Category: Hardware

NPA – Storage Wars

We live in a broadband world of fast downloads and user produced content. Our gaming devices therefore need to have somewhere to store all of these files. Today in class we were focused on finding out more about devices.

Create the following table in your jotter or in word.

Name Price Capacity Interface Platform

Below is a list of devices that we can use to store games or content, search for at least one of each device and fill the correct information into the table above.

  • Internal SSD
  • External SSD
  • USB Flash Drive
  • Memory Card
  • Internal Hard drive
  • External Hard Drive
  • Blu-Ray Internal
  • DVD Writer Internal
  • External Optical Disc
  • Wireless Storage Device

This leads us to a question that we need to consider the answer too. What is the current trend in gaming storage?

Xbox One X

So Microsoft have announced the Xbox One X, which appears to be a proper 4K Xbox one console. The technical specifications are pretty impressive, with claims that this is the most powerful home console ever.

It has quite a few games lined up for launch day. The question that will need to wait to be answered is “Is there any point getting one if you don’t have a 4K TV?”

It due out Nov 7th and will cost £449, which is a lot more than the Xbox One S at just £199.

Playstation 4 Hardware

Using Wikipedia we found the following technical specifications.

Playstation 4

CPU

  • Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 Jaguar 1.6 GHz CPU (integrated into APU)
  • Secondary low power processor (for background tasks)

Memory

  • 8 GB GDDR5 (unified)
  • 256 MB DDR3 RAM (for background tasks)

Storage

  • Hard drive, 500 GB, 1 TB (user upgradeable, supports SSD)

Graphics

  • Semi-custom AMD GCN Radeon (integrated into APU)
  • 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and 4K for pictures and videos only

Xbox One Hardware

Using Wikipedia we found the following technical specifications.

Xbox One

CPU

  • Custom 1.75 GHz AMD 8-core APU (2 quad-core Jaguar modules)

Memory

  • 8 GB DDR3 (5 GB available to games)

Storage

  • Internal hard drive 500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB
  • USB 3.0 storage device 256 GB or greater

Graphics

  • 853 MHz (Xbox One), 914 MHz (Xbox One S) AMD Radeon GCN architecture (inside of APU)
  • 4K (S Model), 1080p and 720p

Modern Consoles

We often consider there only to be three main games console hardware companies; Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

However, what makes a console? If a console is defined as a device that plays electronic games, then is a smartphone a console? What about regular computers? Laptops play games and you can plug in a xbox or PS4 controller to them for remote play or even to play games that are installed on them.

I would say that the modern definition of a games console is an electronic device that is used predominantly for games where the games software is provided by the same hardware company through either an online games store or physical storage device. Now this at first glance looks a little wordy but it serves to separate purely games machines from the more general purpose “getting used for games” devices.

The current generation of games consoles are therefore;

A case could be made for the Nivdia Sheild but it is a streaming device with some Android game support.

Over the next few classes we are going to have a look at what makes one console different (better?) than another one.

Gaming Platform – GCW-Zero (Handheld)

There is a new hand held on the way for may. Unlike most other handhelds, this one isn’t made by a big company, no its made by gamers for gamers.

[kml_flashembed movie="https://www.youtube.com/v/5HjnZkSZMaw" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

The pixel count on the monitor could be considered a little low, but most of the consoles it emulates only used this resolution and what do you want on the 3.5″ screen?

I supoose the big question is will it do more and be better than the gp2x, dingoo, caanoo or pandora. I must admit I still like the look of the Pandora it reminds me of the old Toshiba Libretto before it became all big and netbooky.

Here are the specs

Continue reading “Gaming Platform – GCW-Zero (Handheld)”

Emulators

I am a big fan of video game emulators. These programs allow computers to run software written for other platforms. The results are not always perfect, but the faster the computer and the longer it is since the original platform was released the better the experience tends to be. There are a number of commercial products that allow you to get the arcade experiance in your own home. There has been a recent rise in the number of online emulators. These allow you to take classic consoles games for a spin. There are a number of problems with emulators, the most serious of which is that most of the games are still protected under copyright and have not passed into the public domain.

Recently emulators have made it on to consoles and now companies are selling their old games all over again, to a new generation of games players. However, with the rise of multicore processors it is now possible to emulate current generation consoles on a fairly modest PC. This does have big copyright issues as the games have not been licenced to these platforms.

The next big market is obviously mobile phones and we are starting to see some emulators for the most powerful phones, but how do you control them? I hear you ask, well look no further.

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy

Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.

Close