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Games Entertainment

Game Consoles Expected to Tromp PCs 220

Posted by Roblimo
m3000 writes "Computer game consoles are predicted to increase their sales while computer game software sales are expected to go down, according to this article. I'm not suprised, as consoles are much easier to use than PCs. " And rapidly growing in power, too. In a few years, will there really be much difference between a "game machine" and a "home" computer?
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Game Consoles Expected to Tromp PCs More

Game Consoles Expected to Tromp PCs

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  • I seriously doubt this.. (Score:3)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Thursday July 22, 1999 @02:10AM (#1790374)
    I don't think things would go either way... PCs will always have a niche, game consoles cannot overtake PCs without sacrificing nearly all of their advantages. I see Dreamcast as crossing that line. It may be succesful, but I certainly don't like the idea of an OS like WindowsCE running my game console, and I don't want my game console to be able to do the web and email and the like.

    What do I like about a game console? Well, I just put in the cartridge/cd, press the power button, and there's the game. No waiting for the system to set up extraneous stuff while booting up, making for fast boots. No need to find out what upgrades the console needs, if it is for the console, it simply works. As far as prices go, consoles are still somewhat cheaper, but that gap seems to be closing...

    What do I like about PCs? The flexibility. For general applications, it's nice to have a modular design, being able to choose my OS and have freedom to hack on things. The high resolution is great for multiasking things... Also nice for games, though low-res games on the TV look far better than low-res on monitors, we all have to admit that... Of course, the newest consoles don't look good on TVs anymore... But in any case, the consoles will always have a place for people who want quick, simple game-playing, and the PC will always have a place with people who want general-purpose stuff and hacking stuff..

  • obvious... (Score:1)

    by pb ( 1020 )
    Computers are getting cheaper, game consoles... aren't. At least now some of the best games are coming out for the PC, but consoles generally last longer than gaming PC's and are cheaper. Hey, gaming PC's can be expensive if you want the latest and greatest of everything. I don't mind being 18 months behind the cutting edge, but I miss all the new games...

    However, to play a lot of old console system games and arcade games, nothing beats a real computer. :)

    Oh, and yo new comment-posting dude, fill out the dept. field, will ya? That's one of my favorite parts. (like "from the Mmm... Playstation II dept." or the "crunchy with milk dept." or whatever. "From the dept." sounds a little too staid and dry around here...) Okay, end of nit-picking.
  • Aah, but with the new USB ports on the PSII, we now *can* have a keyboard! :-)
  • One of the reasons why console games are less buggy and more stable than PC games is because there's no chance to patch the game once it's released -- a buggy, unstable game is an unsaleable game.

    But with consoles like the Dreamcast that connect to the internet, console developers will find out how tempting it is to 'release the game now, post a patch on the net later'.
    Console games will become much buggier.
  • | On my friend's PS (he's going to get a DC soon)
    | I see way too many "Virtua-Tekken-Mortal-Street
    | Figter Beta Gamma V Gold edition" clones [snip]
    | I also see too many crappy driving/racing games

    This is mainly a symptom of what's currently in video arcades. Fortunately, there's much more available with even a cursory glance at Wal-Mart.

    (I'm not saying that there's no variety on PCs, either. I just don't believe that consoles are dead or even dying.)

    I also don't buy the idea that any kind of strategy game needs top-of-the-line PC hardware, despite what the folks who are *FINALLY* bringing Star Fleet Battles to the PC might wish us to believe. The essence of that game could be programmed onto a Commodore 64 given a talented programmer. Just draw the damn grid and add up the numbers in the energy allocations, please. Oh, and handle cloaked ship movement.

    By the way - consoles have mice. That's the only way X-Com for the PSX is even *remotely* playable. Console mice go back at least to the Genesis/SNES - I don't recall whether there was an NES mouse. If you'll take a trackball as substitute, we go back to the Atari 2600.

    I just hope that if consoles and PCs do "converge" for gaming purposes, the end result will have the ease of use the consoles have. I don't know about the rest of you folks, but when I want to play a game, I want the actual process of starting the game to be a no-brainer. I do *NOT* want a repeat of my experience getting Half Life to run. ;)
  • Hate to break it to ya, GameBoy, NES and several others already have Hacked and new XXX-ROMs. Any ConsoleKiddie with 60$ has a RamCart.
  • Both you and the original poster seem to have been out of the loop for a while, these things have been addressed.

    The current playstation has two ports for little 'flash' cards to save games onto, you can save dozens of games on a single one, bring your games to a friend's house etc..

    As for demo's, you can buy playstation magazines which come with demo cd's which contain a dozen demo's for games, so that's pretty well covered as well.

    The PS2 certainly is going to open up alot of interesting opportunities as it seems to blend the computer/console line very well. It seems to offer expandability (using industry standards) and has the horsepower to really dish out some graphics.

    As for those who say that console games don't have the depth of PC games, again this is a pretty dated concept. Take a look at FF7, which is one of the better RPG's I've ever played on any platform.

    -Nic
  • actually, B&W movies DO SUCK!

    but really.. tried playing Command and Conquer on the Playstaion? You can't even tell the units apart, let alone read the text..


    :)

    -geekd
  • I see your point, and when HDTV comes out, everything will change (well, not when it comes out, but when it's affordable)

    and I almost never pay for my PC games... :-)

    and my whole computer was $800, and upgrading it will be much less. Actually, I'll just get another whole new computer and replace my P100 Linux server with my AMD 350 box.

    I see what people are saying. I just think most Console games SUCK, are very "arcade-ey" (I have no desire to play driving games or Mortal combat clones or baseball. If I wanna play baseball, I'll grab my bat and go play baseball!) I play mostly more in-depth games like Starcraft, Civ, etc...

    PLUS, computer geek that I am, I like to do more with my PC than just play games.

    I just don't see PC game sales declining. Maybe 5 years from now, but not anytime soon.
  • A PC development machine can indeed be had for about 2k. However, games these days require art, and quality tools are really expensive. Numbers like 5k for 3D Studio Max, 10k for MultiGen, and such really add up fast. I still think PC development is cheaper (Sony charges a bundle for special emulators and CD burners), but starting up either platform requires a lot of money.
  • Does this mean that PC games will start being as rigorously tested as console ones? That _will_ be terrible :)
  • | And I know that people can say "But Joe Blow
    | won't ever use this." No, he won't, but the
    | "real gamer" is a quite sophisticated computer
    | user. They buy $4000 computers with top of the
    | line sound and video cards to
    | play their games on.

    But the point that the original poster was making was that it would be these sorts of things that would cause consoles to die. You have just pointed out one reasons why consoles will *NOT* die anytime soon. That is - the fact that to be a real PC gamer, you have to buy a $4000 PC every six months. (Top of the line in the PC world lasts 6 months or less). So while this customization may have its good points, it's not going to contribute one whit to the death of consoles as we know them - which is what we were talking about in the first place.

