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/vr/ - Retro Games


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File: 31 KB, 620x476, FPSHRAKGKS0RNGK.MEDIUM.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324504 No.4324504 [Reply] [Original]

why so much wasted space?

>> No.4324513

>>4324504
maybe they were hoping to one day add more physical memory chips for games with more content.

>> No.4324514

The crash of '83 destroyed retailer confidence in video games. The NES was designed to look like a VCR instead of a video game system. The large cartridges are a result of that design.

>> No.4324525

>>4324504
This game has a full size pcb
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=1031 This one has a full size pcb

>> No.4324554

>>4324504
Same reason every seat in a car is wasted space when you're driving alone.

>> No.4324563

1.) Big Americans like Big Things
2.) The design of the NES meant that a fixed height needed to be chosen for the carts, or else the slot-loading mechanism would not work (this was not an issue on the original top-loading Famicom). They likely went with some headroom in case the chipsets got more complicated and the PCBs bigger. Indeed, some of the more complex Famicom carts (like those using the MMC5-chip) are markedly taller than others.

>> No.4324616

>>4324504
The cart size came first over chip size. If the NES carts were only as big as the chip they'd look like Atari games and fail horribly

>> No.4324629

Air for cooling.

>> No.4324652

To stash your weed.

>> No.4324675

Did yanks really not want anything to do with console games after their Atari crash, or was it just the shoppes deciding for them?

>> No.4324712
File: 21 KB, 384x395, 133547466531.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324712

>>4324675
It was the market research at the time that suggested that American consumers would be more comfortable with the NES design.

Also fun fact the SNES redesign was based on the fact that the vast majority of damaged NESs in American were due to water damage from spilled drinks so they designed the US SNES as blocky so that if you placed a glass on it it wouldn't spill

>> No.4324715
File: 104 KB, 650x360, nes-spider-feature-1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324715

>>4324504
makes a good home for spiders.

>> No.4324730
File: 16 KB, 230x379, Batman_(NES_game).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324730

I have a similar question. Why were NES games packaged in boxes taller than the actual cartridge, necessitating the styrofoam brick?

>> No.4324732

>>4324712
>water
You mean soft drink? I thought the only water Americans drank was their beer.

>> No.4324735

>>4324712

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZmSeBI6Bp4

>> No.4324739 [DELETED] 

>>4324732
what? that's not even a stereotype

>> No.4324767

>>4324730
i think this was another step to make them look more like VHS tapes and stack nicer alongside them on a shelf. they probably didnt want to make the cart the full size of a tape, so they just bridged the gap a bit.

>> No.4324773

>>4324732
#ShotsFired

>> No.4324827

>>4324767
Why cardboard, then? Why not Genesis style plastic cases?

>> No.4324829

>>4324827
VHS tapes largely came in cardboard sleeves

>> No.4324854
File: 71 KB, 538x316, nes game with convertor.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324854

Sometimes they did this shit.

>> No.4324864
File: 3.88 MB, 480x360, giphy.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324864

So they could charge more and it would be more visible on the shelf.

>> No.4324865

>>4324864
they charged the same

>> No.4324881

>>4324712
You've got the story wrong, moron. NES was flat, so people put stuff on it. They made the SNES full of uneven surfaces so that no one would try to put stuff on it.

>> No.4324884

>>4324865
The same as what?

>> No.4324891

>>4324884
ur mom lmao

>> No.4324918

>>4324514
pig if blue

>> No.4324927

>>4324891
HEY-OH
>>4324884
Cartridge games on average before the crash.

>> No.4324940
File: 53 KB, 400x420, nes_ewromf7zu7.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324940

It was a retarded marketing strategy by Nintendo to remake their product so it resembles a bulky VCR or some shit.

But a handful of games did require the extra space, like Nobunaga's Ambition. The PCB was huge in those cases.

>> No.4324968

>>4324940
>like Nobunaga's Ambition
Was the Famicom version a taller cartridge too?

>> No.4324972

>>4324504
It was a system designed for 8 year olds. In a time before smart phones and all this other small useless crap you couldn't expect a kid to not lose a small game.

