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Size? Does it matter? No seriously is it important in terms of the console industry?
Well I think it is, things can't be too small nor can they be too big. I shall explain.
Too big consoles
I think it is obvious in a way that a console has to be a suitable size to be practical for home use, also if a console was huge in size it is likely that it would cost more, maybe the larger size would allow more in terms of performance but the overall console has to be a suitable size and also a suitable cost. The Gamecube is the smallest console around, it uses tiny optical disks and looks great. It is small as the internal architecture has been designed carefully so that in the confined space will not over heat too much.
The X-Box has been hailed as one of the greatest consoles ever and in time it may well prove this but it is also quite a large console, yet in the same way it is no bigger than some VCR or DVD players. Size gets used in things like console wars but to be honest the size of a console as long as it is in a suitable range isn't really a good or bad point.
Too small consoles
Technology is always improving and components seem to be getting smaller and smaller. This of course means we can build smaller consoles, the Gamecube is an example of this. But a lot of people may share the view that if it looks small then it may not have enough in terms of performance or components to make a suitable size. I guess as long as the console performs at a suitable level then there is no need to worry about the size of it. The Gamecube would still be as good if it was the same size as an X-Box and vice versa. The way things are going everything seems to be getting smaller but how long before they become to small that they are annoying or hard to manufacture, repair and use. The way I see things is that consoles are no longer just "consoles" I think the gamecube will be the last Dedicated games machine in that it does nothing other than play games and also it will be the smallest console we see unless technology allows smaller consoles with extra uses like DVD playing (Or whatever medium is used for films st its time) and other useful additions. I think consoles will stay in a practical range when it comes to size but they will grow in terms of what extra features they allow, but the extras wont get in the way of their main use of making games play as well as they can.
Size of games
Not the storage medium they come on (not yet anyway) but the size of a game or how long it lasts. I think this is also an important issue in the gaming industry. If a game is too short then it isn't really value for money no matter how good or entertaining it is. If it is too long then maybe it is value for money but it could be very boring and lack the entertaining value. In saying that if a game is good then the more the better.
There are a lot of games out there that are too short but due to restrictions with storage medium it is impossible to make them longer without making the game suffer in another area such as graphics or gameplay. Maybe one day we will have the ability to make games as long as we want without having to worry about the restrictions placed on developers by the size of storage, hopefully developers will get the balance right and make games that last a suitable length and also contain extras which make the gamer continue to play it.
Size of storage
Probably the main part of this post. First an insight into the past and present mediums used for storing games.
Floppy Disks
I remember when we got an Amstrad and it played floppy disks, it changed the way I though of gaming, games took minutes to load so if you didn’t like the game you were playing you could swap it and play another in a few minutes. I also had an Amiga which used floppy disks. There are good points and bad points about floppies. Firstly they are small and easy to store meaning you can have them all stored easily in a box. Bad points are that they don’t hold enough data which meant a lot of the games had to come on multiple disks so “Please insert disk 2 etc” was a common sight. Floppy disks like tapes could also be copied very easily and Amiga games were pirated all the time. I have to confess that I also bought pirate copies of Amiga games, firstly because I had no idea it was wrong as everyone I knew was doing it and also it was the only way I could get games as shops nearby didn’t sell them as they knew how large the problems with piracy were.
Cartridges
Fond memories of the SNES with its cartridges which loaded almost straight away, first time I ever played a SNES I was shocked, I had played the NES in the past but the SNES had something special. The cartridges were small in size but could hold quite a lot of data and also were very hard if not impossible to copy illegally. With the increase in capacity the SNES could offer great gameplay with good looking graphics which was a big step forward in terms of gaming. In time though the capacity of the cartridge wasn’t enough as developers wanted and sometimes needed, they had to reduce parts of the game and find the right balance between the gameplay and the graphics so that the game didn’t suffer in areas due to not being able to store as much data as they would like. A lot of people argue that if the N64 had been CD based it could have been a lot more successful but due to it being cartridge based there was always a limit as to what the developers could include. In saying that there were still a lot of great games released but competition from the PSX put these down a little.
CD’s
With the arrival of the PSX from Sony and also the Saturn from Sega we seen the jump to CD based consoles. I still have my PSX and it was the first console that really showed me just how good some games could be, the likes of metal gear solid and gran turismo 2 were games I had never thought would be possible at that time. CD’s have a much greater capacity than floppies and tapes and also more than most cartridges, average CD’s hold around 783 MB of data. This meant the developers again at the start didn’t really have any restrictions in terms of what they could include and what they couldn’t. But this didn’t last too long, as time goes by developers develop new ideas which require more data and in turn more disk space which means either use multiple disks for the game or reduce parts of the game to allow it to fit on the CD. The PSX was another one that suffered from the problem of piracy, CD writers were common and the disks could easily be copied using a PC, some software and hardware techniques were used to try prevent this but with the aide of patches for the game and a ModChip for the console these were easily overcome.
