Megabits vs. Megabytes (Super Metroid example)

[GradualGames]

I remember years ago when I read Nintendo Power, it always made a big deal out of how large a game was in "megabits." I recall in particular Super Metroid being "24 megabits!!!" Now, if I understand my bits and bytes correctly (which I certainly hope so since I can apparently write working code for the NES), a byte has 8 bits. So doesn't that mean Super Metroid's ROM was about 3 megabytes in size?

If that's true, the only explanation I can think of is that megabits sounds more impressive since it is always 8 times as large.

[Bregalad]

If that's true, the only explanation I can think of is that megabits sounds more impressive since it is always 8 times as large.

Yes it's exactly that. Size of EPROMs are usually experessed in MBits as well.

[tokumaru]

Yeah, they used to do this kind of stuff for marketing. I doubt many people buying games back then had any idea of what a "megabit" (I believe SEGA used only the word "mega") actually was, they just knew that game x had more megabits than game y, so it was probably better.

[naI]

Yeah, they used to do this kind of stuff for marketing.

Why have megabits when you could have... Mega POWER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfE9clnA8oI

[kyuusaku]

I generally don't think it's a marketing thing, just a historical/accuracy thing since memory isn't always a byte wide.

[Memblers]

Nintendo Power magazine, on their quick review things, also used to show the game sizes in megabits (even for NES). It's kinda funny to compare that to the suggested retail price, printed next to it.

I also remember the Neo Geo arcade, on the SNK logo it would say something like "100 mega shock!", but I had no idea what that even meant back then.

[cpow]

I generally don't think it's a marketing thing, just a historical/accuracy thing since memory isn't always a byte wide.

And, technically a byte does not have to be 8 bits.