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Sony and Xbox are using DVDs as storage for games. A good idea, being as the disc holds an incredible amount and can use full screen video as standard to play FMVs and intros to it's heart's content (Grix faints and vows never to buy these machines at this point) But Nintendo have gone for the other option and used their own format of miniature disc, which fits less but is harder (allegedly impossible to copy)
Is this taking a bit of a chance though? With the increase of graphic resolution and detail there will be less storage space than their last console, and music will limit the space yet again. Perhaps Nintendo have a new compression technique that will mean they can use 3 or 4 times the space on the disc and still keep the same access rate? Who knows, but there are pros and cons for all storage media, and the cost is going to be a great advantage to the games producers, if not to the consumer.
So after CD, what comes next? Do we go full circle and find ourselves with a new type of cartridge, or stick to a new format of disc, giving even greater storage for the same size media? I believe that as the technology appears and smart card type media becomes cheaper to create and manufacture, every company will be wooed back towards the cartridge or card media over the discs.
Discs are breakable, they scratch easy and they aren't the ever-lasting media source that was promised when Philips first launched them on an unsuspecting world. Minidiscs tried to get around this problem, while making the media portable, but they still haven't taken off too well, despite Sony's best efforts to stick Minidisc players in all their new Hi-Fi equipment. Tape based media has been a no-go area since the days of the C64 and Spectrum and it's easy to see why. So small card cartridges seem like the ideal option.
Well, the problem is that any smart card media is going to be expensive until it is replaced by something new, and by that time the new media that replaces it will be the one console companies want to use. They won't, because it will be too expensive, until a new form of media arrives, ad infinitum... If non-disc formats are to be used again, then these companies (or one of them, it only takes one to start a trend) will have to swallow their pride and take the older technology first in the step to bring back the cartridge.
Why talk about bringing cartridges back when we so happily want to lose them? Well, if the technology exists for the storage space to rival the disc format then there is every reason for them, as long as it’s not at an extra cost to the consumer. Cartridges and cards are far more versatile than discs and the retrieval time is far superior. They can be a lot smaller and it would be easy to create a format that is valid in both home console and handheld machines, perhaps seeing true cross compatibility without the aid of extra hardware. Certainly I sense a feeling that Nintendo should have done more with their GBC to N64 link than a few extras and a Pokemon game, and other companies could follow suit.
How would you like to play your new console game on your TV, then continue where you left off on the handheld, or use one game to unlock parts in another? Some of this has already been done with Sega’s VMU, but battery life and small display meant that the action was limited. It was still successful though and more should be made of this ability.
So what are everyone else’s predictions for new storage media on the next generation of consoles? Will the companies dare to dip their toes in the water of new media or stay safe and dry on the beach, not knowing whether they would have enjoyed the experience?
Is this taking a bit of a chance though? With the increase of graphic resolution and detail there will be less storage space than their last console, and music will limit the space yet again. Perhaps Nintendo have a new compression technique that will mean they can use 3 or 4 times the space on the disc and still keep the same access rate? Who knows, but there are pros and cons for all storage media, and the cost is going to be a great advantage to the games producers, if not to the consumer.
So after CD, what comes next? Do we go full circle and find ourselves with a new type of cartridge, or stick to a new format of disc, giving even greater storage for the same size media? I believe that as the technology appears and smart card type media becomes cheaper to create and manufacture, every company will be wooed back towards the cartridge or card media over the discs.
Discs are breakable, they scratch easy and they aren't the ever-lasting media source that was promised when Philips first launched them on an unsuspecting world. Minidiscs tried to get around this problem, while making the media portable, but they still haven't taken off too well, despite Sony's best efforts to stick Minidisc players in all their new Hi-Fi equipment. Tape based media has been a no-go area since the days of the C64 and Spectrum and it's easy to see why. So small card cartridges seem like the ideal option.
Well, the problem is that any smart card media is going to be expensive until it is replaced by something new, and by that time the new media that replaces it will be the one console companies want to use. They won't, because it will be too expensive, until a new form of media arrives, ad infinitum... If non-disc formats are to be used again, then these companies (or one of them, it only takes one to start a trend) will have to swallow their pride and take the older technology first in the step to bring back the cartridge.
Why talk about bringing cartridges back when we so happily want to lose them? Well, if the technology exists for the storage space to rival the disc format then there is every reason for them, as long as it’s not at an extra cost to the consumer. Cartridges and cards are far more versatile than discs and the retrieval time is far superior. They can be a lot smaller and it would be easy to create a format that is valid in both home console and handheld machines, perhaps seeing true cross compatibility without the aid of extra hardware. Certainly I sense a feeling that Nintendo should have done more with their GBC to N64 link than a few extras and a Pokemon game, and other companies could follow suit.
How would you like to play your new console game on your TV, then continue where you left off on the handheld, or use one game to unlock parts in another? Some of this has already been done with Sega’s VMU, but battery life and small display meant that the action was limited. It was still successful though and more should be made of this ability.
