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“If the Gamecube isn’t a success at E3 I will close the entire project” said Hiroshi Yamauchi before last years E3 game show. The question some have been asking is why would Nintendo be so willing to scrap the Gamecube project? Surly this shows lack of commitment on behalf of the Big N? Well Mr. Yamauchi is well committed to the Gamecube but if it failed it wouldn’t bother him too much as he doesn’t see home consoles like the Gamecube, N64 or SNES as being the future of gaming, he see’s smaller systems, handhelds as the future of gaming? Some of you already disagree with this idea; some insist virtual reality is the future of gaming. But after some long thought about Hiroshi’s future plans I’ve discovered that the future of gaming may well be small.
How can the Gamecube surpass the PS2 and have specifications to rival the X-box considering its size? Because you can pack so much into smaller and smaller spaces as regards to technology these days, I’m betting the Gamecube could be even smaller if it wanted to. So one day 10 - 20 years into the future Handhelds will be super powerful. We all know home consoles can’t go on forever I can’t see it progressing much further than the PS3 as sooner or later we will just be wasting power. So one day Handhelds will be as powerful as the best 256 bit systems (and would also be back lit). But of course that isn’t the only factor when it comes to handhelds…
Small Screens and battery life will prove a difficulty but then you must see the other features of the handheld. What’s stopping the handheld being a home console? Why can’t we just plug a lead into the back of our Gameboy and into the back of our TV and play it on the big screen? This idea is already implemented where you can buy a controller with over 100 preset games, stick it into your TV and play away. Also like Home console we can still do what we do today and use plugs rather than batteries. Batteries though are still a problem with specifications on the such a scale and combined with back lighting battery life is sure to be small, yet like the GBA as technology progresses battery life will increase (GBA’s battery life is longer than a GBC’s!) So basically the Gameboy is a small home console, which you can quite easily take with you.
Another difficulty for a handheld is games, the size of the games will surly be effected by the Diddy carts? Well you can in fact get GBA cartridges that can fit the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on it and Nintendo have often insisted Carts can be as big as you want them. But if discs are the way forward this isn’t impossible, I once upon a time hoped the GBA would use small Discs look at the size of the Gamecube ones! A small slot at the bottom of the system would enable you to insert a disc, which will get pushed out when you reject the disc. The problem with the use of discs is that it opens an entire area of memory cards, but really with the size of Panasonics new memory cards I wouldn’t see this as being much of a problem.
The final problem is with buttons, can Nintendo or Microsoft or any other company at that matter stick enough buttons on a Handheld and not make it seem cluttered. Well after careful thought I took the current GBA and fitted an R, L, Z (underneath), Start, A, B button on it, 2 analogue sticks and a D pad (and yes there is still a speaker). And it didn’t look cluttered in fact it looked quite good. So controller wise you will have no problem and multiplayer can still be used via link leads or infra red connection and with the mobile phone link we still have internet gaming possibilities, which we can also do through our TV.
So is the future small? Or will we stick our handhelds and home consoles in favor of new fangled Virtual Reality machines? I still believe immersion is the future of gaming and not virtual reality so the future could well be small. And at the moment Nintendo rule the handheld market with the GBA selling more systems than the PS2 so if the future is small could we see Nintendo as the market leaders once again?
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
How can the Gamecube surpass the PS2 and have specifications to rival the X-box considering its size? Because you can pack so much into smaller and smaller spaces as regards to technology these days, I’m betting the Gamecube could be even smaller if it wanted to. So one day 10 - 20 years into the future Handhelds will be super powerful. We all know home consoles can’t go on forever I can’t see it progressing much further than the PS3 as sooner or later we will just be wasting power. So one day Handhelds will be as powerful as the best 256 bit systems (and would also be back lit). But of course that isn’t the only factor when it comes to handhelds…
Small Screens and battery life will prove a difficulty but then you must see the other features of the handheld. What’s stopping the handheld being a home console? Why can’t we just plug a lead into the back of our Gameboy and into the back of our TV and play it on the big screen? This idea is already implemented where you can buy a controller with over 100 preset games, stick it into your TV and play away. Also like Home console we can still do what we do today and use plugs rather than batteries. Batteries though are still a problem with specifications on the such a scale and combined with back lighting battery life is sure to be small, yet like the GBA as technology progresses battery life will increase (GBA’s battery life is longer than a GBC’s!) So basically the Gameboy is a small home console, which you can quite easily take with you.
