If the N64 had a CD-Rom drive, the whole industry would be..

[Anthony1]

Totally different.


Think about it. What if, when the Nintendo 64 was first released it used CD-Roms, like the Playstation and Saturn, instead of the Cartridges. The whole landscape of video gaming could be completely different.


First off, had this happened, then the N64 wouldn't have released at $199.99. It would have likely been $299.99 with Super Mario 64 on CD, or maybe $249.99 without a pack in. So the Nintendo 64 wouldn't have been at it's magic price point of $199.99, but then they also wouldn't have had games that retailed for $79.99 and $69.99.

I can remember when Shadows of the Empire was freaking $79.99! How freaking ridiculous!

Just imagine if the N64 games could have all been $49.99 and some of them $39.99. It would have changed it's perception of being this relatively low priced system with super expensive games.

The one area where the N64 couldn't compete, was the prices of the games. Sony could come out with NBA Shootout 97 for $39.99, while NBA Live on the Nintendo 64 was going to be $69.99 or $74.99.

Plus, just think about all the third party companies that never made N64 games, or only made a few, because of the risks associated with the Cartridge business model.

If the Nintendo 64 had a CD Drive from the very beginning, it's possible that Square would still be in their camp.

That first Final Fantasy on the Playstation was the beginning of the end for the N64, imagine if it was on the N64 instead.

It's certainly possible that the N64 would have become the Number 1 system, and we might not be in a video game world that is dominated by Sony.

Of course, it was Nintendo's extreme greed that kept them from using a CD-Rom drive. They will say that it had to do with Piracy and the fact that CD-Rom systems had such long load times and stuff like that, but everybody really knows that it was all about the fact that Nintendo got an extra 15 bucks or so from every game, on top of the license money, because Nintendo had the exlusive ability to manufacture the cartridges for the N64.


Oh, another huge factor, is how long it took games to be released. Because the games were on a cart instead of a CD, it took them an extra two months or so, to get into gamers hands. Which made the wait for games like Zelda and Mario Kart and Starfox, just that much more excruciating.

[Arcade Antics]

I'm hungry.

[Arrrhalomynn]

Imagine sony and nintendo gone. SEGA WOULD STILL BE ON TOP! W00t!

[Anthony1]

Sega has nobody to blame but themselves.


Let's count the error of their ways.....


1. Sega CD - Extremely overhyped add on that really didn't make any great strides, other than providing CD quality sound and FMV cutscenes.

2. Sega 32X - Talk about a total dissaster and a panic move by Sega.

3. Sega Saturn - It was a great system, but they released it in the US, way too late. Plus the system was geared for 2D, when the rest of the video game world was moving to 3D.

4. Sega Dreamcast - after screwing up the Sega CD, Sega 32X and the Sega Saturn, their loyal followers had become so disenchanted with them that they didn't support such a wonderfull system in the Dreamcast.

I will admit that the Dreamcast is an awesome machine, that is in some ways vastly superior to the PS2. It's just bad luck on Sega's part, and bad Karma that the Dreamcast got kicked to the curb.

[Arrrhalomynn]

The same counts for nintendo. :)

[Anthony1]

True. Very True.

[NE146]

Think about it. What if, when the Nintendo 64 was first released it used CD-Roms, like the Playstation and Saturn, instead of the Cartridges. The whole landscape of video gaming could be completely different..

Yeah.. Everyone and their brother would have piles of pirated N64 games in addition to their pirated psx/dc/ps2/xbox games :P

[YoshiM]

First off, where the heck do you buy your games? The most I spent for a N64 cart was $60 back in the day. Usually the games were $50 to $55.

Would the current landscape be different? We're talking about Nintendo here. As you said, there's licensing fees and Nintendo has always been notoriously expensive. Also, not every title for the PSX was that cheap. They were $50 like many N64 titles (at least in my area).

We can't even begin to objectively think of how the industry would have gone if the N64 had a CDROM drive. We can't even begin to think how things were if the Playstation was released as a SNES attachment as originally intended. For all we know things might have happened the same if Sony used some sweet exclusitivity clauses to their even sweeter licensing contracts.

[Mr. NEStalgia]

First off, where the heck do you buy your games? The most I spent for a N64 cart was $60 back in the day. Usually the games were $50 to $55.

I remember when my sister and I had the choice of getting either a N64 or a Playstation, and this was a real contributing factor. I looked around my local Toys R Us and saw nearly all of the new N64 games goin for $69.99 and saw rows and rows of Playstation games goin for under $50. Incidentally I wound up getting a Playstation.

-=Mr. NEStalgia=-

[TheJuggala]

For me when i had the choice between N64 and a playstation, the reason i bought a N64 is that the games were the same price and if i was gonna buy a new game for 50 bucks i wanted it on a cartridge not a disk.

[Anthony1]

When the Nintendo 64 first came out, there wasn't a single freaking game that cost less than $69.99.


I remember extremely clearly.

