Friday 30 November 2012
Monday 26 November 2012
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS, is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and released by Nintendo. The device was the first Nintendo game console to launch outside of Japan when it went on sale in North America on November 21, 2004.
The DS, short for dual screen, introduced distinctive new features to handheld gaming: an LCD screen working in tandem with a touchscreen, a built-in microphone, and support for wireless connectivity. Both screens are encompassed within a clamshell design similar to the Game Boy Advance SP. The Nintendo DS also features the ability for multiple DS consoles to directly interact with each other over Wi-Fi within a short range without the need to connect to an existing wireless network. Alternatively, they can interact online using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.
The Nintendo DS design resembles that of the multi-screen games from the Game & Watch line, such as Donkey Kong and Zelda, which was also made by Nintendo.
The lower display of the Nintendo DS is overlaid with a touchscreen designed to accept input from the included stylus, the user's fingers, or a curved plastic tab attached to the optional wrist strap. The touchscreen allows users to interact with in-game elements more directly than by pressing buttons; for example, in the included chatting software, PictoChat, the stylus is used to write messages or to draw.
The handheld features four lettered buttons (X, Y, A, B), a directional pad, and Start, Select, and Power buttons. On the top of the device are two shoulder buttons, a game card slot, a stylus holder and a power cable input. The bottom features the Game Boy Advance game card slot. The overall button layout resembles that of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller. When using backward compatibility mode on the DS, buttons X and Y and the touchscreen are not used as the Game Boy Advance line of systems do not feature these controls.
GameCube
The Nintendo GameCube is avideo game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. It was the successor to the Nintendo 64. As part of the sixth generation of gaming, the Nintendo GameCube competed with the Sega Dreamcast (which ceased production before the GameCube launched), Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox.
Like its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube was available in many colors. The two most common color variants, released during the console's launch, were "Indigo" (the standard color used in most early advertising) and "Jet Black." "Spice" (orange-colored) GameCubes were also offered as standard models, but only in Japan. However, the standard controller was widely available in this color outside of Japan as well. Later, Nintendo released GameCubes with a "Platinum" (silver) color scheme, initially marketed as a limited edition product. Other limited edition colors and styles were also only released in Japan.
The Nintendo GameCube Game Disc was the software storage medium for the Nintendo GameCube, created by Matsushita. Chosen to prevent unauthorized copying and to avoid licensing fees to the DVD Consortium, it was Nintendo's first non-cartridge storage method for consoles released outside of Japan (the Famicom Disk System and Nintendo 64DD were exclusive to Japan). Some games which contain large amounts of voice acting or pre-rendered video (for example, Tales of Symphonia) have been released on two discs; however, only twenty-five games have been released on two discs, and none require more than two discs.
The GameCube features two ports that accommodate memory cards for saving game data. The three official memory card sizes are: 59 blocks (4 Mbit/512 KB, gray card), 251 blocks (16 Mbit/2 MB, black), and 1019 blocks (64 Mbit/8 MB, white). Third-party memory cards were also widely available.
The standard GameCube controller has a wing grip design, and was designed to fit well in the player's hands. It includes a total of eight buttons, two analog sticks, a D-pad, and an internal rumble motor. The primary analog stick was on the left, with the D-pad below it. On the right are four buttons; a large green "A" button in the center, a smaller red "B" button to the left, an "X" button to the right and a "Y" button to the top. Below those, there was a yellow "C" stick, which often serves different functions, such as controlling the camera. The Start/Pause button was located at the middle of the controller face, and the rumble motor was encased within the center of the controller.On the top of the controller there are two analog shoulder buttons marked "L" and "R," as well as one digital button marked "Z." The "L" and "R" shoulder buttons feature both analog and digital capabilities. Each of these buttons behaves as a typical analog button until fully depressed, at which point the button "clicks" to register an additional digital signal. This method effectively serves to provide two functions per button without actually adding two separate physical buttons.