Another difficulty for a handheld is games, the size of the games will surly be effected by the Diddy carts? Well you can in fact get GBA cartridges that can fit the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on it and Nintendo have often insisted Carts can be as big as you want them. But if discs are the way forward this isn’t impossible, I once upon a time hoped the GBA would use small Discs look at the size of the Gamecube ones! A small slot at the bottom of the system would enable you to insert a disc, which will get pushed out when you reject the disc. The problem with the use of discs is that it opens an entire area of memory cards, but really with the size of Panasonics new memory cards I wouldn’t see this as being much of a problem.
The final problem is with buttons, can Nintendo or Microsoft or any other company at that matter stick enough buttons on a Handheld and not make it seem cluttered. Well after careful thought I took the current GBA and fitted an R, L, Z (underneath), Start, A, B button on it, 2 analogue sticks and a D pad (and yes there is still a speaker). And it didn’t look cluttered in fact it looked quite good. So controller wise you will have no problem and multiplayer can still be used via link leads or infra red connection and with the mobile phone link we still have internet gaming possibilities, which we can also do through our TV.
So is the future small? Or will we stick our handhelds and home consoles in favor of new fangled Virtual Reality machines? I still believe immersion is the future of gaming and not virtual reality so the future could well be small. And at the moment Nintendo rule the handheld market with the GBA selling more systems than the PS2 so if the future is small could we see Nintendo as the market leaders once again?
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
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Firstly Strafex, no matter how foldy the units are, the screen size can still be no bigger than the size of the unit otherwise they'd have borders like those horrible videowalls.
Secondly, it doesn't matter how high definition a screen is, small is small. I don't personally fancy squinting at a tiny little screen, even if it is 1600x1200. It's just too small to be good. Also, a little unit will NEVER be able to match the sound quality and volume, because the speaker drive unit will just be too small. You can't just "make" it better, it actually has to be big.
Secondly, it doesn't matter how high definition a screen is, small is small. I don't personally fancy squinting at a tiny little screen, even if it is 1600x1200. It's just too small to be good. Also, a little unit will NEVER be able to match the sound quality and volume, because the speaker drive unit will just be too small. You can't just "make" it better, it actually has to be big.
Yeh, noticed MD loading next music track is very slow when compared with CD.
I think that as handhelds reach the power of the PS2 and Gamecube, their screen and osund technology will also have improved.
I think that they'll be sort of boxes that open up where one side is the screen, and the rest is the console/controller/sound system/etc.
I think that they'll be sort of boxes that open up where one side is the screen, and the rest is the console/controller/sound system/etc.
We've ruminated on the Minidisc argument before during the optical disc postings of the Summer. I think we decided it was too slow, or something.
I don't see the problem of a link up to TV ala Super Gameboy but as for the Multiplayer...
it works fine now doesnt it, and a handheld costs £80 compared to a home consoles £200 - £300 price tag.
it works fine now doesnt it, and a handheld costs £80 compared to a home consoles £200 - £300 price tag.
hmm...
*strokes chin*
intriuging... I dunno about hand helds being the future. I think they will have their place (high in the pecking order, if their popularity continues as it has done) but consoles probably won't cease to be, and if handhelds did become the future it would become necessary for any handheld to be connected up to the TV... but one problem... Multiplayer...
would you need to buy a whole new console to play multiplayer? What if your mate doesn't have one, and you want to play him? Does he have to shell out the cost of a console just to play 2 player? In effect, to buy a new controller you would need to buy a whole new console! Multiplay gaming has never been so... expensive.
But I like the Minidisc idea... sounds good to me.
