Anyone remember the Lock-On Cartridge?

[Magikrazy]

To those who don't, I'll give you a little history.

Around 1993, SEGA was producing a third Sonic game. It was too long, so they made it two separate games. The first half became Sonic 3, the other Sonic & Knuckles. The cartridge of Sonic & Knuckles was designed differently from others. It was so you could put another cartridge on top of it (because SEGA loved stacking things *cough32Xcough*). When Sonic 3 was put in, not only could you play the full game, but you could play as Knuckles as well. A similar thing happened when you locked on Sonic 2 (Knuckles became playable).

That brings me to my point. Why wasn't this used anymore after that? I loved that idea! I guess it would be pretty much impossible to do that with disks (lock-on disks?), but the 3DS still uses cards. I'm sure you could make it work, Nintendo.

What were your thoughts on SEGA'S idea? Did you like it or not? And would you like to see it happen again?

 

[BEEEEEAAARRRS]

just sounds like physical DLC

 

[SolarBlaze]

I loved it. While I thought the Blue Sphere game was fun, it still disappointed me that Knuckles couldn't be played as in Sonic 1. Luckily, there was a ROM hack that remedied this problem, along with the recent iPhone re-release.

 

[Types]

I always thought it would be a cool idea with SNES games. DK in Mario World! Mario in Yoshi's Island! The fun would never end.

oh man KIRBY IN MEGA MAN 7

 

[fantanoice]

There have been attempts to do it since (such as Banjo Kazooie / Tooie hotswapping) but if the hardware doesn't support it then you're essentially out of luck.

However, it will never happen any more because most games and hardware, cartridge and disk, support patching so developers can just throw in more data without needing a physical extension, which for the majority of people is far more convenient.

 

[AirMario64]

That brings me to my point. Why wasn't this used anymore after that? I loved that idea! I guess it would be pretty much impossible to do that with disks (lock-on disks?), but the 3DS still uses cards. I'm sure you could make it work, Nintendo.

I think you mean discs, not disks. :P

But anyway, I agree with you. The idea was great, only it caused problems in my house. (Ex: mom tripping over the console ¬_¬ )

Problem is it might make them think they'd have to make EVERY GAME compatible with each other. Not only would that get confusing, but it would make testing the games...difficult.

 

[Toad Eightyfive]

That brings me to my point. Why wasn't this used anymore after that? I loved that idea! I guess it would be pretty much impossible to do that with disks (lock-on disks?), but the 3DS still uses cards. I'm sure you could make it work, Nintendo.

I think you mean discs, not disks. :P

the difference being

 

[Keqing]

That brings me to my point. Why wasn't this used anymore after that? I loved that idea! I guess it would be pretty much impossible to do that with disks (lock-on disks?), but the 3DS still uses cards. I'm sure you could make it work, Nintendo.

I think you mean discs, not disks. :P

the difference being

he hates america

on topic, i think that was the 90's version of dlc yea, or inspired it to become as to what it is today. in games like castle crashers for example, you can buy new characters and play the full game as these new characters with different powers

 

[Uniju]

It was neat at the time but proposing it be done today is just ridiculous.
Also, Blue Sphere traumatized me.

 

[fantanoice]

Problem is it might make them think they'd have to make EVERY GAME compatible with each other. Not only would that get confusing, but it would make testing the games...difficult.

Why would you think that? The basic scenario is going to be:

1. GameA sends data to GameB
2. GameB checks if information is valid
3. If information is valid, let GameB receive the data
4. If information was not valid, GameB sends an error message to GameA and the transaction ends

If the information isn't valid (ie: if GameB is not compatible with the information from GameA), then it is simply rejected and nothing happens.

 

[Magikrazy]

It was neat at the time but proposing it be done today is just ridiculous.
Also, Blue Sphere traumatized me.

I know, I'm just wondering why they didn't do this more back then. The N64 could have done great with it. For example, make Super Smash Bros lock-on, and then have a character from the game you locked on be playable.

For instance, if you locked on Goldeneye 007, Bond (or Jaws or someone else) would be playable.

 

[NSY]

I loved it. While I thought the Blue Sphere game was fun, it still disappointed me that Knuckles couldn't be played as in Sonic 1. Luckily, there was a ROM hack that remedied this problem, along with the recent iPhone re-release.

You can actually now download a Sonic 1 from the app store that now allows to play as knuckles.

 

[UltimatePetey]

Well, considering I wasn't around back then, I have no clue.

 

[Magikrazy]

Well, considering I wasn't around back then, I have no clue.

Neither was I, but I found out about it.

 

[SolarBlaze]

You can actually now download a Sonic 1 from the app store that now allows to play as knuckles.

Yeah, that's the iPhone re-release I was talking about in my above post.

 

[freakworld]

I think Nintendo doesn't like Lock-on cartridges. Several unlicensed NES and SNES games came on a Lock-on cartridge, and you had to put any licensed game on them in order to work around the anti-piracy chip.