I'm in my mid 30s and still lose 3DS games more often than I should considering I have a case. There's really no reason to have tiny cartridges unless it helps the system in some tangible way.

>> No.4324978
File: 115 KB, 1000x750, s-l1000.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4324978

>>4324968
Yeah, but cart sizes weren't mandated by Nintendo for the FC, so this was super common.

>> No.4325012

>>4324675
Video game crash is a /vr/ meme. The only people who cared about it back then was Atari.

>> No.4325021

>>4324504
So that you can hide your stash of weed in it I guess.

>> No.4325092

>>4324978
Beautiful. I miss this kind of aesthetic. Now everything is compacted into a tiny little SD card with a small-print label that you'd practically need a magnifying glass to read.

>> No.4325695

>>4325012
It was purely the American home video game market which was dominated by Atari. Atari's fall from grace was a "crash" that caused home video game sales to plummet

Arcades and computer sales were fine and everywhere else outside of America didn't give a fuck because every country
had their own shitty home video game computer and weren't dominated by the Atari market

>> No.4326184

>>4324504
Did you ever see what a NES prototype circuit board looks like? Like if did a search for the translated NES "Earthbound" prototype that was fully complete but never released over here, the circuit board takes up the entire space of the cart. I mean it fills it entirely. I'm guessing all NES prototype carts had that board inside them, for refinement and EPROM chip rewrites, until they got the final build of the game, and then they all turned into the small size board.

>> No.4326195

Ive always thought that they wanted to distance the Nes from the "traditional" videogames due to the market crash a couple years before, that they made the carts bigger so they didnt look like these little pieces opf plastic we just got rid off cause Atari games fucking suck so we are not buying the same crap all over again.

>> No.4326203

>>4324730
Those aren't the actual dimensions of an NES box, that's the sticker.

>> No.4327965

Everyone has had more space than them.

>> No.4327976
File: 246 KB, 1000x569, 20140117_135721.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4327976

I was always curious how Game Boy PCBs managed to be so much smaller than NES / Famicom games. Even the GB port of Nobunaga's Ambition is the same uniform size as any other Game Boy PCB, whereas the NES version took up practically the entire height of the cartridge.

>> No.4328076

>>4327976
tech improves over time.

>> No.4328710

>>4324854
I thought nintendo didn't use globtops?

>> No.4328713

>>4327976
That "logic IC" looks like it's the ROM

>> No.4328718
File: 78 KB, 700x525, item1430249_600px.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4328718

>>4324504
XXL super sized cart, buy one eat TWO

>> No.4329631

>>4328713
That would be correct.
Honestly, that's the level of intelligence I expect from someone who fucking tapes the battery in.

>> No.4329647

>>4325092
Not to forget half that label consisting of some legal warnings.

>> No.4329718

>>4329631
>Honestly, that's the level of intelligence I expect from someone who fucking tapes the battery in.

Nothing wrong taping, except you shouldn't use Scotch tape.

There's no sense in paying extra for tabbed batteries when you can either leave the original tabs intact or replace them with a socket for easier swapping of cheaper non-tabbed batteries. A socket might not fit a GB cart, hence taping works just as well.

>> No.4329721

>>4324504
heat sink

>> No.4329819
File: 73 KB, 540x960, 22490083_1852735718088262_2206644022288161661_n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4329819

>>4324504
Look at this big mother fucker, he knows how to fill a NES shell.

>> No.4329827
File: 993 KB, 250x250, 1506920565778.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4329827

>>4324732

>> No.4329842
File: 96 KB, 940x641, Capture.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4329842

>>4328710

>> No.4329896

>>4328710
You "thought" wrong. And by "thought" I mean believe some kid on the internet.

>> No.4331923

>>4324732
that's not water , that's piss

>> No.4333514

>>4325021
like the hot chick

>> No.4333529
File: 262 KB, 540x720, 20160824_172310.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4333529

>>4324504
If it was any smaller my Castlevania 3 Japanese Audio reproduction wouldn't have worked.