A common problem with all storage mediums is that the data can be corrupted if the medium is damaged in some way, If a CD or DVD is scratched or the magnetic disk in a floppy damaged then the data may be corrupted and in turn the disk becomes useless. Well Floppy disks could be used as a weapon and CD’s as mini Frisbees or weapons but that’s about it. Maybe in the future we will see storage which is less easy to damage and corrupt the data on or within it. If the disk does not get damaged then most have been very reliable which is something that all storage mediums need to be.
DVD’s (Digital Versatile Disks)
Following on from the CD we then moved on to the DVD which is used today in the PS2 and the X-Box, The GameCube uses Optical disks which are similar but smaller and have a reduced capacity meaning they can’t hold as much as a DVD but due to the way the GameCube games are created there are no problems in terms of fitting everything on the disk, yet but could things change within the next few years? The DVD holds a lot more than a CD, the average DVD holds about 4.7 GB of data which just now is more than enough. The DVD should be used for quite some time to come as DVD’s today can be double sided and double density which increase the capacity to around 16GB. You only have to look at some of the games around today to see how good the standards of developers are and that the storage used is of a very high standard. With the increase in capacity we can usually expect an increase in quality as the developers can include more detailed graphics, better gameplay and more extras. But some time in the future we are more than likely to find games coming out on a new storage medium. So what will the future storage medium be?
The Future?
My first prediction is holographic memory, It is an idea that could soon be seen in the likes of PC’s and could then be used within consoles. The idea behind holographic memory is quite complex, it doesn’t just use the surface are of the medium but uses the volume meaning the disks could be cube shaped instead of a flat circular shape that is common today. The facts about holographic memory are quite mind-blowing at first. With holographic memory there is the possibility of storing 1 terabyte (TB) of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal. A terabyte of data equals 1,000 gigabytes, 1 million megabytes. The idea for this has been around since the sixties but due to the cost and complexity it hasn’t been turned into reality until a few years ago, now it seems that soon it will be used within PC’s as hard disks (maybe in 2004 or soon after) which means we could see holographic disks being used in the next consoles from the big developers. This all depends on how successful it would be in PC’s and how reliable and if it is possible for developers to use as best as they can. With disks that could hold around the same as 27 DVD’s with a data rate about 25 times faster than a DVD player it certainly has very good chances of being used if it can live up to these when produced for the mass market. As with every storage medium it does have a few faults, it isn’t 100% reliable as sometimes data isn’t read correctly if the laser isn’t aimed precisely at the data it is trying to receive, but these problems could be fixed before it is used (if it ever is used). This new data storage could also lower piracy as it would be very complex and need expensive equipment to do so and no doubt by the time it is available new hardware and software techniques will be used to also prevent piracy.
Another possibility is that games may not come on disks but be downloadable from a network straight on to a hard disk within the console. On-line gaming is something which will soon take off, probably in a big way and there are many possibilities available including this one. If the connection speeds become fast enough then we could see developers using an idea like this, you could log on to the network, choose a game, pay the fee then download it straight to your consoles hard drive. An option like this would mean developers wouldn’t have a restriction on the overall size of the game (although it would have to be within a reasonable amount to be able to download and fit on the hard drive with other games). If this idea was to be used it could lower the cost of games a little as you could just purchase it straight from the developer and it wouldn’t require packaging etc.
Maybe technology will continue along the same lines as it is now using flat circular disks like DVD’s and CD’s except they contain more space for data, to be honest I don’t think that developers will struggle to make high quality games using DVD’s as storage as the capacity is high, when the time comes when they do need more it is likely that there will be new technology that has been tried and tested and ready to use in the next console.
Each one at their time have been the best to use at their time in terms of storage capacity and cost to produce but sometimes companies have to decide between two, like either cartridges or CD's or DVD's or smaller optical disks. Nintendo are using small optical disks which are smaller in capacity than DVD's but allow the Gamecube to be the size it is. Many considerations have to be made when dealing with these kind of decisions just hope they work out for the best as it could e the thing that makes or breaks a console in todays market.
That is all the areas that I think Size plays a part in terms of the gaming industry, there may be more. Please post your views on any of these areas.
Well I think it is, things can't be too small nor can they be too big. I shall explain.
Too big consoles
I think it is obvious in a way that a console has to be a suitable size to be practical for home use, also if a console was huge in size it is likely that it would cost more, maybe the larger size would allow more in terms of performance but the overall console has to be a suitable size and also a suitable cost. The Gamecube is the smallest console around, it uses tiny optical disks and looks great. It is small as the internal architecture has been designed carefully so that in the confined space will not over heat too much.
