Why Are NES Games So Big?
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- This question came up a lot in the comments for some recent shorts, so I thought I'd take a crack at finding an answer...
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This is definitely not an exhaustive answer as there are a lot of other reasons why Nintendo might have made the cartridges so big... If you have other ideas or sources to share, please do so! I'm very much interested 😀
They said in their company history book they wanted the NES carts to look more like a "Tape" and they were even called "Cassettes" or "Tapes" during its life. As a kid we knew the games as "Nintendo Tapes". All the advertising in electronics stores was the same.
@@nukfauxsho
Now that you mention it, the games are roughly the same size as an 8-track cart.
The other reason is because some of the early NES games used the same circuit board as the Famicom version. However, the number of pins on the NES is different than the number on the Famicom. Therefore, they needed enough room to put in the original circuit board and then a converter to convert the number of pins to the correct number. That's why the box had to be so big.
I remember hearing that part of the system/cartridge design was also meant to make people think of it as a toy, not a video game console, since confidence in the video game industry had just collapsed. This is why ROB was created, but more importantly for this discussion, why you have to push a cartridge down to "lock it in" even after you've pushed it into the system. The larger size would help with this.
It's meant to mimic an entertainment system like a vcr, therefore the name change to NES
I remember the boxes were very eye-catching. Yes, they didn’t need to be big but I appreciated the larger canvas for game art.
I think it was a really good marketing idea, and probably significantly contributed to the systems overall success.
@@NesHacker it also gives the game makers more room to talk about the game on the big boxes, big logo big art and have room to provide screenshots and descriptions. I love classic video game boxes ❤
Theyve gotten a bit boring nowadays, i miss the game manuals and extra details
this reminds me of the old graphics card with game character or any character printed on the box and cover, very eye catching.
I'll never forget people putting them in their shirt and blowing though lol
I remember PC game boxes as big as an encyclopedia. This was pre-internet so you had to be drawn in with the box graphics without knowing anything about the game. Shiny and embossed, I still have a bunch on my shelf.
I saved a lot of my boxes from childhood when I got a Nintendo game. I immediately would open them up, unfold them and flatten them out. Archive them in the collection. Still have it to this day, and over a hundred games with accessories, multiple systems, etc.
your rich without money
It’s okay bro. I’m a hoarder too.
@@TylerTMG 🤔
very nice
Nice. I did almost the same with snes games but I cut the box and saved the front and back.
Now it is the same for a Switch game. The games are very tiny cards but the boxes are nearly as big as the console.
It’s true and kinda makes sense when a selling physical media: if it’s too small then you risk consumers not noticing it 🤔
@@NesHacker Also stealing is big part of why small stuff is sold in bulky packages.
Yeah but I love it because you get sweet box art, imagine how boring the box would be if it was the size of the cartridge lol
The main reason is display at the point of sales and also theft protection.
50 bucks for that little piece of plastic
For some reason, I’m reminded of a cheap t shirt from the big box stores which had only images of small Mario, a mushroom, big Mario, and the words “size matters”.
Spencer’s gifts in the late 90s/early 00s wants a royalty check.
I think Hot Topic also had that shirt.
Oi hard respect for not trying to make this loop lol, straight in, info on the table, love it
Only vidro gamme for us to play it
Also, if you open one of the very early games released, you'll see a Famicom game board attached to a 60 to 72 pin adapter
Yes, we all just watched that video too. . .
@@jnnx what OP mentioned was NOT in the video at all.
@@sr.metang8193pretty sure they meant another video
@@jnnxI haven't lol
@@JadeJunostill a stupid comment even if true
The excitement I got from seeing those in brand new boxes...
Nothing today compares...
I miss ‘pron’ boxes at the video store behind the bead curtain. Getting a new one was an entire weekend activity 😉
Plus, with kids easily losing stuff all the time because they don't pick up their toys, larger carts meant that parents wouldn't have to deal with tantrums of their little bundles of joy screaming about Super Mario being gone. That way you avoid the subconscious association of the brand with parental stress, the way that slime, nerf darts or other easily misplaceable toys have. It's a very small, and very minute upside but still it's a great feature. (Disclaimer: that aspect of the design philosophy is a story told to me by a University professor, and I could not find any other sources, so it may have been a happy accident rather than a deliberate design method)
This is a pretty good theory
I always assumed that was the reason for the size, easy to keep track of
Lol but also a bigger thing to step on
Are tantrums normal to where you expect that?
