Disks are lame! Why I love cartridges. (and whats yer fav?)

[Dripfree]

I am very fond of cartridge games. Not because I hate load screens or for any real technical reason. I just like them. They're like trading cards to me. Even games I don't really even play I just like to look at them for the art or in some cases lack there of. I mean Ironsword has freakin Fabio on the cartridge how weird is that!! The cartridge looks like the cover of a cheap romance novel with Fabio all shirtless and sweaty wielding a giant sword (a little homoerotic even). In the game your a knight in armor. It's like I was lied too. Not that I really wanted to see an 8bit shirtless Fabio. Another classic in my mind is the 2600 super breakout with the guy in the 70's looking spacesuit holding a rod or something that he is apparently using to hit a ball at a fricken rainbow!! That's so cool!! No but I really do just love looking through my collection of cartridges and just looking at the cover art. I also love the original carts for the Atari 8 bit computers the ones that are brown with the aluminum backs. They got some weight to them. With the metal backs I feel like they could almost take a bullet. Also like the 2600 I love the little spring loaded door on the bottom that only opens when pressed into the computer. But my favorite part of these cartridges is that there is no art. Just the name, what controller you use, and a model # like CXL4012. These carts seem to tell me "This aint a toy man. This is an important piece of computer equipment!". There are many carts that suck for obvious reasons. Like no spine labels (N64, 32x), labels where the glue seems to turn into oil and the labels eventually peel or fall off (Atari 2600, Genesis), or game that just don't stack well (Game gear, TI 99/4a). Even with these fails they still got cool art and that makes me to want to collect them. Anyway at the end of the day the Atari 8 carts are my favorite. However I am fickle and my tastes often change back and forth. I want to hear you opinion what system had the best carts for whatever reason. Or what cartridge had the best art either because it was so cool, or because it was so stupid.

Edited April 17, 2013 by Dripfree

[Algus]

Hard to beat 2600 carts. Ample space for cover art, end labels, compact and durable, and you can store HUNDREDS OF THEM with ease.

 

NES carts make me happy Just, really happy.

[DesertJets]

I will 2nd your love of A8 carts. I like how they are so small compared to pretty much every other cartridge of that era. Even more I love some of the bizarre label variations that are out there.... especially for the Atari branded stuff. My personal fav in my collection is my copy of Eastern Front (1941), which uses the original style cart case with the Warner logo on the back, but has the blue XE game system label. I still don't quite get that one, especially when I have A8 carts with the grey XE style case and the silver label.

[AtariLeaf]

I'm a huge cart fan too and have basically rid myself of any system that uses discs such as PS1 or Dreamcast.

A8 and GB/GBC/GBA carts are really fun to collect for their size. DS stuff is too small though, I'm terrified of losing those loose carts. Actually are the carts? More like flash cards.

Edited April 17, 2013 by AtariLeaf

[AtariLeaf]

There are many carts that suck for obvious reasons. Like no spine labels (N64, 32x), labels where the glue seems to turn into oil and the labels eventually peel or fall off (Atari 2600, Genesis), or game that just don't stack well (Game gear, TI 99/4a). Even with these fails they still got cool art and that makes me to want to collect them. Anyway at the end of the day the Atari 8 carts are my favorite.

 

Unless you consider "Left Cartridge" a label. . .

Edited April 17, 2013 by AtariLeaf

[onthinice]

I really like the third party game makers. Parker Brothers(PB) is my favorite and Activision would be second. For Atari computers it has to be CBS Electronics. The design is simple and nice.

[+pboland]

I like the Odyssey2 carts myself. Sure, they lack the easy to read end label, but the cart handle is so cool. It makes it easier to pull the cart out of the system (and they actually stack nicely too).

[Dripfree]

Even more I love some of the bizarre label variations that are out there.... especially for the Atari branded stuff. My personal fav in my collection is my copy of Eastern Front (1941), which uses the original style cart case with the Warner logo on the back, but has the blue XE game system label. I still don't quite get that one.

I've seen some of what you speak of on the net but all mine are pretty much standard. That is very cool though.

 

I think that 2600 has got some of the best art. My thought is that since there was only so far they could push they graphics they really tried to get your imagination going with the art. Often it will show something like a guy in a spaceship shooting lazers at a demon. In the game your character is a red box or something shooting lines at a blue box. Not that I'm hating the games a great and it works for me. As Sheldon Cooper once said these games use the most powerful graphics chip ever created, the imagination.

[RickR]

The thing about carts that always gets me: Atari pretty much nailed cart design with the VCS. Carts are stackable, have nice labels, end labels so you can tell what game it is without pulling it out of the drawer, a flap that keeps the connector clean, and a just-right size. So many systems that came later blew the design in one way or another. Even Atari (5200 carts have no end label) screwed up something THEY perfected.

[Dripfree]

Unless you consider "Left Cartridge" a label. . .