The X-Box has been hailed as one of the greatest consoles ever and in time it may well prove this but it is also quite a large console, yet in the same way it is no bigger than some VCR or DVD players. Size gets used in things like console wars but to be honest the size of a console as long as it is in a suitable range isn't really a good or bad point.
Too small consoles
Technology is always improving and components seem to be getting smaller and smaller. This of course means we can build smaller consoles, the Gamecube is an example of this. But a lot of people may share the view that if it looks small then it may not have enough in terms of performance or components to make a suitable size. I guess as long as the console performs at a suitable level then there is no need to worry about the size of it. The Gamecube would still be as good if it was the same size as an X-Box and vice versa. The way things are going everything seems to be getting smaller but how long before they become to small that they are annoying or hard to manufacture, repair and use. The way I see things is that consoles are no longer just "consoles" I think the gamecube will be the last Dedicated games machine in that it does nothing other than play games and also it will be the smallest console we see unless technology allows smaller consoles with extra uses like DVD playing (Or whatever medium is used for films st its time) and other useful additions. I think consoles will stay in a practical range when it comes to size but they will grow in terms of what extra features they allow, but the extras wont get in the way of their main use of making games play as well as they can.
Size of games
Not the storage medium they come on (not yet anyway) but the size of a game or how long it lasts. I think this is also an important issue in the gaming industry. If a game is too short then it isn't really value for money no matter how good or entertaining it is. If it is too long then maybe it is value for money but it could be very boring and lack the entertaining value. In saying that if a game is good then the more the better.
There are a lot of games out there that are too short but due to restrictions with storage medium it is impossible to make them longer without making the game suffer in another area such as graphics or gameplay. Maybe one day we will have the ability to make games as long as we want without having to worry about the restrictions placed on developers by the size of storage, hopefully developers will get the balance right and make games that last a suitable length and also contain extras which make the gamer continue to play it.
Size of storage
Probably the main part of this post. First an insight into the past and present mediums used for storing games.
Floppy Disks
I remember when we got an Amstrad and it played floppy disks, it changed the way I though of gaming, games took minutes to load so if you didn’t like the game you were playing you could swap it and play another in a few minutes. I also had an Amiga which used floppy disks. There are good points and bad points about floppies. Firstly they are small and easy to store meaning you can have them all stored easily in a box. Bad points are that they don’t hold enough data which meant a lot of the games had to come on multiple disks so “Please insert disk 2 etc” was a common sight. Floppy disks like tapes could also be copied very easily and Amiga games were pirated all the time. I have to confess that I also bought pirate copies of Amiga games, firstly because I had no idea it was wrong as everyone I knew was doing it and also it was the only way I could get games as shops nearby didn’t sell them as they knew how large the problems with piracy were.
Cartridges
Fond memories of the SNES with its cartridges which loaded almost straight away, first time I ever played a SNES I was shocked, I had played the NES in the past but the SNES had something special. The cartridges were small in size but could hold quite a lot of data and also were very hard if not impossible to copy illegally. With the increase in capacity the SNES could offer great gameplay with good looking graphics which was a big step forward in terms of gaming. In time though the capacity of the cartridge wasn’t enough as developers wanted and sometimes needed, they had to reduce parts of the game and find the right balance between the gameplay and the graphics so that the game didn’t suffer in areas due to not being able to store as much data as they would like. A lot of people argue that if the N64 had been CD based it could have been a lot more successful but due to it being cartridge based there was always a limit as to what the developers could include. In saying that there were still a lot of great games released but competition from the PSX put these down a little.
CD’s
With the arrival of the PSX from Sony and also the Saturn from Sega we seen the jump to CD based consoles. I still have my PSX and it was the first console that really showed me just how good some games could be, the likes of metal gear solid and gran turismo 2 were games I had never thought would be possible at that time. CD’s have a much greater capacity than floppies and tapes and also more than most cartridges, average CD’s hold around 783 MB of data. This meant the developers again at the start didn’t really have any restrictions in terms of what they could include and what they couldn’t. But this didn’t last too long, as time goes by developers develop new ideas which require more data and in turn more disk space which means either use multiple disks for the game or reduce parts of the game to allow it to fit on the CD. The PSX was another one that suffered from the problem of piracy, CD writers were common and the disks could easily be copied using a PC, some software and hardware techniques were used to try prevent this but with the aide of patches for the game and a ModChip for the console these were easily overcome.
A common problem with all storage mediums is that the data can be corrupted if the medium is damaged in some way, If a CD or DVD is scratched or the magnetic disk in a floppy damaged then the data may be corrupted and in turn the disk becomes useless. Well Floppy disks could be used as a weapon and CD’s as mini Frisbees or weapons but that’s about it. Maybe in the future we will see storage which is less easy to damage and corrupt the data on or within it. If the disk does not get damaged then most have been very reliable which is something that all storage mediums need to be.
