Universal game console that would last several decades

Rambozo · Post by **Rambozo** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:04 am 0

So I got to thinking, "How could I make a console that would be as appealing twenty years from now as it is today?"

The answer? High resolution 2D graphics. It doesn't take much to push top of the line 2D these days. Something akin to the Dreamcast, but without 3D hardware would do the job quite cheaply. It ought to push HDTV resolution graphics at a fluid 60fps framerate, at 32 bit colour. In addition it should have hardware solutions for stuff like image distortion, rotation, scaling, and other neat effects.

Such a console would produce games that look as good in twenty years as they do now, because top of the line 2D can't look much better than it does.

The system would have to have considerable amounts of ram in order to load the high detail graphics, and many many frames of animation into memory. However every other component would be cheap and common, leading me to believe that such a console could be produced and sold for under a hundred bucks.

Such a console would appeal not only to hardcore gamers, but also people who just want a cheap console with easy to play, easy to understand 2D games. Great for kids or people who are just getting into gaming, and it would come with a garauntee that no new iteration of the console would come out for twenty years.

NickMon · Post by **NickMon** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:41 am 0

No I think the first step is as follows:

Get the key players to stop making different machines and work on one together, then all badge it...

Then insist that it has a life of 10 years.

Then the others can concentrate on making good software for it.

And allways do backwards compatibility.

The PC Engine is a good example, it had lots of developers, a few changes in hardware and design and lasted for about 10 years...

At the end of the day we all want to play games not play follwo the hardware..

IMHO

chr$ · Post by **chr$** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:46 am 0

NickMon wrote:Get the key players to stop making different machines and work on one together, then all badge it...

Ahem. 3DO?

NickMon · Post by **NickMon** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:55 am 0

3do,too true - but they did not see the monster known as PSX1 and Sony coming...

And if they was all working together than might know design something better !

shimeril · Post by **shimeril** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:58 am 0

Excellent idea Rambozo.

Sign up Treasure, Raizing, Cave (assuming they are still in business

) to provide software and I'll order mine now!

Stone · Post by **Stone** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:36 pm 0

Surely all consoles are 2D?

Stone

bloid · Post by **bloid** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:46 pm 0

Stone wrote:Surely all consoles are 2D?

Stone

Even the GameCube?

Stone · Post by **Stone** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:04 pm 0

bloid wrote:
Stone wrote:Surely all consoles are 2D?

Stone
Even the GameCube?

*scream*

I'll rephrase then - All consoles have 2D graphics

Stone

Barnard · Post by **Barnard** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:39 pm 0

The lack of high resolution 2D'ness is one of the many things that killed Sega.
Dave Perry once said that no one would buy the Mega 32, as it really didn;t make the games look any better than normal Megadrive ones. Perry said high colour/resolution was the way to go, then the Playstation (3D revolution) arrived and Sega and Shiny Entertainment disappeared.

guh, that made NO sense - maybe reading it out loud may work.

also Hello people.

Stone · Post by **Stone** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 10:42 pm 0

Look at the NeoGeo - a 2D beast - and even now (nearly 10 years after its release) it's got brand new professional games coming out for it like Metal Slug 5 (yes, 5!!!) and MatrimelÃ©e.

Makes you wonder...

Stone

Rambozo · Post by **Rambozo** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:22 pm 0

I really think the following business model would work:

Games cost $30 when new, and $20 after a few months. The same media as Gamecube would be used, or something similarly impervious to piracy.

Because it's an open platform, little homebrew games small enough to fit into the 64-128 meg memory would be downloadable online via the console itself.

The GPU would be entirely geared towards 2D effects, and every measure would be taken against gamers porting, say, Doom to it. The system should be fantastic at 2D, but inept at 3D or anything close to it.

The online play should be done via tunnelling software that would be built into the firmware. 2D games need to transmit less than 3D games do, and would likely be very playable over even a 56k modem. The device would come with a broadband adaptor, and the modem would be available seperately for a reasonable price. The broadband module would have to be detatchable to allow for new modules to support whatever new forms of internet arise in the next 10 or 20 years.

The liscensing model would be *extremely* lenient, and players could download small demos of upcoming games into their system memory. These demos would vanish once the power was turned off, however.

The system itself would debut at a hundred dollars or under.
A significant amount of quality advertising would be needed. The lastability and online functionality of the system would be heavily touted.

Hell, I'm sure most of you would buy one.

Skah T · Post by **Skah T** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 12:03 am 0

Rambozo wrote:The system should be fantastic at 2D, but inept at 3D or anything close to it.

Heh, but you know that someone will port a 3D engine within the first month. Then everyone will complain about how bad it looks.

Love the concept, though. I'd buy one

Edit: Christ, am I the only one left with the South Park avatar? I feel so old skool.

mamemeister · Post by **mamemeister** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 2:26 am 0

Already done it, they called it a 'Vectrex'

Jamesac · Post by **Jamesac** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 5:13 am 0

I'm allergic to misinformation, so have a clarification-

Shiny did Enter the Matrix, and despite it being crap did quite well with it too. If you want the talented part of Shiny, though, go buy Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Armed & Dangerous.

Doom is 2D, it just looks 3D thanks to some nifty faking. Still one of my favorite FPSes ever. Bar Quake all you want from this hypothetical platform and I'll back you all the way, but never rag on Doom, Duke 3D, or Heretic.

Cave is still making games today, DoDonPachi DaiOuJou just did some killer business on PS2 in Japan, and there's a sequel to Esprade calle Espgaluda in the works. Sadly, Psikyo is dead despite the label still getting used by the parent company.

So yeah, I'd buy it.

James

A Black Falcon · Post by **A Black Falcon** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 5:55 am 0

Actually, it's called a Game Boy Advance -- made to do just about the best 2d a handheld with a screen that size can do, but totally inept at 3d...

And what do we get? 3D games. Oh, sure, they don't even look as good as 3d games did in 1994 on some systems, but we've got to have 3d games so we have them anyway... sigh... why can't 2d consoles just be for 2d...