Games used to come with consoles...

[Monica]

In the days of NES, SNES, and Genesis (and N64?) they used to sell the system with at least one game in the box (and 2 controllers) and now they sell them by themselves, and with one controller when there is space for four, and make special bundles, but overprice them. I dunno why, but it just doesn't feel natural to not have at least one game standard in the box at all times. Is it just me? Have videogame companys gotten more greedy? I don't care how cruddy the in-box game would be, but it feels wrong that there's not one. I'm not trying to gripe, I just want other people's opinions on this. What happened to the days of SNES when they gave us Super Mario World and Mario All-Stars in the box?

[Beldaran]

I bought my SNES new with one controller and no games. :)

[vegeta1215]

I bought my SNES new with one controller and no games. :)

Exactly. The Super Mario World/Mario All-Stars bundle wasn't until later.

I can only remember getting two systems that came with a game. 1) My NES came with Super Mario Bros/Dunk Hunt/Track Meet and 2) my original Gameboy came with Tetris (which was a super smart move by Nintendo). That's it. They still make bundles today, but they usually don't appear until the console has been out for a while. I waited a while to pick up a Gamecube, but finally did when they offered Metroid Prime with it for free. Nintendo has had several such bundles since then, and recently I a GBA bundle that came with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

[Tygore]

I got my SNES when it was new (or somewhat new, bear in mind I was 5 at the time), and got Super Mario World and a second controller with it.

[Darth Marsden]

It's a sign of the times. Companies know that they can get away with it, so they do. It is a bit of a shame, but that's business. If, on the other hand, you're prepared to wait a while, then compnies to release consoles with games to try and get more converts to their systems - Nintendo do this quite regularly, although I'm not sure about the others.

I'll tell you what I remember - consoles with games BUILT IN. In the old days of the Master System, if you didn't plug a cartridge in, then Alex Kidd would load up. Why don't we get things like THAT anymore?

[Grasshopper]

I got my SNES when it was new (or somewhat new, bear in mind I was 5 at the time), and got Super Mario World and a second controller with it.

Yes, I did too, but that was also after it was out a year. The system came out in 1991, but I didn't get mine until Christmas of 1992. So while I did get a game with mine, I have no idea if a game actually came with it the year before.

[Dart Zaidyer]

From day one, the SNES came bundled with Super Mario World, two controllers and both A/V and Composite output cables. I remember that being the case because at the local rental shops, there were never any real boxes for SMW... Usually they just xeroxed the manual and taped it to a regular cardboard box.
Additionally, whenever you rented a full SNES console (you used to be able to do that back then) it always came with two controllers.

Later on they started swapping out SMW for other games like Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island, and by the time the revised SNES came out they had gone down to "console and one controller only" sets for about $50. A game bundle would cost you $60.

[Monica]

I just remembered that I always got my systems later. My SNES came with SMW and SMAS (not SMW+SMAS, I got them when they were seperate) and 2 controllers and the cables. (And there was a commercial out that said something like: The Genesis only gives you one game in the box, while SNES gives you 5 or something, anyone remember that commercial?)

[me2]

I got my PS2 in 2002 with two controllers, Gran Turismo 3 and Jak & Daxter.

I've also seen some DSes that come bundled with games lately.

[MottZilla]

Games bundled with consoles is ussually after it's been out awhile, though it seems Nintendo has always been better at this than anyone else. Sony never was too big on freebies. M$ has done some bundling. But Nintendo has always been the best. I remember when we bought our SNES we got it with a free Mario Kart inside, plus it had a coupon for a FREE Super Mario Allstars cartridge. But, the coupon was expired. We sent it anyway and in only 1 week, not 6-8 weeks, they'd sent us our free SMA. =D

I know our NES came bundled with Super Mario Brothers / Duck Hunt.

When I bought the N64 though, that was the first time I'd ever bought a console that had no game. Infact for awhile I believe I didn't own a single game. I just rented shit constantly. After that though it was quite common for anytime I bought a console I needed to fork out more cash for games to play.

It's a shame, but hey the Nintendo Revolution might bundle classic games for the Virtual Console or perhaps just be free to download from the internet.