DVD’s (Digital Versatile Disks)
Following on from the CD we then moved on to the DVD which is used today in the PS2 and the X-Box, The GameCube uses Optical disks which are similar but smaller and have a reduced capacity meaning they can’t hold as much as a DVD but due to the way the GameCube games are created there are no problems in terms of fitting everything on the disk, yet but could things change within the next few years? The DVD holds a lot more than a CD, the average DVD holds about 4.7 GB of data which just now is more than enough. The DVD should be used for quite some time to come as DVD’s today can be double sided and double density which increase the capacity to around 16GB. You only have to look at some of the games around today to see how good the standards of developers are and that the storage used is of a very high standard. With the increase in capacity we can usually expect an increase in quality as the developers can include more detailed graphics, better gameplay and more extras. But some time in the future we are more than likely to find games coming out on a new storage medium. So what will the future storage medium be?
The Future?
My first prediction is holographic memory, It is an idea that could soon be seen in the likes of PC’s and could then be used within consoles. The idea behind holographic memory is quite complex, it doesn’t just use the surface are of the medium but uses the volume meaning the disks could be cube shaped instead of a flat circular shape that is common today. The facts about holographic memory are quite mind-blowing at first. With holographic memory there is the possibility of storing 1 terabyte (TB) of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal. A terabyte of data equals 1,000 gigabytes, 1 million megabytes. The idea for this has been around since the sixties but due to the cost and complexity it hasn’t been turned into reality until a few years ago, now it seems that soon it will be used within PC’s as hard disks (maybe in 2004 or soon after) which means we could see holographic disks being used in the next consoles from the big developers. This all depends on how successful it would be in PC’s and how reliable and if it is possible for developers to use as best as they can. With disks that could hold around the same as 27 DVD’s with a data rate about 25 times faster than a DVD player it certainly has very good chances of being used if it can live up to these when produced for the mass market. As with every storage medium it does have a few faults, it isn’t 100% reliable as sometimes data isn’t read correctly if the laser isn’t aimed precisely at the data it is trying to receive, but these problems could be fixed before it is used (if it ever is used). This new data storage could also lower piracy as it would be very complex and need expensive equipment to do so and no doubt by the time it is available new hardware and software techniques will be used to also prevent piracy.
Another possibility is that games may not come on disks but be downloadable from a network straight on to a hard disk within the console. On-line gaming is something which will soon take off, probably in a big way and there are many possibilities available including this one. If the connection speeds become fast enough then we could see developers using an idea like this, you could log on to the network, choose a game, pay the fee then download it straight to your consoles hard drive. An option like this would mean developers wouldn’t have a restriction on the overall size of the game (although it would have to be within a reasonable amount to be able to download and fit on the hard drive with other games). If this idea was to be used it could lower the cost of games a little as you could just purchase it straight from the developer and it wouldn’t require packaging etc.
Maybe technology will continue along the same lines as it is now using flat circular disks like DVD’s and CD’s except they contain more space for data, to be honest I don’t think that developers will struggle to make high quality games using DVD’s as storage as the capacity is high, when the time comes when they do need more it is likely that there will be new technology that has been tried and tested and ready to use in the next console.
Each one at their time have been the best to use at their time in terms of storage capacity and cost to produce but sometimes companies have to decide between two, like either cartridges or CD's or DVD's or smaller optical disks. Nintendo are using small optical disks which are smaller in capacity than DVD's but allow the Gamecube to be the size it is. Many considerations have to be made when dealing with these kind of decisions just hope they work out for the best as it could e the thing that makes or breaks a console in todays market.
That is all the areas that I think Size plays a part in terms of the gaming industry, there may be more. Please post your views on any of these areas.
chocolate bars?? :)
AliBoy wrote:
> I meant for the gaming industry Mystique, what are you referring too? : )
i would like to know what you were thinking i was referring to
> I meant for the gaming industry Mystique, what are you referring too? : )
i would like to know what you were thinking i was referring to
you put a bad visual in my head ;-(
I meant for the gaming industry Mystique, what are you referring too? : )
Aliboy said:
Size? Does it matter? No
Thats what you think
Size? Does it matter? No
Thats what you think
i read all that ... WOW !
size does matter , but if you can fit !terra byte , on a sugar sized cubed , then bring on the holographic memory ! i would much rather have that than a big cd. Just think how many you could fit in a cd storage case .... hundreds of the little things !
size does matter , but if you can fit !terra byte , on a sugar sized cubed , then bring on the holographic memory ! i would much rather have that than a big cd. Just think how many you could fit in a cd storage case .... hundreds of the little things !