    What will kill either way of gaming, IMO, is what killed off the consoles in the mid eighties. A lack of original games. Too many cookie-cutter games, if you will. To an extent, we're seeing this with PC games these days. I mean, just how many Quake clones does one warm body need? :)

    | Even with a network connection, show me how
    | with a console, I can log on and chat with my
    | buddies across the country and then arrange a 1
    | on 1 deathmatch for later that night. Maybe
    | someday, but not today and until I can do that
    | on a console, it's PC's for me.

    Cripes, man, you can do that on a Sega Saturn. :)
  • Am I supposed to be doing something with my home PC besides playing games? Can you actually do usefull work with one of these (not counting the naked lady downloads)?
  • I agree. I actually think the development of the PC in this respect has been slightly faster, up until now anyway. Think back to the days of the NES. If memory serves me right, those games seemed pretty advanced compared to what you could do on a PC. Yet right now (until PS2 anyway), I think most people would agree that the PC is superior.
    True.. But as you can see I didn't say "PC" in my post - PC wasn't originally developed to be used as a game machine at all. At that time there were other home computers which had games similar to NES - the only thing they lacked was Super Mario :-)
    --
  • There are several points to be made for both arguments. On one hand, you have a very simple to use device which allows for simply playing games or very simple games and the other a deversified system that allows for many a task to be completed.

    The game console is compact, simple to use. Unfortunately it lacks the multiplayer capabilities, high resolution and possibly will not allow for the depth of a standard PC.

    However, the PC does have limitations. Ease of use is not always key in the Operating Systems we use, neither is stability. But our games are usually more complex, have more depth and allow for the multiplayer experience which is what makes games like Quake endure.

    Now if we look at the way computers and consoles are in today's society. One would conclude that one or the other may win based on many a different variable. The thing about planning for the future is that the future is not a fixed point, this it changes.

    Many people believe that computers will be simplified greatly. The iMac can be used as an example to this... In essence, personal computers will become "appliances" for the general populous.

    Now don't get me wrong, nothing will ever convince me to use a one piece computer that matches the colours for my blender. However, not everyone needs a system that allows for diversified use, in fact many would be content to have a simple every day specialized device.

    And that is where the consolidation takes place. Simply examine what consoles are... In essence they are simple appliances geared to be pleasing eye candy, and computers will in time probably degrade (as I see it) to such a point where the two products will seem indistinguishable from each other.

    NOTE: This is simply a possible outcome of the future (one of an infinite amount).
  • The PS2 is one year/year and a half from release in the US. It was going to come out this holiday season in Japan, but it probally won't make it, so it will be March there. And yea, I'm sure Nintendo will wait 5 years. Do you know ANYTHING about the console world? Didn't think so. And yes, the DC is impressive, and it is worth getting. But you can't deny the Dolphin will be more powerful, it will, it has to, it's coming out later. And the DC doesn't have LAN capabilities yet, it's being worked on, but it will just ship with a 56K modem.
  • Currently computers are way to difficult for average people, but that is changing. Most teenagers these days can learn to use a computer very quickly. And for those who will never learn to install new hardware, most everyone has a computer literate friend who can install the latest and greatest video card to play the latest and greatest games.

  • Free software for consoles?? you mean some crappy game that noone would touch even tho it would be free
  • Uhm... Windows CE CAN be used for the DC, but for the most games Sega's own OS is used, which DOES use Direct X 5/6.
  • Consoles are great because it is a controlled environment. That's nice. But aside from similar
    development tools (GNU) and similar skills. PC
    Game developers have alot of room to creatively
    add multi-user gaming experiences to a complete
    networked-PC. This is something that confuses me
    sometimes, as it is not that hard for a console
    designer to include an el cheapo NIC card or
    modem, or both, into the package. It shouldn't
    cost that much.
  • Anyone else remember the Great Crash of 1984, when the console market went to shit? Many of these same issues were brought up then. People started deciding that the price-plummeting early home computers were a better value proposition. Plus, they could feel better about buying an "educational" C-64 than an Atari 7800 or a Colecovision.

    The market is getting to the point where another shift in consumer opinion of the value is possible. I think we'll soon see a violent price and feature war between consoles and PCs. Cheap, powerful PCs with upgradability built in to the price or payment plan (but something less lame that Gateway's YourWare). Consoles will get cheaper and push better-than-arcade-quality graphics and sound, while attempting to steal some fire from the PCs with Internet access and more education and productivity titles.

    What will really be interesting is which side will give up more of its uniqueness to gain market share. To out-PC the PCs, the consoles have to become less of a console. To out-console the consoles, PCs have to lose some of what makes them not a console.

    Should be a wild ride from the consumer perspective, with a whole lot of products that have huge feature lists and easily affordable pric e tags.

  • This is some thing which has been brewing in my mind for quite some time. I like to think genres which suceed on consoles are different to those which suceed on the PC. I am not always right, but from my personal exposure to console games, this appears to be the case, platform, rpg beat'em ups work well on consoles, where as RTS and first person shoot em ups are the rage on PC's.

    How does this relate to resolution, well, the genres which succeed on console do not need eye candy for someone to appreciate the game. However, for the PC, image appears to be everything. Focus on game developement is on the game play, obviously good graphics are a bonus. This has always been a difference between American/European game developemnt and Japanese game development (echoed so many times in Next Generation and Edge).

    So resolution and graphics may suck on a TV, but I'm sure a lot happier playing on my PSX than my PC. BTW, has anyone every thoough playing on a PC just doesn't 'feel' the same as a console.

  • How long before Microsoft views the consoles as a threat, in the same vein as Linux is seen as a threat? My guess is the minute one of the console vendors ships with a web browser PPP/TCP/IP stack, and default connection to AOL. I'm all for "appliances" suited for a task, as they tend to be simpler to use in the long run for their designed task (VCRs notwithstanding). But the proliferation of such devices as internet nodes dilutes the Microsoft grip on the client side.
  • I'm replying at this level but I have comments for both parents of this response. I too have paid up some money for the Dreamcast. Awfully nice system, good price range and first out the gate with MANY nice titles already lined up.

    The Dreamcast has the option of running libraries from Windows CE but most of the games developed so far do not use these and instead use an alternate API provided by Sega which I believe will be the primary choice for most developers. Basically whatever OS is chosen is put on the disk, not in the console.

    As far as I've heard (and I've checked out a lot of info) I don't believe you'll need to use Sega's ISP for Network access. You will most likely have to use their online network to actually connect up with other Sega gamers however. If all you want to do is surf with your Dream Passport software then any ISP will do.