Lol yea your right but I do still like the carts in spite of that (I used a label maker to make spine labels for mine and these labels peel off cleanly and wont hurt the cart I checked that first). I once had a friend unfamiliar with Atari 8 ask me "what kind of game is Left Cartridge and why do you have so many copy's"

[AtariLeaf]

I once had a friend unfamiliar with Atari 8 ask me "what kind of game is Left Cartridge and why do you have so many copy's"

 

[mbd30]

I'm nervous about buying older cartridge games with battery backup because I'm concerned that the battery is dead or about to die, and I don't know how to replace it. Otherwise cartridges are awesome and superior to disks in that they don't become coasters from getting all scratched up.

[Seob]

I just love all kinds of media. Love the 5 1/4" disks as with 3.5" disk, but also like a ll the differentcartridge designs. I even like cassette tapes. i

[roland p]

I like the small discs of the gamecube They are really unique.

 

I also like the cards of the lynx. They have such nice labels, much cooler than cartridges of competing systems.

[BassGuitari]

They're like trading cards to me.

 

That about sums it up!

[Koopa64]

I'm nervous about buying older cartridge games with battery backup because I'm concerned that the battery is dead or about to die, and I don't know how to replace it. Otherwise cartridges are awesome and superior to disks in that they don't become coasters from getting all scratched up.

 

As old video games continue to become older and older, being proficient in soldering and electronic theory becomes ever more valuable. Seriously, owning cartridge systems become a lot more expensive if you can't fix them yourself. Better pick up a soldering iron and learn how to use it. Replacing cartridge batteries is easy.

[RJ]

Carts are good when you have kids around, virtually indestructable compared to disc-based media. & if they have pics on the labels, even better, that gives some idea of what the game's about.

 

I bet my kid wishes Lego Batman was on cartridge, after he broke the disc inserting it in the PS2 last week, & likely thinking there werent anymore.

 

[bomberpunk]

my answer is going to be Genesis carts, based on that satisfying crunch of friction. it's even more satisfying when you've just removed a game that completely destroyed any hope of you winning and you kinda want to take it out on the console itself by popping in that next game. or maybe that's just me.

[desiv]

I like the Odyssey2 carts myself.

+1

 

desiv

[sqoon]

Something about the offset blockiness of Super Nintendo cartridges is appealing to my eye. No other cartridge had the offset look like these. It does make them difficult to stack on shelves for display though.

Edited April 18, 2013 by sqoon

[AtariVCS101]

I love the 2600 carts the best. I had a PS2 with disks but I abandoned it years ago. I don't know if DS games are really carts but I still don't like the DS that much. I just perfer carts like

NES and 2600 carts much much better than disks. The Imagic Atari 2600 game carts had those extended tops though. I did not like the Imagic carts that much at all. Activision had really cool carts though. But I noticed on my 2600 Activision carts there are really dark spots on the labels. Does that happen for a reason?

[Torr]

Man,.. comparing this to Trading Cards is probably the best way to describe collecting classic games. When I read that, if I lived in an animated world, my pupils would have dilated a little, shimmer, then a small twinkle would have flashed.

We can play these games emulated or even legitimately with Virtual Console, Collection/Anthology discs, etc,.. but we want the physical cart, the fact it has a game digitally stored on it almost becomes secondary. For those that collect Sealed games, the fact it's a "Game" is now insignificant, it IS now a giant trading card, cardboard and the art/text printed on it is all you'll ever really be able appreciate, despite whats inside.

 

Now, as for my Fav Carts. In order of oldest to newest because I can't decide on order of favour.

 

Atari VCS/2600

And specifically Atari carts, and Activcision carts. They have a uniformity to them that makes them easy to sprt stack display.

 

NES

Again nice uniformity only now with basically EVERY cart. However they could be improved if, like Atari's own carts, they used the WHOLE cart face for artwork.

 

Game Boy

They fit so nicely in to Trading Card sleeves and binders. (heh, and the idea still hadn't occured to me until Dripfree mentioned it)

 

SMS/Genesis.

I mainly pick these due to thir awesome clamshell packaging (ecept the damned cardboard cases)

The carts aren't much to look at, especially SMS being only text with no end labels, but they are all uniform (expect damned Accolade and EOA)

Plus they fit almost perfectly into K7 racks.

 

Cartridges I dislike.

Any that don't have endlabels, and Super NES cause even though they do have end labels, they face the wrong way.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Torr

[high voltage]

I love carts because.... I keep them in their original boxes

[madmax2069]

As much as I love carts, look at all of the games we would miss out on if it wasn't for CD. Carts with the storage capacity of a CD would have been astronomical. Hell just look at the Neo Geo carts at how much they cost.

 

Agreed I love the durability and longevity of carts, you can't deny the storage capacity and the cost of optical media.

 

I love all carts equally, it doesn't matter if they have a odd shape or lack end labels.

Edited April 19, 2013 by madmax2069

[icemanxp300]

CD's scratch too easy. I mean simply playing them they can scratch if laser is bad or dust gets in the way. Carts will always be superior in that way. I like nes but genesis boxed being plastic is super nice.

 

As far as storage capacity. I would think a nes size cart w/the memory from like a flash card could be put together to equal the capacity of a cd?

 

A blue ray ps3 does 50gb a 3ds cart (card) does up to 8gb I mean you could link way more than 50gb worth of 3ds sized games to equal the size of a cd? I think cart is still the way to go.