There's a somewhat active Super Cassette Vision homebrew scene in Japan that's been able to achieve pretty impressive results with the machine's unorthodox graphics hardware. The best looking ones are probably the ports of ChoRenSha68k ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 ) and Space Harrier ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ ), and they've also done ports of Super Mario Bros. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw ) and Dragon Quest ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w ). Of course, the NES ports kind of expose the weakness of being forced to use sprites for scrolling backgrounds, as there's not enough to fill the screen if you want a color background. As a result, Super Mario Bros. only has 1 color backgrounds and Dragon Quest isn't fullscreen.
The Space Harrier port is fun. The music would have been better eliminated entirely but the massive number of sprites makes it no worse graphically than, say, the C64 port. I particularly liked the parallax scrolling in ChoRenSha68K. They really seem to know to play to the video hardware's strengths.
If you're interested in the whole game catalog available from the Super Cassette Vision, the RndStranger youtube channel plays a bit of every game on the system in chronological release order: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KR...
The entire article is so thoroughly Japan-centric that if this isn't being said explicitly, it doesn't need to be. None of these products were ever on the US market.
"Cassette" is just appending the French dimunitive "ette" to "casse", which means "case". So "cassette" just refers to something being in a little box. The word itself has nothing to do with there being tape inside.
In English, the word became strongly associated with cassette tapes because it wasn't widely used before those came around, but the word itself is much older and more general.
The original name for audio cassettes was Compact Cassette, which presumably inspired Compact Disc. But that moniker was long forgotten by the time CDs came out (although its logo probably still appeared on some cassette shells).
I always considered "Compact Disc" to be a dumb name; but I suppose it was forgivable as a reference to the much larger LaserDisc.
I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette.
The words referred to a box where coins where stored. It s probably still used in banks, like when ATMs are refilled.
Surprisingly for "LTO tape", french mostly uses the literal translation of "LTO tape" and sometimes "LTO cartridge" too ; the use of "cassette" is uncommon.
I just discovered it's the word for a bicycle component too.
There is the word "caissette" too, which is a box, small but not necessarily extra small as the "ette" prefix usually suggests in french though. I guess it depends of the context. ("Caisse" == "box")
There is yet another word for small boxes made of wood usually used for vegetables and fruits: "cagette".
"Casse" exists too with another meaning : it s a vehicle graveyard. (It comes from the translation of "to break" wich is the verb "casser").
> I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette.
It only acquired that association due to the prevalence of audio and video tapes being enclosed in cassettes from the 1970s on, and will likely lose it as time goes on.
In terms of underlying meaning, "cartridge" and "cassette" are largely interchangeable, and on the other end of this, there are situations in which "tape cartridge" has been a common construction (especially with backup tape drives that were common in the '80s and '90s). 8-track tapes have also historically been called cartridges.
In Swedish, too, the word for a game cartridge was and is "spelkassett", literally game cassette -- the same word as in "kassettband", cassette tape. I assume it is similar in many other languages.
Nintendo also used this term. Peep the Famicom system manual where the cartridge connector is straight-up labeled in English as 「ＣＡＳＳＥＴＴＥ ＣＯＮＮＥＣＴＯＲ」with katakana furigana (カセット / kasetto): https://ia601903.us.archive.org/17/items/Family_Computer_198...
Probably not related but these cartridges resembled 8-track cartridges which were also often referred to as (8-track) cassettes. It is easier to capitalize on slang than to make up a new word in marketing. Cartridge may sound too technical or even gun-like.
I suspect that the term "cartridge" being used for 8-track shells may be the source of "cartridge" describing the packages that ROM-based games came in, especially given the resemblance between 8-track cases and those of Atari 2600 games.
I think usage of these terms became a bit calcified much more recently than we think. My first computer was a TI-99/4A, and while the term "cassette" was used regularly in its literature to refer to using audio cassettes for data storage, the ROM cartridges that commercial software came on were never called "cartridges" officially, always "solid-state software" or "command modules", with this usage extending well into the '80s.
Lot of people in the US called them tapes or cassettes, too. Usually the older people that also called them Entendos. Probably just to irritate the children, in hindsight.
Lingo of the era was "cassette tape" -- and for a while there "cassette" by itself could mean anything packaged in a small case. "Cartridge" in my youth far more often referred to ammunition than a video game or computer ROM.
The era of time when game consoles were plentiful even if naff are now of rehashed Xboxes, PlayStations and Nintendo; which by the glory is now graphics.
It's sad that to even think of competing in the console race is now near impossible.
As the next consoles generations being AI with AI generated graphics, where's the fun in that?
Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.
You don't have to stick to AAA games for the big consoles though. Tons of fun indie games out there for any platform. And there's even niche hardware these days like the Playdate, a system that is the opposite of cold and sterile!
Yes, you're not wrong. It's just not the same and unsure how to explain it. Consoles had love, warmth and now they're cold and sterile as I said before. They were a lifetime purchase and now you're expected to buy each new revision.
It was different and you felt it. As the old internet to the new internet. Something the new generations won't understand.
Consoles have always been about the games. It was the dedicated hardware for. So my gripe is not that it can't do what a PC can do. I own a PC for that.