    Also, on a non-Dreamcast note I also collect classic consoles, particularly the Intellivision. The Intellivision Lives emulator CD has been mentioned here. There is a small group of people (myself included) who have been actually doing a bit of development for the emulator. No means of burning or presenting an image to a real machine has come up yet. It's quite fun and in my opinion the Intellivision seems like a pretty nice machine to become familiar with assembly or to just use.
  • sorry to be nitpicking

    i think you mean Coleco Vision?

  • The Gateway Destination is a PC/TV.. A friend of mine has one, 31 inch 800x600 24bit resolution, a celeron 366, voodoo2 graphics, fantastic surround sound, dvd, wireless keyboard(with ps2 port) and trackball/remote... It's the ultimate in couch experience. Unfortunately they(gateway) are cutting that product line later this year.

    I've heard that compaq and some other companies have similar offerings.
  • Flash cards certainly help as far as savings games go, but flash cards are usually small. So, their utility in saving games varies according to how large the saved game files are (or, until very large flash cards become cheap).

    The demos in magazines are nice, but that is limited. You need softwhere for a computer to take a demo you downloaded from the Net and write it in the correct format to a DVD. That makes it more general (I don't want to have to subscribe to a magazine just to get the demos).

    I think the most important complaint, after the lack of games I'd want to play, is the lack of online gaming. And a modem is just not good enough. I want high speed acces and I don't want voice calls to be prevented from getting through. The 10BaseT port is cheap and standard. Whether you have DSL or cable modem doesn't matter. Hook it up to your computer network, and you can play games that way.
  • There have been a few funny things written about how pornography has led to much recent technological innovation. I hadn't thought about it with consoles before, though ...

    DVDs - porno transfers and new DVD-only productions are a huge part of the market, and were an even bigger part a year or two ago.

    VCRs - its often been remarked that dirty movies are what sparked most early sales

    Hard drive space - "Yeah, I need the extra 10 gigs for my ... uncompleted novel."

    HMDs - Ask the sweating, twitching guy in the window seat what he's watching on that Sony Glasstron. "Babe: Pig in the City"? I doubt it. "Babes: City Squeals" maybe.

    Anyhow.

    timothy
  • When was the last time your Playstation crashed versus your Windows95 "game" PC? Plus you don't have to worry about drivers or even such things as 3D cards. If it's made for console A, it'll also RUN on console A.
  • First off, PS is definitely not considered top of the line. It is technologically last right now (N64 is far, _far_ more advanced than PS).
    Also, you're comparing a home gaming console to an office utility. Compare it to a 3-year old PC and see what _that_ can run as smoothly today. The PC gamer has had to invest at least 1K $$$ since buying his hot-shot whathaveyou PC 3 years ago, in order to stay reasonably near the top today.
    Of course, you're right about the inflexible hardware locking you in - however, the good sides are that by the time the platform has matured (which is about 2-3 years), it's being milked for all its worth by the developers, instead of getting untested, unstable, buggy games on the PC because developers can always expect the suckers to buy more RAM/HD/accelerators/etc, and download their "updates".
  • Compare buying new PC's to buying new consoles.
    New PC's are getting cheaper, old hardware will always get cheaper. Consoles... well, the systems might drop in price a little, but they'll go back up for the next generation, and the games will always be pricey. PC games tend to drop in price quickly enough for me, but I still haven't bought them in a while though. :(
  • especially since, with computer makers the profit is made on the sale of the box, while for sony, nintendo, and sega, the profits are made on the liscensing fees on the programs. the game machines are usually sold at a loss. Also, the "top of the line" life of a console is longer than that of a pc.

    If sony was smart, with the PSX2 they would make it damn easy for some one to get online (out imac the imac)
    the psx has usb ports right? so you could hook up a printer, a zip or hardrive, and have a pretty capable computer.

    now to go offtopic: has anyone been to www.slashdot.com lætely?
    i went there by accident, and i got an ad for a cable wire company.

  • "If Carmack has any sense (and I am sure he does) he wont bother with making console version of ID products"

    Doom for SNES
    Doom64 for Nintendo 64
    Quake64 for Nintendo 64
    Doom for Playstation (included Doom2 critters)
    Quake2 for Playstation (saw it at E3)

    Carmack doesn't need to bother with making console versions, they get made by other people. There most likely will be a Q3A port.
  • Not only PCs will be affected .. how difficult will it be to put VCR, DVD and set-top-box applications (satellite decode etc., not just internet gateway) on a PS2 ?

  • Remember the Coleco Adam? (And I think there were some similar motions by Atari ...)

    Game-machine as PC is not new, but your point is still basically true, that difference holds no matter how much convergence is always predicted for 'this time next year."

    timothy

  • In a few years (Score:5)

    by stevelinton ( 4044 ) <sal@dcs.st-and.ac.uk> on Thursday July 22, 1999 @12:31AM (#1790425) Homepage
    The poster asks: "In a few years, will there really be much difference between a "game machine" and a "home" computer?"

    At the present rate of progress the game machine will be faster and with a much better graphics engine.

    I once saw an advertisment, dating from the early years of this century for a wonderful device: "The Home Electric Motor" It came in various sizes, needed only a modicum of regular weekly and annual maintenance and had a fabulous range of attachments for carbet-beating, egg-whisking, clothes washing, etc. etc.

    I rather feel that the present "home computer" is a comparable beast, and will eventually go the same way -- absorbed into single-function appliances -- sealed for life and maintenance free.

    In twenty years, our homes will be full of computers, but we will interact with none of them directly.

  • Hell, I'm not going to argue cause neither of us is going to convince the other to switch which they prefer, so it's pretty pointless. But just so you can get some facts right, look right here [next-generation.com] under Memory configuration. It says 4MB.
  • Free software is already being used to develop some games for these game consoles. Even if you have an extremely powerful game console, you still need a platform on which to develop the games.
  • E3 last year (not this most recent one) the guys from Playstation and Nintendo were showing graphs of how it looked like the game systems and the computers were going to merge which was optimistic since their charts showed computers catching up to console sales in the year 2005.

    As an interesting point of info, in Japan in 1995 when I was last there, about 90% of households with children (and probably most without) had a console system of some sort. Computers were exceedingly rare though. I wonder what's happening over there.
  • FF7 is a superlative game. The problem with the playstation is input devices. The gamepad is insufficient for the bulk of the games I want to play (that is, realistic flight simulators). Games like Falcon 4, iWar, Longbow 2, F-22ADF, and the forthcoming Babylon 5 space combat simulator simply will not work on a d-pad, even a dual analog one. Unless game consoles ship from the factory with a keyboard and an analog joystick, MY gaming penchants (and I bet I'm not alone) cannot be satisfied by a console.

  • In a few years, will there really be much difference between a "game machine" and a "home" computer?

