The NES lacked persistent memory in the same way that Atari did. A few NES carts had battery-backed SRAM, but that's not the console itself.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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As someone else said in another thread, the comic is about RAM, not storage.
The NES and Genesis/Mega Drive have RAM. The 2600 doesn't.
Yes, it did.
Yup, a whopping 128 bytes.
The NES had 2KB each for video and working memory, and 256 bytes for sprites.
The MegaDrive had 64KB each for video and working memory and 8KB for audio.
You forgot about the 32 bytes of palette indexes on the NES!
And all the memory extensions on the cartridges, some added up to 64kB of RAM to the NES.
With bank switching, there's theoretically no real limit to the amount of RAM that could be used on the platform with a custom mapper.
*Atari
Thanks. I've had Amiga on my mind recently, it would seem!
The Amiga had no memory?
No battery backed memory, no, except possibly a battery backed clock. It had plenty of memory (for the time).
Do you mean the Atari 2600? Because all Amigas had either a floppy drive (all of the desktop models) or onboard NVRAM (the CDTV and the CD32).
No I meant the Amiga. I had a 500 and a 1500 so I know them fairly well. But I didn't realise Amiga was a typo.
Typo! I meant Atari
None of them had inbuilt memory for storage. NES used carts with a battery in em for storage, Sega I think it was similar. Shit even the PS1 lacked memory without a memory card.
The comic is about RAM, not storage. The 2600 was unique in that it had no RAM and needed to process everything in-between each scan line on the same chip.
Technically it did have RAM but only 128 bytes used for the call stack but no frame buffer. The cartridges could include more RAM if needed in addition to the ROM.
Thanks for explaining 😊❤️
Memory and storage aren't synonymous
Most of those games with saves like Zelda have dead batteries and people in the game is garbage, it just needs a new one. Found that out cause my gb Pokémon yellow wasnt working
I still have my NES, I had the later top-loader model though, not the front loader, it's nice except for the fact that from the factory it only has RF out, though that didn't stop me from modding it for composite video using the backplate from an RGB kit (not skilled enough to do a proper RGB mod, and I don't care since my TV only has composite, no RGB of any kind).
I used to have an Atari 7800 but I gave it to my brother when I got my NES, apparently he still has it but hasn't played it in years. Maybe I'll try and get it back from him.
128 bytes I think?
The Atari 2600, yes (but just RAM, no persistent storage of course)
You set the groundwork for those that came after to emulate you, though.
NES doesn’t always drink beer, but when it does, it drinks Dos Equis.
Now now. The Genesis was never the console to have.