Video game storage media
Video game storage media refers to the various forms of data storage which have been used by video games over the years. There are three primary forms of media: chip, magnetic, and optical.
Storage Media Types
Chip
Storage media in this category is stored on various forms of read only memory (ROM).
ROM cartridge
The dominant video game storage media from the 1970s to the 1990s was the ROM cartridge. It was used in about 50 different consoles, and each one was unique. Most ROM cartridges consists of a printed circuit board (PCB), one or more ROM chips — usually PROMs, a connector to connect to the console, and a case to protect the board. Cartridges may contain additional expansion circuitry, a RAM chip with a battery for saving information, or other features.
Advantages:
- By connecting directly to the console's hardware, they have little to no loading time.
- Since they're on a PBC, they can contain expansion hardware that was not part of the console's original design. This is the only media which can easily do this.
- Because they connect directly to the hardware, you didn't need to buy a special reader like a floppy disk drive.
- By using a unique format, they were much harder to pirate than other forms of media.
- Their plastic shells tend to make them very rugged.
Disadvantages:
- They're much more expensive than other forms of media, costing dozens of times more to produce.
- They were much more limited in capacity. When diskettes were pushing two megabytes, ROMs were around 32 kilobytes.
- Since they are part of the hardware directly, they aren't removable. This means, a developer can't make a larger game by spanning it across several ROM cartridges the way they could with other medias.
Memory card
Memory cards are very similar to ROM cartridges, but they use a smaller footprint. Instead of using full ROM chips, they usually use the internals of the ROM without the package and cover them with a protective glob of black plastic. Some memory card manufacturers used EPROMs or EEPROMs which could be be written to as well.
Early memory cards were used on the SG-1000, Sega Mark III, MSX, PC-Engine, and TurboGrafx-16. Later versions of the memory card, like those used by the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Switch use flash memory instead of ROM chips.
Advantages:
- By connecting directly to the console's hardware, they have little to no loading time.
- By using a unique format, they were much harder to pirate than other forms of media.
Disadvantages:
- All the same disadvantages that apply to ROM cartridges apply to memory cards.
- While they technically can support hardware expansion like a ROM cartridge, they are so compact, it was rarely feasible.
Magnetic
Magnetic storage media uses a thin magnetic sheet, usually in the form of a disc or tape, which can store information digitally by exposing it to a strong magnetic field.
Diskette
Diskettes use a circular sheet of magnetic tape inside a case. Nearly all forms of them can be read from and written to. As the name suggests, they were originally sold with floppy plastic cases, but later models used rigid cases. The first floppy diskettes released in 1972 were eight inch squares and were used almost exclusively for business use. In 1976, the five and a quarter inch models were released saw heavy use in the home computer gaming market being made available on nearly every 8-bit and 16-bit home computer. In 1982 the three and a half inch rigid model was released which became the last wide-spread diskette to be used.
A few other custom diskettes were developed like the three inch Quick Disk, which was used by Nintendo for their Famicom Disk System as well as a number of other models that never really used for video games.
Diskettes were initially single sided, however some drives would allow the user to flip the diskette over to read and write to the other side. Later model drives contained two read and write heads which could use both sides of the diskette without having to flip it. The information capacity of floppies grew over time. The original single density eight inch diskette in 1972 holds 175 kB, the five and a quarter double density diskette in 1978 holds 360 kB, the three and a half inch double-sided double density diskette in 1980 holds 720 kB, and the high density model in 1986 hold 1.44 megabytes.
Advantages:
- Because they're little more than plastic, floppy diskettes were very cheap to make compared to the other media of the time.
- Diskettes could hold far more information than the ROM-based media at the time. When diskettes first hit 2 megabytes, ROM chips were still around 32 kilobytes.
Disadvantages:
- Reading data from a floppy diskette is slow. Depending on the drive, a floppy disk could take seconds to minutes to be read in its entirety.
- Because they used an industry-standard format, pirating diskettes is incredibly easy to do.
- With only a flexible plastic shell, floppies aren't very rugged.
- Since they use a magnetic field to read and write data, exposure to magnets could easily corrupt the data on diskettes. In fact, many diskettes tend to go corrupt after prolonged periods of time.
Cassette tape
Although they're most commonly associated with music, compact cassette tapes were used as data storage by many 8-bit home computers, and even a few 8-bit video game consoles. Depending on the quality of tape and the recorder, data could be stored at around 2000 bits per second, or about 660 kilobytes per side on a 90-minute tape. However, since the tape was read from and written to at the same speed as audio tape, it would require 90 minutes to write or read each side of the tape as well. Special streamer cassettes were produced which could store data at a much higher density. While the cassette saw widespread use in the 1970s, it began to decline in the early 1980s as the capacity of floppy diskettes increased.
Advantages:
- Though not as cheap as a diskette, cassettes were still much cheaper to manufacture than chip-based media.
