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Some of those larger sizes games could sure get costly back in the day. I remember Super Street Fighter 2 coating about $80, and Killer Instinct Gold was selling for about $90 when it first came out!

@@Toad64 Yep! I remember regular Street Fighter 2 costing $70.

That is definitely true.

Ah, once again my lack of Sega knowledge! I wasn't aware. Though I do know Strider is a pretty cool Genesis game! Thanks for the comment!

This is all true. And actually your comment reminded me of how Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 had to be made on a 4KB ROM cart instead of the newer 8KB because they wanted to save some money, but it really held the game back. So file size can and does matter! I guess I just find it a bit silly when they use it as a marketing tactic. Thanks for the comment!

You certainly are not wrong that the extra file size can go into all of those things, which would hopefully make for a better gaming experience. But I guess I was trying to say what you yourself said, "a higher file size does not mean that a game is necessarily good", and I guess why I found it a weird marketing tactic. Just my hot take, thank you for the comment.

@@Toad64 Super Mario World was a very standard 4megs in size, so yea, amazing games don't have a file size.

Well true, at least it was about an actual thing! As opposed to 'blast processing'!

​@@gabemorales7814 SNES can display 255-2040 visible colours on background 1 alone in standard Modes 3 and 4 using the Direct Colour feature (and that's basically 8-bit to 11-bit colour), plus an additional 120 visible colours for background 2 and another additional 120 visible colours for sprites (both of which take their palettes from the massive 15-bit 32,768-colour master palette), plus the backdrop colour. And that's before any standard HDMA colour gradients and colour math are applied, which can increase the colours way beyond those standard numbers. It can also be used during full 60fps gameplay rather than taking up all the CPU resources and even stalling the audio chip that the Genesis' "Blast Processing" does to output these static higher-colour images. And it runs at full 256x224 resolution without glitches, unlike the Genesis' "Blast Processing" that basically halves the Genesis' horizontal resolution to 160 pixels [each pixel ends up being double width just so it can pull of these higher-colour images] and also causes some glitches in the image. And this is not some hacky trick on SNES that took decades to properly figure out and wasn't even used in any commercial games back in the day, just a standard intentionally built-in and officially documented feature of the console that was in fact used in a couple of commercial games back when these systems were actually relevant. SNES Colour Blasting beats the Genesis "Blast Processing" on colour output by a long way.

@@gabemorales7814 Fake and gay.

Wow, I never even noticed that on the Master System boxes, definitely a bit of a gap in my knowledge from growing up a Nintendo kid. I have a few boxed games though, I will have to check that out. You make good points about why storage space was important, and I agree with all of this. It felt to me that this wasn't a part of game marketing until the SNES/Genesis period, which is why I kind of equate it to the whole 'console wars' thing. But maybe that's just when I noticed Nintendo making a bigger deal of things, because as you say, it was on the Mega Drive boxes.

I have not played the Genesis version! But I will try to remedy that shortly!

I feel like that can be kind of a double edged sword, right? I mean, it makes sense to want your game to be good if you spent the extra money on the ROM space. But now I feel like companies try to play it so safe by making these huge AAA 'too big to fail' games, and not taking as many chances. Or maybe they're unrelated and I'm just making too big a thing out of it. Anyways, thanks for the comment!

@@Toad64 Oh no, I totally agree with you, I hate all of these bloated games we get these days. The size of them is getting out of hand especially when there are so many quality issues. I think it's like how we equate weight to quality, heavier is better. I was simply saying, as 'someone from the past', that bigger games on carts really had an appreciable difference... even though we had no bloody clue what the bits meant, just that more was better haha. I mean compare Neo Geo cart sizes to SNES cart sizes of the same era despite the fact it was an apples to oranges comparison, the NEO GEO was like a game system from the future at the time, not to mention unreachable unless you had money to burn. Haha, keep doing what you do man! :D Thanks

I remember being aware of it, but I don't know if I ever *cared*. Maybe on Donkey Kong Country, because they really hyped the heck out of that one.

You are absolutely right. This video shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about the context of that time. The storage space of a game was the biggest technical limitation that developers faced. And the bigger the ROM size, the more expensive the game became. So the developers needed to justify this to the consumer, even highlighting it on the game's cover or in advertising materials. Actually, I believe one of the main problems with those who talk about old games on CZcams is that they almost never mention the size of the game, because knowing the storage space used gives you a better understanding of the difficulties the developers faced in delivering the final product.