*strokes chin*
intriuging... I dunno about hand helds being the future. I think they will have their place (high in the pecking order, if their popularity continues as it has done) but consoles probably won't cease to be, and if handhelds did become the future it would become necessary for any handheld to be connected up to the TV... but one problem... Multiplayer...
would you need to buy a whole new console to play multiplayer? What if your mate doesn't have one, and you want to play him? Does he have to shell out the cost of a console just to play 2 player? In effect, to buy a new controller you would need to buy a whole new console! Multiplay gaming has never been so... expensive.
But I like the Minidisc idea... sounds good to me.
Good post, Dringo.
I'd have to go with TBN on chosing a console running through a tv over 4 inches of screen. I don't think the two could ever really converge, mainly because of the different requirements of making a game for the 4 and 40 inch displays. The little screen needs everything to be bigger, and for everything important to fit into the screen. Put it on a big screen and it looks out of place. Expand the display to give a wider view, keeping everything to scale and the game developers lose control over settings of field of vision, and thus a lot of the important aspects of gameplay.
And of course, there's the x-box argument that as technology gets smaller, it just allows more use to be made of the space inside the console.
Oh, and that E3 statement, to me it's a total publicity stunt, just to keep peoples' attention. Hey, we're talking about it now, it worked!
The future of handhelds? I'd love to see something along the lines of minidisk technology being used. If a minidisk can hold as much music as a cd, surely it can hold as much data? It'd be superior to disks as it could virtually eliminate any chance of skipping, has more stable hardware, and would combine the data capacity of a cd with the robustness of carts - pretty important for on the move gaming.
I'd have to go with TBN on chosing a console running through a tv over 4 inches of screen. I don't think the two could ever really converge, mainly because of the different requirements of making a game for the 4 and 40 inch displays. The little screen needs everything to be bigger, and for everything important to fit into the screen. Put it on a big screen and it looks out of place. Expand the display to give a wider view, keeping everything to scale and the game developers lose control over settings of field of vision, and thus a lot of the important aspects of gameplay.
And of course, there's the x-box argument that as technology gets smaller, it just allows more use to be made of the space inside the console.
Oh, and that E3 statement, to me it's a total publicity stunt, just to keep peoples' attention. Hey, we're talking about it now, it worked!
The future of handhelds? I'd love to see something along the lines of minidisk technology being used. If a minidisk can hold as much music as a cd, surely it can hold as much data? It'd be superior to disks as it could virtually eliminate any chance of skipping, has more stable hardware, and would combine the data capacity of a cd with the robustness of carts - pretty important for on the move gaming.
Sure things will get smaller, but I will always prefer playing games on a 100-inch TFT fltscreen to something the size of a gameboy. If these mini-consoles will hookup to them then that's great, as long as they have attachable joypads. If they're portanle then even better but I will always choose a console I *can* play on a telly to one that's mobile.
Two things Ortega:
1: probably virtual reality
2: I wouldn't care if consoles never progressed past there current stage, when they finally reach 100% realism which i doubt then we can smile in the knowledge that we can keep buying games with no need to save up for the next console... because there isn't one.
1: probably virtual reality
2: I wouldn't care if consoles never progressed past there current stage, when they finally reach 100% realism which i doubt then we can smile in the knowledge that we can keep buying games with no need to save up for the next console... because there isn't one.
I reckon the future is small for sure.
By 2020 Desktop PCs should be completly obsolete. And we should all be using much smaller portbable systems.
I think it just depends upon how far and fast technolgy progreses. Everyone wants the fastest bestest console on the market, but redusing the size of the console usually results in redusing the spec of it.
I've got a few ideas buzzing round my head...mainly about what happens when normal gaming cant go any further. The topic you wrote about realism...when we get to that stage...when we cant actually make the game any more graphically stunning...what will happen then?
By 2020 Desktop PCs should be completly obsolete. And we should all be using much smaller portbable systems.
I think it just depends upon how far and fast technolgy progreses. Everyone wants the fastest bestest console on the market, but redusing the size of the console usually results in redusing the spec of it.
I've got a few ideas buzzing round my head...mainly about what happens when normal gaming cant go any further. The topic you wrote about realism...when we get to that stage...when we cant actually make the game any more graphically stunning...what will happen then?
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