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Games Entertainment

The Future of Console Gaming, Part Deux 102

Posted by Hemos from the follow-up-piece dept.
gmezero writes "The second part of my article on The Future of Console Gaming is now available. This part is 12 pages and features overviews on the successes and failures of Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Atari, as well as projections on the future plans of all but Atari. " We had linked to the first article - the second is along much of the same lines, in terms of style.
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The Future of Console Gaming, Part Deux More

The Future of Console Gaming, Part Deux

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  • Yeah, but how much does a DTV cost?

    Sorry, I meant Sega, not Sony.

    I was actually comparing to using a mouse, not a keyboard.

  • the original. I speak, of course, of PinBall. The Real Ones, not the feeble computer simulations. No waiting for the Nth generation of a console to get a version that looks half-way realistic. It's speed is limited only by the Laws of Physics. No trying to differentiate this 4-pixel blob from that 5-pixel blob. Resolution limited only by the quality of your eyesight. No looking for illogical programmer's traps to keep the game interesting. Game variations are limited only by your imagination. And best of all, no outrageous upfront cash layout. Fifty cents, and you are playing. No obsolesence. No guilt about 'investing all that money and it sits in the closet' if you decide not to play for six months.

    Invent a better PinBall, and the world will beat a path to your door.
  • If you want to know about the history of Nintendo, along with the history of the videogames industry in general, then I doubt you can do better than the book "Game Over". The author's name escapes me at the moment, but is far and away the most interesting and informative account of the growth of the industry I have read.
  • The Console Game machines has an advantage: They use a single (and fast) standard. A PC have many diffrent standards, so the games becomes more complicated to write and somewhat slower.
  • The article is aimed at that casual gamer who is trying to understand the industry. I make no appologies for my style.

    My point is also not to spend hundreds of pages explaining all of the various events, but provide the basic information of what has happened within said companies for the last ten years. After that, explain where I belive the company is headed as a whole.

    My hopes then are that if you become interested enough in what I've written, you will both go read the references in both footnote pages. And maybe encourage someone else to write newer history books.
  • on rec.games.video.classic the Atari failure is talked about over and over. You all talk about vaporware and such about Microsoft, but Atari towers them easily. There's still talk about a much-hyped game for the Atari Jaguar named Battlesphere for years and it STILL Hasn't been released! Atari screwed up in numerous ways which lead to their demise. I was amazed how popular the Commie 64 was, and how long it lasted in the home computer market.
  • I keep looking at the Sony Playstation as a fun toy that I'd like to write code for. Given the bleem and a suitable development environment (does anyone out there have one), and a playstation with a mod chip, you can develop your own code and run it (after you burn a CD). I keep wanting to turn my playstation into a tres cool MP3 player with graphics (a la the Sonique MP3 player and plugs ins...)

    But where can I get a dev kit from? Has anyone produced an open version of it?
  • Have you read the Dreamcast SDK Release Notes? No? Then hold your comments until you have. And when was the last time you tried to compile a VC++ 6 project under VC++ 4? Oh... I see... really? That simple?

    As far as X-Box, my sources tell me that the target OS for it will be the the Rental version of consumer Windows. (of course in three years, who the hell knows what MS will do)

    Also, I do take offense to the "apologist" comment since I'm not exactly sure what you think is being apologized for. What I do know is that I'm sick of listing to people like you and the original poster blather on about what a failure Nintendo is, or how they are a failure.

    I don't think anyone at Nintendo thinks that they will somehow outdo Sony in numbers of units sold at this point. But you can't tell me that any company having dominance in a demographic ("boys 7 to 14"), along with having sales as of March 1999 of 79.33 million GameBoys sold and 24.1 million N64s sold, can be considered a failure or the mark of the company on the verge of being DOA. Just because you don't own an N64 doesn't mean nobody is buying them.

    Also, don't forget, sales tracking numbers generated by a number of companies show that for each N64 system sold an average of three Nintendo corporate titles are sold. So... let's see, Nintendo corporate has possibly has sold around 75 million units of N64 software by March of last year??? Yeah, those numbers suck, they better close up shop now before they have to file for bankruptcy.

