I sort of find making "physical media" of your drm-free digital software to be a bit distasteful. Like, we're going to buy a large amount of small-medium storage and plastic to "store" software...
I sort of find making "physical media" of your drm-free digital software to be a bit distasteful. Like, we're going to buy a large amount of small-medium storage and plastic to "store" software that we could just keep on actual PC storage media like much larger HDDs and SSDs, and we're also going to go ahead and make it so that we have to swap these little carts in and out to switch games?
I largely consider cart/disc swapping to be part of the necessity of benefiting from physical media in closed, walled garden platforms like consoles where future service shutdowns leave digital copies endangered on those platforms. Actually swapping carts is not beneficial outside of "vibes" and maybe lending - in a handheld situation like Switch I even found it burdensome while actually commuting with the device, though that's slightly out of scope for this. (unless this has a future on PC handhelds?)
Also, the statement "Preserve your games as permanent, playable artifacts" is really odd language. This isn't any more permanent than a HDD or SSD. Those carts are just as bound by the laws of physics, thus susceptible to wear and tear. If they're as much repurposed SD cards as they appear to be, they're possibly less robust and lasting than most PC storage. If your DRM free game software collection matters to the degree of preservation, you should have a robust backup system in place following the conventional wisdom of multiple physical locations, redundancy, blah blah. Adding these little carts to the mix doesn't take anything away, but I feel like the marketing language of this is instead reading as "this is all you really need!"
I believe the 'preservation' has less to do with data degradation and more to do with automatic software updates changing or even breaking old games. Either way, you're right in that putting it on...
I believe the 'preservation' has less to do with data degradation and more to do with automatic software updates changing or even breaking old games. Either way, you're right in that putting it on distinct physical media doesn't really change that, it just slows the process down.
I do think there is value in physical media though, when you have to do more than just click a button to change the media it means there is a cost in the time you allot to the choice you made. This can change how you value the time spent enjoying it and perhaps make you more likely to stick with that choice through more challenging parts instead of just closing it and opening something easier.
I think the opposite would happen. If a game was frustrating (usually for non difficulty issues) in ye olde cartridge days, the game just never made it back into rotation. Games with long...
I think the opposite would happen. If a game was frustrating (usually for non difficulty issues) in ye olde cartridge days, the game just never made it back into rotation.
Games with long unskippable cutscenes (especially intro) or any game that experienced a crash or whatever was just put toward the back of the drawer and only pulled back out 20 years later.
I doubt that difficulty of game is a big factor in the gaming population with the wherewithal to set up the system in question. The people setting this up know their gaming habits and the kind of games they like, it isn't a grab bag.
I guess it depends on the person, for me the act of putting in that cartridge meant I'd decided what I was going to do for the next hour and I'd usually stick to it.
I guess it depends on the person, for me the act of putting in that cartridge meant I'd decided what I was going to do for the next hour and I'd usually stick to it.
A simple vote would suffice, but yeah, people are weird about physical media. I mean, I get it, I absolutely do. But my large HDD with an intermittent backup meets my needs perfectly and I have...
A simple vote would suffice, but yeah, people are weird about physical media.
I mean, I get it, I absolutely do. But my large HDD with an intermittent backup meets my needs perfectly and I have nothing to lose track of or carry with me or insert to play a game, etc, etc. Hell, if I were so inclined, if my house was burning down, it would be way easier to grab my backup drive than my (small) collection of physical games I never actually use.
Nevermind, I think you mean to say that since you were in agreement you could have voted instead of replied. I'm OK with the reply though, I appreciate it. I was confused because I thought you...
A simple vote would suffice
What does this part of your reply mean? Nevermind, I think you mean to say that since you were in agreement you could have voted instead of replied. I'm OK with the reply though, I appreciate it. I was confused because I thought you were telling me I could've just voted instead of replied, like on the thread, and was SO confused. My bad!
I agree with the rest of it though, matches my feelings exactly.
I can see the appeal. Maybe you have younger kids and you want to curate access to part of your collection without the rest of the internet/computer bits. Cost is probably close to or less than a...
I can see the appeal. Maybe you have younger kids and you want to curate access to part of your collection without the rest of the internet/computer bits. Cost is probably close to or less than a console, but pc games are waaay cheaper (and often free) and the selection is much larger.
I admit, I'm tempted, as I do sometimes long for the insert-cartridge-and-play days. Has anyone here tried it yet? What's the actual user experience like?
I admit, I'm tempted, as I do sometimes long for the insert-cartridge-and-play days.
Has anyone here tried it yet? What's the actual user experience like?
This seems like a fun project. A different approach might be to just use the physical media to launch things instead of for storage. Reading the media label or contents for identification and...
This seems like a fun project.
A different approach might be to just use the physical media to launch things instead of for storage. Reading the media label or contents for identification and mapping to a program launch. That way you could repurpose any physical media(cd/dvd/floppy disk) you have laying around as a proxy for launching the programs. This would also get around the physical media speed and reliability issues.
Could probably set up something with RFID or NFC stickers on cards for a tap to play setup. It kinda takes away the idea of the game being in an immutable state, but Proton on Steam OS is supposed...
Could probably set up something with RFID or NFC stickers on cards for a tap to play setup. It kinda takes away the idea of the game being in an immutable state, but Proton on Steam OS is supposed to do a lot of that work anyway.
This kind of thing piques my interest, because I think there’s real value in having things stored on dedicated physical media. It makes digital contents tangible, acts as an anchor point for...