The standard GameCube controller has a wing grip design, and was designed to fit well in the player's hands. It includes a total of eight buttons, two analog sticks, a D-pad, and an internal rumble motor. The primary analog stick was on the left, with the D-pad below it. On the right are four buttons; a large green "A" button in the center, a smaller red "B" button to the left, an "X" button to the right and a "Y" button to the top. Below those, there was a yellow "C" stick, which often serves different functions, such as controlling the camera. The Start/Pause button was located at the middle of the controller face, and the rumble motor was encased within the center of the controller.On the top of the controller there are two analog shoulder buttons marked "L" and "R," as well as one digital button marked "Z." The "L" and "R" shoulder buttons feature both analog and digital capabilities. Each of these buttons behaves as a typical analog button until fully depressed, at which point the button "clicks" to register an additional digital signal. This method effectively serves to provide two functions per button without actually adding two separate physical buttons.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
The Wii launch package includes the console; a stand to allow the console to be placed vertically; a round, clear stabilizer for the main stand; a Wii Remote; a Nunchuk attachment; a Sensor Bar; a removable stand for the bar; an external power adapter; two AA batteries; a composite AV cable with RCA connectors; a SCART adapter in European countries (component video and other types of cables are available separately); operation documentation and (in Europe and the Americas) a copy of the game Wii Sports.
The Wii Remote is the primary controller for the console. It uses a combination of built-in accelerometers and infrared detection to sense its position in 3D space when pointed at the LEDs in the Sensor Bar This design allows users to control the game with physical gestures as well as button-presses. The controller connects to the console using Bluetooth with an approximate 30 ft (9.1 m) range, and features rumble and an internal speaker. The Wii Remote can connect to expansion devices through a proprietary port at the base of the controller. The device bundled with the Wii retail package is the Nunchuk unit, which features an accelerometer and a traditional analog stick with two trigger buttons. In addition, an attachable wrist strap can be used to prevent the player from unintentionally dropping (or throwing) the Wii Remote. Nintendo has since offered a stronger strap and the Wii Remote Jacket to provide extra grip and protection. The Wii MotionPlus is another accessory that connects to the Wii Remote to supplement the accelerometer and sensor-bar capabilities, enabling actions to appear on the screen in real time. Further augmenting the remote's capabilities is the Wii Vitality Sensor, a fingertip pulse oximeter sensor that connects through the Wii Remote.
Nintendo
.jpg)
Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda cards.
Nintendo's first venture into the video gaming industry was securing rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan in 1974. Nintendo began to produce its own hardware in 1977, with the Color TV Game
home video game consoles. Four versions of these consoles were
produced, each including variations of a single game.
In 1980, Nintendo launched Game & Watch—a handheld video game series developed by Yokoi where each game was played on a separate device—to worldwide success. In 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer (commonly shortened "Famicom"), known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), home video game console in Japan, alongside ports of its most popular arcade titles. In 1985, the NES launched in North America, and was accompanied by Super Mario Bros., one of the best-selling video games of all time.
After the success of the Game & Watch, Yokoi developed the Game Boy handheld game console in 1989. The Game Boy, the best-selling handheld of all time, remained dominant for more than a decade. Incremental updates in the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and Game Boy Color over the next decade did little to change the original formula.
The Nintendo Entertainment System was superseded by the Super Famicom, known outside Japan as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). This was Nintendo's console of the 16-bit 4th generation.
The company's next home console, the Nintendo 64, was released in 1996 and features 3D graphics capabilities and built-in multiplayer for up to four players. The system's controller introduced the analog stick. Nintendo later introduced the Rumble Pak, an accessory for the Nintendo 64 controller that produced force feedback with compatible games. It was the first such device to come to market for home console gaming and eventually became an industry standard.
The Nintendo GameCube followed in 2001 and was the first Nintendo console to utilize optical disc storage instead of cartridges.
Another home console in Nintendo's lineup, the Wii, uses motion sensing controllers and has on-board online functionality used for services such as Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and Internet Channel. Its successor, the Wii U, features a touch screen controller and comes in two editions, Basic and Deluxe.
