I understand their perspectives in the video but I think more people, beyond an extremely small niche group, a 100 years from now will find  physical nes items to be interesting to play on with using real hardware, for the experience and collecting factor, and it would seem likely that they would be probably become really valuable on some level. 

Your thoughts?

Link to video:

They'll be curiosities, the same way music cylinders they describe are curiosities today. And the more classic games themselves I think will hold some interest, played on something other than original hardware.

But collecting carts and such will not be. Playing on original hardware has links to nostalgia, something people 100 years from now won't have any real desire to do.

You can't predict the future. Only time will tell.

I'm wondering at what point does the packing styrofoam start to degrade under standard storage conditions.
(I mean, we have to be getting to the point, already, where the plastic baggies from the 80's are getting somewhat brittle)


In terms of using real hardware, the more interesting thing to ponder is whether we'll still be using the A/C power infrastructure that we all currently view as typical.

That, and the longevity of CRTs... even if they're being stored in ideal conditions and not being used, they have components that will die from age alone.

Why do you think physical media would not be seen as something meaningful any less that today?  I think a game is still a game and the ownership/physical experience aspect will be just a relevant, I don't think time and tech evolution will take that away from us. If people will collect anime figures a 100 years from now, they will collect nes games. I don't think time/progress changes the physical experience/ownership aspect.
 

Because younger people are already moving away from that. They don't think of a music collection in terms of x number of CDs. They think in terms of gigabytes. Same with movies, and the same will be true of games. Physical media to them is an impediment, and NES games in general, while intriging, isn't something that would be seen as necessary to have on a physical cartridge. Especially if obtaining original hardware 100 years from now is a pain in the ass and software can replicate it (and in 100 years, will probably be indistinguishable from hardware.)

Figurines are different. Those are purpose built to be collectable.

Will a few people have a collection of carts? Sure. A few people today have those wax music cylinders. Will it be like today? Hell no.

 

^ That's true. Even if it's not a consumer TV product like the PVMs (which arguably are a little more durable since they're not consumer TVs), nothing lasts forever.

Not only that, what's the life span of the games and consoles themselves? I'm sure the rom info in the mask roms will die over time, but I'm not sure how long.

 

I think it's a bold assumption that anybody is going to collect anime figures 100 years from now (at least, in meaningful quantity).

I don't doubt that there will still be enthusiasts for our specific hobby, 100 years in the future, but you're talking about our great-GREAT-grand-kids generation, maybe even more removed than that.
These are people that will have no nostalgia for something like the NES, at all.


Think about how few people, today, care about something like silent films.
Or for something even more recent, and even less relevant... how about radio dramas...

Our parents, or their parents, certainly have nostalgic attachment to those things.
But I suspect that very few of us have spent much time with either medium, and even few of our kids, or their kids will in the future.

 

I'm not even that concerned about the lifespan of the hardware as I am about people in the future having no connection to that hardware. You get some younger people who like to have an original NES and such, but each generation that number will become fewer and fewer.

Sure, someone 100 years from now will bust out an NES, rig up a power adapter, and show them the neatness of inserting a cartridge and pushing a game down, but that novelty will wear off in an hour. Anyone wanting to play the game isn't going to seek out an NES. They'll just play it on the future version of an emulator.
 

I will be long dead, so I don't think about this at all.

Just start a Pat thread and leave everything in there regarding his podcast(s).

It's not even discussing Pat. Just the idea the video suggested. I don't see why that couldn't be its own thread if we're not discussing Pat himself.

 

We've seen better technical discussion in other threads about the genuine longevity of mask roms versus what repro guys are using, for instance.

The consoles themselves (at least for the SNES and earlier) have capacitors that will "dry out", just from age, eventually.
Maybe newer consoles won't have discrete capacitors like that, but they have lots of other components that will fail even faster (mechanical drives of one sort, or another, for instance)

And anybody that's ever owned an analog joystick knows that modern controllers are going to fail LONG before the last NES controllers die

 

I agree they will be a curiosity and at best, sought after amongst an extremely small number of collectors. Extremely small. In 100 years you'll probably be able to download some kind of file that will have every game from every system from Atari all the way up to at least the N64. At a certain point it becomes nothing more than a bother to amass a physical collection if the option to download it all in two minutes is there. Will they even sell the same kind of switch boxes they sell now in 100 years? Will they even have switch boxes at all? Component is already just about done as we speak, so 100 years from now not many people will even remember HDMI let alone component or composite. 

Who even knows how games will be perceived by then.  50 years ago pinball machines were pretty much the height of this sort of hobby.  In 100 years lord knows gaming will not look much like what it does now.

Good point. Times are changing, nobody knows what the future holds, but the way things are progressing, it's never going to be like it was in 70s-90s. But of course, that's just the way it is and has always been. 

 

You can do that today, and it goes way more current than N64...


In terms of pinball -- I'd actually be willing to bet that 100 years from now more people will play pinball on physical pinball machines than NES on original hardware.


 

If Pat didn't post the video this wouldn't be a topic. I'm just seeing a trend where every video he posts in the coming future will be put up here for discussion.... although, I guess it's typically the other way around where he'll post about topics that were created here first.

 
Yeah but I see the experience of collecting carts and playing on real hardware as having a lot more depth than just stacking stationary items on a shelf. Even many younger kids, prefer real books, to e-books. The desire to use more experiential forms of physical media will not die away with time. Physical media always has room for innovation, within its own format, and may always compete with digital.

Just because people don't like him doesn't mean he doesn't come up with something worth discussing.

 

N64 controllers would be the perfect example to this. haha

 

The answer depends on whether video games are still relevant as an entertainment medium in 100 years. Baseball cards, comics, and movies have are still relevant because people still enjoy them to this day, however, vaudeville, mandolin orchestras, and countless other forms of entertainment fell out of favor and are all but forgotten now.

For some, sure, but I don't see that being the norm. Otherwise there would be a lot more wax cylinder collections. When's the last time you bought a wax cylinder? Or listened to Ada Jones on something other than a Youtube upload? Have you even heard an Ada Jones song?

Ebooks vs physical books are a bit different, IMO, since e-readers still have a few limitations. The gaming experience, especially since emulation is fairly widespread, isn't as dependent on original hardware.

And I know the appeal of cartridges. I prefer them, too. But I also recognize I have a connection to that era. Young people I've shown my collection to have a cursory interest, but I can tell the idea of a physical collection isn't as big for them, and it'll only get more diminished as time goes on. There'll be a few champions, but not what you see today.

 

I have no intentions on making reaction topics from any specific Youtube videos from anyone. It just so happened this one was, incase you were wondering.
 

Well there certainly won't be as many as there is now....

I have nothing against Pat, at all. I just don't think we need a thread for each one of his podcasts, which is becoming a trend. I know some of them have recently been directed or had links to NA, but still.

Also, this topic has been discussed a lot in one form or antoher. Bit rot, bubble bursting, what'll happen to your games when you die, collecting 50 years from now, etc. I know OP is a recent member and the topic might not be verbatim, but it'll still somewhat redundant. Again, not a problem at all as it happens all the time, even with longtime members.

Anyway, haha, it was really just a passing remark/joke as I've read the guy's name more on the forum in the last month than all of my previous time combined on NA.