This kind of thing piques my interest, because I think there’s real value in having things stored on dedicated physical media. It makes digital contents tangible, acts as an anchor point for memories, can’t be unintentionally deleted as easily, and can act as an unintentional time capsule (though this specifically applies maily to media intended for storing music, files, etc).
The problem is that flash is kinda crappy for this use case. When not used, it decays over time due to the NAND gates leaking, so if the little game cartridge you made from an SD card sits for 15 years there’s a strong chance it’ll be unreadable or corrupted when you pop it in.
What’d be nice is a media format with the resilience of some of the older magneto-mechanical and disc-based formats without the downsides, like a CF card that could sit for decades and still be readable, but I don’t think anybody is working on anything like that.
I sort of find making "physical media" of your drm-free digital software to be a bit distasteful. Like, we're going to buy a large amount of small-medium storage and plastic to "store" software that we could just keep on actual PC storage media like much larger HDDs and SSDs, and we're also going to go ahead and make it so that we have to swap these little carts in and out to switch games?
I largely consider cart/disc swapping to be part of the necessity of benefiting from physical media in closed, walled garden platforms like consoles where future service shutdowns leave digital copies endangered on those platforms. Actually swapping carts is not beneficial outside of "vibes" and maybe lending - in a handheld situation like Switch I even found it burdensome while actually commuting with the device, though that's slightly out of scope for this. (unless this has a future on PC handhelds?)
Also, the statement "Preserve your games as permanent, playable artifacts" is really odd language. This isn't any more permanent than a HDD or SSD. Those carts are just as bound by the laws of physics, thus susceptible to wear and tear. If they're as much repurposed SD cards as they appear to be, they're possibly less robust and lasting than most PC storage. If your DRM free game software collection matters to the degree of preservation, you should have a robust backup system in place following the conventional wisdom of multiple physical locations, redundancy, blah blah. Adding these little carts to the mix doesn't take anything away, but I feel like the marketing language of this is instead reading as "this is all you really need!"
I believe the 'preservation' has less to do with data degradation and more to do with automatic software updates changing or even breaking old games. Either way, you're right in that putting it on distinct physical media doesn't really change that, it just slows the process down.
I do think there is value in physical media though, when you have to do more than just click a button to change the media it means there is a cost in the time you allot to the choice you made. This can change how you value the time spent enjoying it and perhaps make you more likely to stick with that choice through more challenging parts instead of just closing it and opening something easier.
I think the opposite would happen. If a game was frustrating (usually for non difficulty issues) in ye olde cartridge days, the game just never made it back into rotation.
Games with long unskippable cutscenes (especially intro) or any game that experienced a crash or whatever was just put toward the back of the drawer and only pulled back out 20 years later.
I doubt that difficulty of game is a big factor in the gaming population with the wherewithal to set up the system in question. The people setting this up know their gaming habits and the kind of games they like, it isn't a grab bag.
I guess it depends on the person, for me the act of putting in that cartridge meant I'd decided what I was going to do for the next hour and I'd usually stick to it.
A simple vote would suffice, but yeah, people are weird about physical media.
I mean, I get it, I absolutely do. But my large HDD with an intermittent backup meets my needs perfectly and I have nothing to lose track of or carry with me or insert to play a game, etc, etc. Hell, if I were so inclined, if my house was burning down, it would be way easier to grab my backup drive than my (small) collection of physical games I never actually use.
What does this part of your reply mean?Nevermind, I think you mean to say that since you were in agreement you could have voted instead of replied. I'm OK with the reply though, I appreciate it. I was confused because I thought you were telling me I could've just voted instead of replied, like on the thread, and was SO confused. My bad!I agree with the rest of it though, matches my feelings exactly.
Interview with developer: https://gardinerbryant.com/kazeta-the-linux-os-that-makes-modern-games-feel-like-90s-consoles/
ETA Prime has a look at it here: https://youtu.be/5j7rRC8wIDs
cc: @KapteinB
I can see the appeal. Maybe you have younger kids and you want to curate access to part of your collection without the rest of the internet/computer bits. Cost is probably close to or less than a console, but pc games are waaay cheaper (and often free) and the selection is much larger.
I admit, I'm tempted, as I do sometimes long for the insert-cartridge-and-play days.
Has anyone here tried it yet? What's the actual user experience like?
This seems like a fun project.
A different approach might be to just use the physical media to launch things instead of for storage. Reading the media label or contents for identification and mapping to a program launch. That way you could repurpose any physical media(cd/dvd/floppy disk) you have laying around as a proxy for launching the programs. This would also get around the physical media speed and reliability issues.
Could probably set up something with RFID or NFC stickers on cards for a tap to play setup. It kinda takes away the idea of the game being in an immutable state, but Proton on Steam OS is supposed to do a lot of that work anyway.
This kind of thing piques my interest, because I think there’s real value in having things stored on dedicated physical media. It makes digital contents tangible, acts as an anchor point for memories, can’t be unintentionally deleted as easily, and can act as an unintentional time capsule (though this specifically applies maily to media intended for storing music, files, etc).
The problem is that flash is kinda crappy for this use case. When not used, it decays over time due to the NAND gates leaking, so if the little game cartridge you made from an SD card sits for 15 years there’s a strong chance it’ll be unreadable or corrupted when you pop it in.
What’d be nice is a media format with the resilience of some of the older magneto-mechanical and disc-based formats without the downsides, like a CF card that could sit for decades and still be readable, but I don’t think anybody is working on anything like that.
This is for a very particular type of person that is not me.