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan with international markets following shortly thereafter
Major features of the console include its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network, its multimedia capabilities, connectivity with the PlayStation Portable, and its use of the Blu-ray Disc.
The PlayStation 3 features a slot-loading 2x speed Blu-ray Disc drive
for games, Blu-ray movies, DVDs, CDs and other optical media.It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB (20 GB model was not available in PAL regions) but various sizes up to 320 GB have been made available since then (see: model comparison). All PS3 models have user-upgradeable 2.5" SATA hard drives.
There are several original PlayStation 3 hardware models, which are commonly referred to by the size of their included hard disk drive: 20, 40, 60, 80 or 160 GB.
Although referred to by their HDD size, the capabilities of the
consoles vary by region and release date. The only difference in the
appearance of the first five models was the color of the trim, number of
USB ports, the presence or absence of a door (which covers the flash
card readers on equipped models) and some minor changes to the air
vents. All retail packages include one or two Sixaxis controllers and/or a DualShock 3 controller (beginning June 12, 2008), one miniUSB to USB cable (for connecting the controller and PlayStation Portable to the system), one composite video/stereo audio output cable, one Ethernet cable (20, 60 and CECHExx 80 GB only) and one power cable. All models support software emulation of the original PlayStation,
but support for PlayStation 2 backward compatibility has continually
diminished with later models and the last model to advertise integrated
backward compatibility was the 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 Bundle. Compatibility issues with games for both systems are detailed in a public database hosted by the manufacturer. All models, excluding the 20 GB model, include 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi.
In addition to all of the features of the 20 GB model, the 60 GB model
has internal IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, multiple flash card readers
(SD/MultiMedia Card, CompactFlash Type I/Type II, Microdrive, Memory Stick/PRO/Duo) and a chrome colored trim. In terms of hardware, the 80 GB model released in South Korea is identical to the 60 GB model released in the PAL regions, except for the difference in hard drive size
Numerous accessories for the console have been developed. These accessories include the wireless Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the Logitech Driving Force GT, the Logitech Cordless Precision Controller, the BD Remote, the PlayStation Eye camera, and the PlayTV DVB-T tuner/digital video recorder accessory.
PlayStation 2
Although Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast in March 2001, the PS2 would face competition from newer rivals; Microsoft's Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. Many analysts predicted a close three-way matchup between the three consoles; the Xbox having the most powerful hardware, while the GameCube was least expensive console and Nintendo changed its policy to encourage third-party developers, and while the PlayStation 2 theoretically had the weakest specs of the three, it had a head start due to its installed base plus strong developer commitment, as well as a built in DVD player (the Xbox required an adapter, while the GameCube lacked support entirely). While the PlayStation 2's initial games lineup was considered mediocre, this changed during the 2001 holiday season with the release of several blockbuster games that maintained the PS2's sales momentum and held off its newer rivals. Sony also countered the Xbox by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
PlayStation 2 software is distributed on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM In addition the console can play audio CDs and DVD movies, and is backwardly compatible with PlayStation games. The PS2 also supports PlayStation memory cards and controllers, although PS1 memory cards only work with PS1 games and the controllers may not support all functions (such as analog buttons) for PS2 games.
PlayStation
The PlayStationis a 32-bitfifth-generationvideo game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994.
The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. In 2000, a re-designed, "slim" version was released, called the PSone, replacing the original grey console, and also being renamed to avoid confusion with its successor, the newly-released PlayStation 2.The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc-based technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. The Famicom Disk System's rewritable magnetic discs could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and they lacked any sort of copy protection, thus were vulnerable to piracy. Consequently, when details of CD-ROM XA (which had neither of those problems) were released to the public, Nintendo was interested. Simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips, CD-ROM/XA was an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual, and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of the PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.
By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names "Play Station" was removed becoming "PlayStation", thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project
Sony Computer Entertainment
| Type | Subsidiary of Sony | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive entertainment Computer and video games |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | November 16, 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Headquarters | Tokyo, Japan |
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game
company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry,
and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products &
Services Group of Sony.
