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That's an oddly cherry-picked version of a pattern. There was no compatibility between the NES, SNES, N64, or GameCube. Wii and Wii U each supported their prede

That's an oddly cherry-picked version of a pattern. There was no compatibility between the NES, SNES, N64, or GameCube. Wii and Wii U each supported their predecessor's games, but the Switch did not. Those 2 out of 7 were outliers

BudaDude 2y ago
You are forgetting the handheld line Gameboy Color supported OG Gameboy games GBA supported GBC games DS supported GBA and(?) GBC games - Could be wrong about that 3DS supported DS games.
- Dwedit 2y ago
  DS did not support GBC games.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- ihuman 2y ago
  The GBA (original and SP) also supported OG Gameboy games, but the Gameboy Micro only supported GBA games The 3DS also had games from other consoles for sale in the eShop, but they were emulated (GB, GBC, Game Gear, NES, SNES). If you bought a 3DS before the price drop, you could also play some GBA games. These are also running natively, not emulation https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/423/~/what-is-the-nintendo-3ds-ambassador-program%3F https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...
  - Dwedit 2y ago
    Game Boy Micro can still enter GBC mode, it just can't read any cartridges. It's missing the switch which is normally triggered by the cartridge shape, and also missing the voltage conversion circuitry.
Sakos 2y ago
The important part is that backwards compatibility became a focus after the Gamecube and it has been ever since. Like, this is just a fact. The Wii supported Gamecube games and controllers. Even the WiiU had the internal capability to run GC games, it just lacked the disc drive for it, and it ran Wii games just fine. The same goes for every single of their portable consoles (GB games work on the GBC, GB and GBC games work on the GBA, GBA games work on the Nintendo DS, etc).
- BHSPitMonkey 2y ago
  > The important part is that backwards compatibility became a focus after the Gamecube and it has been ever since. Like, this is just a fact. It's a fact until 7 years ago, when the Switch was released without the ability to accept Wii U discs or connect to Wii controllers. Two upgrades with BC did not establish a pattern.
echelon 2y ago
CPU and GPU architectures used to wildly change from one generation to the next. Backwards compatibility wasn't always practical or feasible. Now we've arrived at a fairly locked in set of architectures.
- toast0 2y ago
  The SNES architecture looks pretty similar to the NES architecture in a lot of ways. It might have been possible to make it work, if it was a design goal. The PPUs are similar, the CPU has a compatability mode for the NES CPU, the controller bus is the same with a different connector. Sega does what Nintendon't, and their 16-bit system was backwards compatible with (one of their) 8-bit systems, if you got the adapter that adapts the slot and includes a boot rom. Apple also did it; the 16-bit Apple IIgs used more or less the same CPU as the SNES, and used the CPU compat mode to run regular Apple II software. Sega

BudaDude 2y ago

You are forgetting the handheld line Gameboy Color supported OG Gameboy games GBA supported GBC games DS supported GBA and(?) GBC games - Could be wrong about that 3DS supported DS games.

Dwedit 2y ago
DS did not support GBC games.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
ihuman 2y ago
The GBA (original and SP) also supported OG Gameboy games, but the Gameboy Micro only supported GBA games The 3DS also had games from other consoles for sale in the eShop, but they were emulated (GB, GBC, Game Gear, NES, SNES). If you bought a 3DS before the price drop, you could also play some GBA games. These are also running natively, not emulation https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/423/~/what-is-the-nintendo-3ds-ambassador-program%3F https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...
- Dwedit 2y ago
  Game Boy Micro can still enter GBC mode, it just can't read any cartridges. It's missing the switch which is normally triggered by the cartridge shape, and also missing the voltage conversion circuitry.

Sakos 2y ago

The important part is that backwards compatibility became a focus after the Gamecube and it has been ever since. Like, this is just a fact. The Wii supported Gamecube games and controllers. Even the WiiU had the internal capability to run GC games, it just lacked the disc drive for it, and it ran Wii games just fine. The same goes for every single of their portable consoles (GB games work on the GBC, GB and GBC games work on the GBA, GBA games work on the Nintendo DS, etc).

BHSPitMonkey 2y ago
> The important part is that backwards compatibility became a focus after the Gamecube and it has been ever since. Like, this is just a fact. It's a fact until 7 years ago, when the Switch was released without the ability to accept Wii U discs or connect to Wii controllers. Two upgrades with BC did not establish a pattern.

echelon 2y ago

CPU and GPU architectures used to wildly change from one generation to the next. Backwards compatibility wasn't always practical or feasible. Now we've arrived at a fairly locked in set of architectures.

toast0 2y ago
The SNES architecture looks pretty similar to the NES architecture in a lot of ways. It might have been possible to make it work, if it was a design goal. The PPUs are similar, the CPU has a compatability mode for the NES CPU, the controller bus is the same with a different connector. Sega does what Nintendon't, and their 16-bit system was backwards compatible with (one of their) 8-bit systems, if you got the adapter that adapts the slot and includes a boot rom. Apple also did it; the 16-bit Apple IIgs used more or less the same CPU as the SNES, and used the CPU compat mode to run regular Apple II software. Sega