Essay: Games Consoles

In 1991 Sega released their first handheld console called the game gear, then Nintendo released another so called hand held/portable console called the virtual boy in 1995, it was a mask with two legs so you could place it on a table or you could wear on your face had a wired controller to play the games, you looked through the eye holes and could play 3D games.
 

The next game console was called the game.com it had very good ideas and a pretty good library but only managed to sell 300,000 units. The console had a touch screen that could be controlled by a stylus pen, it allowed you to connect to a 14.4kbps modem to save scores, check emails and surfing the web, the games that it could play were such as Duke Nukem 3D, Mortal kombat and resident evil and more.

In 1998 Nintendo then again released another console, the Gameboy colour. It was the first backward compatible system; this means they could play games from the old Gameboy original. And also could play new games.

Nokia then entered the portable game console market in 2003, they made the N-Gage, it was a cross between a mobile phone and a game console, and apparently 3 million units were sold in its 3 year life span. Many people who played with the console said they suffered from sore thumbs after.

2004 introduced the Nintendo DS it sold over 135 million units. It had two screens, the top was the main screen and the bottom was a touch screen, it was also backwards compatible and could play any game that was made in the past for one of their consoles.

In 2005 Sony released the PSP (the PlayStation portable). It was one of the only consoles that were actually capable of competing with the DS.

Since these two releases Sony has released the psp 2000 in 2007 which was the same as the psp but lighter, thinner etc.

 
Next was the psp 3000 it was released in 2008, the psp go was next, it was released in 2009.

Finally the PS vita was released in 2012 it now had a two touch screens, the main on the front and then the back also, it also had two joysticks.

Nintendo released the Nintendo ds lite in 2006, then in 2008 the Nintendo DSi with new features such as a camera, mini features like voice changers etc. then in 2011 the Nintendo 3DS which makes the games look 3D without having to where any special glasses.

One portable console that isn’t really classed as a console is smart phones such as the IPhone 4, 5 and the nokia Lumia etc. Phones have changed so much from only being able to play games like snake, to now being able to play games such as Lego star wars which was first made to be played on the ps2, 3 and Xbox 360.
The Pc was first created for business uses only, now they are used for business as well as gaming. Pretty much everything is done using a computer now. The only disadvantage of buying a pc for gaming is that it isn’t like a console, they all don’t have the same hardware, which means the pc is going to be very expensive if you want the best parts, if you buy a pre made computer it probably won’t be able to run many games on the lowest setting because pre made pc’s don’t have graphics cards in them if they do it has about couple Mb of vram, if you buy a pre made gaming pc then it will. The advantage of playing games on pc is that the games look absolutely amazing, because pc’s have better hardware the games look so much better than the console version.
The near future in gaming looks good, with new next gen console which make games look good and new hardware for pc’s that make the games look even better than the next gen, it is all good graphics wise, but graphics aren’t everything. A new piece of hardware is arriving soon. The oculus rift is a big set of glasses with no lenses that darken everything around you and have two small screens in that project the image from your monitor inside the headset; the oculus rift resembles the virtual boy headset. The games react to your head movement meaning if you look up, the screen will move so you’re facing upwards. This will make games better because it will immerse you fully into the game, it will make you feel like you are in the world you are looking at.
Another piece of tech has just been announced for future pc gamers and pc users. It is called the Eye X; it uses technology that tracks your eye movement which controls the movements instead of using a mouse and keyboard. This piece of hardware has been created by Tobii technology. They believe it will enable more immersive interactions, and games will become a lot more like the real world.

Other new developments such as the Omni directional treadmill is being released, it will work alongside with the oculus rift to fully immerse the player. The treadmill is a circle that is on an incline so you walk and your feet slide back to the centre so you aren’t moving anywhere. In my opinion it using this for gaming would get people fit because instead of sitting on a couch people would have to physically work to play the game. To use the treadmill you have to have pads on the bottom of your shoes which makes them slide on the surface of the treadmill.

There is also a new handheld gaming system being developed called the shield, it is made by Nvidia. Nvidia is a company that creates chips for the best graphics cards. The device plays smart phone games, it streams pc games, and it can also run apps, movies and music. Unfortunately it is only available in the US and Canada.

There is also another handheld device called the edge, it is created by razer.

Razer is a company that create pc accessories such as keyboards, pc mouse, headphones etc. they have also created a gaming laptop called the razer blade. This hand held device is basically a tablet that plays pc games.

The development of consoles and games go through a lot to become better. The Xbox has come a long way since the original Xbox. The hardware has changed making games run smoothly and looks better. The original Xbox’s graphics were had jagged edges, the textures weren’t really detailed. The Xbox had features such as Xbox live; this meant you could play online with your friends on different games. After a few years the Xbox 360 then came out with Xbox live. They also brought out achievements for games. This meant if you completed challenges on a game or finished the game you would unlock achievements, they wouldn’t just say you finished the game, they would have a witty name for example on call of duty ghosts on one mission there is a sleeping guard, if you kill him you will get an achievement called sleeping beauty. After a few years of the Xbox being out
Microsoft released new models of the console i.e. Xbox arcade, Xbox elite (which was black), each console would have more memory each time.

 
Microsoft also released Xbox Kinect which was a sensor that senses your position in the room and follows you, the actions you do is then transferred into the game, so you become the character. Now the Xbox one has been released with new features such as new homepage, games, and features such as being able to use Skype while playing games. A new Kinect has been developed to make it more responsive and you can speak to turn your Xbox off and on, and say other commands to do other things. In the future there will be many more devices that will immerse the player into the game even more, maybe games will become simulation where you physically have to do things, or maybe it will stay the way it is with controllers.
On January 1 1983 the internet was created, not long people started developing games that could be played online. The first multiplayer game was called maze war, it was first written at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California by high school summer interns using Imlac PDS-1 computers. It allowed two people to play by attaching serial cable into two computers. Not only is this game classed as the first online game, it is also classed as the first FPS (first person shooter). When the author of this game went to college (at MIT) he took the game with him, a server program to allow up to 8 people to play the game. After many other games and simulations that more than one person could control, Doom then came along, it was a first person violent shooter that eventually was released with online, people could use LAN to play with their friends, but using LAN meant they would need to be in the same area, be it in the same building but could be in different rooms because as long as an Ethernet cable was plugged into the back of the pc and into the router you could play the game.
Online games now have changed so much since the first multiplayer game; most games have an online feature now. Not only do we not have to be in the same room, but we don’t have to be in the same country, as long as you have connection to the internet and connect your console or device to your router you can play games with your friends. Pc’s have the best online games, on the pc the games like arma 3 which is the most realistic military game, so it’s not like call of duty where there is a small map and have eight people on each team and you kill everybody, arma 3 is a tactical game with a huge map and vehicles etc. there are many great online pc games such as dayz, which is survival game where you can choose to kill or help other people. Pc games servers can hold more people in one game, consoles such as Xbox and ps4 can only hold around 16 players in one game, on pc there can be hundreds.