a whole of the details out but that was the meat of it.

I would like to see that documentary!

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veritaz on 14 June 2014

spemanig said:
It's not a question of discs. It's a question of CDs. The PS1 did well because it doubled as a CD player. No CD player, no difference. I mean, they'd have FF7, but they already had Goldeneye, OoT, Mario Kart 64, and Super Mario 64. One more mega hit wouldn't suddenly have made them sell 100m consoles.

Most people didn't even know it doubled as a CD player or didn't care. I found out my PS1 could do it by accident 2 years in. It was cool but useless since I didn't care and couldn't carry it around anyways. You're also underestimating the sales of exclusives like Crash, Spyro, Gran Turismo, Ape escape, Legend of Dragoon, twisted metal and so forth.

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DarkRPGamer007 on 14 June 2014

3rd party would've stayed with Nintendo. The PlayStation wouldn't of necessarily flopped and comapanies would've warmed up to them but at that time Nintendo was a trusted console maker and would've kept everyone if they would've had discs.

XBOX ONE/Wii U/3DS/PC

RIP Iwata 12/6/1959-7/11/2015

Thanks for all the great memories!

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veritaz on 14 June 2014

DarkRPGamer007 said:
3rd party would've stayed with Nintendo. The PlayStation wouldn't of necessarily flopped and comapanies would've warmed up to them but at that time Nintendo was a trusted console maker and would've kept everyone if they would've had discs.

Not necessarily. Nintendo was already treating them bad and if Sony went out of their way to appease them it could have been almost the same situation.

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Dgc1808 on 14 June 2014

I really don't think much would have changed. The N64 would have sold a bit more. PS1 would have sold a bit less, but would still come out on top.

4 ≈ One

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fluky-nintendy on 14 June 2014

N64 could never had been a disc based console to begin with, because Nintendo never believed in the technology from the very start when they were still working with Sony and some other companies to create a CD-console. And the piracy risks were so high, that Nintendo made sure not to adopt it. Was it the smartest move? Coming from Nintendo, who was invincible in that niche market for that time, yes. The thing that really hurt Nintendo the most, was their capacity to change to the market after losing the throne. And Nintendo still feels like a fish out of the water, still choosing the most uncommon/odd technologies. And at that, they're not being smart.