@@josedorsaith5261all children get upset, and they're very prone to forgetting/misplacing stuff
My blood pressure gone up after i got jumpscared by that thing inside that pipe 😅
The nostalgia of just seeing those Iconic NES games makes me so happy😊
If you want to drown in that nostalgia, there are videos online showing entire rows of nes games from the late 80's to early 90's on store shelves. Both nostalgic to see, but also crazy knowing that shelf is likely worth upwards of several million dollars today on the collectors market.
Bro Americans got dupped. The nes cartridges eventually had blinking issues and would reset or won't turn on after a while because of the front entry system. They even had to remake the nes back to its original form just to solve this problem.
The extra space was dust storage when you blew into it to get it to boot up.
There is a very real practical reason for making the package larger: When the consumer is browsing the shelves, if they cannot see the cool graphics and read the title from where they are standing, they won't reach up to pull it down.
Yo sir are correct
Yes very probable
They sure got away from that. The Switch are so tiny you practically need a magnifying glass to see what it is and tweezers to pull it out😂
This short put a little tear in my eye for all the great memories of unboxing NES games in my childhood. Thanks, man.
Oh man I forgot all about those black Nintendo game sleeves we used to keep NES cartridges in!
Reminds me of an episode of 'Continuum'. One of the main characters talks about how much packaging waste we have in our time period. It's when Kiera gets a Bluetooth headset.
I remember the PC game boxes of the 90s and early 2000s. They were massive, and it was almost all empty space with just a single cd inside.
While there were definitely a lot of PC games where the box was mostly empty (especially as you get into the mid-'90s and later), there were also a fair share that were basically full due to the size of the manuals and the big stack of floppies they came on. I have several old PC games in my collection that barely fit in their boxes.
In the late 1990's the boxes were that big because they came with an instruction manual as thick as your phone book.
Pushing the cartridge in, and feeling the click when you pushed it down was ooooooh so satisfying
There was nothing like the smell of opening a new NES game, pulling out the plastic, and digging into the instructions.
Just like that, I'm right back there
Family Computer was my first ever console with Mario being my first video game.
Padding the bottom of the box makes sense if you consider that stuff in shipping gets jostled and banged around a lot. Padding the part where the sensitive electronics is just sounds like a reasonable thing to do, especially when most of the cartridge is just empty space.
The Styrofoam wasted in the bottom of box could easily responsible for the collapse on an ecosystem somewhere
@@maxwalsh234I can guarantee that you personally have disposed of enough Styrofoam to eradicate many ecosystems. Don't act so high and mighty
@@maxwalsh234 weh weh weh whatever device your using to watch youtube contains lithium mined by children. now go eat sand and let people enjoy shit.
@maxwalsh234 you're not wrong. I'm in a job that handles a lot of packages that almost never have styrofoam anymore, usually crumpled paper lately but there's still enough bubble wrap to raise my eyebrows lol at least they're really big bubble chains so probably less material overall than the classic sheets.
Theu didnt "ship" them like they did today people.. they were shipped to a gamestore and people would actually drive from home and go out to get the game.. WHO KNEW!
This bigger dize was also for certain cartridges where they took a famicom version of the game, stuck it into at converter to go from 60 pins to 72 pins. The size was to accommodate the 2 but kept the size to avoid confusion onward
didn’t know about the styrofoam in the boxes, pretty interesting. Gotta imagine they were much bigger than atari boxes at the time.
Yeah I would imagine so
The Styrofoam was so it stayed snugged and didn't bounce around and get damage from shipping,its the only reason why things come in Styrofoam packaging idk how people don't catch that
@@RichardAnderson-vd9oqabsolutely, it would just be folded paper/cardboard if it was purely for volume, though I’m sure the added volume was appreciated as well
About the same size actually. The Atari manuals tended to be larger then the cartridge and I imagine they were also using the extra packaging as advertising on shelf.
@@RandomAmerican3000 i remember those days like yeserday. man there was no feeling like shopping for nes games , and so many of them were only 10-20 bucks with only the newest or biggest titles ever pricing at 40 or 50 bucks. you could find a lot of good games in taht 10-20 dollar price range.
Another fun fact, the controller cords were obnoxiously short because you were supposed to pull the whole console out onto the floor or coffee table. This also allowed you to swap games without getting up. Nintendo continued with this as the intended use method through the SNES, N64, and Gamecube. Notice these were all top-loading with those notoriously short controller cords. The Wii was the first front-load console intended to be kept near the tv.