So what are everyone else’s predictions for new storage media on the next generation of consoles? Will the companies dare to dip their toes in the water of new media or stay safe and dry on the beach, not knowing whether they would have enjoyed the experience?
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Tapes? Fair enough. Oh no, you've mentioned sheep... but what about cheese?
I think the next generation of games will be on tapes... but not on ordinary tapes special purple ones with pictures of sheep on them...
:D..... :S
:D..... :S
Anyone seen episodes of "The Outer Limits" where they linked computers into the brain.
This made the players feel that they were in a living, breathing world and yet with the click of a button, they'd end up back in their seats with wires plugged into their head.
That's the future for games.
This made the players feel that they were in a living, breathing world and yet with the click of a button, they'd end up back in their seats with wires plugged into their head.
That's the future for games.
Great, pop into blockbusters and get the staff to stick a video in your head for 2 days. That will go down well with all those campaigners against video and videogame violence!
It's an interesting concept, but I guess we'd see it being used in the military long before home use became available. Imagine soldiers being able to store maps, weapons details, photofit pictures etc inside their brains, to access at any point.
Technology is increased rapidly by war - sad but true.
It's an interesting concept, but I guess we'd see it being used in the military long before home use became available. Imagine soldiers being able to store maps, weapons details, photofit pictures etc inside their brains, to access at any point.
Technology is increased rapidly by war - sad but true.
Turbonutter wrote:
> BUT!
Can you remember it in exact detail? I thought not. The
> brain can indeed store vast amounts of data but it is very lossy and
> therefore useless for digital data storage.
Your brain does store every exact detail, but that doesn't neccesarily mean you can access ALL of that information. Some people can, most can't.
I believe that brains will be used in the future. Discs and cartridges will be gone and forgotten.
We'll start genetically engineering babies and storing the latest blockbusting video games in their brains, then clone the babies so we can bring them to the mass market.
Before long, a baby cloning device will come as standard with all computers. From there I'm not sure what will happen?
I'll let you know as soon as I work it out!
> BUT!
Can you remember it in exact detail? I thought not. The
> brain can indeed store vast amounts of data but it is very lossy and
> therefore useless for digital data storage.
Your brain does store every exact detail, but that doesn't neccesarily mean you can access ALL of that information. Some people can, most can't.
I believe that brains will be used in the future. Discs and cartridges will be gone and forgotten.
We'll start genetically engineering babies and storing the latest blockbusting video games in their brains, then clone the babies so we can bring them to the mass market.
Before long, a baby cloning device will come as standard with all computers. From there I'm not sure what will happen?
I'll let you know as soon as I work it out!
Although consoles have improved greatly over the past ten or so years, one thing seems to have improved
very little, and that is what our games come on. Originally it was cartridges for the likes of the NES,Master
System, SNES,Mega Drive, N64 and a few others. The arival of the Playstation saw the change to CD based
consoles, the Dreamcast also uses this. Then with the arival of the PS2 we see the leap to using DVD's to
store the game data.
Nintendo could be taking a chance with optical disks as some things may have to be reduced to fit onto games but the nintendo fans (and there are millions) will still buy the console.
The future of storage will probably be holographic memory. It seems to be the next big step and IBM have been working alot on this idea to make it work and bring out a new way of storing data.
Consoles improve all the time so why not try and make the storage that the games come on improve too, this is what
we need for the so called "next generation console". It won't happen with the PS2, GC or X-box but hopefully
with the consoles after that.
With a CD you can hold at most around750 MB.Average DVD's hold around 4.7GB and the most you can store on a single DVD is around 15.9 GB but thats
only if it is double sided and double layered. Holographic memory is much more advanced, it seems to be the next step up, just like from tapes to CD's. Early holographic
devices have the storage capacity of around 125 GB and a transfer rate of around 40 MB. Eventually these
devices could reach 1 TB (Terrabyte =1000GB) with a rate of 1GB a second.
Imagine a games machine that uses this technology. It obviously wouldn't be for a while but imagine what
this could do, instead of buying games they could be downloaded straight to your console and stored on a
small disk, games developers would have far more room to create games without having to worry about how
much room is left on the disk. Graphics and gameplay could reach a new level, more than one game could be available on one disk. This technology will probably end up in PC's but hopefully console developers will make best of the options they have and choose the best technology thay have available to them. I think in the future the storage will greatly improve, maybe not like this for
quite some time but it will gradualy get there. It isn't required at the moment as DVD's are fine and any games which need more could be released on 2 DVD's. The fact is though if more space was available to the developer to begin with (most try to fit it on one disk) then maybe the games could improve greatly which is alot better for the people who play the games.
very little, and that is what our games come on. Originally it was cartridges for the likes of the NES,Master
System, SNES,Mega Drive, N64 and a few others. The arival of the Playstation saw the change to CD based
consoles, the Dreamcast also uses this. Then with the arival of the PS2 we see the leap to using DVD's to
store the game data.
