About 20 years ago, the Nintendo 64 launched as what would be the last in a proud line of cartridge-based home video game consoles. By the mid-'90s, the cartridge technology that had sustained the home gaming market for decades finally succumbed to the superior storage capacity and lower production/distribution costs of optical discs (and, more recently, digital downloads).

Everything old is new again, though, as the team behind the Retro Video Games System (Retro VGS) will gladly tell you. Mike Kennedy, the man behind classic game auction site GameGavel as well as Retro magazine, is spearheading the effort to revive the classic cartridge format for the modern era with a brand new console.

To be clear, this isn't a new system to run your old cartridges, a la the Retron 5 or countless cheapo "famiclones." This is a brand new system being designed to play newly made, retro-inspired games on removable cartridges.

Why return to cartridges? In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Kennedy said that, besides the obvious nostalgia, cartridges also provide a durability and longevity that just can't be matched by modern consoles. The Retro VGS' solid-state design and flash-based carts should be able to last for at least 40 to 50 years, Kennedy said.

"You can still find Ataris at the swap meet, cartridges, 30 years later, plug them in and it all works," Kennedy told Venturebeat. "To me that’s the coolest technology out there, with that longevity. A lot of us grew up with it. The kids these days are going to miss out on that. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a working original Xbox in 25 years. I just think that’s terrible for the kids these days. I don’t know if they realize that."

The system will support generalized USB controllers (with the dual-joystick Interworks Wii U controllers probably serving as a pack-in default) as well as the classic 9-pin controller standard used by the Atari VCS and Sega Genesis, among others. S-video, composite, and HDMI inputs should offer support for both old tube TVs and future-proof the system for more modern sets, as well.

There aren't a lot of production plants cranking out new cartridges and solid-state console shells these days, though. But Kennedy and his team have managed to track down the old industrial tools used to produce the original Atari Jaguar and its cartridges, which had been repurposed to produce dental equipment, of all things. You can see some quick video of these machines cranking out new console shells on the Retro VGS Facebook page.

Using those tools, rather than designing and building new machines from scratch, probably saved "a half a million dollars in the end" Kennedy told VentureBeat. If that means the final system bears a striking resemblance to the Jaguar, that's probably just a bonus for many retro-minded collectors.

The Retro VGS obviously isn't going to go toe-to-toe with the PS4 in terms of power: the system won't even have network connectivity. Kennedy says he's targeting the 16-bit era as the "sweet spot" for the console's graphics aesthetic and hardware power level, which should keep costs relatively low. That said, the team is having some trouble deciding precisely where to draw the line as far as the power/cost ratio is concerned.

"Originally, I just wanted it to be a 2D machine," Kennedy told Venturebeat. "But if we spend an extra five, ten, twelve dollars, can we beef it up enough to go to that next generation? We’re sort of playing that game with ourselves right now, where we want to draw the line for developers and what kind of games we want to see on this thing."

[Update: Kennedy tells Ars via e-mail that though the team is "still in the process of juggling capability with price," the Retro VGS will be built on an "FPGA combined with ARM architecture... This isn't going to be a "toy" but will be a very sophisticated piece of solid state hardware. The RETRO VGS will have infinite developer expandability and longevity and should last peoples lifetimes which has been something very important to my team."]

Getting software makers on board is going to be key, too. Kennedy says he's talked to dozens of indie developers that have expressed interest in putting their games on cartridges, as well as some major old-school publishers who he says might be interested in creating sequels to beloved properties for the new system. Of course, many publishing houses have been doing just that for years, in the form of digital downloads from Mega Man 9 to Double Dragon Neon and everything in between.

Are gamers really clamoring to buy a standalone console that requires them to get up and swap carts to play these kinds of old-school-inspired games? We'll see if there's a real demand for a return to the format when Retro VGS launches on Kickstarter, which Kennedy says might happen as early as this summer. In any case, the mere fact that a project like this exists shows just how devoted some classic game fans are to the trappings of their youth.