    I think in the near future, a game console will be indistinguishable from a personal computer. Perhaps imperceptably at first, but eventually the processors in game consoles will become powerful enough (with fast chips becoming so cheap) that to not add the extra features would be more difficult (features such as encryption engines, graphics capabilites built into the chip, perhaps wireless network protocol support).

    In about a year, using your N256 will entail:

    • checking your email
    • getting regular updates on Nintendo stock (computing how much better it is doing than Sega stock)
    • computing the total value of your Nintendo stock
    • Purchasing more stock on your behalf when the price drops low enough
    • uploading your amazing new high score to the worldwide Zelda 256 server (www.zelda.org)
    • all transmissions will be encrypted and signed, of course.

    ...all while playing a first person action game with real-time movie-quality graphics.

  • >However, to play a lot of old console system >games and arcade games, nothing beats a real >computer. :)

    Almost, almost. however to REALLY play a lot of old console system games and arcade games nothing beats playing them on the old console system and arcade machines. It's not too hard to get the systems and arcade machines while a bit harder can be found. Not to knock MAME and similar endeavours since they are indeed wonderful.
  • Shoddy as the Dream castis, I recall the Saturn was a nightmare in side, but the box is SOLID as a rock. I can't rememeber how many times my friens have had to take they PSX in to get fixed, while my gf's brother's Saturn never missed a beat. My future concern is tho whether the Saturn (Japanese version anyway) is subject to the Y2K bug. I'm confident the PSX isn't.

    Anyway, with the OS's, from what I gather, MS was involved, but their role does not appear to be as large as first anticipated, and many developers do not choose to use WinCE as the choice for their games anyway.
  • I haven't seen that in years.

    sniff.... The memories...

    Just looking at those old Joystick paddles, that used to break 'cause they were made of plastic. Kinda puts a lump right in my throat.

    I'll try to resist getting the emulator....
  • Show me the console that has the latest hardware every 6 months.
    These things are great when they come out, but by the time they're a few years old they suck. Some do have minor upgradeability, but nothing like the PC. (the N64 is upgradeable from 4 meg to 8 meg if I am correct, try to run Q3arena on THAT!!)
    I own a N64 and regret buying it, i barely ever use it anymore because the graphics are horrible. Sure in a few years they'll have the playstation2 and the nintendo 128 or something, and initially, they may be better graphics/speed than a PC, but the PC market evolves too quickly for the console manufacturers to keep up.

    Don't get me wrong, consoles have their advantages, ease of use being the biggest one, but my N64 may soon be on ebay to pay for my new tnt2 card.....

  • Things they are a changin' Mr Anonymous Coward. Let's see.

    1. You don't like modems. Well, the upcoming Dreamcast is purported to eventually have LAN adaptors and such available for communication.

    2. Resolution, bit of a sore point still. No 1024x768 yet but it is possible to display on a monitor at higher resolutions with the DC VGA box. Most upcoming consoles should have similar functionality

    3. Gamepads: Hmm, for FPS and such I agree. The controller used depends on the type of game more than the fact it's on a console. That's why they market gamepads for the PC as well. That's also why you can get joysticks and other controllers for consoles. Once again, since it's the only new console I have real knowledge of the Dreamcast already has a keyboard and mouse coming out.

    4. Sound: This is just silly. All current consoles can output Stereo at least and the new Dreamcast has a very nice Yamaha sound processor that can do 3D positional sound, Stereo and all those nifty thing.

    5. HD: Well, if all you need to do is save game states then do you really need a hard drive? N64 has that Dex drive thing, DC will have a ZIP drive.
  • Wipeout 2097 is a very good game. I somewhat doubt we'll ever be able to play that incarnation of the series over the net. Games will most likely have to be written to take advantage of multiplayer capabilities.

    I have a decent PC and hope to keep it "shit-cool" if I can. I also own consoles and will continue to own consoles. They serve very different purposes in my mind. For gaming I would much rather sit down in the midst of many friends and tromp them on my TV screen rather than crowding around my computer to play. For programming and productivity and the like I very much prefer to sit at my desk and use the computer. (or in my recliner and use the laptop. :-) )
  • The console people think their consoles will replace PCs, the PC people think consoles will quickly become obsolete and every year nothing changes.

    Both have advantages and disadvantages. Consoles are specialized for gaming, deliver a better bang for the buck and have little problem with hardware/software incompatibility or setup.

    PCs can do a lot more than play games, have a lot more games to choose from than any single console, and can be upgraded to the latest hardware on a yearly basis.

    But like every year, people keep saying the two will one day converge (sortof like how they keep saying TV and the Web will converge) and every year it doesn't happen - and won't happen.

    It's just two different worlds.

  • So how about this. An open source game platform, that anyone could build hardware for. The idea behind a game "appliance" is to strip out the unnecessary overhead of an OS that also has to run accounting systems and web servers. Hardware manufacturers won't be selling platforms at a loss, but hardware is pretty cheap anyway. Then you could have both comercial game ports as well as freeware games. Also games with advertising and product placements (Call me about this Coke).
  • The last console I bought was the Atari Jaguar which allowed you to connect up to 5 people together (seperate screens) and play multi-player games. But since Atari made the mistake of not creating an API (everything was written in Assembly) the platform died. Needless to say it was probably the last console I buy - I'm sure I'll always be able to upgrade my 'puter to make it faster and more enjoyable than any console game.
  • The upcoming PSX2 is being compared to a supercomputer. With 1.2 GigaFlops of processing power.
  • Does it run WinCE? ;-)
  • I agree with you on about the lack of depth in console games and the need for a 10BaseT port, but many games ported to console from PC would suck. N64 Quake. Doom64. Need I say more? As far as saving games, I haven't seen a level code in like 7 years, anything current uses a controller pak of some sort, or on the game pak itself. What I'd like to see is a small, managable harddrive in consoles. standardly used by any game that saves, that would allow you to save games, settings, etc., without dealing with trying to figure out thich pak its on, and you'd still having saved games from games you rented. I'm sure there's something like this planned, but I bet the game designers'll screw it up.


    -SmackMyBishop
    Have you ever seen a more brilliant name?
  • They often have amazing depth. I consider Chrono Trigger on the SNES to be the single finest game I've played. It was an amazingly detailed RPG with an intricate story line, about a dozen possible endings, and very nice graphics for the time. The first RPG on the PC that I would consider even comparable is Might and Magic 6, though MM6 doesn't have nearly the storyline that Chrono Trigger did. It still blows me away that they fit 60+ hours of INTERESTING (read: not time-wasting) play in a 4 megabyte cartridge. (I'm not 100% certain about the size: if anyone out there wants to correct me, please do. :-))

    I've seen this 'consoles are going to kill computers!' article at least twice before. The Genesis, and later the 3DO, Saturn, and Playstation were all supposed to kill off PC gaming. None of them have done it yet.