The size of the games and the size of the companies experience does matter, but the size of the console does not.
The X-box tries to look big, dark and powerfull, when it may be easily blown away by the tiny indigo GameCube. Or the big, towering PS2 may look mighty, but the power of the X-box may be too much for it too compete with.
If the next set of Zelda games are long individually, then they're more likely to be preffered to the shorter, never-ending, Final Fantasy series.
The X-box tries to look big, dark and powerfull, when it may be easily blown away by the tiny indigo GameCube. Or the big, towering PS2 may look mighty, but the power of the X-box may be too much for it too compete with.
If the next set of Zelda games are long individually, then they're more likely to be preffered to the shorter, never-ending, Final Fantasy series.
havnt read it yet but i'll print off a copy and read it on the bog later on today if thats fine by you.....
Size? Does it matter? No seriously is it important in terms of the console industry?
Well I think it is, things can't be too small nor can they be too big. I shall explain.
Too big consoles
I think it is obvious in a way that a console has to be a suitable size to be practical for home use, also if a console was huge in size it is likely that it would cost more, maybe the larger size would allow more in terms of performance but the overall console has to be a suitable size and also a suitable cost. The Gamecube is the smallest console around, it uses tiny optical disks and looks great. It is small as the internal architecture has been designed carefully so that in the confined space will not over heat too much.
The X-Box has been hailed as one of the greatest consoles ever and in time it may well prove this but it is also quite a large console, yet in the same way it is no bigger than some VCR or DVD players. Size gets used in things like console wars but to be honest the size of a console as long as it is in a suitable range isn't really a good or bad point.
Too small consoles
Technology is always improving and components seem to be getting smaller and smaller. This of course means we can build smaller consoles, the Gamecube is an example of this. But a lot of people may share the view that if it looks small then it may not have enough in terms of performance or components to make a suitable size. I guess as long as the console performs at a suitable level then there is no need to worry about the size of it. The Gamecube would still be as good if it was the same size as an X-Box and vice versa. The way things are going everything seems to be getting smaller but how long before they become to small that they are annoying or hard to manufacture, repair and use. The way I see things is that consoles are no longer just "consoles" I think the gamecube will be the last Dedicated games machine in that it does nothing other than play games and also it will be the smallest console we see unless technology allows smaller consoles with extra uses like DVD playing (Or whatever medium is used for films st its time) and other useful additions. I think consoles will stay in a practical range when it comes to size but they will grow in terms of what extra features they allow, but the extras wont get in the way of their main use of making games play as well as they can.
Size of games
Not the storage medium they come on (not yet anyway) but the size of a game or how long it lasts. I think this is also an important issue in the gaming industry. If a game is too short then it isn't really value for money no matter how good or entertaining it is. If it is too long then maybe it is value for money but it could be very boring and lack the entertaining value. In saying that if a game is good then the more the better.
There are a lot of games out there that are too short but due to restrictions with storage medium it is impossible to make them longer without making the game suffer in another area such as graphics or gameplay. Maybe one day we will have the ability to make games as long as we want without having to worry about the restrictions placed on developers by the size of storage, hopefully developers will get the balance right and make games that last a suitable length and also contain extras which make the gamer continue to play it.
Size of storage
Probably the main part of this post. First an insight into the past and present mediums used for storing games.
Floppy Disks
I remember when we got an Amstrad and it played floppy disks, it changed the way I though of gaming, games took minutes to load so if you didn’t like the game you were playing you could swap it and play another in a few minutes. I also had an Amiga which used floppy disks. There are good points and bad points about floppies. Firstly they are small and easy to store meaning you can have them all stored easily in a box. Bad points are that they don’t hold enough data which meant a lot of the games had to come on multiple disks so “Please insert disk 2 etc” was a common sight. Floppy disks like tapes could also be copied very easily and Amiga games were pirated all the time. I have to confess that I also bought pirate copies of Amiga games, firstly because I had no idea it was wrong as everyone I knew was doing it and also it was the only way I could get games as shops nearby didn’t sell them as they knew how large the problems with piracy were.
Cartridges
Fond memories of the SNES with its cartridges which loaded almost straight away, first time I ever played a SNES I was shocked, I had played the NES in the past but the SNES had something special. The cartridges were small in size but could hold quite a lot of data and also were very hard if not impossible to copy illegally. With the increase in capacity the SNES could offer great gameplay with good looking graphics which was a big step forward in terms of gaming. In time though the capacity of the cartridge wasn’t enough as developers wanted and sometimes needed, they had to reduce parts of the game and find the right balance between the gameplay and the graphics so that the game didn’t suffer in areas due to not being able to store as much data as they would like. A lot of people argue that if the N64 had been CD based it could have been a lot more successful but due to it being cartridge based there was always a limit as to what the developers could include. In saying that there were still a lot of great games released but competition from the PSX put these down a little.
