Video games
It occurred to me this morning how games have sort of gone backwards.
When our grandkids ask us what types of game systems we used to play when we were a kid, we'll tell them that for nearly two decades our games came on solid state memory cartridges. There were no load times and you could save directly to the game cart itself.
And they will reply "so what, that's how games are right now, except we download them"
Then we'll tell them how the generation after us played games on CDs and DVDs where there were sometimes long load times and you needed a separate memory card to save your game.
They will look at us puzzled for a minute and finally ask "why would things go backwards for a while?"
We'll answer, for the same reason people switched to 8 tracks and cassette tapes between vinyl and CDs. Because at the time it was convenient and cost effective.
In one way or another games took a step backward in that regard. I almost kind of understand where Nintendo was coming from when they made the N64 cart based. Even if they were laughed at. But they were about a decade too early. These days solid state memory is very cheap and most games for consoles as I understand it aren't much bigger then the memory it takes on a DVD. Something that could fit on a relatively cheap solid state memory card the size of your thumbnail.
Of course the profit margin is much greater with a disc then a solid state memory card/cartridge. It's merely pennies to manufacture a disc versus dollars for a memory card. So you really can't blame them for switching based on profit. But in the next decade the difference will probably be very small.
When our grandkids ask us what types of game systems we used to play when we were a kid, we'll tell them that for nearly two decades our games came on solid state memory cartridges. There were no load times and you could save directly to the game cart itself.
And they will reply "so what, that's how games are right now, except we download them"
Then we'll tell them how the generation after us played games on CDs and DVDs where there were sometimes long load times and you needed a separate memory card to save your game.
They will look at us puzzled for a minute and finally ask "why would things go backwards for a while?"
We'll answer, for the same reason people switched to 8 tracks and cassette tapes between vinyl and CDs. Because at the time it was convenient and cost effective.
In one way or another games took a step backward in that regard. I almost kind of understand where Nintendo was coming from when they made the N64 cart based. Even if they were laughed at. But they were about a decade too early. These days solid state memory is very cheap and most games for consoles as I understand it aren't much bigger then the memory it takes on a DVD. Something that could fit on a relatively cheap solid state memory card the size of your thumbnail.
Of course the profit margin is much greater with a disc then a solid state memory card/cartridge. It's merely pennies to manufacture a disc versus dollars for a memory card. So you really can't blame them for switching based on profit. But in the next decade the difference will probably be very small.