    When the Playstation shipped, its graphics were wildly better than PCs, but you saw how long that lasted. :-)

    If they don't include at least a 10-base-T port, this generation absolutely will not kill off PC gaming. Massive multiplayer gaming is going to be big. They're just now learning how to do it. And a modem just doesn't cut it for online play. Without DSL/cable and a 10-base-T port, the consoles will need at least one more rev to really enter the multiplay area.

    -- Ron
  • Um, Microsoft already sees consoles as a threat. They realized that, when they discovered nobody wanted to develop games for windows with windows UI widgets. So they put together directX, and took about 5 major releases to get it half right, and are trying hard to insert CE into consoles so they can "embrace and enhance" these cancers in the middle of their windows-everywhere strategy. If I was them, I would be most concerned about the playstation II. Sony has shown no interest in playing microsofts game, and why should they? they are at least as big in terms of revenue.. and they know digital is the heart of their future, and they dont want to end up a sub-licensee of microsofts idea of digital. Thank god for Sony then. With the PSII, they have a shot at becoming the Hal9000 of most houses.. with those specs and the peripheral opportunities, the instant game library thanks to putting the whole current PS onto a spare sound chip, and their revenue stream from software and extras, they can afford to almost give away the PSII free like AOL cds. And I for one cant wait... any doubters, go download the demo videos of gran turismo or namco girl, and watch them on your grainy 20fps 100x100 video stream in your PC, then figure out what they look like when they live and on your sony hdtv. Realtime hair for gods sake. motion blue via calculating in-between frames that are not displayed... wowsome..
  • Game consoles 'blow away' PC sales??? PLEASE... when and if consoles can run Joe Office Worker's shrink wrapped crap from work (think Mickeysoft Orfice) and ONLY then. Who do they think is GULLIBLE enough to believe this junk? Oh, and the article is from some kind of N64 circle jerk 'zine... REALLY objective.

    Let's think this through... PC sales are driven primarily by people who want to 1) run office software at home, 2) surf the web, and 3) play games. My, my... 1 out of 3 means consoles LOSE. And to get it straight, it's been *PC's* who have been catching up to game consoles in raw graphics processing power, NOT the other way around.

    The main thing you have to look at too is that makers or real software packages have *NO* incentive to port their wares to consoles. Nintendo, Sony, etc., are SO busy soaking their developers that there's hardly any room for the actual producers of code to make a buck. It is WAY easier to make money on real development platforms. The failure rate on individual games and game companies is abysmal, even compared with the dog eat dog world of PC software.

    Whoever wrote and believes this stuff, I want some of whatever they're taking...
  • Don't think console manufacturers don't know that TV resolution sucks
    .
    Sega sell a peripheral for the Dreamcast (in Japan) which outputs the display to SVGA.

    I assume this means that the software renders at some high resolution, which gets scaled down to TV res between the video memory and the TV output -- output to a better display, and you can enjoy the full resolution.

    After all, the *games* aren't (always) written to *any* particular resolution. That's why you can play Zelda at 1024x768 using UltraHLE.

    OTOH; few people complain about TV resolution when they're watching TV -- because they watch TV from a sensible distance, and because of the high bit-depth. For the kind of arcadey fare I like to play (Tekken, Puzzle Fighter, Bomberman), resolution ain't much of an issue.
    --
  • The Dreamcast by sega wich comes out on 9.9.99 will be the next major turrning point. With the included 56k modem to allow online gaming things will be changing. I only hope that Mr Carmack sees this powerful unit and when developing (not if but when) Q2 and Q3Arena for the DC designs it so it's playable aginst PC versions!! The main Drawback is Segas lack of insight for allowing end users the ability to create games on their own, as Sony did with the Yaroze. If everyone could just drop sega a line defining their disapointment with this maybe it can be changed!!

  • It's not running Windows CE. It offers a Windows CE layer so that some DirectX titles can port to Dreamcast. But only one game so far has announced that they'll be using that layer, and no major company will be developing on the Dreamcast.

    As far as things like the Playstation 2, current users are comparing those shots with the performance we're seeing with today's graphics cards. By the end of the year, .18 micron 3d accelerators combined with hardware support for transforms and lightings will give us a 6-10-fold increase in polygon count and will put PCs on par with the PS2's level by Christmas time.

    Remember that when the Playstation came out games were written under DOS, which could not take advantage of a machine's platform-specific hardware; vendors didn't write the graphics driver... they just had to memcopy to $A000, for instance.

    The Playstation 2 has a nice API and should be a nice machine, but it won't be released until late in 2000. Comparing the PS2 to the machines of today reeks of ZDnet journalism.
  • I have a digital TV decoder. It has advantages (okay, widescreen), but is _does_ crash every so often.

    just hope this isn't the start of a trend.
  • Microsoft already sees consoles as a threat.
    That's why they've tried to grab a bit of the market with WinCe on the Dreamcast.
  • 1) they already support linkup cables (basically null modem cables) and next gen machines are slated to include 56k modems

    2) my previous flatmate used to stay up all hours of the night playing Command & Conquer on his playstation, it's not as convenient with a pad as with a mouse, but it doesn't stop anyone, plus, nothing's preventing manufacturers from bringing out mice for consoles, and, tho they're not very popular, some are already available

    3) will be downloadable via the modem or insertable memory cards 4) map designing can be fun, and isn't likely to be a feature of consoles any time soon, but nothing's to stop people using their PC to design a map then download it to the console to play. why have both? well cos if the latest 3d accelerator card costs more than a console which is more powerful, why not? :}

    remember, the article isn't saying "PC's are dead" -- people aren't gonna be installing nintendos in offices to do their accounts on -- just that PC games sales are going to go down. here in the UK there are already 10x as many console games sold as PC games. we see the weekly charts come in and a console game might ship 100,000 units or more in it's first week while the PC games struggly in at around 8,000-10,000.

    (disclaimer: i write games - for PC and PSX - for a living, but i don't speak for my employer)

  • The Dreamcast itself does not run WinCE - the operating system is included on each game GD. So far, only Sega Rally 2 (and perhaps Rage's Expendable and Incoming) have used the WinCE environment; the rest use Sega's own OS. Oh, and I have never had Sega Rally 2 crash on me in the several months I have owned it.

    The Dreamcast WinCE is a great advantage for porting PC games (the Rage games), and parallel development (see Bioware's MDK2 and Accolade's Slave Zero), and offers a familiar development environment for PC software houses.
    On the other hand, console developers can get stuck into Sega's own dev. environment, or even create their own (as Argonaut are doing for Reg Dog).
    --------------------------------------
  • Check out the OS on the Dreamcast. MS is way ahead of you.

