What if the SNES had a CD Rom expansion drive?

[Ulticron]

I'm aware that the SNES had the potential to have a CD addon, and that they were even working w/Sony on the whole project before they canned it. What would it have been like though if Nintendo had gone through w/the whole idea. Would it have been a success or just another mediocre addon from the 16bit era. Thoughts, theories, and speculation are welcome, I'm just curious to see what everyone thinks would have happened if Nintendo had tried this route too.

[Nez]

Maybe there would be no playstation. And nintendo CD collectors would wonder why theres so many damn fmv games to collect for it.

[CosmicMonkey]

Had the Nintendo/Philips CD-Rom been released, I don't think much would be different. Nintendo would have still pissed Sony off, so the Playstation would have still been released. It's just that there would have been some damn fine SFamiCD games. Oh, and probably a very funky looking Jpn-only SFami/CD combo unit.

Now, had the Nintendo/Sony CD-Rom/Playstation been released, I think the past 10 or so years would have been very, very different. There's a million possibilities of what could have happened, and that would also depend on the actions of Sega and M$. But I do think that had Nintendo and Sony formed some sort of partnership, we'd all be playing Nintendo Playstations.

[AKay]

I agree with the above assessment.
I could also see if that would have happened the 2 companies merging or spinning off a video game division.
I think its pretty safe to say both companies biggest bread winners are video games now.

I also do think the revolution may become the darkhorse of the next gen bunch. The ability to have the whole NES library on demand and the unique control are 2 very key points.
AKay

[Lothars]

I could see that if they would have worked out that Sony and Nintendo had a spin off game devision but for the most part I think that it wouldn't really have changed anything

it's all good though, still really interesting to think of.

[jajaja]

Think it would be the same result as Sega CD. PSX would have been released anyway I think.

[Jumpman Jr.]

What I would figure, would be that Sony would put all of its technology into the CD add on to the SNES. Then, when the N64 came out, there wouldn't be any PS1 to compete against. This, in turn, (I think) would have greatly increased the popularity of the N64 and there would have been more games to play on it.

[XianXi]

Honestly, I think the games would have been the same but have a way better soundtrack.

[Predatorxs]

I think it would have changed the whole video games scene, most of the consoles around might not have existed? If sony had gone with nintendo, i doudt the whole playstation "Thing" may have never happened, Microsoft may not have seen a niche in the market to start up??

It's endless, all the things that could have changed, and whole world of videogames could have looked so much different, imagine no xbox, no ps2? No GC!

Other consoles would have filled those places, but it would be cool if we could look back and see, how things could have been?

[rbudrick]

What if, what if? Always fun to play that game, lol. What if Alexander the Great hadn't gotten sick? What if Attilla the Hun wasn't offed (supposedly) by his wife? What if Hannibal successfully sacked Rome? The face of the world would be entirely different today in all those cases, and most of us probably wouldn't exist. Lol, sorry getting a bit off topic. :-)

What if the 3D0 didn 't cost $700? What if people took the Jaguar and Lynx seriously (but it was Atari, so they didn't)? What if Sega was as ruthless as Nintendo in the SMS/NES days in getting licensing exclusivity?

History probably could have taken some massive turns at many points in the industry. As for this thread, considering Nintendo's history of making excellent first party games, I think the Nintendo/Phillips/Sony CD add-on would have blown the socks off of the Sega CD. But as someone else said, Nintendo still would have pissed off Sony at some point, and Sony would have entered the market on their own. Both companies have egos too massive not to be in the spotlight for any extended period...they were just destined to butt heads...I just don't see any way around that.

I think there probably would have been less games for the CD add-on than the Sega CD, but more good games, percentage-wise.

-Rob

[ClassicGameTrader]

Although I am not a Nintendo fanboy, I have a newly aquired respect for them not buying into current trends. The decision to not use CD technology in the N64 years later was based on the fact that CD read speed at the time was not up to the standards they found to be acceptable. I think Nintendo has been around for so long because they have never had the mentallity of "Sega is putting a 32 bit processor on top of the genesis, we need to do that for the SNES" and so on. Rather, they push and push the hardware to its absolute limit instead of making the consumer pay for an expensive (And always underutilized) add on device.

Even today this philosiphy rings true, who thought the DS was going to own the handheld market? Why is the revo going to be far less powerful and focused on GAMING rather then being a media center?

The SFX2 chip proved that you don't need an expensive add on to enhance a console. Besides, when it's all said and done, few developers had any idea what to do with all the storage capacity at that time. Nintendo probably fielded offer from companies like Digital Pictures to bring crap like Sewer Shark and Night Trap to the add on device. I can only think of a dozen or so SCD games worth playing, although a few were very good. The problem was the console itself was underpowered to do 3d like the PS1 could, so adding a CD drive really only allowed FMV and CD sound, it didn't enhance GAMEPLAY, the main thing Nintendo has always brought to customers.

Add to these things, the fact that Nintendo has the highest quality standards on the market. They didn't want to take a chance on producing a device that wouldn't work properly, many early CD-Rom units broke down FAST, quality wasn't there yet.

[smokehouse]

After reading a few books on the inside stories of the gaming industry, I think I have a different view on the whole SNES CD thing. First off, when Nintendo went to Sony they wanted a 32–bit add on, not just a slightly improved drive like the Sega CD. Going back into some of my older Nintendo powers, Nintendo talked of the SNES CD add-on as if it were intended to carry Nintendo through the next generation of consoles. In other words it was originally supposed to be the “N64”. It was supposed to make the SNES a hybrid 32/16-bit machine. Now I know the name would have been different but had it worked it would have been a powerful machine. When the ties were broke from Sony, they simply further developed the technology and made it into the Playstation. As a matter of fact it was Sony’s wanting to call their new found machine the Playstation that pissed Nintendo off in the first place.

