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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - WSJ: Nintendo’s New NX Console to Go Retro With Videogame Cartridges

Thorstify on 02 September 2016

Awesome :)



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FunFan on 02 September 2016

A few things:

- Right now is not hard to find 64GB SD/Micro SD cards at less than $20. Some examples from Walmart and Tiger Direct. Note that those are customers prices. Also, thats rewritable memory which is more expensive than the Read Only Memory usually used on "cartridges".

- Flash and Solid State prices in general are plummeting while capacities are increasing. There has been a lot of talk on how the price difference between SSDs and HardDisks is shrinking, for example some references here and here.

- Cartridges are a container holding something inside that is designed for insertion into a mechanism. So, technically, 3DS games still run on cartriges and using this term for the NX is most probably correct too.



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BlkPaladin on 02 September 2016
Augen said:
shikamaru317 said:

"Cartridges also allow games to load faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced faster than discs, they said."

I agree with the first 2 points, but I'm confused as to how cartridges can be mass produced faster. You have to actaully mass produce circuit boards to go inside each cartridge, whereas you can burn files to discs quickly and easily. 

On loading I find it depends as have some games on PSV and PS4 and the PSV version has longer loading times despite being on cartridge format.  If Nintendo can bring back SNES level of loading be a nice positive to me as hated loading screens since PS1 era.

Some of that loading time may be caused by compression and/or optimization which is a programming problem, which is what that sounds like when it is only "some of the games" load longer.



BlkPaladin on 02 September 2016
BraLoD said:
melbye said:
I like the idea of using cartridges. With the ability to write data to them it would be awesome if DLC and patches could be stored on the cart directly and not on the system.

Them they would have to produce larger storage cartridges, and have a limit on how much space available they had to offer DLC.
That could make them both more expensive and an obstacle to game expansions via DLC.
Not to say about the day one patches that are sometimes huge, and could eat all the available space or don't even fit on the cartridges right from the beginning.

It sounds, if rumors are true that the NX will also have internal memory for DLC/patches, and with the option of having a SD card to expand that.



DannyDesario on 02 September 2016

If Nintendo wants 3rd party support they still have to allow 15gb day one patches



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Turkish on 02 September 2016

A huge lol to all the armchair experts on forums who have been saying the format would be too expensive.




AZWification on 02 September 2016
anthony64641 said:
What do you mean "retro"? The 3DS and PSVITA both uses carts, so its not exactly retro

On the console side it can be considered retro, the last one to use carts of any kinds was released over 2 decades ago.



                
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Kagerow on 02 September 2016
Augen said:
shikamaru317 said:

"Cartridges also allow games to load faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced faster than discs, they said."

I agree with the first 2 points, but I'm confused as to how cartridges can be mass produced faster. You have to actaully mass produce circuit boards to go inside each cartridge, whereas you can burn files to discs quickly and easily. 

On loading I find it depends as have some games on PSV and PS4 and the PSV version has longer loading times despite being on cartridge format.  If Nintendo can bring back SNES level of loading be a nice positive to me as hated loading screens since PS1 era.

That would be compression's fault. Even lots of games in PS4 uses most memory on uncompressed sound, video, and image (texture) data.

Compressing texture tends to end in heavy loading depending on how much compression it got.

 

Also, for people worrying about Day 1 patch. If this new cartridges are not read only - doesn't lots of day 1 patch contents is about rewriting existing data?



lynksseus on 02 September 2016

I see how NX are able to go mobile because of the these cards, with possible a docking station that uses an enhancement chip. I wonder if Wii U disc reader and/or blu ray is optional upgrades.

Man, we're gonna have the next Nintendo as Scion's or Lego's for a console - detachable/upgradeable parts.



DM235 on 02 September 2016
Miyamotoo said:

Nintendo’s popular hand-held 3DS device uses cartridges that are roughly the size of a large postage stamp.

What's a postage stamp?  Is that a relic from the time of cartridges and dinosaurs?  Is that why they are comparing the size of the two?

Seriously though, I get it that they are child friendly, but I think most kids these days know how to download apps from the AppStore.