    P-a-a-leeeease. Both Nintendo and Sony are doing fine. Sony just has bigger sales numbers.
  • You might want to check out the propinball series for PC. The next best thing to owning your own. Vermifax

    Vermifax
  • Been there, done that! Note there's a big distinction between the "Tramiel" years at Atari (post-crash: ST + Jaguar), and the "Warner" years (pre-crash: E.T. and the 5200). I can't decide which is worse myself!

    Too bad Warner Bros. sold Atari long ago, or it could just be another part of the big AOL conglomorate.
    --
  • Yeah, but the problem was that they strong armed the retailers to make up for their total lack of production control -- "For every Ms. PacMan you order, you need to order at least one surplus Outlaw or SpaceWar cartridge at full price.", things like that.

    Atari was the only game in town, so they got away with this for a while. But when the 2600 was winding down on it's lifespan, the retailers realized that they were massively overstocked with old games nobody wanted to buy. When they dumped the supply and told Atari where to stick their computers and the 5200 (Winter '84), game prices dropped rapidly from $30 to $10 to $5 to $2 to $1...

    This put Atari in a pretty poor position, revenue-wise, and is also the reason why every 2600 you find is always accompanied by the same common games (Asteroids, PacMan, Defender, etc.) which the original owner probably picked up from the surplus bin later on for cheap.
    --
  • I base my comments on developing for various versions of DirectX (from DX3 forward) under two different versions of Visual Studio. Sure, you need to convert the project files itself, but there's nothing inherent in DirectX itself that prevents you from using it with a newer/older version of a compiler (within reasonable limits -- i.e. using 16-bit compilers is a no-no), or even a competitor's product. Unlike Java, the C++ language does not change significantly every six months...

    If you're going to turn this into a qualifications game, then I'd be curious to hear what your qualifications are. Your personal page on the site doesn't have much in the way of information...

    As far as my "apologist" comments went, I suppose that came on a bit strong, but I really think that the situation between Nintendo and Sony is approaching that of the ages-old Apple-PC rivalry. Apple may have better hardware, but systems (and gaming systems in particular) are sold on the basis of software -- both quality and quantity. I don't need to remind anyone who is dominant in the personal computer marketplace (despite Apple's recent about-face).

    The GameBoy is 10+ years old IIRC. On the one hand, it's amazing that things are still being developed for it, and that it's still a popular platform. On the other hand, the system is looking extremely long in the tooth...

    Another factor to keep in mind is that margins are much more in favor of CD systems as opposed to cartridge-based systems. This is attractive not only to the developers but also the system manufacturer, as it will encourage more people to develop for the system.

    P-a-a-leeeease. Both Nintendo and Sony are doing fine. Sony just has bigger sales numbers.

    I hate to sound flippant, but "having bigger sales numbers" is pretty damn important to a company's success. Gaming is no longer a niche area, like how it was in the early '80s, where a variety of companies can carve out their own pieces of the market. If you're not in first place, you're endangered.

    Nintendo may not be "poor" but they are certainly not in an enviable position right now -- their chief rival, who blew onto the marketplace a few years ago with all the subtlety of a tornado, is now preparing their next salvo. Developers are lining up by the truckload to put out games for the PS2, the hype is being built up (to the level where everyone knows about the PS2), and, most importantly, they're beating Nintendo to market.

    I think that Nintendo is in the proverbial lull before the storm. Clear skies now, stormy weather ahead...

  • History is re-written by the victors, and the victors have lied to you about why the console market crashed after the 2600.

    Yup, it's because Atari decided to bet the future on desktops rather than consoles.

    Yup, it's because console games started to suck - because developers were focusing their attention elsewhere. The question is where?

    The answer that no one wants to tell you is that console gaming died because of one little thing:

    LOAD "*",8,1

    That's right. The Commodore 64 killed the Console Star. Here was a computer - with all the educational connotations that go along with it - that wasn't as high-priced as the expensive Apple II or luxurious Macintosh. It didn't cost that much more than a console, and parents got duped into thinking that it might be much more educational to their kids than a dummy console. By 1984, the Commodore 64 was the king of home computers.