CD’s
With the arrival of the PSX from Sony and also the Saturn from Sega we seen the jump to CD based consoles. I still have my PSX and it was the first console that really showed me just how good some games could be, the likes of metal gear solid and gran turismo 2 were games I had never thought would be possible at that time. CD’s have a much greater capacity than floppies and tapes and also more than most cartridges, average CD’s hold around 783 MB of data. This meant the developers again at the start didn’t really have any restrictions in terms of what they could include and what they couldn’t. But this didn’t last too long, as time goes by developers develop new ideas which require more data and in turn more disk space which means either use multiple disks for the game or reduce parts of the game to allow it to fit on the CD. The PSX was another one that suffered from the problem of piracy, CD writers were common and the disks could easily be copied using a PC, some software and hardware techniques were used to try prevent this but with the aide of patches for the game and a ModChip for the console these were easily overcome.
A common problem with all storage mediums is that the data can be corrupted if the medium is damaged in some way, If a CD or DVD is scratched or the magnetic disk in a floppy damaged then the data may be corrupted and in turn the disk becomes useless. Well Floppy disks could be used as a weapon and CD’s as mini Frisbees or weapons but that’s about it. Maybe in the future we will see storage which is less easy to damage and corrupt the data on or within it. If the disk does not get damaged then most have been very reliable which is something that all storage mediums need to be.
DVD’s (Digital Versatile Disks)
Following on from the CD we then moved on to the DVD which is used today in the PS2 and the X-Box, The GameCube uses Optical disks which are similar but smaller and have a reduced capacity meaning they can’t hold as much as a DVD but due to the way the GameCube games are created there are no problems in terms of fitting everything on the disk, yet but could things change within the next few years? The DVD holds a lot more than a CD, the average DVD holds about 4.7 GB of data which just now is more than enough. The DVD should be used for quite some time to come as DVD’s today can be double sided and double density which increase the capacity to around 16GB. You only have to look at some of the games around today to see how good the standards of developers are and that the storage used is of a very high standard. With the increase in capacity we can usually expect an increase in quality as the developers can include more detailed graphics, better gameplay and more extras. But some time in the future we are more than likely to find games coming out on a new storage medium. So what will the future storage medium be?
The Future?
My first prediction is holographic memory, It is an idea that could soon be seen in the likes of PC’s and could then be used within consoles. The idea behind holographic memory is quite complex, it doesn’t just use the surface are of the medium but uses the volume meaning the disks could be cube shaped instead of a flat circular shape that is common today. The facts about holographic memory are quite mind-blowing at first. With holographic memory there is the possibility of storing 1 terabyte (TB) of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal. A terabyte of data equals 1,000 gigabytes, 1 million megabytes. The idea for this has been around since the sixties but due to the cost and complexity it hasn’t been turned into reality until a few years ago, now it seems that soon it will be used within PC’s as hard disks (maybe in 2004 or soon after) which means we could see holographic disks being used in the next consoles from the big developers. This all depends on how successful it would be in PC’s and how reliable and if it is possible for developers to use as best as they can. With disks that could hold around the same as 27 DVD’s with a data rate about 25 times faster than a DVD player it certainly has very good chances of being used if it can live up to these when produced for the mass market. As with every storage medium it does have a few faults, it isn’t 100% reliable as sometimes data isn’t read correctly if the laser isn’t aimed precisely at the data it is trying to receive, but these problems could be fixed before it is used (if it ever is used). This new data storage could also lower piracy as it would be very complex and need expensive equipment to do so and no doubt by the time it is available new hardware and software techniques will be used to also prevent piracy.
Another possibility is that games may not come on disks but be downloadable from a network straight on to a hard disk within the console. On-line gaming is something which will soon take off, probably in a big way and there are many possibilities available including this one. If the connection speeds become fast enough then we could see developers using an idea like this, you could log on to the network, choose a game, pay the fee then download it straight to your consoles hard drive. An option like this would mean developers wouldn’t have a restriction on the overall size of the game (although it would have to be within a reasonable amount to be able to download and fit on the hard drive with other games). If this idea was to be used it could lower the cost of games a little as you could just purchase it straight from the developer and it wouldn’t require packaging etc.
Maybe technology will continue along the same lines as it is now using flat circular disks like DVD’s and CD’s except they contain more space for data, to be honest I don’t think that developers will struggle to make high quality games using DVD’s as storage as the capacity is high, when the time comes when they do need more it is likely that there will be new technology that has been tried and tested and ready to use in the next console.
