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What is more impressive is that Mario 64 itself was a measly 64 megabits (8 MB), already tiny for its era. So this version is almost double the size of the N64

What is more impressive is that Mario 64 itself was a measly 64 megabits (8 MB), already tiny for its era. So this version is almost double the size of the N64 original! Question: does anybody know why the size of old cartridge games where always reported in bits instead of bytes? To make them look more impressive?

mid-kid 3y ago
Because ROM/flash/eeprom chip sizes are advertised as bits. It was clearer in a time where the definition of "byte" wasn't always exactly 8, and it stuck. The size of a cartridge was never advertised to users, so it'd be quiet useless from a marketing perspective.
- Lammy 3y ago
  > The size of a cartridge was never advertised to users SNK did — “THE 100 MEGA SHOCK!”, “MAX 330 MEGA”, and “GIGA POWER”! <https://www.avid.wiki/The_100_Mega_Shock! https://www.avid.wiki/The_100_Mega_Shock!> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE4xlr_WLc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE4xlr_WLc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfN6HTKfVi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfN6HTKfVi8
  - pezezin 3y ago
    Yes, all NeoGeo games have the size printed on the box, but I guess most people have never seen a physical NeoGeo cartridge. I think it was also quite common for Master System games, but not so much for other consoles.
mtillman 3y ago
Because bigger is better for marketing. The goal was to get sprite sizes as close to arcade as possible. The console manufacturers competed with arcades back then and arcade games always looked better when the bit wars were going. Most systems weren’t even capable of their claim and had to add processors together to get the total up (jaguar for example). Simpler times. 80/90s were about big. Also important to remember that most people didn’t know what a megabyte was.
zbrozek 3y ago
Speculation on my part, but most memory chips (DRAM, flash, EEPROM) that I've seen sold are measured in bits rather than bytes. That might be because some of them aren't divided into or accessed in bytes. Or, as you say, it's marketing all the way down.

mid-kid 3y ago

Because ROM/flash/eeprom chip sizes are advertised as bits. It was clearer in a time where the definition of "byte" wasn't always exactly 8, and it stuck. The size of a cartridge was never advertised to users, so it'd be quiet useless from a marketing perspective.

Lammy 3y ago
> The size of a cartridge was never advertised to users SNK did — “THE 100 MEGA SHOCK!”, “MAX 330 MEGA”, and “GIGA POWER”! <https://www.avid.wiki/The_100_Mega_Shock! https://www.avid.wiki/The_100_Mega_Shock!> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE4xlr_WLc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE4xlr_WLc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfN6HTKfVi8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfN6HTKfVi8
- pezezin 3y ago
  Yes, all NeoGeo games have the size printed on the box, but I guess most people have never seen a physical NeoGeo cartridge. I think it was also quite common for Master System games, but not so much for other consoles.

mtillman 3y ago

Because bigger is better for marketing. The goal was to get sprite sizes as close to arcade as possible. The console manufacturers competed with arcades back then and arcade games always looked better when the bit wars were going. Most systems weren’t even capable of their claim and had to add processors together to get the total up (jaguar for example). Simpler times. 80/90s were about big. Also important to remember that most people didn’t know what a megabyte was.

zbrozek 3y ago

Speculation on my part, but most memory chips (DRAM, flash, EEPROM) that I've seen sold are measured in bits rather than bytes. That might be because some of them aren't divided into or accessed in bytes. Or, as you say, it's marketing all the way down.