Games were creative, imaginative and this was before "AAA" was a thing.
There is no magic to be found.
I find more enjoyment playing old DOS and Amiga games. Which luckily there are sites for that.
The playdate is a thing and true but it's a device i've not used but know I'll use once and put down. It's not in the shops where I can try before I buy.
Indie games are cute. However what I find with indie games, which I own more than a dozen on my steam list are fun for the while and then never get touched. Not my thing.
It's not about the game play, it's about the hardware.
I don't know if I'd describe the difference as "love" or "warmth." But older consoles' design decisions were definitely more varied and developers had to tailor to those limitations and features. Sure, now the Switch has less power than a PS5 and is portable, but that doesn't matter much when it comes to game development unless you need to push graphical boundaries. Very different than old systems with unique input methods, controllers, capabilities, etc. As you said, hardware used to matter. Which is why I find the Playdate a neat system.
Large expensive games need to appeal to the lowest common denominator and feel like they are designed by committee, much more so than they used to due to the huge increase in development costs. But I'm happy with the variety in the indie scene, which includes games that hearken back to older games (e.g, Ringlorn Saga, which takes old Japanese computer RPGs as its inspiration), and games that provide totally new experiences with plenty of creativity. Plus there are niche games that would have never sold back in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., ones with more serious emotional or more adult themes).
Despite that, games tend to follow design trends, so it certainly makes sense that you might just prefer games made during a particular era. I love exploring older games too (I've spent way too much time messing around with old consoles on my MiSTer), but I still find plenty of interesting new experiences as well.
> Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.
I don't think it's that things are digital, or digital distribution. IMHO, it's the consolidation of design without major limitations or character. XBox and Playstation are AMD based PCs with a weird OS, and have been for at least two generations. They don't have a "look", because 3d rendering is pretty reasonable now, and everything kind of looks the same; newer generations look better, but draw rates are plenty high, so things don't have to look a certain way to be playable. They don't have a "sound", because there's so much storage and most of the sound is mixed from (high quality) pre-recorded pieces.
There's a somewhat active Super Cassette Vision homebrew scene in Japan that's been able to achieve pretty impressive results with the machine's unorthodox graphics hardware. The best looking ones are probably the ports of ChoRenSha68k ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wDLOa_4H4 ) and Space Harrier ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9iHAbbzIQ ), and they've also done ports of Super Mario Bros. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudYEDUK3Nw ) and Dragon Quest ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisV8xHCB-w ). Of course, the NES ports kind of expose the weakness of being forced to use sprites for scrolling backgrounds, as there's not enough to fill the screen if you want a color background. As a result, Super Mario Bros. only has 1 color backgrounds and Dragon Quest isn't fullscreen.
The Space Harrier port is fun. The music would have been better eliminated entirely but the massive number of sprites makes it no worse graphically than, say, the C64 port. I particularly liked the parallax scrolling in ChoRenSha68K. They really seem to know to play to the video hardware's strengths.
If you're interested in the whole game catalog available from the Super Cassette Vision, the RndStranger youtube channel plays a bit of every game on the system in chronological release order: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1sb8k4ZPagbvyrcU13KR...
You should mention that you mean the japan console market, not US.
In 1983 the US console market collapsed because of the many low-quality atari games and not-licenced consoles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983
The NES was released in US test markets as the redesigned NES in October 1985.
The entire article is so thoroughly Japan-centric that if this isn't being said explicitly, it doesn't need to be. None of these products were ever on the US market.
"Epoch went from dominating the cartridge-based game market in Japan to a distant third practically overnight." is the third sentence.
But... Why was it called a super cassette vision? It seems to have used rom cartridges like everyone else.
EDIT:
> The term cassette is a contemporary Japanese synonym for ROM cartridge, not to be confused with the magnetic cassette tape format.
Ah, well, that's not at all confusing.
"Cassette" is just appending the French dimunitive "ette" to "casse", which means "case". So "cassette" just refers to something being in a little box. The word itself has nothing to do with there being tape inside.
In English, the word became strongly associated with cassette tapes because it wasn't widely used before those came around, but the word itself is much older and more general.
The original name for audio cassettes was Compact Cassette, which presumably inspired Compact Disc. But that moniker was long forgotten by the time CDs came out (although its logo probably still appeared on some cassette shells).
I always considered "Compact Disc" to be a dumb name; but I suppose it was forgivable as a reference to the much larger LaserDisc.
I always assumed it was a reference to music vinyl records. (Same size as LaserDisc.)
I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette.
The words referred to a box where coins where stored. It s probably still used in banks, like when ATMs are refilled.
Surprisingly for "LTO tape", french mostly uses the literal translation of "LTO tape" and sometimes "LTO cartridge" too ; the use of "cassette" is uncommon.
I just discovered it's the word for a bicycle component too.
There is the word "caissette" too, which is a box, small but not necessarily extra small as the "ette" prefix usually suggests in french though. I guess it depends of the context. ("Caisse" == "box")
There is yet another word for small boxes made of wood usually used for vegetables and fruits: "cagette".