The company was established on November 16, 1993 in Tokyo, Japan, prior to the launch of the original PlayStation video game system. Sony Computer Entertainment produces the PlayStation family of video game hardware consisting of consoles and handhelds. Sony's first wide home console release was the PlayStation. The PlayStation was released in Japan on December 3, 1994 and later in
North America on September 9, 1995. Currently the highest selling home
console of all time. The PS2 is powered by a proprietary central processing unit, the Emotion Engine, and was the first video game console to have DVD playback functionality included out of the box.The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is SCE's first foray into
the small handheld console market, which was and to this date still is
dominated by Nintendo. Its development was first announced during SCE's E3
conference in 2003, and it was officially unveiled during their E3
conference on May 11, 2004. The system was released in Japan on December
12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005 and in Europe and
Australia on September 1, 2005. The console has since seen two major
redesigns, with new features including a smaller size, more internal
memory, a better quality LCD screen and a lighter weight.
The newest home console in the PlayStation family, as well as Sony's entry in the seventh-generation of consoles, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) was launched in November 2006. It utilizes a unique processing architecture, the Cell microprocessor, a proprietary technology developed by Sony in conjunction with Toshiba and IBM. The graphics processing unit, the RSX 'Reality Synthesizer', was co-developed by Nvidia and Sony. Several variations of the PS3 have been released, each with slight hardware and software differences, each denoted by the varying size of the included hard disk drive.
The newest handheld console in the PlayStation family is the PlayStation Vita. It is the successor to the PlayStation Portable as part of the PlayStation brand of gaming devices. It was released in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011and in Europe, Australia and North America on February 22, 2012.
The newest home console in the PlayStation family, as well as Sony's entry in the seventh-generation of consoles, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) was launched in November 2006. It utilizes a unique processing architecture, the Cell microprocessor, a proprietary technology developed by Sony in conjunction with Toshiba and IBM. The graphics processing unit, the RSX 'Reality Synthesizer', was co-developed by Nvidia and Sony. Several variations of the PS3 have been released, each with slight hardware and software differences, each denoted by the varying size of the included hard disk drive.
The newest handheld console in the PlayStation family is the PlayStation Vita. It is the successor to the PlayStation Portable as part of the PlayStation brand of gaming devices. It was released in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011and in Europe, Australia and North America on February 22, 2012.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console developed by and produced for Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox.
The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.
Several major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox Live also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming application such as Netflix and ESPN in the US or Sky Go in the UK.
Development
Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, a deal which was publicly announced two days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apple's Power Mac G5 hardwareHardware
Accessories
Many accessories are available for the console, including both wired and wireless controllers, faceplates for customization, headsets for chatting, a webcam for video chatting, dance mats and Gamercize for exercise, three sizes of memory units and five sizes of hard drives, among other items, all of which are styled to match the console. The new really popular one would be Kinect.....
Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market. As part of the sixth-generation of gaming, the Xbox competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast (which stopped American sales before the Xbox went on sale), and Nintendo's GameCube. The Xbox was the first console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996.
The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with a broadband connection.
In 1998 four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team, Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, disassembled some Dell laptop computers to construct a prototype Microsoft Windows-based video game console. During development, the original DirectX box name was shortened to Xbox. Microsoft's marketing department did not like the Xbox name, and suggested many alternatives. During focus testing, the Xbox name was left on the list of possible names to demonstrate how unpopular the Xbox name would be with consumers. However, consumer testing revealed that Xbox was preferred by far over the other suggested names and "Xbox" became the official name of the product
The Xbox was Microsoft's first video game console after collaborating with Sega to port Windows CE to the Dreamcast console.
Hardware
The Xbox was the first video game console to feature a built-in hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards.Controllers & Accessories
The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a pressure sensitive directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, and Black and White buttons). The standard Xbox controller was originally the controller bundled with Xbox systems for all territories except Japan.