- Even at their lower densities, cassettes could store a decent amount of data because of their long tape length.
- Because they were an older technology, the tape recorders use to read and write to the tapes were cheaper than diskette drives.
Disadvantages:
- Reading and writing to cassettes is incredibly slow. It would take three hours to read or write to both sides of a 90-minute tape!
- Although it's enclosed in a hard plastic case, a large portion of the tape is exposed at the bottom of the cassette. This makes it easy for it to become caught on something and damaged. In fact, cassette players were notorious for despooling the tape.
- Pirating cassettes was even easier than diskettes.
Hard disk drive
Although video games were almost never sold on hard drives, most home computers and modern consoles store games on them. Especially those downloaded from the Internet. Many hard drives are switching from magnetic disks to flash memory like a solid state drive (SSD) or non-volatile memory express (NVMe).
Advantages:
- Byte-for-byte, hard disk drives are the cheapest data storage possible.
- Hard disk drives typically have very fast read and write compared with diskettes, though still slower than chips.
Disadvantages:
- Since they're magnetic, data stored on them can be corrupted by coming in contact with a strong magnetic field, though this is very unlikely when housed in a computer or console.
- Since they contain a lot of moving parts, they tend to break down sooner than most of other forms storage.
Optical
Optical storage is the most recent of the three main categories. It uses a laser to read incredibly tiny pits on a polycarbonate layer on the disc. Although there are a variety of different formats the data is stored in, and a number of different laser technologies which increase the density of information which can be stored, each uses the same theory.
Optical Disc
For video games, the most commonly used formats include CD-ROM, Mini CD, DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray. However, over the years a couple less-common industry standards were used, and many companies have created their own formats in an effort to better control the distribution of their games. The media didn't really catch on until the mid-1990s, but, when it did, it displaced almost every other form of portable media. ROM cartridges continued to be used for some portable platforms into the 2000s, but those were displaced by memory cards.
Advantages:
- Of all the different storage medias, optical discs are by far the cheapest to manufacture. They're little more than a disc of layered plastic.
- With such a high level of information density, the discs can store far more information than other forms of media except hard drives. The first CD-ROMs released in 1986 could hold around 600 megabytes, about 400 times more information than diskettes of the same time could hold.
- With each new optical disc format, there were a few years when piracy was very difficult until the release of a writable form of that disc format.
Disadvantages:
- Optical discs are easily scratched, and even a tiny scratches in an important area makes them useless.
Other storage media
Paper
Back when storage media was expensive and before people had access to the Internet, is was common to release software as source code printed on paper in books or magazines. This was sometimes referred to as "paperware."
Advantages:
- Since you're only paying for printed paper, the software was usually quite cheap.
Disadvantages:
- Because it was being released as source code, you couldn't expect to buy impressive software using this method. Most of it was software that was available on university networks for free.
- Having to type in the source code of a long program was painstaking and, prior to error-checking IDEs, it was very difficult to spot and fix typos.
- The published source was usually from a cheap line printer then reduced in size to fit into a book, so the quality was often terrible which made it hard to read.
- Unless the source was in BASIC, a language that pretty much every computer had at the time, you would need to provide your own compiler, which wasn't always easy to get.
Protectors
With each different type of storage media, a new protective covering was created. Some storage media has a protective case built into the design.
ROM cartridge
The Famicom used colored plastic shells to protect thee ROM boards.
Nintendo Entertainment System ROM boards were protected with gray plastic shells.
The NES also used black plastic sleeves to protect the connector openings of the cartridges. Official Nintendo games were branded, third party games had to use plain black.
Master System and Genesis games were sold in a plastic box with a place for the cartridge and manual. The exterior held a paper insert with the cover, spine, and back printed on it.
The SNES had a translucent plastic sleeve to put over the cartridge's connector opening. Official Nintendo game were branded, third party games were not.
The Nintendo 64 used gray plastic shells to protect their ROM boards.
Memory card
Sega My Card game boxes were cardboard with a plastic interior to hold the memory card, and a vinyl sleeve to protect the card.
The TurboGrafx-16 used a standard sized jewel case, but had a special plastic insert to house the memory card.
Diskette
8-inch and 5.25-inch floppy diskettes were usually stored in paper sleeves which were often branded by the company that sold this diskette.
Despite having a built-in protective case, additional plastic cases were sold for 3.5-inch floppies.
Larger organizers were sold to house and organize large collections of disks. Some even include locks.
The Famicom Disk System used plastic cases with paper inserts.
Cassette tape
Compact cassettes were usually sold in a plastic case like this. There was usually a paper insert with the cover art, spine, and information about each side.
Optical disc
Compact discs were typically sold in hard plastic cases called a "jewel case." They usually came with a paper booklet with the cover printer on it, and a paper insert for the back and spine.
Games which required two compact discs would be sold in a double wide jewel case.
Manufacturers eventually figured out how to store two compact discs in a standard-width jewel case. These didn't leave much room for a thick booklet.