"Casse" exists too with another meaning : it s a vehicle graveyard. (It comes from the translation of "to break" wich is the verb "casser").
> I ll add that the usage "cassette" refers usually to a tape in a plastic case, like the VHS cassette, the audio cassette.
It only acquired that association due to the prevalence of audio and video tapes being enclosed in cassettes from the 1970s on, and will likely lose it as time goes on.
In terms of underlying meaning, "cartridge" and "cassette" are largely interchangeable, and on the other end of this, there are situations in which "tape cartridge" has been a common construction (especially with backup tape drives that were common in the '80s and '90s). 8-track tapes have also historically been called cartridges.
In Swedish, too, the word for a game cartridge was and is "spelkassett", literally game cassette -- the same word as in "kassettband", cassette tape. I assume it is similar in many other languages.
Nintendo also used this term. Peep the Famicom system manual where the cartridge connector is straight-up labeled in English as 「ＣＡＳＳＥＴＴＥ ＣＯＮＮＥＣＴＯＲ」with katakana furigana (カセット / kasetto): https://ia601903.us.archive.org/17/items/Family_Computer_198...
Probably not related but these cartridges resembled 8-track cartridges which were also often referred to as (8-track) cassettes. It is easier to capitalize on slang than to make up a new word in marketing. Cartridge may sound too technical or even gun-like.
I suspect that the term "cartridge" being used for 8-track shells may be the source of "cartridge" describing the packages that ROM-based games came in, especially given the resemblance between 8-track cases and those of Atari 2600 games.
I think usage of these terms became a bit calcified much more recently than we think. My first computer was a TI-99/4A, and while the term "cassette" was used regularly in its literature to refer to using audio cassettes for data storage, the ROM cartridges that commercial software came on were never called "cartridges" officially, always "solid-state software" or "command modules", with this usage extending well into the '80s.
Sans the "tape" part I don't think of, well, tapes at all.
Lot of people in the US called them tapes or cassettes, too. Usually the older people that also called them Entendos. Probably just to irritate the children, in hindsight.
Casette bearings are also non-tape casettes.
Lingo of the era was "cassette tape" -- and for a while there "cassette" by itself could mean anything packaged in a small case. "Cartridge" in my youth far more often referred to ammunition than a video game or computer ROM.
The era of time when game consoles were plentiful even if naff are now of rehashed Xboxes, PlayStations and Nintendo; which by the glory is now graphics.
It's sad that to even think of competing in the console race is now near impossible.
As the next consoles generations being AI with AI generated graphics, where's the fun in that?
Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.
You don't have to stick to AAA games for the big consoles though. Tons of fun indie games out there for any platform. And there's even niche hardware these days like the Playdate, a system that is the opposite of cold and sterile!
Yes, you're not wrong. It's just not the same and unsure how to explain it. Consoles had love, warmth and now they're cold and sterile as I said before. They were a lifetime purchase and now you're expected to buy each new revision.
It was different and you felt it. As the old internet to the new internet. Something the new generations won't understand.
Consoles have always been about the games. It was the dedicated hardware for. So my gripe is not that it can't do what a PC can do. I own a PC for that.
Games were creative, imaginative and this was before "AAA" was a thing.
There is no magic to be found.
I find more enjoyment playing old DOS and Amiga games. Which luckily there are sites for that.
The playdate is a thing and true but it's a device i've not used but know I'll use once and put down. It's not in the shops where I can try before I buy.
Indie games are cute. However what I find with indie games, which I own more than a dozen on my steam list are fun for the while and then never get touched. Not my thing.
It's not about the game play, it's about the hardware.
I don't know if I'd describe the difference as "love" or "warmth." But older consoles' design decisions were definitely more varied and developers had to tailor to those limitations and features. Sure, now the Switch has less power than a PS5 and is portable, but that doesn't matter much when it comes to game development unless you need to push graphical boundaries. Very different than old systems with unique input methods, controllers, capabilities, etc. As you said, hardware used to matter. Which is why I find the Playdate a neat system.
Large expensive games need to appeal to the lowest common denominator and feel like they are designed by committee, much more so than they used to due to the huge increase in development costs. But I'm happy with the variety in the indie scene, which includes games that hearken back to older games (e.g, Ringlorn Saga, which takes old Japanese computer RPGs as its inspiration), and games that provide totally new experiences with plenty of creativity. Plus there are niche games that would have never sold back in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., ones with more serious emotional or more adult themes).
Despite that, games tend to follow design trends, so it certainly makes sense that you might just prefer games made during a particular era. I love exploring older games too (I've spent way too much time messing around with old consoles on my MiSTer), but I still find plenty of interesting new experiences as well.
> Going digital has made everything cold and sterile. The same is true with mobile devices.
I don't think it's that things are digital, or digital distribution. IMHO, it's the consolidation of design without major limitations or character. XBox and Playstation are AMD based PCs with a weird OS, and have been for at least two generations. They don't have a "look", because 3d rendering is pretty reasonable now, and everything kind of looks the same; newer generations look better, but draw rates are plenty high, so things don't have to look a certain way to be playable. They don't have a "sound", because there's so much storage and most of the sound is mixed from (high quality) pre-recorded pieces.
[dead]