Comparing mobile to fixed-site gaming devices

Comparing mobile to fixed-site gaming devices

 

 

Mobile gaming and console gaming each have advantages and disadvantages over the other. These will be mentioned on this post.

In mobile gaming, unlike consoles, these games can be taken anywhere that a person pleases, whether it be in the living room, their bedroom, outside the house, out on the town, etc. Mobile games are not as long as console games, so people who just want a quick game to play while they're on their travels can do so. Also, provided the batteries are charged, you can play a handheld game even if the main household power is cut.

However, handheld devices do have a limited supply of power, and will run out, requiring the use of chargers to recharge the internal batteries (if the system uses them). Also, the graphical capabilities of a handheld device are inferior to consoles, as sacrifices had to be made to the graphical capabilities of a handheld to ensure that the battery life of a handheld doesn't drop like a stone. The amount of game data that can be stored in a handheld game is also significantly smaller than what you see in a console game, & certain games work better on a fixed-device than a handheld (RTS, FPS for example).

In fixed-site gaming, the graphical capabilities are much greater than on a handheld device, it does not require any batteries to be charged as it's powered by the mains. Also, while losing or breaking a handheld usually means that there's no other option but to pay a lot of money for a replacement if you have no warranty, if a controller for a console is lost or broken, it's much cheaper to buy a console controller replacement.

But, it is considerably hard to move around a fixed-site machine if you want to play on it somewhere else, fixed-site games (unless it's a powerful enough PC or a cartridge-based console) take a while to load, a fixed-site device cannot run off of anything other than the main power supply and certain genres of games work better on a handheld than they do a fixed device (casual platformers & RPG's for example).

How much are games reliant on platforms

How much are games reliant on platforms

 

Some games are made to play on all available platforms, while others are made to just be played on one specific platform.

 

For example, the Call of Duty games are made for different platforms (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One) as Activision is not owned by any of the big three gaming console companies (Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo), whereas games like The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, the makers, are owned by Sony, who are behind the PlayStation), Zelda (Nintendo) and Halo (Microsoft, who are behind the Xbox) are made exclusively for one brand of console.

 

Also, depending on what the system is capable of and what development team is making the game, a game may be different depending on the platform is on. The first Star Wars Force Unleashed game, while each version has the same gameplay and story, has different execution depending on what platform you're playing the game on.

For example, the PS3/360 version has different maps compared to the PS2/Wii version, as well as different ways to use attacks (rather than pressing a button to use the lightsaber in the PS3/360 version, you can either use the buttons or flick the Wii Remote in the Wii version. And using Force powers works in the Wii version by doing a motion with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk).

The DS version of the game uses the touchscreen for using Force powers and using the lightsaber to block attacks (using the lightsaber to slash enemies is still used by pressing a physical button).

 

PS3/360

 

 

 

 

Wii/PS2

 

 

 

DS

 

 

 

 

 



 

Upgrades

Upgrades

 

 

 

PC's are the best systems to try and upgrade, mainly because almost anything in the PC can be taken out, and a new version of a piece of hardware and software can be put in its place.

 

An example of the software is the Operating System. When a user wants to upgrade their OS to a higher one, they either download it off the official site that sells the OS, or buy an upgrade disc and run it off there. An example of upgrading in this case is upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.

 

A straight upgrade from one OS to its immediate successor is the method of upgrading that is mostly used, and although an upgrade of one OS to an OS that is more than one generation old is possible, it usually requires an upgrade that loses all files on the PC.

 

It usually takes at least half an hour to upgrade from one Operating System to another, depending on how large or small the new OS is.

 

For hardware on the PC, it is usually very easy to upgrade, as it only requires the user to take out a piece of hardware, and put a new one in its place, provided that the new piece of hardware is compatible with both the PC software and whether or not the hardware can fit into the slot that it should go into.

 

For example, the RAM can be taken out of its small, thin slot and, provided the new RAM can fit into the slot, the new RAM card can be plugged in its place, with no CD required to install the hardware into the PC.

As for consoles, in both the current and next generation, there isn't as much that can be upgraded as a PC can. The only upgrades that can be done are upgrades to the software and firmware that are provided by the manufacturers, and, on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 & Xbox One at least, you can change the Hard Drive to one that can hold more space.

From the IPhone generation onwards, phones were also able to upgrade, albeit only in terms of software and firmware. Usually, upgrades with these kinds of phones are just bug fixes and vulnerability patches, but sometimes, upgrades mean going up to the next version of whatever operating system your phone uses (iOS, Android, etc), which gives the phone new features or gives it a cosmetic change in terms of how the menu and applications look.