[copsgotguns]

not only do consoles not come with games (when they 1st come out) anymore but they dont come with built-in memory any more either. to me memory cards have always seemed to be a necesity yet they sell it separately. companies really are getting greedier. (i think thats how you spell greedier)

[Cloral]

The only major console that has come with built-in memory was the xbox (there were a few lesser-known consoles like the CD-i that did as well). When older consoles allowed you to save, there was a memory chip and battery contained within the cartridge itself. In the days of the NES, being able to save in a game was a big deal. When games started shipping on CDs, there was no longer any way to bundle memory with the game and thus memory cards became necessary. The nice thing about memory cards/hard drives is you aren't limited in the number of saves you can make for one game like you used to be.

One of the reasons why Nintendo has been so able to do package deals is because of their flagship franchises. MS and Sony don't have these franchises, so what game would they bundle with the system? MS does have Halo, but that's rated M so you can't include that with the system. And I wouldn't want these companies to include a game just for the sake of making a bundle package, because the game might suck. Then you'd be stuck paying for a game you didn't even want. What if the 360 came with PDZ? Not many people I know have PDZ because it honestly isn't that good of a game. So having the 360 not come with a game saved me some money.

And remember - before you call the console makers greedy for not including games or memory, consoles these days always sell at a loss. The console makers make their money on licensing game sales.

[MottZilla]

That's a good point Cloral, but even in the old days I believe they sold console at a loss.

Always, the first console to have built in memory card capabilities was one of the first CD systems, the Sega CD. Also the Sega Saturn had built in memory for saving. Strangely though, the DreamCast didn't have any.

[Petoe]

Well even though my NES came with SMB/Duck Hunt, SNES with SM All-Stars and N64 with Mario 64 and F1 GP I don't care that much about the fact that nowadays when you buy a console, there's no game with it. Maybe there's a reason for it too, like when GC was released, there wasn't any "major" titles for it yet... no Mario game, no Zelda game...

But I miss those days when you didn't need save cards and you didn't have to wait minutes for a game to load... I'm just such an impatient person. :P

[ZTC]

When I got my Game Boy back in Christmas '93, it came with Link's Awakening, and when I got my SNES about 2 years later, it had A Link to the Past packed in with it.

It's been too long since I've bought a 'new' system.

[Cloral]

But I miss those days when you didn't need save cards and you didn't have to wait minutes for a game to load... I'm just such an impatient person. :P
No you're right. We need fater media - because the amount of data games use has balooned. Memory speeds have not increased at the pace that CPU speeds have, making memory a big bottleneck. And it would be nice to have a media that doesn't get scratched like DVDs do. I've heard of technology where you basically have a DVD in a casing and when you put it in the device, the device pulls the disc out of the casing to read it. This way when you handle the disk it doesn't get scratched or smuged.

[gdorf]

No you're right. We need fater media - because the amount of data games use has balooned. Memory speeds have not increased at the pace that CPU speeds have, making memory a big bottleneck. And it would be nice to have a media that doesn't get scratched like DVDs do. I've heard of technology where you basically have a DVD in a casing and when you put it in the device, the device pulls the disc out of the casing to read it. This way when you handle the disk it doesn't get scratched or smuged.

That is almost how minidisks worked, but they were expensive to buy. :shrug:

[Grasshopper]

I bet those would still get scratched. Because people are successful in actually taking the UMD out of its plastic holder. Of course, those people are either not very smart, or have no common sense. I'm not sure what possesses them to take it apart.

Them: "This doesn't work"
Me: "Thats because you broke it"

[MottZilla]

Problem is "taking it out" of the caddy. You'd wanna do it like a floppy, only more secure. Have your window that opens for the laser to read the disc, but at the same time make it a secure sort of locking window so idiots can't manually open it.

I think it's been said though how optical discs aren't gonna keep cutting it, and it's possibe that in the future games may come on something similar to a hard disk. Much faster, much higher capacity. They do cost alot more than any optical disc though.

[Archibaldo]

When I bought my DS last summer, a week after I bought it, they released the offer that when you buy a DS you get Super Mario DS free with it. Man I was pissed. I had waited for like 6 months to get the blue DS instead of the silver one, but had I waited a week, I could have gotten my blue DS and a free game with it.

But anyway. Yeah, when I got me N64 it came with 2 controllers. No game, but at least my brother and I could play the SSB game we got.