While the ModRetro Chromatic is in general a self-contained device, the Cart Clinic software is a means by which the firmware can be updated. This includes for ModRetro games themselves, and ModRetro recently released a new proof of concept of the idea with the addition of Battle Mode to ModRetro Tetris, the pack-in software (itself on a cartridge) for the Chromatic. While ModRetro Tetris already had multiplayer modes for marathon, ultra, sprint and endless play, these were based on simple comparative time limits. Battle mode, which pressures opposing players by sending “garbage” lines to them upon completing lines on their own board, is recognizable in many versions of Tetris dating back decades but is new to this version.
The idea of Cart Clinic is somewhat nonintuitive to ModRetro’s general mission. As discussed in my previous review of the Chromatic hardware, part of the appeal of the device, from a retail perspective or otherwise, is its minimal reliance on Internet connections or technical skill on the part of the user in terms of formatting their own games. Of course, the Chromatic is still perfectly usable even if you never used Cart Clinic on it once. The games will just be stuck in their 1.0 state.
Personally speaking, I’m inclined to agree with the common argument that post-release updates have been bad for gaming, as it encourages developers to send out buggy products and just fix them in later updates. As soon as I heard about Cart Clinic, I couldn’t help but think of Chantey, a game that I really wanted to like but which was filled with so many bugs and nonintuitive scripting decisions it felt really rushed. Now that I know there’s a fairly extensive 1.1 revision, I might try to give it a second chance at some point. In the more immediate sense, though, it’s hard to be too critical of Cart Clinic being used to give a new feature to ModRetro Tetris.