The "Controller S" a smaller, lighter Xbox controller, was originally the standard Xbox controller only in Japan designed for users with smaller hands.The "Controller S" was later released in other territories by popular demand and by 2002 replaced the standard controller in the Xbox's retail package, with the larger original controller remaining available as an accessory.
On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live online gaming service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with other subscribers around the world and download new content directly to the system's hard drive. The online service works only with a broadband Internet connection. Approximately 250,000 subscribers signed up within two months of Xbox Live's launch
Microsoft
Industry : Computer software
Online services
Video Gaming
Founded : Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
On date : April 4, 1975
Founder(s) : Bill Gates, Paul Allen
Area served : Worldwide
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. It is one of the world's most valuable companies.
Microsoft was established to develop and sell basic interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.
As of 2012, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer.
Some Games for Windows titles have access to Microsoft's Live network for online play and other features, including voice chat, messaging and friends lists, accessed from an in-game menu called the "Guide". Users can log in with their Xbox Live gamertags to gain Achievements and play games and chat across platforms.
Tray and Play is a technology developed by Microsoft for Windows Vista. It allows users to put the game disc into an optical disc drive and start playing almost immediately, while the game installs itself in the background and streams off the disc with minimal or zero caching, just like on a game console.
Games for Windows – Live features
- Achievements earned during gameplay.
- Gamerscores amounting the total of a user's achievement points.
- Rep voted by other users preferring or avoiding the user. Rep defaults to five stars over time after the user has been preferred by at least one other user.
- Friends list displaying the user's chosen friends of up to 100.
- Recent players list displaying the last 50 players the user has met.
- Complaint system allowing users to file reports of other users that have broken Live Terms of Use.
- Games for Windows Marketplace offering Games on Demand, downloadable content, music and movies.
- Private chat via Voice and text.
- Multiplayer gameplay via Games for Windows – Live.
- Matchmaking depending on the user's cumulative gamerscore, rep, location, language and gamer zone.
- Family settings controlling younger users' exposure to other users.
- Game Room virtual arcade space offering a library of classic retro games.
- Cross-platform gameplay with Xbox 360
Friday 9 November 2012
Media Discs Development
Cartridges…
Game cartridges consist of a printed
circuit board housed inside of a plastic casing, with a connector
allowing the device to interface with the console. The circuit board can
contain a wide variety of components. All cartridge games contain at the
minimum, read only
memory with the software written on it.
Cartridges were the first external media to be
used with home consoles and remained the most common until 1995 continued
improvements in capacity.
Cards…
Several consoles such as the Sega Master System and the
TurboGrafx-16 have used
different types of smart cards
as an external medium. These cards function similar to simple cartridges.
Information is stored on a chip that is housed in plastic. Cards are more
compact and simpler than cartridges; this makes them cheaper to produce.
Magnetic
Media…
Home computers have long used magnetic storage devices.
Both tape drives and
floppy disk drives were
common on early microcomputers.
Their popularity is in large part because a tape drive or disk drive can write
to any material it can read. However, magnetic media is volatile and can be
more easily damaged than game cartridges or optical disc.
Optical
Media….
In the mid-1990s, various manufacturers shifted
to optical media, specifically CD-ROM, for games. Although they were slower at
loading game data than the cartridges available at that time, they were
significantly cheaper to manufacture and had a larger capacity than the
existing cartridge technology. By the early 21st century, all of the major home
consoles used optical media, usually DVD-ROM or similar disks, which are widely
replacing CD-ROM for data storage. The PlayStation 3 system uses even
higher-capacity Blu-ray
optical discs for games and movies while the Xbox 360 formerly used HD DVDs.
Internet
Distribution…
All three seventh generation consoles (the
PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360) offer some kind of Internet games
distribution service, allowing users to download games for a fee onto some form
of non-volatile storage, typically a hard disk or flash memory. Recently, the
console manufacturers have been taking advantage of internet distribution with
games, video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and film trailers
being available.
