Are we ready for the "Next Gen" of Consoles?

With my last blog I had mentioned the possible release of the new PS4 this fall/winter. It seems to be about "on target" as far as previous release dates are concerned, but are we really ready for a "Next Gen" console release war again? Though the hardcore gamers say bring it on, would the general consensus of the masses embrace a release of a console from the big three in the next 6-12 months, or shun it and stay wed to the system they currently use; and are most likely quite happy with? Or will the power of the new systems just be juxtaposed by the PC computing strength? 

This is Part 1 of a two-part post.

Quick console release history:
(For a complete list, this is a great page.)
The first generation of home gaming systems fell in the 70's with the Magnavox Odessey and the Atari 2600 soon followed. Everything was hunky-dory for a while, then the crash hit. Attribute it to what you will; too many cooks in the kitchen, a multitude of sub-par released cartridges for the systems came out, people generally desiring being in the arcade as opposed to watching cheap 4 and 8 color knock offs on their small TVs at home...What ever the reason you want to blame it on, gaming at home was nearly eradicated. The disillusioned public didn't want to "play".

Then the paradigm shift occurred...1985 brought the release of the groundbreaking and game changing NES to our homes. The race was on. Sega jumped in, NEC wanted some, Atari and even Apple played a part in there too... everyone wanted a peice. Every handful of years or so, ever since the NES, a surge of computing and graphical power is released with a new console system; each one competing for the top of the pile with the faster/prettier system. First we jumped from Atari/Coleco vision to the NES who brought us "8-bit", then we surged again from "8-bit" to "16-bit" with the release of the Genesis, SNES, and TurboGrafix. On and on it went and by the mid 1990's we had 4-5 major players vying for the top slot: Atari's Jaguar, Sega's Saturn, Sony's new Playstation, Nintendo's N64, and the 3DO.

By the 6th gen we had three major manufacturers, and today, here in the7th generation, the three major systems (ignoring mobile and handheld all together for this article) are the Microsoft's XBox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's PS3. With the advent of technology through the years, systems have fought over graphics capability, hard drive space, processing power, inter connectivity (I'm still curious about all those extra ports on my old Nintendo systems...), WiFi/Networking, web access, BluRay, 1080p... As a consumer, this battle is great. Their war for the best constantly releases new tech to us with better and better capabilities. We Win! But... do we?

PC progress/Mr. Moore
Gaming consoles are just half of the story in the eyes of this writer. The interesting track record of the release of consoles over the last 30 years is that they have been offset by the slow and ever gradually changing curve of Moore's Law and processing power. If we couple that with the increase of RAM Speeds, HDD space, GPU/Video card capability, we find the curve is a trend that is offset by the stair-step of the console release.

Every time a console is released the hardware is fixed, in that none of the architecture inside can be upgraded by simply plopping in more ram, or replacing the cpu. In order to increase power and output, the whole system needs to be updated, hence another generation. PCs on the other hand have the upgradability to be able to grow with a user's desire. Want more ram? Simply replace or upgrade what you have... barring any motherboard (MoBo) limitations. Need more processing power? Pop off the old CPU and replace it with a newer, shiny, faster one (again, MoBo dependant). Same goes for disk space, cd/dvd/bluray drives, video cards, sound cards... all of the components are upgradeable... based on the MoBo limitations of course.

One can assess a computers updatability, or "future proofing", by simply looking at a mother board's capability. If you buy a motherboard that can handle what you need now, but the end of the line is near what you are buying into... you have a short (relatively speaking) lifespan of upgrade-ability. Buy into a decent board with architecture for the future and you have a stable platform on which to build a speedy beast for years to come (Watch for this article soon... "The New Gaming PC build")

But how does this tie into the VG Console you say? Or more importantly, how does this relate to the readiness of consumers to purchase a new wave of consoles starting this winter? Well lets look at the timelines side by side:

Time for upgrade?
If we look at the processing speeds, RAM speeds, and HDD space available for computers starting with 1995, along with their console counter part, you get a good cross section of the average computer available at the time compared to the console. Now, I could spend weeks compiling all of the data and comparing all of the options. (...please, go ahead and do that if you want to, and add to this article... I sure as hell am not!) What I am doing here is a simple comparison on the average, in lamens terms, so as to produce an example to build my premise on. This is a hypothesis in the making from a blogger, not some Scientific American article. :-)


In 1995 a new computer listing might look something like this:
90Mhz CPU
800 MB Hard Drive
8 MB RAM
15” CRT Color Monitor
2 MB Video Memory
2X CD-Rom
...and it could cost anywhere around $2000-$2800 bucks.




For comparison, the Playstation (Released in 1994) came with:

MIPS R3000A-family R3051 @ 33.8688 MHz
Games came on Black CDs (700 MB)
Memory cards for saving game data ran in 1, 2, and 4 MB sizes
1 MB Video Memory
2X CD-Rom with a 128 kB buffer
...and it cost around $300 bucks for the September release. It dropped to $200 in May of 1996.

...And the N64 (Released in 1996) came with:

93.75 MHz NEC VR4300
Games came on cartridges with saving capability upon them (4MB to 64MB)
Memory cards for additional save data ran in 1, 2 and 4 MB sizes
4 MB RDRAM Memory (expandable to 8)
Video support for SDTV up to 480i (A majority of the games used the 240p/288p)

...and it cost $250 when it released in September of 1996.




 Now, lets jump forward five years... 2000/2001. Home gaming systems were in full swing, Pc gaming was on the rise commercially, and the home computer/dot com boom was thriving. Gone were the days of the PC being a "worker's tool" or only for "businessmen", as students and parents used them for everyday enjoyment and personal use. The rise of the prevalence in the home computer was making the need for speed, and cost effectiveness more commonplace. The gaming system, however, was still just that... just a gaming system... for now.


In 2000 an average computer listing may have offered these options:


300 Mhz  - 500 MHz CPU
12 - 20 GB Hard Drive
16 - 64 MB RAM
4 MB  - 8MB Video Memory
8X CD-Rom
...and it ran at about $1800 - $2400 when purchased new.





The Playstation 2 (Released by Sony in 2000) came with:


64-bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294.912 MHz

40 GB HDD available (as an add on)
8 MB Memory cards for saving game data.
32 MB RDRAM
GPU clocked at 147.456 MHz
DVD/CD-Rom for games, music and movies.

...and it cost around $300 bucks for the September release. It dropped to $200 in May of 1996.




Nintendo's Game Cube (Released in 2001) had:


IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 486 MHz
Games came on proprietary GameCube mini disks with 1.5 GHz capacity

Memory cards with various sizes (16 MB, 24MB, 32 MB, 64MB...)
43 MB total Ram (16 MB DRAM, 24 MB "Splash" ram, 3 MB embedded ram within "Flipper")
162 MHz "Flipper" LSI GPU
Video modes of 240i, 240p, 480i or 480p @ 60 Hz

...and it cost $200 when it released in November of 2001.



The XBox from Microsoft (Released in 2001) ran with:


Custom 733 MHz Intel Pentium III "Coppermine-based" processor
Games came on DVDs
8 - 10 GB HDD formatted to FATX
Memory cards for additional save data ran in 4, 8 and 16 MB sizes
64 MB of DDR SDRAM @ 200 MHz
233 MHz "NV2A" ASIC GPU
Video resolutions of 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i

...and it cost $300 when it released in November of 2001.

As you can see, the new computer was still a little slower than the console at their release, depending on the components you purchased and how much you wanted to spend. Remember though, start small and grow with the times in the case of a computer, but purchase once and never upgrade with the console. In 2000/2001 a new bench mark was set with the consoles and over the next few years the computers slowly caught up.