Agree. It’s the reason Phantasy Star 4 was so expensive. Game was huge

I mean I can totally get what you're saying, and I do not disagree. In a lot of ways, a larger file size does mean more content, probably more graphical variety, things like that. And I certainly don't mean for this to sound like an authority on anything, it was just a silly three minute video with my hot take. I dunno, this is just one of those things when I look back on it that I feel like it was used for marketing but not...effectively, if that makes sense. There's plenty you can use that extra space for, but simply saying the size of the cart I don't feel gave you much information in what to expect. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just felt like part of the console wars 'We've got the higher number' kind of back and forth that was going on at the time. As an aside, even though the 'trend started to disappear when CD's replaced cartridges', I looked around and found at least a couple, including Phantasmagoria mentioning their game coming on 7CDs in their ad. Which I found funny, because good God, that's a lot of CDs!

@@Toad64 For a consumer, maybe the most important buying decision is the price. And the size of the cart was objectively the main reason some games costed more than others. So, it was important to communicate the size of the cart in order to justify the price for the consumer.

I mean this is true too, you WOULD probably have more variety in things like tile sets if there's more space for it.

Why thank you very much.

If FF7 turned out to be hundreds of times longer than FF6/3, I'd probably still be trying to play my way through the darn thing! I think I probably clocked in around 60 hours before finishing it back in the day.

NeoGeo is one area of retro gaming that I have like zero knowledge of. Interesting to know!

Ha, sorry, was just my hot take on the subject. This could possible be a topic that is greatly expanded upon, true!

Yeah, with the N64 they put the size of the bits right there in the name! I guess that was one of the last times we talked bits, during the 64/32 era.

No to efficiency, we have to show off how big this game is! Add more FMV cutscenes!

True, if I saw 60 GB for a new game, it would probably feel like a relief!

Oh, thanks for the info! I knew there had to be Sega examples out there, I just didn't know where to look! I'll see if I can find those on MobyGames.

So a quick search on a couple of different sites credit David Wise as the composer of Beetlejuice GB, and that's the composer for the Donkey Kong Land games, so checks out!

Oh, I used to have that game back in the day, I remember that! Some of those N64 games had some serious heft, that was definitely one of them!

But those are 64 Megabytes. Those on SNES and Genesis were counted as Megabits. RE 2 on N64 came with a whoopin' 512 Megabits.

That's true, I remember buying that Super Street Fighter 2 from my video on SNES, and it was $80! I think that's about $130 adjusting for today!

Thanks. And yeah, not my favorite thumbnail I've done, I'll admit. Maybe I should go back to the drawing board on that one.

I remember seeing these on the boxes as a child but never gave it a second thought. But given back then, you would be buying a game that you don't have to install file size wouldn't be dreaded like it is today. Maybe people who were older at the time would have understood it to mean "more content" or "higher quality."

That's awesome! Did you play SNES or Sega? Nice to hear from other store champs! Yeah, some people seem down on it being "only" two free rentals a month, but I was pretty happy about it.

@@Toad64 that detail about only two rentals a month must have eluded me as a 12 year old lol. I did the SNES. Remember practicing relentlessly just like you. I have a brief memory of the people at the store, saying something that I missed qualifying for the next round by only eleven bananas. I have no proof whether or not that was true, but it's a funny story

That crossover with Sakurai was so fun. And yeah, views on this video went up after that crossover, so I'm guessing that was some people's intro to him!

Whoa, that's awesome!

Hahaha, he IS everybody's game dad!

Yeah, especially since they give you this brand new mechanic right at the end of the game, it's a bit weird!

That's certainly true enough. I'd heard of the game, but until I played it I really had no idea what it was all about.

Hey thanks! I love the fan site, by the way, great work!

I'm also really hoping that the Switch game gets at least an English option. Though I imported the 2nd DS game back in the day, and with the exception of the murder mystery game and the RPG game, it's easy and enjoyable enough to play through with a guide. There's an English patch for the second game now, too, but I would much prefer an official English release. Fingers crossed! (maybe the popularity of his guest appearances on the recent Masahiro Sakurai channel will convince the decision makers that there's a reason to bring it out here)

Me too, I love tuning into a random episode on Twitch.

Oh, I agree! Do you have any go-tos for episodes to show when introducing to new people? I have a few, like Clock Tower and Sonic.

@@Toad64 The DKC2 episodes, it's a surprisingly hard game and a fun watch

​@@Toad64Sonic is a great one, but I think Ninja Gaiden is my go-to. It really shows how much determination you need to have in order to beat some of these retro games. Truly brutal.

@@rudeboyspodcast Ninja Gaiden is definitely a great one, it shows how determined he is, and even though he's only average at games, his perseverance helps him get through even the most difficult games. Also his hatred for birds starts here I think! "Tori!"

Much like Inugami Korone, who even got her theme song composed by the original ActRaiser artist for her charm and dedication. Yuzo Koshiro is even working with Masahiro Sakurai.

Yeah, I can only think of two other games Usagi was in, one being the Commodore 64 game from the 80s, and another being an iPad game from like 12 years ago which I don't think was very good. He deserves more, and better, games!

Thanks! Yeah, the show has been consistently good for as long as it's been on. Really hope he does another trip to the USA and hits the East coast this time!