Integrity of the DS cards: Can Nintendo make them last?

[Eszett]

I recently recollected that despite the whimsicality of the games of past generations, the media on which they were stored was hardly constructed to be as sturdy and lasting as it could possibly have been. Now with the advent of the DS, will we see a departure from this adverse precedent? I certainly think that we will, noting that the time features of previous games are what primarily led to save file corruptions and erasures. Thanks to the DS having its own clock and the increased difficulty of adding a clock to a DS card, I strongly reckon that this worry will be one of the past as the game uses the hardware and firmware of the DS to its full potential.

In addition, the DS is a fairly recent unit with plenty of shelf life left for it. I would reckon that Nintendo would strive to make its cards last for at least that generation if not well off into the future to work any backwards-compatibility. What good's the card in the future for Pokemon 5th generation and the Game Boy Supreme if it won't be readable four years down the road?

But yeah, it's mainly the clock. D:

Discuss.

 

[Atoyont]

Good question, Eszett.
I believe that the DS cards will be able to retain their data for a long time. However, I don't think that the cards will be backwards combatable with the Fifth generation. This is based off of the fact that Pokemon Gold and Silver could not connect with the Third Generation, due to the drastic change in Pokemon data.
That's just what I think, though.

 

[malcolm_n]

Good question, Eszett.
I believe that the DS cards will be able to retain their data for a long time. However, I don't think that the cards will be backwards combatable with the Fifth generation. This is based off of the fact that Pokemon Gold and Silver could not connect with the Third Generation, due to the drastic change in Pokemon data.
That's just what I think, though.

The reason I fail to agree with you here is this. Nintendo has promised Pokemon fans that they will not leave compatability behind ever again. They lost a lot of fans when R/B/Y... generation couldn't move over. We have a lot of people here who still play those, even if they're no longer supported. I don't know how well it'll go over if they do it again.

As to the topic at hand, I agree that it'll be nice to not worry about losing my pokemon to a time flaw.

 

[Atoyont]

The reason I fail to agree with you here is this. Nintendo has promised Pokemon fans that they will not leave compatability behind ever again. They lost a lot of fans when R/B/Y... generation couldn't move over. We have a lot of people here who still play those, even if they're no longer supported. I don't know how well it'll go over if they do it again.

As to the topic at hand, I agree that it'll be nice to not worry about losing my pokemon to a time flaw.

Alright, I'll concede. You're right.
But I've been wondering: what time flaw?

 

[Dunsparce]

The reason for no connection with RGBYGSC:

The Pokemon's data was formatted with only two digits.
00(1)-FF(256)

Thus there could only be up to 255, because "00" is where "MissingNO."'s data is.

Ruby, Sapphire, and beyond have THREE digits.
000-FFF

There would be IMPOSSIBLE to make the games interchangable because of the way the data was configured.

Would hold well over one, two, or even three thousand unique creatures, meaning Pokemon will always be backward compatable from now on (I doubt Ninty will continue in making new Pokemon forever, though).

 

[DarkSpectrum]

with any electronic storage device, after so long the storage device will begin to lose stabilty. But, with the onset of flash memory devices, the lifetimes have expanded greatly. Seeing as a gameboy DS game is basically a glorified sd flash memory card, I'm going to say that whatever pokemon u have on these cards, as long as u treat the game card PROPERLY, then the game will stand a chance of lasting quite a long time.

 

[Wolf Goddess]

All of my Gameboy and Gameboy Color games still work. I'm guessing that unless you do something drastic to the games, it'll last quite a while.