Topic: How to Return to Cartridge Gaming

[Kytim89]

Can anyone refer me to a site that lists the file, or memory, size for its games from the NES, SNES, TG16, Neo Geo, N64, Commodore 64, Saturn, Dreamcast, Master System, Gamecube and Genesis? I am working on a project, and it does not involve piracy or homebrew.

[broodwars]

I'm not sure how one would do that without violating several forum rules, because the only sites I know of would have that information are ROM sites.

[UncleBob]

Wikipedia?

[broodwars]

Wikipedia?

But for every game ever released for a given platform in one nice, tidy place?

[Kytim89]

I will compile a list of games and web sites that I have found later and then we will discuss the issue and what I have planned.

[that Baby guy]

GameFAQs has something like this on its Wii Virtual Console/WiiWare message board.

[Kytim89]

Here is a good site for determining the number of blocks for each Wiiware and Virtual Console title:
 
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/2000407-wii-virtual-console-and-wiiware/52940144

[Kytim89]

Is it possible to save a single Virtual Console title to an SD card? If so, my plan is to save each of my VC games onto invidual SD cards and then make cases for them with mini DVD cases and game labels printed from the Cover Project.
 
Check out this Super Mario Brothers box art. Once I have placed the VC title onto an SD card it will then go into a case with this lable inside the cover.
 
http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?game_id=3751
 
Also, if you want to know how many Megabytes each VC and Wiiware title is check out this formula:
 
8 blocks equal 1 Megabyte

So if Ocarina of Time is approxitmatly 286 blocks. So, divide that by eight and you get 35.75 Megabytes. So if my project works then I will need an SD card to fit that onto, right?

[Mop it up]

Is it possible to save a single Virtual Console title to an SD card? If so, my plan is to save each of my VC games onto invidual SD cards and then make cases for them with mini DVD cases and game labels printed from the Cover Project. 

UncleBob, is this you?

[UncleBob]

lol - no.

The only issue with your idea, Kytim, is that there's a very limited number of VC covers available on TCP.  I know most of my downloads aren't up there.

Aside from that, it's entirely possible.  You could probably get a lot of 64MB or below SD cards from eBay or somewhere for cheap for this idea.

Another idea that was thrown around TCP was making one cover for each system and storing the games for each system on a single card.  The cover would be in the Wii style and for "artwork" would have rectangular boxes similar to the Wii Channels on the main menu that covered the front and back of the cover, each channel being the title screen to one of the games you, personally, own.  The down side of this is that A) You'd have to make the cover yourself and B) You'd have to remake the cover every time you downloaded something new.

[Chozo Ghost]

Just use the cover art for the games when they were originally released on their respective consoles. For example, if you have a genesis game from the VC, then use the cover art for the Genesis game. Right?

[UncleBob]

Just use the cover art for the games when they were originally released on their respective consoles. For example, if you have a genesis game from the VC, then use the cover art for the Genesis game. Right?

Possible - but the art for NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. games hosted on TCP is going to be formatted for Universal Game Cases - which take up quite a bit of space on the shelf.  Something to keep in mind.

[Kytim89]

Just use the cover art for the games when they were originally released on their respective consoles. For example, if you have a genesis game from the VC, then use the cover art for the Genesis game. Right?

Possible - but the art for NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. games hosted on TCP is going to be formatted for Universal Game Cases - which take up quite a bit of space on the shelf.  Something to keep in mind.

Do you need a specieal printer and paper to download and print these labels?

[ShyGuy]

They used to advertise megabit size on some Video Game ads during the 16 bit era. Phantasy Star was 6 megabits, Strider was 8 megabits.

[BranDonk Kong]

You can probably find a ROM manager program that will tell you the game sizes. Could be wrong, don't think you actually need the ROMs, just the list.

[Kytim89]

Figute out how many blocks each VC title is an divide by eight and that should give you the abount of memory in Megabytes.

[BranDonk Kong]

No it shouldn't, the VC games have the emulators (and instruction manuals) built in and are larger than the ROM sizes for just the games. If you're just doing this for VC, then I think you're onto something, but if you're trying to get the actual size of just the games, then this isn't the way to do it. Technically every Dreamcast game is 1.2GB  (per disc), but most of them have "garbage" data, so the actual size of the needed information is much smaller, and all Saturn games would technically be 650MB (per disc, or close to it), again, with padding, etc.

[Kytim89]

All I wanted to do was to have each of my individual VC titles on their own SD cards. Of course I would want them in the eight to sixy-four Megabye range for this project.

[broodwars]

All I wanted to do was to have each of my individual VC titles on their own SD cards. Of course I would want them in the eight to sixy-four Megabye range for this project.

And why, exactly, do you want to do this needlessly-costly endeavor?  You'd rather have to swap out SD cards every time you want to play something than just have everything on one card sorted so you can select from at will, all for the sake of nostalgia?  Well, whatever float your boat, I guess.

[Kytim89]

All I wanted to do was to have each of my individual VC titles on their own SD cards. Of course I would want them in the eight to sixy-four Megabye range for this project.

And why, exactly, do you want to do this needlessly-costly endeavor?  You'd rather have to swap out SD cards every time you want to play something than just have everything on one card sorted so you can select from at will, all for the sake of nostalgia?  Well, whatever float your boat, I guess.

Check out this cool box art for Rondo of Blood and tell me that your sense of nostalgia does not increase. Also, it may appear to be costly, but most of the SD cards that I want to use are only a few dollars a piece, so the most expensive thing is the cases, which I will need to hold SD cards.

http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?game_id=4187

[NWR_insanolord]

A few dollars apiece times how many games?

[Kytim89]

A few dollars apiece times how many games?

About fourty, which would be about $80 for the SD cards. I could double my collection with that kind of money. Damn!

[Lithium]

well im pretty sure that the DS cart holder in a DS game case are the perfect size for SD cards (since they're more or less the same thing)
here you go

sounds impractical but who am i to tell you how to spend you money

[Chozo Ghost]

Just get one really large capacity card and then put everything on that. Then print a VC logo thing for it. There, problem solved.

[broodwars]

Check out this cool box art for Rondo of Blood and tell me that your sense of nostalgia does not increase.

Actually, it doesn't.  I don't know if you've noticed, but that box art's all in Japanese.  Maybe you grew up in Japan, but I didn't so I can't have nostalgia over box art from another country with text I can't read.  :

I just have all my Wii digital games on one fairly-large SD card, sorted in the following order: WiiWare -> N64 -> TurboGrafix16 -> Genesis -> SNES -> NES.  It's not quite in reverse technological order, but close enough for my tastes.  When I get a new game, I just move everything around to keep it all nice and neat.