    Of course, little did the parents know that most kids wouldn't know how to do anything more than LOAD "*",8,1.

    But Commodore failed to innovate the 64 line. It wasn't expandible. The 128 was a dud. Commodore US tried to position the Amiga as a business computer. By 1986 cheap PCs took out the 64 on the high-end and Nintendo was taking out the 64 on the low end.

    Don't let the ignoramuses rewrite history. Atari died at the hands of Commodore long before Nintendo ever walked on the scene.
  • Console games will never match computer games.

    No, of course they won't, and neither will computer games ever match console games. The two are really exclusive from each other, since computers excel at certain aspects of gaming and console systems excel at others which computers don't seem to have done very well at.

    1. You just can't get decent graphics on a 320x240 resolution TV, no matter how good the graphics controller.

    Graphics aren't everything. Again, this simply reflects the different nature of console vs. computer - the graphics in computer games are obviously much more detailed in many instances, and this makes them *different* than console games, not *necessarily* better.

    2. They're too friggin expensive(the games).

    Most console games seem to be in the same price range as most computer games as far as I've noticed...

    6. Impossible to copy, at least they would be if all the console makers were as smart as Sony.

    Two words: mod chip.

    7. Less competition=less quality.Hmm. While it's true that there are hordes of game developers for the PC and only a handful (comparatively) of companies developing for consoles, again, this doesn't *necessarily* mean that game consoles are going to have lower quality games. I tend to find that, in my own opinion, anyway, game consoles tend to have a greater number of games that are enjoyable (to me) than computers...and again, this simply represents the fact that computer games are different in nature than console games.
  • He's a designer and, more recently an executive producer. Very surprising that the author didn't realize this.
  • If I'm Sony, I'd try to cut a deal with AT&T to replace its cable descramblers with a descrambler-enhanced version of the Playstation 2. No matter what kind of losses I'd take on the console deal, I'm putting a DVD player and my console in 25% of U.S. households. Razor, meet razor blades...

    Steven E. Ehrbar
  • I doubt you ever will ever get that old feeling back. I know exactly what you mean - I still consider Phantasy Star (SMS) to be the greatest game ever released, just because I was 11 when I got it, and It completely changed my view of videogames. The last game I played that left me speechless was Super Mario 64. Now, I may not be left in awe of games anymore, and I doubt I'll have that holy epiphany feelin' again until I see a realtime, photorealistic game, and that's not happening for a long time, I think.

    I don't regret it, though. I'm older now, and I can appreciate the technological aspect of eye-candy games (Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi), and allow myself to be immersed in a fantastic story (Zelda 64, Final Fantasy Anything, Soul Reaver) the developers have spent a lot of time meticulously putting together.

    Games don't look as good as movies yet, but a well crafted game can be just as satisfying, if not moreso that some movies.

  • Same reason running around the yard pretending to shoot your brother isn't as fun anymore. Its not the games man, its YOU.
    Watch your kids play the new games, they feel the same way you did back then.

    You grew up.
  • You might want to check out the propinball series for PC. The next best thing to owning your own.

    I was going to mention them also...

    And the best thing is - not only do they provide a very convincing simulation of a real pinball machine (down to the ball hitting the glass), but the tables are well designed tables. Timeshock! would make a very good real machine.

    Though it still can't quite replicate the experience of actually playing on a real machine. I know I'm picking up a machine or two as soon as I live somewhere with the room. (So sad that Williams has stopped making pinball machines - they've always made the very best ones)
    ---
  • The Commodore 64 killed the Console Star.

    I agree whole-heartedly, but there's another important factor in the C-64's dominance that you've neglected to mention.

    Of course, little did the parents know that most kids wouldn't know how to do anything more than LOAD "*",8,1.

    And the parents often didn't know that the kids had a box of floppies with copied games on them to type that command for. I didn't have a C-64 myself, but I knew lots of people who did. Invariably, they all had hundreds of copied games, and knew where to get more if they wanted to. Compared to the Atari, whose cartridge games were easily copyable, this was an important factor in making the C-64 the gaming machine in the early 80s.

