Jolt Country

Well, over on the Groucho page I predicted the future of the video game medium. As my prediction is slowly becoming reality I figured I should trot out the Big Picture now so I can have bragging rights before I kick off into someone's dead pool. That I am writing this here is a compliment to the longevity of this site and quite possibly a reason to keep it going.

I don't blog. I have tried some extremely sketchy experiments in the past, but because my life in general isn't funny enough, writing it to the internet isn't an enjoyable and interesting experience. But I don't have a problem with pontificating about subjects that I am interested in, such as video game media and related subjects.

In case anyone missed it, I was thinking that future generations of video games would be released on cartridges. I have a flash drive of 8 gigs that is about the size of a bic lighter. There are larger drives that take up the same dimensions. I successfully installed Diablo 2 on the drive last week. Since Blizzard posted an official no-CD patch I am able to plug the flash drive into any compatible computer, run the video setup, and play the game. Online too. So I thinks to myself, If this can be done with a game that is only 8 years old, why wouldn't they release new games like this. Already installed. No need to place fifteen CDs or 3 DVDs into drive E. None of that. No disc scratching. Imagine how much space one could have on a brick of flash ram the size of an Atari 2600 cart. Dead loads. Imagine a terabyte sized game. Oh, and there's no double row of contacts that need to be blown upon before inserting into the slot, everything uses the same tech as those electric toothbrushes, the RF thing. Actually, there will be a small battery, in the cart, that is charged (just like a hot zone) when the game is inserted. This battery will run the bluetooth-based I/O from the game cart to the PC (or console) bus. Enough bandwidth (since the radio signal has to travel less than an inch) to make really fast data movement. Why have all that ram space if you can't get there fast enough, right? It really doesn't need to be ram, either. Maybe enough ram for savegame storage, but the rest can be rom.

What was the last system to use carts? Nintendo 64? That was years ago. The whole ram chip technology is so advanced now that companies give away gigs of ram for free. Imagine that 10 years ago, someone just giving out ram for advertising.

Any that's my prediction. See if it happens.


THE
RODDENBERRY
AARDVARK

I think if you make them collectable, you're onto something.

There is a guy made a flashcart for the Atari 800. He did a little coding to make the original disk swapping that Ultima IV required seamless, and sold the carts that way. The cart has a little Ultima IV sticker on it - it really looks sharp, and if you were not geeked out to your eyeballs with this stuff as everywhere here is, you'd just assume it was from the 80s.

It works just like an original cart did back then, with all the advantages of modern flash tech... namely reads. So all the saving and reading takes place on the thing itself. (It is also, probably, the greatest gift I have ever been given by someone, but that's another story.)

He made another one for M.U.L.E., and I bought it - I just wanted to own the things. And I'll tell you what, if someone makes a USB flashdrive that is collectable in that way, and I can literally just plug it in and start playing Diablo or whatever, I think that would be fantastic. I mean, if all the save games and keyboard mappings were right there, that's a lot of convenience. I know, as I get older, I hate digging around for CDs and such. The Jailbreak server thing that needed a Quake II disc is a perfect example of that. I hate having the CDs around where the cats will yak on them and whatever else.