    My personal thoughts, as someone who enjoys computer games. Until consoles have robust multiplayer, better resolution, better controllers, allow addons/patches, and have half decent strategy games I'm not going to bother. I've got a PC anyway- why do I need more hardware?

    Eric

  • And how exactly will having a full blown OS help a console?
  • How are the internet connections going to work on the new systems?
    Are we going to have to pay a monthly check to Sega/Sony/Nintendo if we want to take advantage of their modems?
    Or can we just plug the suckers into what we already have?

  • What does "replace computer" mean? (Score:4)

    by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Thursday July 22, 1999 @03:36AM (#1790474) Journal
    Replace a computer?

    Does that mean my console is going to do e-mail? (Add a keyboard) Does that mean I'm going to be able to browse the web without destroying my eyes? (Add a monitor.) Does that mean I'm going to need an input device more appropriate for these operations? (Tack a trackball onto the already-complicated console controls.)

    Gonna do my word processing to write notes to granny? (Add a hard drive to save things larger then a few K.) Gonna print that web page? (Add a printer.)

    Now, at this point, what do we have? We have something on the order of a modern computer. The console's big advantage, as everybody else says, is that it is truly plug and play. So, we have two possibilities:

    1. The console company locks down all options, and, quite probably, is the sole manufacturor of the perhipherals. Now, you get plug and play, but you have no options, and you still can't use anything that wasn't designed in from day one. (And you will PAY THROUGH THE NOSE for this priviledge).

    2. The console company allows others to create things for the console. Don't fool yourself into thinking that consoles are somehow immune to conflict issues. If everybody is creating things, there _will_be_incompatibilities_, so consoles will lose their biggest advantage. They'll still be cheap, and look good, but adding all this hardware will be expensive, and no real upgrade choices will exist.

    Now, ask yourself, how can consoles replace PCs by 2005? In 2005, PC's won't look like PC's and consoles won't look like consoles, so how can you say that consoles will replace PC's? They will continue to merge until you get your choice between cheap and more expensive; and, rest assured, they won't be called consoles; they'll be called computers.

    Consoles won't die, they'll just be absorbed into the computing-devices market. Just like Palm Pilots/WinCE will merge with portable gaming, because nothing else makes sense.
  • BTW, has anyone every thoough playing on a PC just doesn't 'feel' the same as a console.

    Absolutely. Ever tried paying a driving game, say, while windoze decides to start taskman in the 'background'?

    Having your ferrari slow down because the hard drive is spinning isnt the most realistic.
  • blah. The Playstation 2 is gonna kick the snot out of the Dreamcast, both technically and in the marketplace. Can you say "backwards-compatible"? Can you say "PCMCIA slots"? Sega's always a day early, but still a dollar short.
  • I can't believe that any true geek can appreciate playstation/n64's way of multiplay...

    I actually consider multiplayer Goldeneye (the 4-way split you complain of) to be the only redeeming factor of an N64. I'm not a big fan of 1st person shooters in general (give me Civ:CTP or SMAC anyday), but multiplayer Bond is great. There's something to be said for being able to trashtalk the people you're playing against because they're sitting right next to you...The stress-relief factor of 1st person shooters is increased greatly when you can yell at each other as you open fire...

    Along these lines...I saw a commercial for Quake on N64/PlayStation the other day, and thought I noticed a screenshot of splitscreen multiplayer. I wasn't actually paying attention, though; can anyone tell me if Quake for N64 has this feature?

  • damn right. One of my favorite games is to go around buying up game systems and stuff after they're phased out. I have a Virtual Boy and an Atari Jaguar, both of which I got this way.

    Now, if Nintendo would just drop the price on Game Boys and games.. Cripes.. if I could get a decent number of games (say 30) and a system for $200, I'd most likely plunk down the cash.
  • I don't think game consoles will totally replace computers (even for gaming) until HDTV is commonplace. Current TVs just don't have the resolution that most people want.
    Have you ever tried to surf the web with Web TV?
    Have you compared Star Wars Ep1 Racer for N64 to the PC version? (I picked that one because it is new and both versions were written at the same time) Console graphics are still too blocky and low res for me, and anything smaller than the type size my satelite reciever uses for the TV Guide is too hard to read. (and I wouldn't want to read it for very long, it's a strain on the eyes)
  • Downloading porn
  • 1. Consoles have internet play now

    2. Don't know anything about RTS so can't comment

    3. Patches? I don't want no stinking patches. That's why console gaming is better, I don't have to worry about patches, or upgrading. It's the easy life.

    4. You're right, kids wouldn't like it. But considering they own most of the consoles, it doesn't really matter does it?
  • I also considered a port, using the JagCD... but it would be a colossal waste of time, wouldn't it? :)
  • Thanks for that clarification. Guess that's ok if Sega's OS is nice and stable.. I would prefer a more open standard like OpenGL and the like... I personally like the Playstaion 2 stats better... I don't think the 1 gig discs were a good move when much better tech is available..
  • My future concern is tho whether the Saturn (Japanese version anyway) is subject to the Y2K bug. I'm confident the PSX isn't.

    Huh? I've never even seen a saturn so I don't really know but, are you trying to say that the saturn has a clock/calendar? And that it uses this date information in some way to function? This seems highly unlikely to me. Worst case scenario just set the date back.

    More likely I'm guessing there is no date function in a saturn and you are one of those loonies that spouts off about "the y2k bug" with no grasp of what "it" even is.

  • Hmmm, interesting so you do not need to link against their proprietry libs in any way? I'd have expected you to need to and then you would need to be licensed.
  • I own both a PSX and N64 and might get a DC and will definitly get a Dolphin, all despite having a "shit-cool" PC. I don't want to mess with it. Sure, it doesn't have internet multiplayer, but that's changing. And I still like the human interaction that goes on in Split Screen. I can play Mario Kart with my brother, without having to get another computer to play against him.
  • >Computers are getting cheaper, game consoles... aren't. At least now some of the best games are coming out for the PC, but consoles generally last longer than gaming PC's and are cheaper. Hey, gaming PC's can be expensive if you want the latest and greatest of everything. I don't mind being 18 months behind the cutting edge, but I miss all the new games...


    Consoles are getting cheaper. Let's see, the N64 and PSX will drop price in late August to $99. The Dreamcast, a next gen console, will cost $199. Back when the PSX was released, it was $300 (I think). Now, the Nintendo Dolphin is said to have a launch of only $99. I don't put much faith in $99, but I do expect a $150 price point. That cheap enough for you? And with consoles, you are always at the latest and greatest of everything. Besides, by the time you buy your first comptuer that is top of the line, you could buy at least 10 consoles, probally more.
  • Heck, I already do some of this with my PC. It's also my DVD drive, it reads and displays signals from cable (though it doesn't decode premium channels yet, hmmmm), outputs to monitor or television screen... Will digitize incoming CATV stuff and save to disk, not VHS tape (though with mediocre image quality, I admit...) My PC has wound up being an integral part of my "entertainment center".