  • No, I am aware of his status, in retrospect I could have used better wording in the paragraph you reference. Unfortunately, I thought that I had corrected this in my later drafts and somehow in my rereads I didn't catch that it slipped through.

    Sigh... so do I correct it now or leave it as it stands? ... I think I may go back and add a small parenthesised note of correction.

    Sigh... again...
  • Speaking of history books, Minoru Arakawa would seem to be a good choice for Nintendo's new leader, if I can go by Game Over by David Sheff. He's been involved in the business since the beginning, and he was very involved in getting the original NES accepted in the US (remember, in those days no one wanted to touch a game console with a ten foot pole.) In fact, Arakawa has long been Yamauchi's hand-picked successor, and not just because he's married to his daughter.

    Oh, don't let people who are critical of your article get you down. I thought it was a good article, though a bit long to read in one sitting.

    Oh, by the way, I have a Lynx, so I can explain a few of the problems with it. The old version Lynx was a big, clumsy bulky machine. It had great graphics, but ordinary sound. It ran through batteries like crazy. It had a few good games but not enough variety and it couldn't compare to some of the Gameboy games. Oh! And RPGs were practically an impossibility, only password saving was possible. (Also, the less said about RPG atrocities like Viking Child --shudder-- the better. )

    The Lynx was a mixed bag, too big to be a portable system, but a top of the line piece of hardware if only it had more software to take advantage of it. Oh, and of course, as mentioned in an aticle I read in Penthouse magazine (really!) it was completely blown away by NECs TurboExpress.

    I think the best Lynx games were some of the originals like Gates of Zendocon and Chip's Challenge. Oh, and the version of Ninja Gaiden III for it is good, though it is a clone of the NES version and I'd have preferred Ninja Gaiden II. Oh, and the best accessory for it was a batter pack that you could put 8 D batteries in so you could actually play with it for a while. (Of course, in doing so, your Lynx ceased to even pretend it was in Gameboy territory, a huge heavy battery pack + a huge heavy Lynx, it was fun at picnics though.)

  • It's all about the games and their value. If the games aren't there, the console will bust. If the hardware/software is too expensive, same result.
  • HaHaHahahahahaHoHo...

    Obviously, you just don't know the right people.

    As to shareware/freeware, Sony has quasi-shareware promotional disks they send out now and then. I've got a few, basically whatever ten games they are pushing for Christmas. Mods are a much bigger advantage for PCs than freeware. Of course, there is more freeware for PCs that is actually good...

    Console Gamers and PC Gamers are just different, they like different things. Sure, PCs are 'superior' but where are all the fighting games! How about anime-style RPG games?

    I cross over now and then so I've noticed one big thing about consoles is they are cheap, portable and disposable, which is not true of a top of the line PC.

    Of course, what they really need to do is bring back text-based games... (Yeah, yeah, I know they never really left... but I mean back to the age of glory they had when I was a kid..)

    Oh, the one thing that console games, especially Sony have as a big negative is that they tend to be, well, created by actually evil companies. You can buy good gaming PCs from nice, pro-gamer people and they won't have lockout chips for foriegn games (at least, not yet).

  • Just one point though...

    Playstation was originally supposed to be an attachment for Super Nintendo. Nintendo made two huge mistakes in the last console war:

    1. Trusting Sony

    2. Believing their monopoly status would last forever

    Did you ever wonder, for examply, why Namco made nothing for Nintendo? (Well, nothing important, they may have made some unimportant game I don't know about.) It was because Hiroshi Yamauchi deliberately snubbed Masaya Nakamura. I mean, even though the N64 was expensive to develop for, I have to believe it would've been worth it for Namco to port a Tekken game to it, but they didn't. I don't know what was up with Capcom, but I know Nintendo used to ride them pretty hard too. (No Megaman games and no exclusive Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for Genesis.)

    Now, the changing of the guard at Nintendo may not be a coincidence, Arakawa is a much nicer and easier going person than Yamauchi. This could be a strategic thing to win back (or win better) support from some of the third parties that had been alienated by Nintendo's heavy handed tactics back in their time of dominance. I don't think the third parties are going to want to see Sony gain absolute dominance, they'll give Nintendo support so that they don't end up with a new, nasty task master. (I'll admit, it might be too late.) I think Nintendo may be ready to come out of the wilderness.