Stay tuned for part two of this article which will review the 7th generation console release in 2005/2006 along with a side by side comparison on the average computer available then. I will also reveal my opinion/position on the possibility of the release of the 8th generation of console based on the current PC computing market and my thoughts on the 8th gen's release in the next 6-12 months.

Chad is an Adjunct Faculty member teaching video game design in Boston, MA. He is currently a freelance designer and owner of Phlume Artist Management. He can be reached for comment at chad @ phlume.com.

WAKE UP!

I know... I Know...
It's been a while since I've posted ANYTHING. Please pardon my absence.

Last fall was a busy time for me with teaching and school starting (not me just yet).Then Skyrim came out and EVERYTHING was put onto the back burner. Then Christmas came and went. More Skyrim. I worked on my own games and portfolio for school... Needless to say, the absence has been long enough and I am back to write for you again.

A lot has been happening in the game world and I haven't written a single thing about it. GDC came and went. PaxEast came and went. Releases of skyrim, MW3 and a whole host of other games... to talk of them now would be old news. E3 is on the horizon and though I have my passes, for a second year in a row I will not be able to attend. It just costs too much to fly out there form the East coast. I will get there soon.

There has been a bunch afoot in the PC/CPU world as well. I started a series on building a gaming rig and got two postings into it before my hiatus from blogging. Now that I am back at it the foretold LGA 2011 in that posting is now out and available, Intel is slated to release Ivy Bridge any day now, NVidia launched the new GeForce GTX 680 GPU ... I may as well start fresh and rethink the build from the start... well, It will still be Intell, not AMD. ;-)

A lot has happened in my world as well. I am continuing to finish the application process for Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in the hopes for a June start for my MFA. I have been designing two games for part of the admission process... One is a board game based on the music industry and the trials and journeys of a small band from a garage to stardom. be the first to earn $1,000,000 and reach the "stars" and you win. The other "game" really is more of a level design created in 3DS max and UDK. I am also working through the book "Game Development with Unity" by Michelle Menard (SCAD Alumni) and I am enjoying the learning process.

Now that I have "caught you up" it is time to focus on the future of this blog and my plans for how to roll out new posts on a schedule. I want to put forth a concerted effort to post at least once a week about one of three things:

1. My thoughts and experience regarding the use of UDK, Max, or Unity.
 As I work through Michelle's book, design/develop my UDK level, or refine my models in Max to be static meshes in UDK, I will post my findings, hurdles, hang-ups and resolutions here. Not only will this force me to write on the blog, it will share what I have found from other blogs, videos, and help files. It will not necessarily just be a rehash of other posts, but rather a finite look at my specific issues and problems and how I worked through it. I continually find that I have to watch four or five videos and read 2-3 articles to actually find all of the information I need to complete my project. Helpful places/videos will be placed onto the "Links" page.

2. Talk/Write about the process of refining the board game.
 Since this is board game is a work in progress that I plan on refining to be a possible product on the market, I need to tread carefully on the actual postings of the design process. Rather than discuss specifics about the game, I will talk about some of the design principals surrounding the process and how I handled the challenges, rule sets, systems and design. Hopefully within a few months it will be an actuall game available on the market and you can buy it from me!

3. Thoughts on the PC I will build for my enrollment at SCAD for my MFA.
LGA 2011 is out, Ivy Bridge is due to be released in... did it come out today? April 23rd? I don't know... Any day now it's due out. How much RAM? What Video card(s)? SSD or HDD? Monitor choices, peripherals, drives, case, fans, cooling... The works. As I "sus" out the computer and research the components, I will discuss them here. I will link to other forums where I post my thoughts and you can follow the threads about my ideas and other PC builder's input about them. I will also place a link to my newegg.com "Wish List" so you can look at the exact specs and prices to the items I want to buy, and it saves me rewriting them here!