Nintendo’s decision to make the N64 a cart based system was made in part of their ego being bruised. They basically took a “We’ll show the world (and Sony) that Nintendo doesn’t need a CDROM drive!”

In my opinion Nintendo created their competition. The got Sony to make a 32-bit console and let them go. The Playstation was designed in part with some of Nintendo’s money, how ironic.

[Ed Oscuro]

Maybe there would be no playstation. And nintendo CD collectors would wonder why theres so many damn fmv games to collect for it.

It seems to me that Nintendo was too smart for that. The PlayStation didn't have a ton of FMV games, after all.

[Ed Oscuro]

As a matter of fact it was Sony’s wanting to call their new found machine the Playstation that pissed Nintendo off in the first place.

No, the hybrid console was called the PlayStation back when it was jointly developed.

Nintendo left Sony for Philips so they would have better control over royalties and licensing.

As far as being angered that Sony kept the PlayStation name, I can't say, but you do remember the news from just a few years back where somebody at Nintendo was trying to claim that Nintendo still owned the name.

Nintendo’s decision to make the N64 a cart based system was made in part of their ego being bruised. They basically took a “We’ll show the world (and Sony) that Nintendo doesn’t need a CDROM drive!”

That's not quite accurate because Nintendo went to Philips first and worked on the CD-i a bit before they realized that they didn't want to go with disc media yet - they wanted a reliable system without loading times. The N64 does a darn good job competing with the PlayStation console in everything but CD audio; look at Resident Evil 2 on both systems. Back then I'd say that the immediate loading and decent (if not amazing) PCM MIDI on the N64 really helped the difference look like nothing; N64 games like Goldeneye and the Zelda titles were about as long as PlayStation titles and indeed felt much more detailed than many.

In my opinion Nintendo created their competition. The got Sony to make a 32-bit console and let them go. The Playstation was designed in part with some of Nintendo’s money, how ironic.

Yup

[Teknik_SE-R]

I think it would have just given Sony the power to (eventually) completely eliminate nintendo by taking all of their revenue and learning their trade secrets. I am glad Sony and Nintendo never made the add on. I think it would have been a mess.

[smokehouse]

I think it would have just given Sony the power to (eventually) completely eliminate nintendo by taking all of their revenue and learning their trade secrets. I am glad Sony and Nintendo never made the add on. I think it would have been a mess.

I can see that happening. I think things worked out the way they were supposed to in the long run.

[Anthony1]

The biggest thing that would have happened if the Super NES had a CD attatchment, is that the Nintendo 64 would likely have then used a CD based media instead of cartridge.


Now that, my dear friend, would have changed the course of Gaming History.

[theoakwoody]

Actually, I think that Sony might have been scared to compete with Nintendo if the attachment had succeeded. Originally, Sony wanted to built there own hybrid machine but other than that I don't think they ever had any royalty rights. I thought they were basically the supplier just like IBM for the new Revolution chip. Who knows, everyone is saying the eventually Nintendo would have pissed off Sony anyways so maybe it would have played out the same way. However, if the partnership would have played out I don't think Sony would have developed a next generation system until much later like maybe the late 90's.

This whole scenario would have helped Sega I think. Their only competition would have been the Snes CD, 3do, Jaguar, and the CD-I (which may not have happened without Nintendo's involvement). Because, Sega would have basically been the industry leader, with no strong 32-bit competitor on the horizon, they could have released the Saturn a little later with a stronger lineup. They would've dropped the 32X anyways but they might have continued to develop for the genesis and sega cd. The whole reason they dropped support for everything but the Saturn was because they felt that was the only way they could compete with Sony. Without Sony being in the picture for at least another 3 or 4 years they wouldn't feel pressured to put all of their eggs in one basket. The Saturn would have blown people away compared to everything else with the 3do being the closest graphically. Two things that probably would have had to change for the Saturn to really succeed would be the price point and a true Sonic game. If the original price was $299 and it came with a pack in Sonic game, those systems would have sold like crazy for X-mas '95. Even though the system was hard to develop for I think that there would have been plenty of third party developers jumping on board after seeing the success of all of the Sega Products.

So now what does Nintendo do? They do the same thing they did back in '96 and release a system a year later. Maybe this is where Nintendo and Sony call it quits and Sony goes on to release their new system.

The bigges winner in this scenario is Sega while Sony is the loser. Sega would still be alive and kicking and Sony wouldn't enter the market until much later. Nintendo would probably end up about the same because they ignore their competition and do whatever the hell they want.

[CosmicMonkey]

The biggest thing that would have happened if the Super NES had a CD attatchment, is that the Nintendo 64 would likely have then used a CD based media instead of cartridge.


Now that, my dear friend, would have changed the course of Gaming History.

Had the Nintendo/Philips CD-Rom been released, I don't think much would be different. Nintendo would have still pissed Sony off, so the Playstation would have still been released. It's just that there would have been some damn fine SFamiCD games. Oh, and probably a very funky looking Jpn-only SFami/CD combo unit.

Yeah, good point. Had the Philips deal with the SFami gone well, I'm sure Nintendo would have teamed up again for them to produce the CD drive for the N64. Which would also probably mean no wasted time and money on the DD. I certainly think that going CD during the 32/64bit era would have helped Nintendo compete on an equal playing field with Sony.

[Push Upstairs]

I'd also agree that Ninendo would still have pissed Sony off leading them to make a system of thier own.

Giving Nintendo/Sony a good 5-6 years together (speculation) i'd imagine in this alternate timeline that at this point in time we'd probably just now be seeing the introduction of Sony's 2nd console system.

But this is all thoughts and a really giant dose of speculation.