    Hey, I for one am sick of Sony's stomping all over my rights as a consumer, so I might consider a Dolphin. I don't really doubt it will be a decent piece of hardware.

  • Excellent point... The Commodore 64 gave you a better-than-console gaming experience for roughly the same price, plus you did have the option to do more (I learned programming on my C64). But let's not forget another *really* big point in the C64's success - pirating. You couldn't pirate a cartridge. But even today I *still* have hundreds of pirated C64 games in a closet at my parents' home.

    One note - your estimate of 1986 is a little early for the C64's demise... The C64's peak was around 85-89. The NES didn't show up until 88, and the PC wasn't a viable gaming platform until the introduction of VGA and 386's (early 90s)

  • I think that a lot of the old games hold up partly because what was popular then has been abandoned now. I mean think about it, in the old days you were playing 2D sidescrollers mostly. Nowadays, 2D sidescrollers are an afterthought for most companies, and the graphics are more 'realistic' and less 'cartoony.'

    I've had a few games I've really like for the newer consoles, but mostly I feel the same as you. I assume Soul Calibur is good, since Soul Blade is one of the few Playstation games I actually love...

  • Truly I have not seen any NUMBERS on ANYTHING that can compare.

    Maybe because there are no definite Dolphin numbers out yet?????? The only semi-concrete one is the MHz speed, with the PS2 being at 300, and the Dolphin at 400. That's it.
  • I think we all know what the greatest gaming platform ever created was...

    A big round of applause for everyone over at Texas Instruments for keeping me (and countless others) entertained during high-school classes.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • What are you talking about? The HP series r0x0r3d the TI calculators as far as game. :) We have a jytris (improved version of tetris), a doom clone, babal (think sky paths), even mario. Oh... can't wait to get to class tomorrow...

  • Uh-oh... This could get ugly quick ;)

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Speak for yourself; my money and time went into my Apple ][+ and my room-mates Atari 800...

  • This article is just as bad as the first article. Why is it being given such prominence? I've read better essays in 7th grade English class.

  • Atari 2600: The Only Moral Gaming Console (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Friends, I read this article, and I'm sure that many of the heathen posters here will try to dazzle you with official-sounding names like "Dreamcast" and "Playstation." Be steadfast, my friends, and don't let them sway you. Let's look at what some of those names actually mean.

    For example, the letters in the word "Dreamcast" can be rearranged to spell "Sacred Mat." This is clearly an invitation for young children to take part in the damned, liberal religion of yoga. Meditation! Criminy, friends! What's next? Sniffing airplane glue? Unfortunately for the "Dreamcast", it can also be rearranged to spell "Trade Scam", which is pretty much what it amounts to: a left-wing scam to part you and your money and put it in the pockets of liberal trial lawyers.

    But the Sony Playstation is much worse. What does the Sony Corporation want to subliminally tell your children? Lots, friends .. lots. "Playstation" can be rearranged into "I Ply To Satan", which pretty much tells you where Sony's loyalties lie. If Sega's Dreamcast is bad because it uses the new-age false religion of yoga to lure children away from Christianity and therefore Absolute Morality, then Sony's Playstation is exponentially worse because it encourages children to ally themselves with the Prince of Darkness himself.

    Friends, we can find out things like this about almost all gaming consoles. Even the famed "Colecovision" can be rearranged to give "Coco, I Love Sin!" What does this tell us, friends? It tells us that nearly all game consoles are a Satanic conspiracy to ensnare your children. Except for one, that is.

    That platform is the Atari 2600. "Atari" can be rearranged to form nothing, other than the morally-ambiguous "I, A Rat." The Atari 2600 is the clear moral choice for platform gaming. Very few of its games display the sort of graphic violence that you will see in other consoles (with the exception of the ultra-violent Pitfall, which graphically depicts humans being eaten by crocodiles and started on fire.) Parents should provide their children with an Atari 2600, as a builder of morals and character. If Jesus were among us today, there can be little doubt that He would be an Atari 2600 enthusiast.