Who said this? They were short because of cost and less power need to run the controllers. Also Japanese living rooms were very small and TVs were placed right next to the Kotatsu in most homes.
Might be more applicable for the Famicom Series though- I own both a SuperFami and a SNES and yeah, the SuperFam Contoller cord is like a whole 1/3rd shorter than the US version.
They were also that big so that they could use leftover Japanese stock with the American pin layout (which was different for physical region locking). So some cartridges are completely full, and feature a Japanese chip plugged into a converter which goes into an American chip with the American pin layout.
but admit it you want it BIG!!!!🤣🤣🤣
Nice one dude
@@cameronlamb1869 yeah baby!
...That... makes sense. Having the extra room allows you to get away with more.
I mean, that foam padding wasn't just filler. It also provided cushioning for the business end of the cartridge, which you don't want getting bumped too badly.
And some boards were bigger than others. Probably especially combo carts.
The boxes would probably have been about the same size anyway even without the bigger cartridge shells, for the sake of the instruction booklets. Maybe a little shorter vertically, but still.
Compatibility with the NES' retailer-appeasement redesign was undoubtedly the main factor.
now that i thinkn about it your right it protected the circuit board area
The box is similar in size to a VHS tape. Slightly different dimensions but the front face that you would see on the shelf or inside the case is pretty close.
You know you might be onto something here. I remember reading that, due to the gaming crash going on at the time, nintendo wanted to distance them selves from the term "video game". Making the cases look like vhs cases was probobly an attempt at that
Just admit that Nintendo America has bad taste and is stupid.
i remember a guy who used to steal the card part of the cartridge out of Zellers and by buying failed games resold them with the other box
One thing to comment, im from an hispanic country and here they were never referred as "cartridges" or cartucho in spanish back in the NES, SNES or N64 era they were called cassettes by most people, it was until the DS era where i saw most people referred them as cartridges at least here.
I tried annoyingly to find pictures of nintendo _cassettes_ in Google without very much luck until I started to learn english and realising it was a _cartridge_ instead, after that I started to learn that enhancement chips like SuperFX helped to make those impressive 3D graphics and so on.
I'm Algerian and we called the cartridges cassettes too
Many people in the US called them cassettes as well, even during the early Atari 2600 days.
Which is funny since Nintendo of America always called them "game paks".
Very few if any ever called them that.
I'm sorry you have to live around all those $plks
As a kid from the early 90's the cardboard box was easily rip and disposable. There was a time before the thought of collecting game boxes.
Oh there is another reason not listed here. When the Nes was being released all across the US Nintendo ran into a little problem. You see, they didn't have enough Nes cartridges to fill demand but had plenty of Famicom ROMs ready to go. Thankfully, with the bigger size of the Nes carts they were able to put a Japanese to US pass-through inside the carts along with the game. Most people, including myself, had no idea we had the ability to play Japanese Famicom games on our Nes's with that little part. None of this would be possible had they went with a standard cart size of the times. It is my belief Nintendo knew this would be an issue and opted to send unsold Japanese stock to us as a money savor. The reason I say this is a great number of black box carts all had the pass-through inside their gray casing.
Addendum- Had we known we all would have taken apart our SMB+Duck Hunt carts for the pass through enabling us to play whatever we wanted. Pretty neat huh?
Why would we want to be able to play Japanese games? Where would you buy them? Internet didn't exist
@@michaelvoorhees5978
Really? Where I live/lived we had stores as early as 1987 that had Japanese games. Also don't you remember all the magazines? They were filled with advertisements for buy/sell/trade games.
@@michaelvoorhees5978
Oops...you also asked why? Do you know how many games came out on the Famicom vs. the Nes?! Let me give you a hint....there were 1,395 officially released games for the Famicom. Out of those 1,390 games we got 681. Most, meaning 80% to 85% are all completely playable without having to speak Japanese. Further, a great deal of them actually have English text in them. So I can give you 709 reasons to have the ability to play Famicom games on your Nes.
Perhaps the biggest reason why you would want to play Famicom games on your Nes...a large portion of the very best games we got are inferior to their Japanese counterparts. How would you like to see cutscenes (in English) in Contra? What about fully moving backgrounds like shaking trees in the wind in Contra? What about 2 extra sound channels in Castlevania 3 making it sound almost as good as a Genesis game? They were doing things on the Famicom with helper chips on their carts to pull crazy effects that we didn't get until the 16-bit revolution. That's the difference....
