And where exactly would you suggest we put the executable code?

SNES games had their engines right in the ROM. Where else do you want them to be?

I think you're thinking more along the lines of Quake mods. They're mods, not games.

I think what he's getting at is a "mod" system thats powerful enough to realistically (and with enough speed) load and run a script that is the game logic and load the graphics. Basically a general-purpose game engine that doesn't need to change for different games.

I think this is what he's getting at because that is kind of the lines I am taking (and I think Niels, right?) in the seperation of the game engine and the game logic. Niels and I, independantly for now, are seeking to write a game engine in C++ and interface that with Java to actually run the game logic - much higher level stuff than loading graphics, converting, blitting, etc.

Anyway, I'm sure its possible. However, the game engine has to be really general-purpose (in which case you lose an element of encapsulation and abstraction) or really smary (which is what I'm doing).

- Splat

does it make sense to make an engine that would just open up an initialization file, find paths to graphics, sounds, menu graphics... etc...
and then take those elements and make them into a game? what im asking is if it would be a good thing to be able to create an engine that does not need modification to run 3 or 4 different games? like the snes, it probably looked to the cartridge for info like graphics, and then worked upon that to produce a game...

the more "general purpose" the engine is, the less likely it is to make it fast.