Lastly, as time rolls on and I begin (hopefully) my Master's program in Interactive Design and Game Development at SCAD, I will do my best to report out on the classes, my experience and projects I complete through the schools top rated eLearning program. Recently the school was given a #7 on a Top 10 list of "Who's Who" for game design degrees. For those curious... Full sail didn't make the top ten. My first choice, "Guildhall" at SMU was #5, however they do not offer a distance learning option. MIT was at the top, but that was more of a coding and software engineering focus.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to sharing more with you as time rolls on.

-Chad

Chad is an Adjunct Faculty member teaching video game design in Boston, MA. He is currently a freelance designer and owner of Phlume Artist Management. He can be reached for comment there. http://www.phlume.com

New Computer - Part 1 (Intel or AMD)

NEWEST NOTE (4-23-12)
I have stopped this series (sort of before it even got going) because the architecture and components I was focusing on are now a bit out dated. Please continue to read the new posts and follow the series I will start labeled SCAD RIG to catch up n the new PC I plan to build for my MFA.

 NOTE: I know less about hardware than I do software. I know enough to get by, and that is where the interactivity of this series of blog posts will come in. If you see something that you laugh at, don't flame me... just guide me as I would guide you if you needed to know something I did. I am not an expert computer builder so please do your own research and follow the advice of others as well and make an educated decision on your own.

When I was in my first year of college as a 3D animator back in the late 90's I had the pleasure of designing my first computer with the help of a reseller online. It was a Quantex brand computer... and unlike the Rain Man "Quantas never crashed..." quote, this computer crashed. Often. Perhaps it was Windows 95? perhaps it was the software loaded? Who knows. What I did know was that I outgrew the specs on that computer really fast.

I still have the spec sheet on it as I knew it would be fun to look at someday. It was printed on a dot matrix computer though so it is a bit faded. From what I could make out (and remember) the main specs of the machine were as follows:

300Mhz P2
32mb of RAM
8mb video card
8GB of hard drive space
56.6 dial up modem
and a 17" CRT monitor...

All for just over $2,000

Times sure have changed! Here it is in 2011, nearly 15 years later and I'd like to build a new machine. I figured I could create recurring blog on this site detailing my personal experience designing and building my new computer. I know there is a lot of research out there but I thought it may be fun to document my findings and share with the masses my personal choice. Not to mention grown and learn from the feedback that may be offered in return.

First things first: In designing the computer I want to set out knowing what I want the computer to be able to do and handle. I could get away with the basics if I was going to surf the web and write a book on the machine... but as you all know, this is NOT the kind of tower I want to design. What do I want to do with this computer? Well being a gamer and designer I need the computer to handle a lot of high end graphics. Let me make a list of the games/software that may be running at any time on the machine, most often, 3 or four of them open at once:

• A high end image/vector/video editing program (PS, IL, FL, AE, PR, ID...)
• 3DS Max, Mudbox, Maya, and UDK
• Possibly Unity or Torque
• Office suite (excell, word blah blah blah)
• A variety of smaller programs such as a browser window, notepad editor, mail client, AVG antivirus...

As for games, well I use the PS3 a lot for that now, but i am very interested in Dungeon Seige III and possibly From Dust... at least at first glance. but both of those would run easily with any system I set up to design/develop so lets focus on the 3D modeling/rendering and video editing capabilities of the machine.

AMD or INTEL?
As I embark on the first of many MAJOR decision of this new build, I will have to rely on what I can find/read online. My intuition tells me to go with an Intel chip. From what I have read they handle graphics a lot better. Am I wrong? This is where the feedback from the blog readers comes in. I was looking at the Core i7 2600K, "Sandy Bridge" (I'm thinking waiting for the Ivy bridge may be expensive, and Time consuming... thoughts there?). I noticed the 2600K and upon reading further the "K" means it is unlocked and you can overclock it, right? Though I have never over clocked a computer before, I think it sounds like an interesting idea and would certainly be interested in trying it. So for $15 - $20 bucks or so, I'll keep the "K" there and leave the option available.