Addendum- Because of the growing import market I got to see Super Mario Brothers 3 in 1989 running on an Nes with a converter. The guy was actually selling them together as a "import starter kit" for 200 dollars. Even though by then I had my Sega Genesis I wanted it so badly I could taste it. My mom told me to go pound sand. (If you're interested I could tell you the story of how all of that happened). It all started Christmas Eve and us trying to find a copy of SMB2 for my cousin (,it was brand new here).
@@michaelvoorhees5978 Back as a kid I've heard from a lot of people that in Hawaii you can buy Japanese games easily. Also if you ever bought Gaming magazines back in the day, usually they had advertisements of import games. It listed new and old Japanese games for every system in existence. I was so jealous of people that could afford to import those exclusive games. There wasn't the internet, but if there's a will there was a way.
@@Sinn0100 NES cartridges don't have pins for the sound throughpass, so without a modification Famicom games don't output these extra sound effects while connected through that converter. The mod is trivial, though...
In south America 90% of the kids played with a clone of the Japanese Famicon. We call It "Family" The original NES was too expensive for most families back then
They also made it like this because they wanted to make it look as little like a video game as possible. They marketed this as a toy instead of a video game console due to the video game crash, and so along with designing it like a VCR, they didn't include the word "video game" on the box at all. The Nintendo Entertainment System instead of the Family Computer system, calling the Cartridges Game Paks, etc
Bigger means more visible on the shelves and that means more sales.
They still do this, too. Switch carts are smaller than standard SD cards but still come in boxes nearly the size of DVD/Blu-ray boxes. At one point they could excuse the larger case size for the inclusion of the safety and gameplay manuals, but they removed those to cut cost and waste. Still, the large boxes give more visibility and shelf appeal for the box art. The slightly different case size keeps them from being mixed up with DVD/Blu-ray cases.
Making them bigger makes it harder to be stolen from the shelves. Its also the reason Micro SD Cards come in such big packaging.
Think theft prevention is a benefit but I'm sure it was mostly done to stand out by taking up more shelf space.
Pc games were even better at doing this by putting cd jewel cases in giant cardboard boxes.
I don’t often find retro content in which I learn something new anymore. Subscribed.
I loved buying games in the 90s, even pc games were distributed in big boxes. Part of the experience ✨️
Cd's used to be sold in long boxes as well. They stopped doing it because it wasted paper.
Like records of the past, the box art and illustrated manuals were beautiful.
Yeah PC games in those big boxes really felt special! I always loved my age of empire 2 box!
I've never experienced this bc when I was a kid I had very little awareness about gaming so my parents didn't buy me games
In fact I bought my first game at the age of 13, in 2017, when PC disks were already obsolete
The box art is one of the best things. I maybe not play my games much anymore but I enjoy looking through the boxes!
The Atari 2600 was the opposite of a "failed system" as it sold 30 million units. It was just obsolete by the type the NES came around.
It caused the video game crash in the 80s. Thats why they wanted to inspire confidence in the populace.
Also to make controller ports as the Japanese version (Famicom) had integrated controllers. No ports.
It was the 5200 and ColecoVision that were the two failed systems that came right before the NES. . .
@@StephenMills-c8bA lot of factors caused the crash, it wasn’t just one thing. There was competition from computers like the C64, lack of quality control which resulted in a lot of rushed utter garbage being released, over saturation of consoles (there was like 20 different consoles by 1983), Atari releasing the 5200 (which had the same (or similar) hardware as the Atari 8 bit computer) when the 2600 was bringing them enough cash, and I can go on and on.
It had recently failed thanks to the video game crash of '82.
I remember the odd lot store in my area. They sold 2600 games $5 and below prices. My mom bought me a bunch of games.. of course at this time the system was on its way out.
This is actually not a standard in 72-way cartridges. I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartridge that had a board that went to the end of the plastic cover and there were 14 integrated circuits soldered on it. There were ICs with 40 terminals, others with 28 terminals and smaller ones with 14 and 16 terminals (inverters, decoders and mnemonic blocks). At the time I had my NES-compatible video game, there were few 72-way cartridges that had small cards inside them.
The air space in a cartridge also protects the board, since most people didn't know that half of the cart was air, there were times people dropped them or accidentally crushed them only to find out their game was still fine, because the top part with the air got hit, and not the area with the PCB. Air space also helps disperse heat, not that old 8bit systems produced all that much heat, but there was still some there.