Plus, there were a number of games for $74.99 and $79.99. I even saw Shadows of the Empire at one place for $84.99. Of course you could search around and find any of the games for $69.99, and maybe even get one on sale for $64.99, but that was the best that you could do, during the initial launch.

It was after the launch that Nintendo started to bring their prices down to more reasonable levels. Of course that reasonable level was still at least $59.99.

[brandver3]

How about if Nintendo just kept making cards, or Atari hadn't made more ET carts then there were systems, or if the Game Gear had toppeled the Game Boy, or what if the Saturn had just taken the nation by storm and crushed Nintendo and Sony, or how about if the X-Box came out a year before the PS2 and only cost $100 dollars.

What if man, all what if. It didn't happen, why wonder about it.

[YoshiM]

Those prices must have been in your neck o' the woods, but not in mine. I remember that very clearly as I was a penny pincher then. I or my friends never EVER paid more than $60 for a game and I'm talkin' Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sears, Babbages, Shop-Ko, TRU or Funcoland back then. Face it, the stores in your area must have taken advantage of the trickle of games that came out at first and hosed people.

[zektor]

I think if the N64 was a CD based system things would be different in a few ways, but not in the price to the consumer. The games for this system were basically the same price as the other systems it was going against at that time....at least by me. The difference in it being a CD system price wise would not be for the consumer, but the company themselves. They were spending more than others using the cart media, but selling the carts at just about the same price as PS1 CD's at the time. CD based media is easy to manufacture and reproduce, unlike the cartridge format. So, they were spending more, thus making less profit. If they went with the CD format, they would be producing more, making a bigger profit, and making MORE games. But, I like the fact that they went with carts personally. I still hate CD's :P

[zmeston]

Personally, I find "What if Atari had distributed the NES in North America?" to be the videogame world's ultimate alternate-reality scenario. Of course, as much fun as it is to theorize and predict, it always comes down to what screenwriter William Goldman says about Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

-- Z.

[RubbarDucklin]

If the n64 used CD's instead of Carts then we would have load times...and oh how do I LOATH load times. I do see how it would be cheeper and such and that would be nice. But somehow I don't think nintendo would have that great a CD expirience. I wasOK with the carts :)

[YoshiM]

Personally, I find "What if Atari had distributed the NES in North America?" to be the videogame world's ultimate alternate-reality scenario. Of course, as much fun as it is to theorize and predict, it always comes down to what screenwriter William Goldman says about Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

-- Z.

Now THAT is a good thought to mull over. The Atari Entertainment System?

[Nature Boy]

I'm not sure a disc system would've made a difference. Sony didn't succeed only because of using discs. They marketed games to an older generation and that older generation jumped on board in droves.

[Captain Wrong]

I'm not sure a disc system would've made a difference. Sony didn't succeed only because of using discs. They marketed games to an older generation and that older generation jumped on board in droves.

Bingo. Same as what's going on today.

[overengen]

Personally, I find "What if Atari had distributed the NES in North America?" to be the videogame world's ultimate alternate-reality scenario. Of course, as much fun as it is to theorize and predict, it always comes down to what screenwriter William Goldman says about Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

-- Z.

Now THAT is a good thought to mull over. The Atari Entertainment System?

Let's make an emulator for a system that never existed, the 8-bit AES ! ! ! :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Imagine the Turbo Grafx 16 released stateside in 1989! WHAT NOW BIZNATCHES!!!

:O

First off, Johnny Turbo wouldn't even be a NEC US advertising exec's worst fitful nightmare.

Secondly, we'd have a decent Ghouls'n Ghosts port. Or not, actually, but that doesn't matter. Darn good game. Er, that was the SuperGrafx, my bad...

But you see the outcome. Crazy PC-Engine type games storm America and kids buy them by the bushel! Nintendo stock plummets faster than you can unclog a drain, and Philips doesn't release their groundbreaking handheld CD-i system (or do they?)

The possibilities are endless, or something.

[Ed Oscuro]

Personally, I find "What if Atari had distributed the NES in North America?" to be the videogame world's ultimate alternate-reality scenario. Of course, as much fun as it is to theorize and predict, it always comes down to what screenwriter William Goldman says about Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

-- Z.

Now THAT is a good thought to mull over. The Atari Entertainment System?

Let's make an emulator for a system that never existed, the 8-bit AES ! ! ! :)

What's this? An eight bit Neo Geo AES? :D

[overengen]

Personally, I find "What if Atari had distributed the NES in North America?" to be the videogame world's ultimate alternate-reality scenario. Of course, as much fun as it is to theorize and predict, it always comes down to what screenwriter William Goldman says about Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

-- Z.

Now THAT is a good thought to mull over. The Atari Entertainment System?

Let's make an emulator for a system that never existed, the 8-bit AES ! ! ! :)

What's this? An eight bit Neo Geo AES? :D

Seriously if Atari would have made the next generation of consols after the big crash, what do you think it would have been like?