[Video] How Hard is a Nintendo Game? (Literally)

[Oskuro]

From Rinry Game Game:



Woah, and here I was treating my old NES games with care back in the day!
Also, what's with these cute-voiced game reviewers? I mean, this Rinry girl, Little Miss Gamer, Angry Joe...

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

That's awesome. But then, not particularly surprising.

My 360 red-ringed months ago, after about a year and a half of infrequent operation.

My nearby SNES, on the other hand, has seen heavy use for well over 15 years now and I'm still playing my Final Fantasy 3 and Zelda just fine.

[loomer]

My SNES still works too, except you've gotta wedge a piece of card in against the cart and the slot.

[adam_grif]

I hear stone tablets still function after thousands of years. They don't make video games like they used to.

[ArmorPierce]

I recall that the snes console never had a problem but the nes console itself wouldoften break down. I don't know if my experience is unique though.

[Darksider]

My N64 is practically as good a new, but my SNES has some problems. It will work for a while, but any vibration or movement will cause it to reset.

[Coaan]

Biggest problem I remember with the NES was dust in the cartridge contacts. It'd mess with the game actually loading.

As far as the SNES went, if you treated them right, the damn things were indestructible. No doubt.

[Themightytom]

the cartridges were pretty tough but we managed to break three consoles when we were younger, usually from shoving the cartidge in too hard and messing up the tray.
the top loading edition that came out in the 90's works pretty well though

[RogueIce]

My NES console died and did only that 'blinky light and blinking screen' thing and nothing else. My SNES is good except for vertical bars on some of the backgrounds. And my Genesis also seems to still be going strong. But then I never had any problems with the next-gen consoles so go figure.

[Guardsman Bass]

My SNES still works fine, although one of the controllers broke and had to be replaced. Same for the N64, and the Gamecube (although since the Wii is backwards-compatible with Gamecube games, we stopped using the Gamecube as soon as we had the Wii).

I recall that the snes console never had a problem but the nes console itself wouldoften break down. I don't know if my experience is unique though.

I had two NES's, and both of them broke within five years of getting them (we got the second one to replace the first one when it broke).

[Oskuro]

I think the Game Boy I got for my bday like 18 years ago is still floating around my parents' house, with its original tetris cartridge being the main attraction.

Will aliens from the far future deduce we never got past 16 bit gaming when all their digsites can uncover are NES and SNES consoles?

[adam_grif]

I think the Game Boy I got for my bday like 18 years ago is still floating around my parents' house, with its original tetris cartridge being the main attraction.

Will aliens from the far future deduce we never got past 16 bit gaming when all their digsites can uncover are NES and SNES consoles?

Modern electronics appear to be far more fragile and more easily breakable than older ones. Pre-electronic technologies are better at surviving since they have less fragile components. The monuments most likely to survive into the far future are the ones that have survived into the present, i.e. stone, metalwork etc. They might find city ruins but unless something is preserved very well I doubt they'll find any electronics.

[Phantasee]

I got an NES system as a gift hand me down from some family friends when I was...4, I think? This was after the SNES had already come out, I think. It worked great for years, until I tried to hook it up after a move, and it blew something when i plugged it in. All the magic blue smoke got out

I opened it up several years later (it managed to survive a few more moves) and there was black scorch marks all over the circuit board.

I still have my N64 cartridges, but my dad took a hammer to the system itself

[Stark]

My N64 is practically as good a new, but my SNES has some problems. It will work for a while, but any vibration or movement will cause it to reset.

Shame the N64 controller was designed by an idiot and would fail if you played too much of the only good games on N64.

PS moving parts = less reliable than no moving parts, high temperature = less reliable than low temperature, let's not make some ridiculous statements here. Remember, 360 has design flaw = advanced technology is fragile.

SOMEHOW.

[adam_grif]

Shame the N64 controller was designed by an idiot and would fail if you played too much of the only good games on N64.

Not sure if it's true, but I heard that they designed it that form because they weren't sure if the analogue stick would be popular, so they had the extra hand position as redundancy, you get a SNES controller if you hold it with the left and right halves, then the Analogue if you hold middle and right.

As for the stick itself, yes, it sucked. It also fucking killed my thumb.

PS moving parts = less reliable than no moving parts, high temperature = less reliable than low temperature, let's not make some ridiculous statements here. Remember, 360 has design flaw = advanced technology is fragile.

Isn't that the point though? More sophisticated components = more dense chips, higher frequency clocks, higher runing temperature, more moving parts. Obviously the 360 was a pile of turd, but the lifespan of well designed video-game systems is unlikely to exceed 50 years, unless you've got it locked up in a vault and are treating it like an antique (A treatment I'm sure at least a couple will get). I'd expect PSWii60's to last less than, say, the SNES will, even leaving aside design issues like RROD.

[Stark]

So your conclusion is based on a single datapoint around an engineering failure? The biggest issue in common with modern consoles is firmware bricking, not 'MS designed a crap box therefore modern tech is vulnerable'.

[adam_grif]

So your conclusion is based on a single datapoint around an engineering failure? The biggest issue in common with modern consoles is firmware bricking, not 'MS designed a crap box therefore modern tech is vulnerable'.

If you had more datapoints to give me, I'd be happy to factor them in. Comparative console failure rates over generations would be ideal, but I'm 99% sure such things don't exist.

We should switch back to more reliable formats, like stone carvings.

[Stark]

So if the NES was designed with a box-killing flaw you'd be baselessly claiming new tech is more stable? You have established no connection between advanced and fragile and I'm not doing your research for you.

[adam_grif]

So if the NES was designed with a box-killing flaw you'd be baselessly claiming new tech is more stable?

I'm not interested in whether they're designed shittily or not, I'm interested in whether denser circuitry and memory, beefier power supplies and higher clock speeds results in lower mean time to failure. I didn't base this on the 360 RRODing at all. I'd be stupid to, since we also have PC's, the PS3 and (arguably) the Wii to gauge this generation by.

[charlemagne]

My wife's SNES was left in a carton on a balcony for 2 or 3 years and worked fine when we tried it even though it froze and thawed several times

[Kurgan]

The problem with the original NES was the "innovative" cartridge input system which was designed to mimic a VCR (I guess). The Famicom was a top loader as was the redesigned NES and most every cart based console before and since. The little reader would get knocked out of alignment after kids shoved things in there (whether cartridges or other things) enough times. You could re-align them pretty easily, but I guess when you "miss" you could ding up the pins and eventually they'd need to be replaced. Less errors of that type with the top loading systems.

They sell replacement pin connectors for NES systems out there, but you can get a refurbished or famiclone for the same or less most of the time.

My Genesis Model 1 ("high definition graphics") in operation since 1990 still works to this day (the only thing that wore out was the pack-in RF connector, which I haven't used anyway since I got the composite AV).

[The Dark]

I have one of the early NES-001 consoles (mid-80s) that still functions. It's a bit touchy, and sometimes takes a few tries and some adjusting of the cartridge before working, but not bad for a 20+ year old chunk of electronics.

[Solauren]

My NES was working until it was dropped. When it hit the pavement, it exploded.

My friend Paul still has the Atari 2600 I sold him. Still works too.

[Oskuro]

^Did you try to make it work? It might have.


As for the whole "why modern technology breaks easier" debate, my guess is that miniaturization isn't kind when it comes to physical resiliance, and the old devices not only had thick and tough electronics, but the casing was probably useful as tank armour or something.

[lance]

I recall that the snes console never had a problem but the nes console itself wouldoften break down. I don't know if my experience is unique though.

The push down nes would break due to the pins getting bent. They can be refurbished so as to not do this though.