Screwed them up, actually. To achieve the useless "VCR" effect you had to push down on the edge of the cartridge after inserting it, creating a fulcrum effect that would frequently damage the contacts, all so Murkins could pretend they had an "entertainment system". xD
@@mikicerise6250 I found that even the top-loading NES would get those connector issues, though. Strangely, my SNES didn't for whatever reason. I think it was less about trying to make it look like a VCR and more about trying to make it look _less_ like an Atari 2600. They wanted to prove to Americans that the NES was _not_ the AT2600 and so they wanted something that looked and felt way different.
My thought was always shelf visibility. And that it's just of significant size and weight to make the customer feel like they're holding/owning something of significance. Many company decisions on products can be attributed directly to marketing.
even nintendo dunking on me in the bedroom 😭
😂
What?
🚨👮♂️🔦 FBI open up *piracy* cough *piracy*
@@danielburleson563 maybe he's talking about his 🍆
ALSO The larger cartridges required a larger box and provided a more visible presence on store shelves. That last bit is why so many products like toothpaste, over the counter medicines, pens, and are in plastic bubble shell or overly large bright eye catching packaging.
Also being that big means they take more space of the store or anywhere, and they catch the eye of more people, this is really important in the western world because a big part of the gaming world was just visiting the house of a friend and seeing all the games they have.
and moving drugs around
@knightwolf3511 citation required
Retail packaging is also made to be larger to discourage shoplifting.
The design of the US NES system was done by the same company that did the front loading VHS VCRs…JVC.
I love how big they are. I wish my PS4 and PS5 games were on LaserDisc.
I remember the smell of that plastic sleeve on Christmas morning opening up nes games. Miss them days :)
Big brain move from the marketing team
Your gold Zelda cartridge looks way better than the one I have.
i got 2 copies of zelda 1 and they both look mint. i can't remember if i have 2 copies of zelda 2 or not , though i might bneen a while since i looked through my nes games.
Several Famicom cartridges were bigger than the usual size, as some used several extra chips that made the PCB bigger.
This would also make it easier to have a more uniform cartridge manufacturing system, which saved some money too.
And they reduced the size until they disappeared for digital games on switch. But that started in 2006. Since you were able to for almost 20 years already. And on computers, even longer.
The reverse happened for the GameCube, at least for the game packaging: US had standard DVD case sizes while Japan's had tiny cases with paper sleeves.
Everything has to be bigger in America 🇺🇸 from hamburgers, to candy bars to video games 🎮
It’s how we be 😂
That Legend of Zelda box and cartridge is genuinely beautiful
Don’t forget the pin conversion that took place in some early carts!
Oh the memories seeing that golden cartridge brings back! Thank you for that brief stroll down memory lane 🤙🤘
What a waste... I always found Famicom to be more comfortable, appealing, pretty, everything.
Its personal opinion, back in 1985 probably most americans would have think of a famicom as a toy rather than an electronic device, like a vcr.
@@brunomoreno3666it *is* a toy
@@brunomoreno3666the NES was advertised as a toy in the US.
@@brunomoreno3666I think that argument is kind of dumb though. In the west the NES was a toy. Like back then 90% of sales were by/for kids. No adults bought it as an "entertainment system" it was just a videogame thing they got for their kids.
Damn I forgot about the styrofoam in the bottom. That sent me back in time
Same here!
Manufacturer: How much plastic do you need?
Nintendo: yes
Also, a few of the early NES games had the original Famicom circuit boards plus a converter board. Gyromite, for example. The cart actually had to be that size to hold the circuitry. The carts all had to be a uniform size not only in case they wanted to to the same for future games (even though they didn’t), but because newer, smaller games still needed to fit the same system as those couple first games.
If the NES had been a top-loader from the beginning, then those first few games probably would’ve been bigger, and the rest would’ve been Famicom-sized.
that original gold cartridge limited edition copy of LoZ was the first game I ever preordered when I was 12 with a few more weeks of summer left, very fond memories
Whoa, that “styrofoam filler” took me back instantly lol.
Thats very true. Before the movie "Coming to America" was released in theaters they did redesign the NES.
And let's not forget this was 1980s marketing. Back then they got high off cocaine, and not the hate of their entire consumer base.
I remember being a kid and busting one of those cartridges open and being amazed by how much open space there was left in the cartridge.
The also came with awesome manuals that were mostly backstory and characters. I loved those things.
I LOVED the credit sized cartridges on our Sega Master System back then.