    If you don't trust me, friends, you can verify all of this information for yourself in James Dobson's latest Focus on the Family Newslettter. In the same issue, you can also learn how several parents are investigating the sexual overtones to the television show title "Touched by an Angel."

    Thank you for your time.
  • Give me my shmups. G-Darius, Einhander, or Sokyugurentai quality preferred, but a few good shmups in the air of Radiant Silvergun or Layer Section will do(heck, probably even Raiden Fighters 2/Jet).

    Give me Armored Core. I don't mean some American PC game company's (bad) attempt to copy the style of a show that wasn't about mecha, or yet another saga in the overblown tales of pseudo-knights in slow, overheated walking tanks. I want my giant robot to be fast, somewhat airborne, and the ability to color it plaid with a smilely face on the shoulder. And have a guided-missile launcher hanging off said shoulder.

    Give me Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu, or Trap Gunner. Give me more than just one or two (very-well done) attempts at skulking through the shadows, or failing that, give me the ability to move fast and leave non-propelled explosive/kinetic gifts for my(hopefully non-silicon) foes.

    Can you give me those from the American PC game companies? Hm?

  • Nope, Atari got their ass kicked in the console market because they flooded the market with really bad games, and big new Atari 5200 had horrid joysticks.

    Then, they got their ass kicked in the home computer market because the Commodore-64 was essentially the same thing as the Atari 800, except several hundred dollars cheaper.
    --
  • Even if the writing is not very polished, Gamezero is presenting information which most folks interested in console gaming rarely see in one place online. Not too many people will make the effort to read "Game Over" by David Scheff or "Phoenix" by Leonard Herman.
  • Yes, Atari did release several consoles following the 2600. But it was obviously not their focus. The 5200 was a bust, and the 7800 was too little too late. By the time the Jaguar rolled around, Nintendo and Sega were too firmly entrenched in gamer's minds to make any headway.

    Atari *did* put the majority of their development effort during the mid 80's into competing with the Amiga through the ST. All their previous consoles and computers were just based on past technology (7800 was based on the 2600, and the 5200/XL/XE lines were all based on the original Atari 400/800)

  • I still think playing Goldeneye on the N64 is a lot easier with the N64 controller than using a keyboard and mouse. Every time I play Quake, I wish I could be using a Nintendo controller.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Atari decided to bet the future on desktops rather than consoles

    Nice try. Atari released a number of consoles after they got into the desktop business.

    Don't let the ignoramuses rewrite history. Atari died at the hands of Commodore long before Nintendo ever walked on the scene

    And your point is what exactly? Again, Atari released new systems after Nintendo resurected the console market in the US.

  • Just a note - "Atari" didn't flood the market with bad games... external developers did that. Most of the Atari-developed games were pretty good - decent arcade ports and the like (we'll ignore ET and Pac-Man). It's when you had 1000 games a year released with terrible quality like "Letter Zap" and "Purina Chuck Wagon" that the market got oversaturated.
  • First off, I noticed several spelling mistakes.

    What's the deal with this statement? Windows based PC ports will likely taper off though after the next version of Direct X is released and the task of porting backwards (across two versions of Direct X, and two versions of the Visual C compiler) becomes close to impossible unless the code was correctly implemented from scratch to accommodate the Dreamcast port up front.

    WinCE is included on the game disc - it is not hard-coded into the system. And as such, the DirectX and Virtual C libraries would be included on the actual disc and could be kept current, correct?

    Also, they're giving Nintendo far too much credit for recent success. Globally, the N64 is a bust - both the Playstation and the Dreamcast are outselling it. Nintendo's primary source of revenue for the past year has been Pokemon - not the N64.

  • ...my comment stands. I'm going take if from your comment that you don't know much about Dreamcast/WinCE development.

    WinCE for the Dreamcast is a specialized version that is currently locked into a Dreamcast specific build of DirectX 7.0 using Visual C++ 6.0. Unless Microsoft releases a new build of both WinCE/DirectX for the Dreamcast, you could find yourslef looking at taking a current title written in Visual C++ 7 or greater code using DirectX 8 or greater functions and needing to port it backwards.