Microsoft's Xbox Live service includes
the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring digital distribution
of classic and original titles. These include arcade classics, original titles,
and games originally released on other consoles. The Xbox Live Marketplace also
includes many different hit movies and trailers in high
definition, and is accessible with a Xbox Live Free Membership.
There is also an "Indie Games" section where small time developers
can buy a license and release their own games onto the marketplace.
Sony's online game distribution is known as the
PlayStation
Network (PSN). It offers free online gaming, downloadable content
such as classic PlayStation games, high
definition games and movie trailers, and original games such as flOw and Everyday Shooter as well
as some games that also release on Blu-ray Disc such as Warhawk
and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Gaming Console Generations.
Consoles.
First computer games appeared in
the 1950s, they were based around vector displays, not analog video. It was not
until 1972 that Magnavox released the
first home video game console,
which could be connected to a TV set. It was called The Magnavox Odyssey.
Second
Generation…
Fairchild released the Fairchild Video
Entertainment System (VES) in 1976. The VES contained a
programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to
store microprocessor instructions!
Third
Generation…
In 1983, Nintendo released the Family
Computer (Famicom) in Japan. Famicom supported high-resolution
sprites and tiled backgrounds, but with more colours. This allowed Famicom
games to be longer and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo brought their
Famicom over to the US in the form of the Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. However many people who played it at back in the 1980’s called it simply
Nintendo.
Fourth
Generation…
Sega gained market share by releasing its
next-generation console, the Mega
Drive/Genesis. It was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, in the
U.S. in August 1989 (renamed as the Sega Genesis) and in Europe in 1990, two
years before Nintendo could release the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
Other consoles included in the fourth
generation are NEC's
TurboGrafx-16 and SNK Playmore's Neo Geo.
Fifth
Generation…
The first
fifth-generation consoles were the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO.
Both of these systems were much more powerful than the Super Nintendo
Entertainment System (SNES) or Mega Drive (known as Genesis in North America).
It was not until Sega's Saturn, Sony's PlayStation, and the Nintendo 64 were released
that fifth generation consoles started to become popular. The Saturn and
PlayStation used CDs to store games, while the N64 used cartridges. All three
cost far less than the 3DO, and were easier to program than the Jaguar.
Sixth
Generation…
This generation saw a move towards PC-like
architectures in gaming consoles, as well as a shift towards using DVDs for game media.
· Sony's
PlayStation 2 was released
in North America on October 26, 2000 as the follow-up to its highly successful
PlayStation, and was also the first home game console to be able to play DVDs. As was done with the
original PlayStation in 2000, Sony redesigned the console in 2004 into a
smaller version.
· Microsoft's
Xbox, released on November
15, 2001 in North America, was the company's first video game console. The
first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, and
had similar hardware specifications to a low-end desktop computer at the time
of its release. Though criticized for its bulky size, which was easily twice
that of the competition, as well as for the awkwardness of the original
controller that shipped with it, it eventually gained popularity due in part to
the success of the Halo franchise.
The Xbox was the first console to include an Ethernet port and offered high
speed online gaming through the Xbox LIVE
service.
· The
Nintendo
GameCube, released November 18, 2001 in North America, was
Nintendo's fourth home video game console and the first console by the company
to use optical media instead of cartridges. The Nintendo GameCube did not play
standard 12 cm DVDs, instead employing smaller 8 cm optical discs.
With the release of the GameCube Game Boy Player, all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartage's
could be played on the platform. The Nintendo GameCube was discontinued in 2007
with the release of Wii.
Seventh
Generation…
The features introduced in this generation
include the support of new disc formats: Blu-ray Disc, utilized by
the PlayStation 3, and HD DVD
supported by the Xbox 360. Also, all seventh generation consoles support
wireless controllers. This generation also introduces the Nintendo DS, and the
Nintendo DSi, which add touch screens and cameras to portable gaming.
· Microsoft
kicked off the seventh generation with the release of the Xbox 360 released on
November 22, 2005 in the United States.
· Sony's PlayStation 3 was released
in Japan on November 11, 2006, in North America on November 17, 2006 and in
Europe on March 23, 2007.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)