Each one at their time have been the best to use at their time in terms of storage capacity and cost to produce but sometimes companies have to decide between two, like either cartridges or CD's or DVD's or smaller optical disks. Nintendo are using small optical disks which are smaller in capacity than DVD's but allow the Gamecube to be the size it is. Many considerations have to be made when dealing with these kind of decisions just hope they work out for the best as it could e the thing that makes or breaks a console in todays market.
That is all the areas that I think Size plays a part in terms of the gaming industry, there may be more. Please post your views on any of these areas.
Well I think it is, things can't be too small nor can they be too big. I shall explain.
Too big consoles
I think it is obvious in a way that a console has to be a suitable size to be practical for home use, also if a console was huge in size it is likely that it would cost more, maybe the larger size would allow more in terms of performance but the overall console has to be a suitable size and also a suitable cost. The Gamecube is the smallest console around, it uses tiny optical disks and looks great. It is small as the internal architecture has been designed carefully so that in the confined space will not over heat too much.
The X-Box has been hailed as one of the greatest consoles ever and in time it may well prove this but it is also quite a large console, yet in the same way it is no bigger than some VCR or DVD players. Size gets used in things like console wars but to be honest the size of a console as long as it is in a suitable range isn't really a good or bad point.
Too small consoles
Technology is always improving and components seem to be getting smaller and smaller. This of course means we can build smaller consoles, the Gamecube is an example of this. But a lot of people may share the view that if it looks small then it may not have enough in terms of performance or components to make a suitable size. I guess as long as the console performs at a suitable level then there is no need to worry about the size of it. The Gamecube would still be as good if it was the same size as an X-Box and vice versa. The way things are going everything seems to be getting smaller but how long before they become to small that they are annoying or hard to manufacture, repair and use. The way I see things is that consoles are no longer just "consoles" I think the gamecube will be the last Dedicated games machine in that it does nothing other than play games and also it will be the smallest console we see unless technology allows smaller consoles with extra uses like DVD playing (Or whatever medium is used for films st its time) and other useful additions. I think consoles will stay in a practical range when it comes to size but they will grow in terms of what extra features they allow, but the extras wont get in the way of their main use of making games play as well as they can.
Size of games
Not the storage medium they come on (not yet anyway) but the size of a game or how long it lasts. I think this is also an important issue in the gaming industry. If a game is too short then it isn't really value for money no matter how good or entertaining it is. If it is too long then maybe it is value for money but it could be very boring and lack the entertaining value. In saying that if a game is good then the more the better.
There are a lot of games out there that are too short but due to restrictions with storage medium it is impossible to make them longer without making the game suffer in another area such as graphics or gameplay. Maybe one day we will have the ability to make games as long as we want without having to worry about the restrictions placed on developers by the size of storage, hopefully developers will get the balance right and make games that last a suitable length and also contain extras which make the gamer continue to play it.
Size of storage
Probably the main part of this post. First an insight into the past and present mediums used for storing games.
Floppy Disks
I remember when we got an Amstrad and it played floppy disks, it changed the way I though of gaming, games took minutes to load so if you didn’t like the game you were playing you could swap it and play another in a few minutes. I also had an Amiga which used floppy disks. There are good points and bad points about floppies. Firstly they are small and easy to store meaning you can have them all stored easily in a box. Bad points are that they don’t hold enough data which meant a lot of the games had to come on multiple disks so “Please insert disk 2 etc” was a common sight. Floppy disks like tapes could also be copied very easily and Amiga games were pirated all the time. I have to confess that I also bought pirate copies of Amiga games, firstly because I had no idea it was wrong as everyone I knew was doing it and also it was the only way I could get games as shops nearby didn’t sell them as they knew how large the problems with piracy were.
Cartridges
Fond memories of the SNES with its cartridges which loaded almost straight away, first time I ever played a SNES I was shocked, I had played the NES in the past but the SNES had something special. The cartridges were small in size but could hold quite a lot of data and also were very hard if not impossible to copy illegally. With the increase in capacity the SNES could offer great gameplay with good looking graphics which was a big step forward in terms of gaming. In time though the capacity of the cartridge wasn’t enough as developers wanted and sometimes needed, they had to reduce parts of the game and find the right balance between the gameplay and the graphics so that the game didn’t suffer in areas due to not being able to store as much data as they would like. A lot of people argue that if the N64 had been CD based it could have been a lot more successful but due to it being cartridge based there was always a limit as to what the developers could include. In saying that there were still a lot of great games released but competition from the PSX put these down a little.