    The only alternative is to program your game up front for WinCE/DirectX 7 either simultaniously or prior to your regular PC distribution. (Microsoft even tells you this upfont in the developer documentation that I have seen.)

    As for giving Nintendo to much credit. Look at the Nintendo figures on their own and it's hard to say that they are bust. They are still moving hardware, and they consistantly have top selling titles (both N64 and GameBoy).
  • > Where do you live where TVs are only 320*240?

    The ORIGINAL Playstation used that resolution.
    If you TRY to use 640x480 you have NO RAM left over in the frame buffer for textures since it only has 2 Megs for video.

    Cheers

  • > 1. You just can't get decent graphics on a 320x240 resolution TV

    I think you meant TEXT output at 320x240 on a TV.

    When I worked on the PSX Need For Speed, we tried using 640x480. The higher resolution helped with the smaller fonts, but we had almost no room left over for textures in the 2 Megs video buffer. So we went back to 320x240 and had a richer color to boot (excuse the pun.)

    The Dreamcast uses 640x480 and has a VGA output.
    This certainly helps, but TV does antialiasing "for free" so it is STILL a problem of designing a readable font at SMALL sizes.

    Thankfully the Dreamcast has a 16 Megs of video memory.

    > 4. Ever try playing Tiberian Sun with a gamepad?

    Yes, RTS games are very bad on a console. Until keyboards and mice come standard with a console, playing FPS and RTS games are "better" on the PC.

    The argument which is beter, is pretty pointless. They were designed for different things. i.e. I don't see any game developers running DevStudio ON a console.

    Firing Squad has an interesting link comparing the genres on PC vs Console.

    PC vs Console game genres [firingsquad.com]

    Cheers

    3d game programmer
  • I fail to see any relationship between the version of a compiler being used and the version of DirectX being used, so "I'm going take if from your comment" that you don't know much about development.

    And as far as DirectX being updated for WinCE, it would seem to be in Microsoft's interests to do so, since the X-Box will certainly use DirectX (and will hopefully not use a full-blown, slow version of Windows)...

    I tend to agree with the earlier poster who labeled the article as "Nintendo apologist" -- Nintendo's success is currently based off of the Pokemon franchise (sickeningly so), and their market share has dwindled considerably in comparison to Sony, which came out of nowhere. Remember, the name of the economic game is not whichever system is better, but which system is the most dominant and prevalent in the home. Nintendo's not dead yet, but they better come packin' heat with the Dolphin or they will be DOA...

  • Hell, I always thought Playstation's referred to "playing with my station," but I guess I ply to satan is even worse.
  • Console games will never match computer games.

    1. You just can't get decent graphics on a 320x240 resolution TV, no matter how good the graphics controller.

    2. They're too friggin expensive(the games).

    3. Ever try playing Quake 3 with a gamepad?

    4. Ever try playing Tiberian Sun with a gamepad?

    5. No shareware/freeware games.

    6. Impossible to copy, at least they would be if all the console makers were as smart as Sony.

    7. Less competition=less quality.

    I'm sure there are more reasons, but that's enough for now.

  • C'monnn! The TI's have all that, plus Diamonds, Sub Hunt, 2-player Tetris, and Reddress! Plus Galaxian, Frogger, and Space Invaders.
  • Stop trolling for me. I do not approve being subject to your worldly shite.

    -Enjoy an fresh juicy Washington Apple little girl.
  • That would be true, especially the part about how TV resolution sucks, but special-purpose graphics chips are evolving very quickly, so that if you don't mind the terrible resolution, the graphics' realism is much higher.
  • Sony is quite serious about broadband. They are involved in a venture with Tokyo Electric Power Company to drop fiber to every doorstep in Tokyo.

    I for one am looking forward to that!

  • Video games... have we really progressed? I got sort of a quandary here. My first system was the Magnavox Oddesy. I remember how intense my desire was to play Pong... I couldn't leave the damn thing alone. I was even excited that it had hockey (pong with 2 paddles :). I remember all the systems I have had over the years and how excited I was when a new incredible game came out for it.

