VIDEO GAMES

GAMING CONSOLES

Gaming consoles are a custom made computer with hardware and

software resources to play games. They have a joystick or a remote to input
user actions whose results are shown on an external display. Television and
monitors are used to display the working of video games. On 20th October
1966 Ralph baer created the first video game. It was a ‘chase’ game on the
set, with one player's dot trying to 'catch' the other player's. He was born in
Germany in 1922 and left to the United States of America in 1938 for higher
education. He graduated from the National Radio Institute as a radio service
technician in 1940. In 1943 he joined the American Military Intelligence
headquarters in London. In 1949 he graduated from the American Television
Institute of Technology in Chicago. He got his Bachelor of Science degree in
Television Engineering. He worked in different organizations until he started
his own company before joining Sanders Associates in 1956, where he
stayed until retiring in 1987.

Ralph Baer designed a series of prototypes that played several video

games. In 1968 he built the last prototype which was known as Brown Box.
Games like ball, paddle games and target shooting games could be played on
it. Brown Box was released to public in 1972 with a new name 'Magnavox
Odyssey'. Odyssey was called a silent console as it had no sound. It was not
pleasant visually as it had very low graphic specifications. It did not keep a
track of scores hence players had to manually keep a record of their own
scores. It looked like a machine with very less potential but due to its
technology players could enjoy games ranging from roulette to tennis to
skiing. It had made a ground for a new electronic device in market 'The
Video Game' and is existing till now.

From that time to now video games have evolved. Now they are more
powerful as they have the latest hardware technologies and the hardware is
supported by customized software. Since then companies like Nintendo,
Pong, Atari, Sony and Microsoft got into the video game business. Sony
announced the development of Play Station 2 famously known as PS2 in
April 1999 and finally released it in Japan in March 2000. PS2 was unique
and more powerful. It had an Emotion engine, which was created by Sony
and Toshiba allowing it to even play games made for PS1. Ps2 got a new
mode for playing games by introducing DVD format support. Now the
games were graphically enhanced as the developers had a higher storage
medium like DVD.Ps2 used Texture Interpolation to anti-alias the edges of
graphics basically shapes had more curves and life like shape rather than
being square or box shaped. The sales were high for Sony as PS2 was in a
high demand. The PS2 had USB ports for connecting various accessories
and modifications such as S-BOX and the Sony Network adapter to install.
In 2003, an updated version of the PS2 was released in Europe with a quieter
fan, a built in infrared receiver, 2 Dual Shock controllers and a slim case.

PS2 conquered the market for a long time until when the gaming era
had changed. In 2005 Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 – It had a DVD
ROM, a hard drive, Wireless controllers and used wireless frequencies for
internet access and data transfer like Bluetooth. It was a very powerful
machine, meant for entertainment. In 2006 Nintendo launched a very
innovative console which gave players a chance to be a part of the game.
It uses motion sensitivity and a combination of accelerometers and infrared
detection to sense the position of Wii remote in 3D space. It means players
actually have to mimic actual moves to play a game. To play badminton
players have to move the Wii remote as if playing badminton in real life and
the result is amazing. Wii has succeeded in motion based gaming because of
its revolutionary design. Other ways it captured the consumer market was by
keeping the price low and made sure people of all ages were going to be able
to have a great time using it as well. It was not meant for hard core gamers
as it did not have powerful graphics processor but it was twice as powerful
as its predecessor – The Nintendo Gamecube. Wii had got many names like
revolution before it was finally renamed to ‘Wii’ as it resembles that games
are meant for everyone. Wii is still very famous and is the favorite amongst
parents because of its simplicity, game implementation and idea.

In 2006 Sony launched the Play Station 3, one of the most powerful
machines meant for gaming. It was special because Sony’s products are long
lasting and in this case it was the hardware configuration. PS3 was launched
with a new storage medium – The Blu Ray. Blu Ray disc is storage medium
with a very high storage capacity. Blu Ray discs can hold data ranging from
25 Gb to 50 Gb and increasing. Since the Blu Ray discs can store high data,
game developers were at a treat. PS3 is very powerful as it has a 7 core cell
processor developed only for the PS3. The games developed for PS3 are
graphically rich and very detailed. It even supports 3 dimensional gaming.
It has large hard drive and wireless remote controllers. The consumers who
buy PS3 are mostly hard core gamers or people interested in high definition
content. On the software implementation part PS3 has a Linux operating
system which can be also used by a small mod. PS3 games are costly
compared to other platforms and Blu Ray movies are also available. PS3 is
an overall entertainment machine and Sony lovers don’t go for anything
except for Sony.

After the success of Wii, Sony and Microsoft also joined the Motion
Gaming War. By the fall of 2009 Sony launched a new motion controller for
PS3. It was named ‘Move’ as it is meant to go in a very precise and multi
direction as the user moves it. Move is more precise and uses high
sensitivity sensors and Playstation Eye camera to detect the absolute position
of the controller in 3d space. It is meant for all genres of games, thus it can
be used to play games of all types like shooting, sports, role playing and
adventure based. Soon Microsoft launched the ‘Kinect’ that uses a
combination of cameras, microphones and software that turns your body into
the video game controller. All you have to do is start a game and play it with
your bare hands or body as needed. To play a racing game you need to place
your hands in air like you are holding a steering wheel and drive
accordingly. Like wise for shooting games you need to use your hands as a
gun to shoot. Every movement of body gets identified, recorded and the
action is performed accordingly. Microsoft has done a lot of research on it.
It is new in market and has bought a new dimension to gaming and the way
humans interact with machines. It is slow and lags because humans have
infinite movements and to track all of them is not possible but still Kinect is
powerful and a good step towards innovation. It will take some time for the
Kinect and PS3’s move to get known but they all are moving towards a very
great advancement in technology.

Seeing all the above machines and their hardware capabilities it is

proved that future consoles will be very powerful and interactive but the
point to be noticed here is the cost. Not everyone can buy these machines
and enjoy. So for making games more accessible there has to be a
development in the software part along with the hardware. Right now the
term ‘Cloud Computing’ is very famous. Applying it in the gaming field can
be very beneficial. Cloud based gaming allows people to play games from
their computers and televisions having a stable internet connection.
Basically the games played on cloud are actually executed on a high end
server located centrally. A user plays a game and performs a move, the move
is sent to the server and the server sends only the result of it as a video
output to the user. All the processing and calculation goes on in the server
and at the user’s computer only the output is shown. But since it includes
fast internet connection the users will not be able to notice the time gap and
feel that the game is run locally. Some companies have already launched
cloud based gaming services. These services have a basic subscription
charge, in return users can enjoy unlimited gaming and online multimedia
services. One of the common names now in market is OnLive. It streams
games to any computer or a T.V with a broadband access. Gaikai is a
browser based service which allows running games from internet explorer,
firefox or chrome. Otoy is a service which supports browser based gaming
on portable devices like the iPhone.

The technology has advanced a lot in the hardware field and now the
software field is also developing in the right direction. Once cloud based
gaming is implemented properly it will be great for users. It is reasonable
and can be accessed anywhere at any time. Users with varied interests and
age groups can enjoy this service. Thus it has a chance of growing fast and
will be beneficial not only to the consumers but also the developers once
implemented on a large scale.