    ...it plays games, too. S'pose I oughta get bleem working so it'll think it's a PSX, and blur the line between PC and console even further.

    Why do I bring this up? Because PCs and consoles are different for a reason, and I expect they'll always be different. Why is this? PCs are more versatile. Will this versatility always exist? In some forms of PC, yes. The iMac is a step towards a less versatile, more-like-a-console PC. But I don't expect that _all_ computers will be iMac-ish in the future.

    You will, of course, pay more for your versatility, just like you do now. :)

    -F
  • Things computers do better than "consoles".

    • Let the owner decide how to dedicate secondary storage to save-points. It's such a waste to have a fixed number of save 'slots' on each game when with some games you will have few savepoints and with others you will have many. When you save them on your hard drive you get to decide how to proportion the total save space, by saving one game many times and other games not so manytimes. (For example, I might want to have 40 saved Strategy games, but only 1 or 2 saved racing games.)

    • Buy lots of memory and swap between two games at once.

    • Play a game 'in the background' while getting work done, all on the same screen.

    • high digital resolutions: TV screens suck.

    • I can choose to spend lots of money only on those bits of hardware that matter to me. For example, since my hearing is less than perfect, I can't really hear the difference between 8-bit and 16-bit audio anyway, so I might as well just go with the cheap cards. Similarly a color-blind person doesn't need as expensive a monitor as someone else.

  • Game consoles running at 320x200 can run non-interlaced, and if they are then they get 60fps. Same as the C=64 did. One of the Genesis' Sonic The Hedgehog games included a two player mode which split the screen in half by going into an interlaced mode. It's extremely noticeble and distracting when the display is interlaced, and as such I'd have to say that 99% of the games on a console are running non-interlaced.

    The Playstation has a Link Cable that allows two systems to be linked together for head-to-head games where each system has it's own display. I don't know how many games use it, but the option is there.

    What I've read on the Playstation 2 indicates that it will allow you to hook up to a computer monitor as well as an HDTV set. Sure HDTV isn't prevalent at the moment, but I suspect that a lot of sets will be sold in January 2000 for the HDTV broadcast of the Super Bowl. Everyone I know who's seen HDTV sets on display(all the Best Buy's here in Houston have them set up) are extremely impressed with the image quantity and want one as soon as the price drops(current sets are around $8000, new sets coming out this fall will be around $4000)

    Of course, the target market for consoles games is not the same as the target market for PC games. Also console games also have the benefit of having a known set of hardware to work with, and can drive the hardware harder than a PC game that has to worry about which video/sound card is currently in the users machine.

  • The three emulators I've ported to OS/2 (for Atari 2600, Coleco Vision, Sega Master System/Game Gear) only run at the proper speed if the target frame rate is 60fps(or 50fps for PAL based video games). As such, even the oldest console systems could acheive 60fps.

  • Aah, but with the new USB ports on the PSII, we now *can* have a keyboard! :-)

    But why hyperbolise about the PSII, when Dreamcast already exists, and *does* have an optional keyboard?
    --
  • Hear Hear! I've owned a playstation Console for quite some time now (2+ years?), and even have a mod chip in it so I can play Gradius Gaiden -- But I haven't so much as looked at it for about 6 months since the computer gaming arena (q3 etc) provides:

    *better graphics
    *better multi-play

    I can't believe that any true geek can appreciate playstation/n64's way of multiplay... having the screen split to 2 (or in N64's case, 4...ugh!). Now, the playstation has the serial link, and it is available for some games, but how many people have 2 playstations and 2 tv's lying next to each other?

    I'll keep my playstation, just because I only buy games I like, and I regret selling my other systems (but isn't emulation great....) I see a certain nostalgia effect with my consoles, reminding me of my early days of zelda etc., but as far as hard core fun gaming, the PC definitely has my vote.
  • Show me the console that has the latest hardware every 6 months.

    Show me one.... and I won't buy it. One of the problems with PC games is that you spend 5 minutes in the shop trying to work out if your computer is up to the job: is meeting the "minimum requirements" enough, or should you read the "Recommended spec"?

    I bought a Playstation three years ago, and I can still buy any game and *guarantee* it will run, and it will run at full speed.

    I bought my PC two years ago, and it won't run halflife.

    A new Dreamcast (when it comes out) isn't much more expensive than a Voodoo III, and will outlive it.

    Mind you, I have seven consoles at the last count (ahem, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, Saturn, Megadrive (Genesis), Playstation, Jaguar), so I may be a little biased...
    --
  • You bought a PC 2 years ago and it won't run Half-life? I'm running a PPro 200 (from over 2 years ago) and it runs half life like a dream.

    It'll also run almost every other game quite nicely still too (Kingpin won't, but I have no intrest in it anyway).

  • The biggest problem with most game consoles these days (apart from a lack of keyboard) is that they plug into TVs and TV resolution sucks.

    What I'd really like to see is something like a PS2 with an SVGA out port on the back so it can be plugged into a computer monitor so that games can be run at decent resolutions.

    Stick an RF wireless keyboard on it and nobody would need a windtendo box anymore.

  • As far as upgrades go, the 56k modem pulls out easily, for future upgrades to DSL, cable modems, etc. Sega [sega.com] has nice pictures of this...

    PS2 is 100% backward compatible, so you can think of it as an 'upgrade' if you'd like...
    Also, the N64 has a RAM expansion pack for enhanced textures.

    I'm excited to see Passport... I believe (and obviously sega and sony do too) that there's a strong market for a Box that boots in 15 seconds and is always connected to the net. I tie my computer up with long renders on a regular basis, so having a cheap surfing machine would be great. A net connection also eliminates most of the PCs advantages in gaming - multiplayer, extra levels, updates. Next Generation [next-generation.com] has great coverage of these machines, such as this [next-generation.com] article about a Japanese Baseball game with a pay-per-use model. (The articles are usually more in depth than this one.) They could also charge for upgraded rosters, trades, etc. As far as resolution, I remember reading that either the Dreamcast or PS2 would have VGA out, which would be a blessing until I get my wega [sony.com]....

  • Also, the "top of the line" life of a console is longer than that of a pc.

    Well, actually, no. If you think about it, PS has been out for about 3, maybe four years now and is still considered top of the line. The computers of three - four years ago are best seen at your local used computer store and boat anchor supply.

    Since the hardware involved with a gaming console is (almost) non-modular (PS's memory card concept is an exception), and each console iteration tends to be a completely different animal from the last, they tend to last longer on the market...or I'm talking out of my ass...

    punkass
  • For the newer (3D) machines, I believe resolution isn't an issue (because of the high scalability of the 3D vector-based graphics). However, for older games (like Zelda for example), emulators that output at a higher resolution are probably just spoofing.

