• SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    It’s a neat system. But without the connection and services to back them, they may as well be guaranteed eventual e-waste. Not a problem now, but will be much further down the line.

    Decades after release, you can still blast the dust off an old NES and play old cartridges found at flea markets the same way you did with new carts on day 1. How true will this be for the current generation of hardware in the decades to come?

    It’s just another aspect of forced obsolescence getting foundations put in. They are right to call these digital sales.

    • evujumenuk@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      As far as I remember, Game Cards are not mask ROM. In other words, they’ll eventually lose their data and become e-waste anyhow.

      This applies to both “real” Game Cards, and Game Key Cards. It’s already been a problem with the OG Switch.

        • evujumenuk@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          A mask ROM is a kind of read-only memory where the desired data is directly etched into a semiconductor during the same photolithographic process that actually makes a circuit out of a planar sheet of silicon. It’s pretty much hard-wired data storage, with an indefinite lifespan.

      • SwizzleStick@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Even more wonderful then hahaha.

        Hopefully we’ll get dumps going one way or another. Last I looked there was some headway made into poking the console on release day but I’m not keeping up with it regular.