    Now my issue. I still love video games, and for as much as they have advanced over the years, I still can't capture that feeling of playing Adventure, Pitfall (2600), Mario Brothers, Zelda, Metroid (NES), etc.

    I just picked up Crazy Taxi and Soul Reaver for the Dreamcast. And as incredible as those games are, I can't get that old feeling back. I am almost bored with both of them already. Why?

    Did the developers of today's consoles loose the ability to make good games? Sure they look better, but where is the magic? Or is it because I'm just older and the magic is gone in me?

    This happen to anyone else?

    Go SHU Pirates!

    Anyone know what episode my sig is from?
    Lates!

  • I agree. I think it beats out serial any day, especially with programs like ps2rate.
  • How odd.

    NTSC is 704*480, PAL is 704*576

    Where do you live where TVs are only 320*240?

    Consoles will always have a market as long as your computer screen isn't the same as your big widescreen living room TV. 4 player game in front of a single monitor? Don't think so. You know, some of us actually meet people in what's called Real Life(tm) ;)

  • And if you were lucky enough to have a tape drive you just had to go "LOAD" :).
  • only complaint i have is that at 1600x1200, the letters are WAAY too small. and he didn't allow viewer definable fonts so i can't even enlarge the text except by changing desktop resolution...
  • I disagree. As someone else said, both worlds are different so the games may be different. But maybe you've realized the lack of _variety_ in PC games. Yeah, they're cool, lots of eye candy, good speed, amazing gfx, but I'm _tired_ of seeing the same game over and over again (frag anyone ;)

    Console games may be technically inferior (though I don't think so, look at FFVII on the PSX and beware of the PS2 ;) but the variety and the gameplay outcast PC games, IMHO. Eye candy is cool, but it doesn't make a good game.

    Just my $2E-2, anyway...
  • Let's take the points one at a time, shall we?
    1. Not true. Or do you believe that TV programs and movies don't have good graphics either? :)
    2. Marginally more expensive than PC games. Against which, the cost of the hardware (both initial purchase and upgrades) is an order of magnitude lower.
    3. No, but I tried playing Quake 2 with a gamepad, and it worked just fine. Ever tried playing Tekken 3 with a keyboard? That was less fun...
    4. No, but I tried playing C&C: Red Alert with a gamepad, and it worked just fine. Although it's worth mentioning that other peripherals are available for consoles: there's a mouse available for the Playstation, and a keyboard available for the DC (in fact, isn't there a zombie typing game due out at some point? :-)
    5. Not strictly true. There are some freeware games available for the Playstation, as a result of the Net Yaroze scheme. Until recently, the UK OPSM distributed them on the cover disc.
    6. I hope you're not suggesting that Sony games are impossible to copy. If so, there are some very rich gentlemen with CD-burners in Hong Kong who'd disagree with you. :-) You'll even find dodgy copies of N64 carts available for download. Not that this is a good thing, of course.
    7. True. But there isn't less competition. There are plenty of console developers out there. The only thing I can think you're talking about is the three platforms available to develop for on consoles (Sony, Sega and Nintendo) versus the... um... one Wintel platform. Um. Not such a good point after all.
    For a prime example of why console games can in fact be considerably better than PC games, take a look at the minimum required specs for Final Fantasy VII on PC and on PSX...
  • Poor style, structure. Is it meant for industry people? If so, it is condescending. For the casual gamer who want to know more? Then it should rein in its literary diarrhea and actual explain some of the events it makes passing reference to as justifications for its points.
  • While everyone is looking at the future of console gaming, I found this link on Zophar's Domain... It's a history of Nintendo and how they transformed gaming and kept afloat despite competitors like Sony, Sega, and NEC.

    The article is here [gamespot.com] at Video Games.Com.

    Did you know that Nintendo is a company that is over 100 years old? If not, I suggest you go read the article - it's quite enlightening.
  • Ever heard of a mouse? Oh, and I only paid $60 for my Savage4 w/32 megs. Sorry about the Sony thing. I meant Sega.

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