What Would've Happened IF: The Super Nintendo CD game out?

[BLUEVOODU]

What Would've Happened IF:    The Super Nintendo CD game out... was launched / released.... the deal between Sony and Nintendo wouldn't have went belly up?

How would the industry have changed.... how would the gaming systems today be forever changed?  Even the progression since the PSX would be different. 

For those that don't know, the Super Nintendo CD Add-on essentially became the PlayStation.

Post it up!

[retro junkie]

If it had of been an add-on? I don't think there would have been an N64. I think Nintendo would have handled an add-on a lot different than how it was handled by others. (Square would have stuck around, big game changer) Might have seen something like the Cube earlier. The whole playing field would have been different. It might have influenced the Atari Jaguar to have been a CD based system instead of cart. Sega would still be in the competition. The Saturn would have been a contender rather than the cold shoulder it received. Of course this is all speculative but I think the perspective in the field of gaming would been a different animal. Whether Sony, at some point, would have went rogue? That is the real question. Microsoft would still enter the market pushing out anything that Atari had, this is only assuming that the Atari idiots happened to attract developers.  I am thinking they would have. Their in house games would have needed to be old arcade games to make it float. They would mostly need third party to make anything work.

[targetrasp]

CD Add-ons were a failure. I find it more than coincidental that every hardware manufacturer that attempted a CD add on is no longer in the console business. When the SNES CD flopped Sony would have walked away from making consoles. Without Sony in the landscape, Sega might have lasted past the dreamcast. Hardware manufacturers might have even abandonded the cd format alltogether.

[BLUEVOODU]

you know I find it interesting though... as much of a game changer as it would've been... today we are still going back to the way of the cart.  Maybe that's partly introduced by cheaper and cheaper flash media and super fast bus transfer speeds.  Eventually a spinning disc cannot keep up with non-moving parts.

We are somewhat at the tipping point of going back. But we will see... I doubt we'll enter the cart era again.  I see the future being Either something new OR something like a 3DS, switch  and Vita cart... or something like it in a small form factor system.

[targetrasp]

The only thing I see going cart is portables, and they've always been cart outside of the failed UMD.

I'd much prefer cartridge but they're still more expensive than a little plastic and aluminum (or whatever metal film they use) and probably will be for a long time. There's still shorter wave length lasers to read disks so the tracks can get even closer... green ray anyone?

[BLUEVOODU]

lol green ray.

I'm going by my statement that all consoles will eventually be "portable" ... like the switch.  I'm not sure they will but I Still think that's the way of the future.  For the most part, "non-moving parts" is more stable and cheaper than moving parts.  The main issue as we get smaller - heat.  A lot of progress has been made in this area. But even my switch heats up well.

I REALLY like what amazon prime does with their CDs... you get the downloadable music AND a hard copy.   That's a pretty stellar feature - and I hope it never ends.

[targetrasp]

I had an awesome cd collection once, the someone decided he wanted it, and the speakers in my trunk... now i'll pick up something at a used book store every once in a while but the collectability of vinyl has really piqued my interest. I've grabbed up a lot of 80's hair and metal, and 90's grunge and punk.

For the rereleases I've got tons from Amazon. They have been pretty cool about giving digital copies with vinyl as well, it making listening in the car much easier!