Nintendo could be taking a chance with optical disks as some things may have to be reduced to fit onto games but the nintendo fans (and there are millions) will still buy the console.
The future of storage will probably be holographic memory. It seems to be the next big step and IBM have been working alot on this idea to make it work and bring out a new way of storing data.
Consoles improve all the time so why not try and make the storage that the games come on improve too, this is what
we need for the so called "next generation console". It won't happen with the PS2, GC or X-box but hopefully
with the consoles after that.
With a CD you can hold at most around750 MB.Average DVD's hold around 4.7GB and the most you can store on a single DVD is around 15.9 GB but thats
only if it is double sided and double layered. Holographic memory is much more advanced, it seems to be the next step up, just like from tapes to CD's. Early holographic
devices have the storage capacity of around 125 GB and a transfer rate of around 40 MB. Eventually these
devices could reach 1 TB (Terrabyte =1000GB) with a rate of 1GB a second.
Imagine a games machine that uses this technology. It obviously wouldn't be for a while but imagine what
this could do, instead of buying games they could be downloaded straight to your console and stored on a
small disk, games developers would have far more room to create games without having to worry about how
much room is left on the disk. Graphics and gameplay could reach a new level, more than one game could be available on one disk. This technology will probably end up in PC's but hopefully console developers will make best of the options they have and choose the best technology thay have available to them. I think in the future the storage will greatly improve, maybe not like this for
quite some time but it will gradualy get there. It isn't required at the moment as DVD's are fine and any games which need more could be released on 2 DVD's. The fact is though if more space was available to the developer to begin with (most try to fit it on one disk) then maybe the games could improve greatly which is alot better for the people who play the games.
BUT!
Can you remember it in exact detail? I thought not. The brain can indeed store vast amounts of data but it is very lossy and therefore useless for digital data storage.
Can you remember it in exact detail? I thought not. The brain can indeed store vast amounts of data but it is very lossy and therefore useless for digital data storage.
Think about every game you've ever played, can you visualise in your mind most of the levels, what the gameplay was like, the things you did, the puzzles you had to solve etc.? Most of us can.
On top of that, we can visualise what we did from a very early age on, from our first formative years at school, up until the present day.
All of that information is stored in an organ that fits inside your own head, namely the brain. If you tried to measure the brain's capacity in Gigabytes you'd be looking at a tremendously large sum indeed.
And as yet, the best scientists in the world only have theories about how the brain stores all this information, but most of the theories are based on the near-infinate amount of connections that the brain is made up from.
But once they've got the answers, it won't be much longer before technology mimics the brain, and we'll start to see more and more space crammed into smaller and smaller devices.
50 years ago people were only imagining about fitting the whole of a library into a computer, now they can put it all onto a small disc, with plenty of space to spare.
50 years from now, we may have cracked the brain, and we'll be fitting whole lifetimes' worth of information onto a disc the same size. Which opens up endless possibilities for gaming.
I'll be an octogenarian by then, but I'll be looking forward to it at least in the meantime. :-)
On top of that, we can visualise what we did from a very early age on, from our first formative years at school, up until the present day.
All of that information is stored in an organ that fits inside your own head, namely the brain. If you tried to measure the brain's capacity in Gigabytes you'd be looking at a tremendously large sum indeed.
And as yet, the best scientists in the world only have theories about how the brain stores all this information, but most of the theories are based on the near-infinate amount of connections that the brain is made up from.
But once they've got the answers, it won't be much longer before technology mimics the brain, and we'll start to see more and more space crammed into smaller and smaller devices.
50 years ago people were only imagining about fitting the whole of a library into a computer, now they can put it all onto a small disc, with plenty of space to spare.
50 years from now, we may have cracked the brain, and we'll be fitting whole lifetimes' worth of information onto a disc the same size. Which opens up endless possibilities for gaming.
I'll be an octogenarian by then, but I'll be looking forward to it at least in the meantime. :-)
What about the PocketStation?
Actually, maybe that was a VMU. Or not, because it wasn't a memory card, just a pocket PSone.
Actually, maybe that was a VMU. Or not, because it wasn't a memory card, just a pocket PSone.
I'll follow everyone elses step by saying "good post PB" but instead of the OD Vs DVD (A small part of console wars - the battle of the disks!! lol) I'll take what you said about Nintendo not making much of the Gameboy Pak for the N64.
It was only really made for Pokemon. Ofcourse Nintendo has now seen it's potential to work with other games and the GBA will now link straight into the machine without having to buy and add-on.
The Gamecube will be the only machine with a standard link to a handheld machine. (VMU's don't quite count!)
It was only really made for Pokemon. Ofcourse Nintendo has now seen it's potential to work with other games and the GBA will now link straight into the machine without having to buy and add-on.
The Gamecube will be the only machine with a standard link to a handheld machine. (VMU's don't quite count!)
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