17th October 2005, 4:55 PM
Of course, this is true for everything... as I said cart batteries die, or memory cards mess up... but memory cards seem to last a really long time, and cart batteries last many years. Harddrives... they just don't last as long... and backing it up? It's easiest for memory cards on newer consoles, since there are backup things that back them up to PC... older systems it is of course more of a problem. So singling out the Xbox is kind of unfair... it's just more centralized in one place and on an even more unstable memory system (a spinning disc).
... that said, thinking about all those old carts with batteries in them that will eventually die isn't fun either... and the only way to back those things up is to get a not-very-legal backup thing... at least with N64 there's the dexdrive, but backing up oncart save is just as hard as it is for SNES I think...
However, the key here is that this system supports the old games... but not their saves or data. At least with those other systems, they're just for the old system... but here they are keeping compatibility working gameswise (to at least some degree) but breaking the gamesaves and dooming them to eventual death. Not nice. Sony and Nintendo aren't doing this.
On a related note, non-transferable save files are evil... this includes things like F-Zero GX, those games he mentioned for xbox, and the N64 memory card save system (which has no "move file" option without a dexdrive which of course I dont have). (oncart saves? Those aren't as bad because you'll be keeping the cartridge, while with memcards you may want to get rid of an older one if you get a new one and want to transfer everything to it...)
... that said, thinking about all those old carts with batteries in them that will eventually die isn't fun either... and the only way to back those things up is to get a not-very-legal backup thing... at least with N64 there's the dexdrive, but backing up oncart save is just as hard as it is for SNES I think...
However, the key here is that this system supports the old games... but not their saves or data. At least with those other systems, they're just for the old system... but here they are keeping compatibility working gameswise (to at least some degree) but breaking the gamesaves and dooming them to eventual death. Not nice. Sony and Nintendo aren't doing this.
On a related note, non-transferable save files are evil... this includes things like F-Zero GX, those games he mentioned for xbox, and the N64 memory card save system (which has no "move file" option without a dexdrive which of course I dont have). (oncart saves? Those aren't as bad because you'll be keeping the cartridge, while with memcards you may want to get rid of an older one if you get a new one and want to transfer everything to it...)
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