CD’s
With the arrival of the PSX from Sony and also the Saturn from Sega we seen the jump to CD based consoles. I still have my PSX and it was the first console that really showed me just how good some games could be, the likes of metal gear solid and gran turismo 2 were games I had never thought would be possible at that time. CD’s have a much greater capacity than floppies and tapes and also more than most cartridges, average CD’s hold around 783 MB of data. This meant the developers again at the start didn’t really have any restrictions in terms of what they could include and what they couldn’t. But this didn’t last too long, as time goes by developers develop new ideas which require more data and in turn more disk space which means either use multiple disks for the game or reduce parts of the game to allow it to fit on the CD. The PSX was another one that suffered from the problem of piracy, CD writers were common and the disks could easily be copied using a PC, some software and hardware techniques were used to try prevent this but with the aide of patches for the game and a ModChip for the console these were easily overcome.
A common problem with all storage mediums is that the data can be corrupted if the medium is damaged in some way, If a CD or DVD is scratched or the magnetic disk in a floppy damaged then the data may be corrupted and in turn the disk becomes useless. Well Floppy disks could be used as a weapon and CD’s as mini Frisbees or weapons but that’s about it. Maybe in the future we will see storage which is less easy to damage and corrupt the data on or within it. If the disk does not get damaged then most have been very reliable which is something that all storage mediums need to be.
DVD’s (Digital Versatile Disks)
Following on from the CD we then moved on to the DVD which is used today in the PS2 and the X-Box, The GameCube uses Optical disks which are similar but smaller and have a reduced capacity meaning they can’t hold as much as a DVD but due to the way the GameCube games are created there are no problems in terms of fitting everything on the disk, yet but could things change within the next few years? The DVD holds a lot more than a CD, the average DVD holds about 4.7 GB of data which just now is more than enough. The DVD should be used for quite some time to come as DVD’s today can be double sided and double density which increase the capacity to around 16GB. You only have to look at some of the games around today to see how good the standards of developers are and that the storage used is of a very high standard. With the increase in capacity we can usually expect an increase in quality as the developers can include more detailed graphics, better gameplay and more extras. But some time in the future we are more than likely to find games coming out on a new storage medium. So what will the future storage medium be?
The Future?
My first prediction is holographic memory, It is an idea that could soon be seen in the likes of PC’s and could then be used within consoles. The idea behind holographic memory is quite complex, it doesn’t just use the surface are of the medium but uses the volume meaning the disks could be cube shaped instead of a flat circular shape that is common today. The facts about holographic memory are quite mind-blowing at first. With holographic memory there is the possibility of storing 1 terabyte (TB) of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal. A terabyte of data equals 1,000 gigabytes, 1 million megabytes. The idea for this has been around since the sixties but due to the cost and complexity it hasn’t been turned into reality until a few years ago, now it seems that soon it will be used within PC’s as hard disks (maybe in 2004 or soon after) which means we could see holographic disks being used in the next consoles from the big developers. This all depends on how successful it would be in PC’s and how reliable and if it is possible for developers to use as best as they can. With disks that could hold around the same as 27 DVD’s with a data rate about 25 times faster than a DVD player it certainly has very good chances of being used if it can live up to these when produced for the mass market. As with every storage medium it does have a few faults, it isn’t 100% reliable as sometimes data isn’t read correctly if the laser isn’t aimed precisely at the data it is trying to receive, but these problems could be fixed before it is used (if it ever is used). This new data storage could also lower piracy as it would be very complex and need expensive equipment to do so and no doubt by the time it is available new hardware and software techniques will be used to also prevent piracy.
Another possibility is that games may not come on disks but be downloadable from a network straight on to a hard disk within the console. On-line gaming is something which will soon take off, probably in a big way and there are many possibilities available including this one. If the connection speeds become fast enough then we could see developers using an idea like this, you could log on to the network, choose a game, pay the fee then download it straight to your consoles hard drive. An option like this would mean developers wouldn’t have a restriction on the overall size of the game (although it would have to be within a reasonable amount to be able to download and fit on the hard drive with other games). If this idea was to be used it could lower the cost of games a little as you could just purchase it straight from the developer and it wouldn’t require packaging etc.
Maybe technology will continue along the same lines as it is now using flat circular disks like DVD’s and CD’s except they contain more space for data, to be honest I don’t think that developers will struggle to make high quality games using DVD’s as storage as the capacity is high, when the time comes when they do need more it is likely that there will be new technology that has been tried and tested and ready to use in the next console.
Each one at their time have been the best to use at their time in terms of storage capacity and cost to produce but sometimes companies have to decide between two, like either cartridges or CD's or DVD's or smaller optical disks. Nintendo are using small optical disks which are smaller in capacity than DVD's but allow the Gamecube to be the size it is. Many considerations have to be made when dealing with these kind of decisions just hope they work out for the best as it could e the thing that makes or breaks a console in todays market.
That is all the areas that I think Size plays a part in terms of the gaming industry, there may be more. Please post your views on any of these areas.