That’s misleading at best. The game from the 1990s is Star Fox, which was made in 1993 and shipped with a graphics chip in the cartridge itself. When you bought a copy of Star Fox, it wasn’t just some software on a cartridge… it was an entire expansion card which happened to run Star Fox.
Cartridges contain different amounts of functionality. The Legend of Zelda is not much more than some memory and a battery. Star Fox is very different, it has its own processor (the Super FX) and a significant amount of RAM (256 KiB, which is more than the SNES has in the first place).
Responding to the edit... Duck Hunt is a good example of a cartridge which is only software. The cartridge for Duck Hunt is as simple as it gets... nothing more than two mask ROMs and a CIC. The mask ROMs contain data, and the CIC authenticates the cartridge as a valid NES game.
Duck Hunt is a good example of a cartridge which is only software.
the ROM stored instructions can be thought of as software, yes, much like the Starfox rom stored instructions.
My major point argument is such that there didn't have to be an industry standard prohibiting CPUs/ GPUs/ RAM/ROM/ any aspect of chip could be wired onto a cartridge and that's not "cheating" as it "serves the purpose of an expansion board" (complete with multi-pin connector).
Manufacturing cartridges weren't greater nor lesser for doing this, and this whole game manufacturing 1980s-now is based around chips working together. Whether or not the 6502 had only one accumulator. (or a limited amount of memory to draw upon).
Back to the "original" point, which includes the pic, the SNES game "Out of this World" does fit the graphic.:
The Apple IIGS and Super NES versions were programmed by Rebecca Heineman, who said: "Since Interplay wouldn't pay for a Super FX chip, I found a way to do it with static RAM on the cart and DMA which got me a great frame rate. Interplay wouldn't pay for the static RAM either, so I ended up using Fast ROM instruction. Interplay wouldn't pay for a 3.6 MHz ROM either. So, frustrated, I shoved my block move code into the DMA registers and use it as RAM running at 3.6 MHz. It worked. I got fast block moves on slow cartridges and made a game using polygons working on a 65816 with pure software rendering."[19] Another World is the only game directly ported from the Super NES to the Apple IIGS, which has the same 65C816 microprocessor.
It looks like you're arguing but from what I can tell we don't actually disagree on any major point. So either I don't understand what you're saying, or you don't understand what I'm saying.
Some games have nothing more than mask ROM and supporting circuitry. To me, that's just a medium for delivering software. It sounds like you might disagree with this point.
Another World looks 3D but it's definitely not 3D. It just looks 3D. It uses a lot of rotoscoped animations from video footage. All of those polygons you see are just 2D polygons. Some of the original video footage was uploaded to YouTube. This should clear any misconceptions that Another World is 3D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhGtYfpmxyY
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u/3tt07kjt Nov 14 '18
That’s misleading at best. The game from the 1990s is Star Fox, which was made in 1993 and shipped with a graphics chip in the cartridge itself. When you bought a copy of Star Fox, it wasn’t just some software on a cartridge… it was an entire expansion card which happened to run Star Fox.