The Intel chips are a bit pricier, but budget is secondary to a good, stable build. Oh... and speaking of budget. Don't get me wrong. I don't have thousands to drop on this computer so I will try to keep my entire budget to under $1000, leaving room for expansion over the next few years.

Intel Core i7 Quad Core 2600K 3.4GHz:
New Egg: $314.99 (link)
Tiger Direct: $314.99 (link)

Total budget in: $314.00

So now that I know I will be going with the Intel chip my next post will review some of the motherboard options. Before I close though, I'd love the feedback from the masses on i3, i5, and i7. Knowing what I'm doing should I even look at the i3/i5 processors? I'm pretty set on the i7 Quad core. If I have the cash I'd go for the hex.. but that may be too much muscle for the price right now.

Thoughts?

-C
Chad is an Adjunct Faculty member teaching video game design in Boston, MA. His school web site is http://www.phlume.com/EDU. He can be reached for comment there.

Mobile gaming?

(Note: "Words with Friends" isn't available on BB... my WordRival username is Phlume. Invite me to play...)

As I sat back and played Word Rival on my Blackberry this evening I couldn't help but wonder... Is Mobile gaming going to take over the home console system much like the consoles destroyed the arcade?

I look at all of the apps and games that are available across the board for Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, DS, PSP, and the like. It is truly amazing at how cool these things have gotten! They are beautiful, powerful, and way better than some of the AAA titles that came out even 5 years ago. I remember about 10 years back, sitting down with my Nokia and it's black and green screen, charting a course for my snake to traverse in order to eat the next apple. I thought it was cool that I could play Tetris on that same phone... even though it was as slow as all hell, not very challenging, and hard to play because of the screen size. Flash forward a decade and you have touch screens, analog joysticks, multiple buttons and full 1080p... ON A HAND HELD! Remember the Gameboy; the classic "Brick"...Before that came out all I had for a hand held game was a crazy orange and black "spelling bee" device that helped me learn difficult 5th and 6th grade spelling with word games. I never imagined as I sat with that little speak and spell wanna-"bee" device that the gaming community would grow into a huge mobile empire.

When I reflect back on the 80's and the arcade games we stood at for hours I thought of the home VCS as a silly amusement past time we used to tide us over to the next visit to the Dream Machine, or Funspot. It's hard not to look at the mobile community as creating a similar dichotomy within the gaming industry; The home system vs. the hand-held.

As microprocessors get faster and smaller, we are seeing more and more computing power being placed into smaller and stronger devices, which in turn get placed into the hands of younger and younger consumers. Both of my children, 4 and 5, constantly ask me if they can play a game on my phone. I watch them as they fumble with the device and press the number pad and directional pad to navigate around the screen in whatever game they pull up. It's cute... but scary. When I was 5 I had a joystick and one button. Here they are with the Vita at their door step, the Wii U on it's way, augmented reality and the 3DS available and a plethora of games on phones and pads everywhere. Which makes me wonder... Will the home systems be shoved away for more powerful portable ones?

As we look to see the next gen of consoles scheduled to be released within the next 12-18 months, one wonders if this will be the last ones dedicated to be hooked up to a TV. Perhaps the ones we use today already ARE the last ones to be tethered to a tube? Will video games pick up and go mobile entirely? Will we ever have a need for cluttered living rooms with controllers and cables stuffed into drawers with cartridges and disks laying about to collect dust? Or are we seeing a shift in the paradigm that gaming systems are to be kept within the home?

What do YOU think? As I close out this final thought on a long week and head into the weekend I ask you: Are these the final round of systems that will stay within the house? Will we see a "changing of the guards" so to speak when it comes to how games are delivered to the masses? Tell me your thoughts. Share your insight and views.

Until next post... happy gaming y'all.

-C

Chad is an Adjunct Faculty member teaching video game design in Boston, MA. His school web site is http://www.phlume.com/EDU. He can be reached for comment there.