Application software used to develop games

Application software used to develop games
Python is a programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains. The interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms (Windows, Mac, etc), and can be distributed at no cost.
C++ is an object-oriented language and is considered to be high level. It is designed to serve as an enhanced version of the original C language. Among its features are classes, virtual functions, templates, and operator overloading.
Java is a concurrent, class-based & object-oriented language, that allows developers to write code in Java, and be able to take it to other systems without the need to make a new line of code for a different system.
Flash is a language that is usually used for making of vector graphics, animation, games & Rich Internet Applications that can be used in Adobe Flash Player.



Connections

Connections

 

Each piece of hardware has a different way of connecting to the internet and power supply.

 

Currently, the most well-known way of connecting to a power supply is the simple method of plugging in a system into a wall socket, which, with the flick of a switch, allows power to reach the system, thus, obviously, allowing it to run.

 

Another popular method of power, mostly for handheld systems like a portable radio or IPod, is battery powered devices. These can work in two ways: Either the system will require regular batteries (AA, AAA, etc) that will need changing when they run out, or a battery is already built into the system, and will need charging from another source of power regularly.

Recently, a new form of power was shown off where power could be delivered to devices without the need for wires, which exploits simple physics and can charge a range of electronic devices over many metres. A link to the full story can be seen here.

For connecting to the internet, the mostly used method of connecting to the internet is broadband, which sends a wireless signal allowing computers to connect to the internet without needing to connect to a phone line.

Hardware

HARDWARE

CURRENT GEN (7th)


Nintendo Wii

 

 

 

The Wii's hardware specs are thus: It's 1.75 inches tall, 6 inches in width, 8.5 inches in depth & weighs 2.65 pounds. For software, it has a PowerPC CPU (that's code-named "Broadway") jointly developed with and manufactured by IBM, it has a ATI/AMD graphics processing unit, has 512 megabytes of internal flash memory for game saves and data, two USB 2.0 ports and built-in wired and wireless broadband Internet capability. It uses its own Optical Discs for hard game storage.

 

PlayStation 3

 

 



 

 

 For the PS3, I'll be looking at the original console (shown above). It is 32.5 cm in width, 9.8 cm in height and 27.4 cm in diameter. For software, it has a 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE & 6 SPEs, a 550 MHz NVIDIA/SCEI RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' graphics processing unit, ranges from 20GB to 500GB of storage capacity, 2 USB ports and built-in wireless broadband internet capability. It uses Blu-Ray Discs for hard game storage, though DVD videos can also be played.

Xbox 360

 



 The original Xbox 360 is 12.15 in wide, 3.27 in high and 10.15 in deep. For software, it uses a 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon for CPU, a 500 MHz ATI Xenos graphics engine, ranges from 20GB to 250GB of storage space and has wireless internet capabilities. It uses DVD's for hard game storage.

 

 

 

NEXT GEN (8th)

 

PlayStation 4

 

 

The PlayStation 4 will be released in Europe on November 29th 2013.

 

The height, weight and depth of the console is not yet known. It will use a Single-chip custom processor, with a low power x86-64 AMD "Jaguar", 8 core CPU, and for GPU it'll use 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon™ based graphics engine. It uses GDDR5 8GB for memory, and has a 500GB removable Hard Disk Drive. It has wireless internet capabilities, and uses Blu-Ray discs for hard game storage.

 

It will not be backwards compatible with any disc-based PS1, PS2 or PS3 games, but it plans to launch a game streaming service called Gaikai in 2014.

 

Information is correct as of 10 June 2013.

 

 

 

Xbox One

 

 

 

 

The Xbox One will be released in Europe on November 22nd 2013.

 

The height, weight & depth of the console is not yet known. It will use an 8 Core AMD custom CPU
Frequency: 1.75 GHz CPU, and has a 853 MHz GPU. It has 8GB of Flash Memory, and 500 GB Hard Drive. It has wireless internet capabilities, and uses Blu-Ray discs for hard game storage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wii U

 

The Wii U was released in Europe on November 30th 2012, making it the first home console in the 8th generation.

 

It is 1.8 inches high, 6.8 inches wide, 10.5 inches long and weighs 1.6kg. It uses a IBM Power®-based multi-core processor for CPU, AMD Radeon™-based High Definition GPU, and internal flash memory (8 GB with the Basic Set; 32 GB with the Deluxe Set). It has wireless internet capabilities and uses its own Wii U Optical Discs for hard game storage.

 

Intro

Gaming: Past & Present

 

Intro

 

In this blog, I will be talking about the current generation of main games consoles (7th gen, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360) and the other current and future generation (8th gen, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One).

 

I will talk about the technical aspects of each console, the good parts, the bad parts, what was used for game storage, how it connected to the internet & power supply, what was used to develop the games, how people played the games, how the software and hardware upgrades, and how far games are dependent on the platform.