Just shows you the way plastic processing, things used for colors, and cardboard has come since the days of the NES. I remember going to stores and boxes be everywhere. Kids today forget the amount of actually work people had to do back in the days. Because stuff was so big and massive. Due to issues.
I never ever questioned this but now seeing the interior it makes u wonder.. the bigger deisgn makes sense just for handle-ability. It feels unique for sure.
Remember the excitement of buying a new game you've had your eye on for months? Getting to take out home, open it up, and play it for the first time? Oh, nostalgia. 😊
I ❤ big box art & manuals. I never had any tantrums, everything I own is in MINT condition, nothing ever lost or damaged 😇👑
I loved the large cartridges of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. I was 6 and it was such a nice time to be alive
Japan marketing back in the day was a dark horse, it hits u without you even noticing anything
I was listening to a podcast or something the other day and they talked about how Japan's economy worked in the 80s with exports the the states and stuff. Econ is way over my head, but it was fascinating...
I'm glad the big boxes were a thing because the cover art was iconic
I forgot all about that polystyrene in the box... was a puzzle to me as a kid...
The golden Zelda cartridge was great marketing. I see that cartridge and even now and I think, " I need that plastic gold thing immediately!"
Similar to Disney home video VHS clamshells, just opening one of those at 36yo still brings me back 30 years. They were also oversized and over-engineered compared to the paperboard sleeve many VHS tapes came in. It seemed important and of greater value.
Oh! I totally forgot about that little styrofoam block. Thanks for the memory.
Damn this void brought back so much nostalgia, I was in my preteens when NES first got the market and I grew up trying as many games as possible. It was like a constant Christmas when I could even just play a new game
What an era it was to rent one of those for the weekend from a local shop. I never had a Nintendo, but a friend did, and boy was I envious.
Anyone else get a hardcore wave of nostalgia seeing these old NES cartridges?
Using Styrofoam filler is to make delivery much much more safer when dealing with electronic items
Yeeeah, and I loved those boxes dearly. They were gorgeous and mighty, like fantastical treasures in my little grubby hands.
I remember back in the day getting my first NES was on Travis Air Force Base and the commissary. Everything was locked up behind shells and it was the best day of my life lol
So cool. Now I wanna open up all my nes cartridges and observe the differences.
There was no greater feeling than being a kid in the 80's and your parents finally springing for that NES game you've been wanting for months.
Walking out of the store with that box in your shopping bag was like nothing else.
You knew that you were going to embark on a journey of fun, and sometimes frustration, for the next few months.
heh. I remember being a wee youngling, maybe about 5 or 6... my parents went on a trip the USA for a month and left me and sis at my grandparents' place with my NES. It felt like they were gone forever. I loved grams and gramps so much but I was getting homesick pretty bad and missed my parents. They one night walked in the door to pick us kids up and I was so excited to finally see them... and Dad handed me a copy of Mario 3 which doubled my excitement. Suddenly I wanted to stay just a bit longer and show everyone some Mario 3 but we had to go home right then. I don't think I ever got to show my grandparents the game. heh. Funny how a child's mind works.
Those packages were so satisfying to open, compared to current physical games like the Switch.
i love the design of the cartridges and i wish they would make a comeback
When you open up an NES cartridge, you can literally see the development budget and marketing budget comparison chart.
That gold Zelda cartridge was so cool.
The capacity to upgrade their size isn’t something I knew about before!
I remember going into Toys R US in 89 and 90 and picking out all those games that I wanted. Zelda was the first one I got.
The crazy thing is they were all $59. Of all the things that have changed with games, the price has almost not budged.
My mum still has the NES, was actually the first console i ever played (og Super Mario was my favourite). She knows all the shortcuts to other worlds and she is still quick in the game.
The intentional design choice to emulate the “push in then down” style of VCRs for the NES is why you’ll hear a lot of older gamers refer to the cartridges as “tapes”
Now we don't even have boxes.
I think also they wanted the boxes to look like books, and also people were building their first game library so it felt good to consumers being an already familiar shape
It’s so a fantastic Australian man can make an NES cartridge play NES cartridges, upload it to RUclips and bless my eyes with that particular invention.
I'm terms of the unnecessary size of the game boxes, I am reminded of visual novels. Often times they are in boxes that are bigger than VHS tapes, around the size of an average hardcover book. They look pretty cool sitting on your shelf, but the game itself is just a disc, it doesn't need all that extra space.