  • Porno Capibilities (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Consoles are not going to seriously threaten the reign of the computer until and unless the console can be used by the average person to download pornography from the internet and store it for later... um, use. And in such a way that the user's parent(s) and/or significant other will not easily discover it.

    Technology in and of itself is nice, but if you want a technology to really take off, you have to involve it in either war or sex.
  • | The PC gaming market is bigger than ever!
    | Consoles will die a slow death

    Er, don't you remember the mid eighties? Consoles *did* die out in the dark times betweeen the Atari/Coleco/Intellivision and the original NES. However, *since* the NES (and actually, during the time that PC gaming actually started to take off), consoles have been doing just fine. But let's examine your points:

    1) Multiplayer. Done on colsoles (link cables, the Netlink, etc., as well as splitscreen). Why do you thnink most consoles have 2-4 joystick ports anyhow? :) Will probably be more common on the next-generation consoles.

    2) Strategy games? When there's a big enough market to make them worthwhile, they'll show up. There's nothing about a strategy game that requires a 500 MHz Pentium III with 512 megs of RAM.

    3) Customization. For Joe Average, is that such a big deal? As for "patches for improved play", I read that as "the game was released with annoying bugs". This is more common on PCs than consoles due to the fact that there *are* so many damned graphics cards, sound cards, versions of Direct(su)X, etc. For the consoles, their unity in terms of what hardware will be there is a strength. The games typically work out-of-the-box.

    4) Well, that's really rhe same point as above. When I want to tweak a system, it's usually not for a *game*. I put in a game to relax. ;)

    I don't believe that consoles are going away anytime soon, so long as PC gaming remains complicated (to just get games running, not in the level of gameplay) and expensive and console gaming remains easy and inexpensive.
  • And then the Dolphin comes along and kicks the PS2's butt. It'll be cheap, powerful, and have great games. Have you seen the PS2 shots? No, well take a look PS2 [ign.com]. Impressive eh? Anyway, I predict that the Dolphin will win this coming console war, with DC in second, and PS2 in last.
  • The "electric motor" you speak of is still around in two forms - a food processor that still has all the different attachements for kitchen stuff, and a dremel tool to do anything else outside the kitchen.

    I think that a lot of computer stuff will get simpler and more specialized - but look at all the functions a computer serves that you can't get (easily) from a game console:

    Work at home - you really are not going to be able to use a console for this. And I'd say general predictions are that more people will be working at home in the future, rather than less.

    Printing - people like to print out stuff.

    Chat/online games with chat - this is a weak one, in that it could be taken over by audio headsets. But then, people WOULD know if you were a dog.

    Also, people are touting how amazing the new game machines will be. That's true, but by the time the P2K comes out I'll probably have a 1Ghz AMD K7, and a G400 card that does environmental bump mapping and generally runs games at 1200x1024.

    I think things will get more specialized, but just as we still have a food processor for people who are serious about cooking, we'll have something that has a keyboard and display for people serious about computing - the rest (upgrade cards and OS installs) will probably go away someday.

  • Computers are too difficult / too powerful ... (Score:3)

    by linuxci ( 3530 ) on Thursday July 22, 1999 @12:52AM (#1790521)
    For the average person in the street a computer is simply too complicated for them to use as well as been too powerful for their needs. You then also have the problems which have been outlined before - changing hardware (does my PC have a compatible video card, enough memory, the right OS?) is much less of a problem with game consoles. You buy a playstation and get a game for a playstation and it works. You buy a game for the PC and you have to check how much memory you've got, the video card, sound card, processor, memory, OS, etc. This is just too difficult for the average person who still hasn't worked out what to do with those AOL CD's and think they're a new form of music.

    The operating systems are too difficult to use for the average person. You can't make an OS which is idiot proof without frustrating experienced users. Should we expect someone to learn how to use an OS just to play a few games?
    With Windows 9x it's just far too easy to delete system files and make your system unbootable, also when it crashes a new user doesn't know this is normal they think they've done something wrong.
    Linux is a great OS for most of us Slashdot readers and if someone spends the time and sets it up correctly it can be easier to use for a beginner than Windows. However Linux out of the box is extremely difficult for a beginner to master and however much work is done on the usability of any OS it'll still be too difficult for many people to get to grips with.

    When you have a games console, it works, it's there, it's what the average user wants. Put in a CD or a cartridge and the program runs. No mounting disks (Linux), no strange crashes or complaints about lack of memory, incompatible hardware, etc. If the next generation games consoles can support printers and keyboards you have an ideal platform for internet access and simple word processing. Just add enoungh memory to these machines and a method for saving files and you've finally got something that the average user can appreciate.

    The main problem with games consoles is they are proprietry at the moment. You can only run playstation games on a playstation and N64 games on a N64 (I'm not taking emulators into account - that would involve using a computer). This gives the manufacturer a monopoly in their platform and then the besat software will be developed for that platform, it'd be great if an open standard could be defined for game consoles that all consoles could be based upon. That would make it easy to make games that would work on all platforms and would give the user a choice in which platform to buy. Of course there's problems in this idea but there does need to be some openness in the game consoles or we'll get another Microsoft type situation.
    --
  • I agree. It's strange that we tolerate PCs as they are now, but we would not even consider buying a TV or VCR that needed reinstallation of software
    every month, or if it crashed during The Simpsons.

  • I put down $10 last week on a Sega Dreamcast system so I can scarf one up on 9/9/99 when it's released. My friend rented the Japanese version a few months ago, and let me tell you, it's incredible.

    The Dreamcast has a built in 56K modem and you can even buy a keyboard for it. It will support net access, web access, e-mail, and of course multi-player gaming. Unfortunately, you have to do this through their ISP service. No details on what that'll cost yet.

    I'm going to be damn curious to see what type of protocol it will use. Since it runs Windows CE as an OS, hopefully it's PPP and one can hack a Linux box to allow it to "dial in" to it, then let it access the net that way.

    But, if the ISP service they provide is reasonable, I can see this bringing a lot more people onto the net. Everyone has a game console, even dirt poor folk. Computers still intimidate people, and even the friendly Macs drive people up the walls when "a type -2 error occured" pops up.

    side note: beings that it runs Windows CE, we may see our first cases of seriously bugging game consoles crashing all the time. I have a Cassiopeia E-100 and that bitch crashes too often. All the wonders of big daddy Windows in a small package... :-(

  • You don't need a devkit to develop for the playstation. Low-level hardware info is on the net, and you can use the gnu compiler in conjunction with a ROM reflashable cheat cartridge (such as the action replay) to develop games. It's quite easy actually!

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