Some manufacturers opted for larger jewel cases like the Sega CD.
Later compact discs were sold in slim jewel cases. These were too thin to include thick booklets and often didn't have an insert for the back and spine.
As compact discs became less popular, manufacturers looked for ways to save money and came up with the mostly cardboard "digipak." Though the CD still snaps into a plastic protector.
Later releases removed the plastic all together and were cardboard.
Optical discs sold by cheaper manufacturers used paper sleeves.
Most DVDs were sold in a larger case called a "keep case." The exterior usually included a paper insert with the cover, spine, and back printed on it, and the higher quality cases included a booklet inside.
Manufacturers eventually figured out how to store up to four discs in a standard-width keep case. These didn't leave much room for a thick booklet.
Cheaper manufacturers opted for a "snap case" which used a cardboard exterior, though the disc still snaps into a plastic protector.
The case of a GameCube game had a place to snap in the miniDVD disc. The exterior usually included a paper insert with the cover, spine, and back printed on it, and there is room inside for a manual.
Hard disk drive
Bare devices like hard drives and ROM cards without a case are typically sold in anti-static bags.
Support by Platform
| Platform | Released | ROM | Card | Disk | Tape | HDD | CD | DVD | BluRay | UHDBR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple II | 1977-06-10 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Apple IIgs | 1986-09-15 | Yes | ||||||||
| Atari 400/800 | 1979-11-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Atari 2600 | 1977-09-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Atari 5200 | 1982-11-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Atari 7800 | 1986-05-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Atari ST | 1985-06-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| CD-i | 1990-??-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Channel F | 1976-11-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| ColecoVision | 1982-08-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Commodore 64 | 1982-08-?? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| Commodore PET | 1977-12-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Commodore VIC-20 | 1980-??-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Dreamcast | 1998-11-27 | Yes | ||||||||
| Famicom | 1983-07-15 | Yes | ||||||||
| Famicom Disk System | 1986-02-21 | Yes | ||||||||
| FM-7 | 1982-11-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Game Boy | 1989-04-21 | Yes | ||||||||
| Game Boy Advance | 2001-03-21 | Yes | ||||||||
| Game Boy Color | 1998-10-21 | Yes | ||||||||
| GameCube | 2001-09-14 | Yes | ||||||||
| Game Gear | 1990-10-06 | Yes | ||||||||
| Genesis | 1989-08-14 | Yes | ||||||||
| IBM PCjr | 1984-03-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| IBM Personal Computer | 1981-08-12 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Intellivision | 1980-??-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Lynx | 1989-09-01 | Yes | ||||||||
| Macintosh 128K | 1984-01-24 | Yes | ||||||||
| Master System | 1986-09-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Mega Drive | 1988-10-29 | Yes | ||||||||
| N-Gage | 2003-10-07 | Yes | ||||||||
| Nintendo 64 | 1996-06-23 | Yes | ||||||||
| Nintendo 64DD | 1999-12-13 | Yes | ||||||||
| Nintendo 3DS | 2011-02-25 | Yes | ||||||||
| Nintendo DS | 2004-11-21 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Nintendo Entertainment System | 1985-10-18 | Yes | ||||||||
| Odyssey² | 1978-09-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| PC-8800 | 1981-11-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| PC-9801 | 1981-11-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Pico | 1993-06-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| PlayStation | 1994-12-03 | Yes | ||||||||
| PlayStation 2 | 2000-03-04 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| PlayStation 3 | 2006-11-11 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| PlayStation 4 | 2013-11-15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| PlayStation 5 | 2020-11-12 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| PlayStation Portable | 2004-12-12 | Yes | ||||||||
| Saturn | 1994-11-22 | Yes | ||||||||
| Sega CD | 1991-12-12 | Yes | ||||||||
| Sega Mark III | 1985-10-20 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Sharp X1 | 1982-??-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Super Famicom | 1990-11-21 | Yes | ||||||||
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System | 1991-08-23 | Yes | ||||||||
| Switch | 2017-03-03 | Yes | ||||||||
| TRS-80 Color Computer | 1980-09-?? | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| TRS-80 Model I | 1977-08-03 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| TurboGrafx-16 | 1987-10-30 | Yes | ||||||||
| TurboGrafx-CD | 1988-12-04 | Yes | ||||||||
| Super CD-ROM² | 1991-??-?? | Yes | ||||||||
| Vita | 2011-12-17 | Yes | ||||||||
| Wii | 2006-09-19 | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Wii U | 2012-11-18 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| WonderSwan | 1999-03-04 | Yes | ||||||||
| WonderSwan Color | 2000-12-09 | Yes | ||||||||
| Xbox | 2001-11-15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| Xbox 360 | 2005-11-22 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Xbox One | 2013-11-22 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Xbox Series X/S | 2020-11-10 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| ZX Spectrum | 1982-04-23 | Yes |
