overclocked
Veteran
How does that relate too the PSP?
2004 Handhelds
- Thread starter Dave Baumann
- Start date
Sammy gobbling up shares of SEGA has had its effects on the company already. But as of now the reason has nothing to do with a new portable anytime soon, within the next two years.
Chances are Sony will go into the portable games market with little to no competition within their sector next year. The PSP will likely have nothing coming up against it in 2004 that will give it a run for its money. I just see it a little late to get in the game now and there's really nothing in development that appears to be on track for a 2004 release. The PSP will be a might powerful little machine, but it isn't the most powerful portable games device in development.
Nintendo stating it won't launch anything to compete with the PSP can be seen as either bad or good. Sticking with the GBA will prove fine for some time, but I'd assume it's an inevitability to release a new Game Boy that will sustain Nintendo's dominance of the portable market. If there isn't, then Nintendo might as well give up the market and stop competing.
Don't count Microsoft out of the portable market.
Chances are Sony will go into the portable games market with little to no competition within their sector next year. The PSP will likely have nothing coming up against it in 2004 that will give it a run for its money. I just see it a little late to get in the game now and there's really nothing in development that appears to be on track for a 2004 release. The PSP will be a might powerful little machine, but it isn't the most powerful portable games device in development.
Nintendo stating it won't launch anything to compete with the PSP can be seen as either bad or good. Sticking with the GBA will prove fine for some time, but I'd assume it's an inevitability to release a new Game Boy that will sustain Nintendo's dominance of the portable market. If there isn't, then Nintendo might as well give up the market and stop competing.
Don't count Microsoft out of the portable market.
nondescript
Regular
Another contender? Although it looks unlikely to be used in a 150-200 USD device, it is meant for embedded applications.
Transmeta Unveils X86 Processors For Small Devices
Transmeta Unveils X86 Processors For Small Devices
marconelly!
Veteran
What do you think (know?) is one such device, then?
Well, their spokepersons kinda counted themselves out. They didn't have many good things to say about handheld gaming when they were asked about it on some occasions.
I'm starting to think Nintendo's best bet is to stick with the GBA for a year or two. If they release a handheld without backwards compatibility to compete with PSP, they would more or less be on even footing with Sony with regards to userbase and thus developer support, and Sony will prob have a headstart due to a sooner release. If Nintendo releases a gameboy with carts instead of optical media, it's like the N64 vs. PSX all over again. But if they wait a couple years, they keep thier large userbase advantage and can release something technically superior to PSP later, hopefully with backwards compatibility AND optical media.
It's awesome to see Sony enter this market.. I just hope competition can remain. I wouldn't be suprised to see PSP take off on name brand alone. Playstation is God when it comes to mindshare (and thus userbase).
It's awesome to see Sony enter this market.. I just hope competition can remain. I wouldn't be suprised to see PSP take off on name brand alone. Playstation is God when it comes to mindshare (and thus userbase).
SNES* like 10, but minus the built in chips for the carts and minus a good sound chip.(maybe half the quality of the snes one?) Oh, and I'm fairly certain it doesn't have 10x the memory.overclocked said:
Remember, GBA was doing things from its launch that SNES didn't do until the end of its life with extra chips on the cart helping out.
marconelly! said:
DX will come to the WinCE platform soon.
Megadrive1988
Veteran
GBA compared to SNES ?
CPU power 4~5x SNES
GPU power 2x SNES
Audio: about 50% of SNES
overall, GBA is powerful but not NeoGeo powerful. and many games do not even take advantage of what GBA can do. (SNES & Genesis ports) while others do.
Sonic said:
Going by Nintendo's standard conservativism, that could mean ANYTHING. Does anyone remember how they were "not launching anything to compete with PS2" with the excuse that GC would have a different audience therefore not competing on the same level as PS2?
Look what happened...
This is all speculation, but it's worth taking time trying to understand what those PR people REALLY mean when they say things...
For all we know, both Nintendo AND MS are working or at least thinking about competing with the PSP one day or another, in one form or another. They are aware of the impact PSP might have on the market and they know they could be running for a share of that market too, which currently is in Nintendo's hands. Just like Sony saw Nintendo's domination in the portable market and wanted to put their feet in, Nintendo will wish to retain their market share, and my guess is that MS is not sitting there waiting for St Gabriel to descend from the sky...
Or less effective if the surfaces are semi-transparent.Marc said:
If those numbers are indeed 'raw' then that would make them obscenely high for a portable device though. On the other hand the poly number would seem suspiciously low relative to that, so I'll shut up until I see more info.
Technically it already has (and I don't mean just with DC).Dave said:
DirectPlay has been available for PPCs for quite awhile if my memory serves me correct, not sure about all the other components.
I do know that there was official talk of the whole DX being brought over for more then 2 years now though.
So it's not exactly a new thing, they just seem to be taking their time with it - then again M$ was never known for their speed with new releases.
Which reminds me, where would we rate NGage by this standard? (I'm only asking because the newssites rate it above GBA)Megadrive said:
CPU = 3x GBA
GPU power = 0% of GBA (or any GPU really)
Audio = Not really accelerated either, but then neither is GBA IIRC.
marconelly!
Veteran
Even without D3D, PPC is a very capable gaming platform. About on par with Zodiac and whatnot. However, except for a rare exception or two, noone really bothers to make 'serious' games for it, as the existing market for them is not exactly the most encouraging. Pocket PC is apparently predominantly used by people who don't care too much about gaming.
Part of the problem might also be the storage and software distribution. You can't really make a media rich game and expect it to be less than 10-20MB, which is pretty much an absolute maximum that most people with Pocket PC would be willing to sacrifice of their storage space for a game. Unless they come up with some cheap, large capacity media that can be easily purchased everywhere, or start bundling PPCs with at least 10GB hard drives, games will not fly on PPC, regardless of type of people who are using it (and even with hard drives, it's questionable how many people would be willing to download their 500+ MB games - such distribution method would limit gaming capability exclusively to broadband users)
IMO the main issue with gaming for PocketPC is there is no standardised high density storage mechanism for them, and hence alos no decent sales mechanism for them. With everybody using different additional memory formats and interfaces most of the time the option is to store the game on the device itself, which eats up the internal RAM and also relegates the sales medium to online downloads.
Should a few PDA vendors adopt some kind of ROM storage format that enables games to be loaded then that would make the PDA platform much more of a viable gaming device - games wouldn't need to be installed on the device and that would also give outlets something physical to "sell", which means that it gets out into the market easier.
I personally carry an XDAII with me all the time - while I'm out and about, not only does it have all my contact and calender info its my phone, MP3 player, PDA, moile web browser, etc., etc., to have one of these in the future thats capable of playing with semi decent 3D would be ideal for me.
[edit] You editted the post and said pretty much what I did. However, I don't think a large storage device should be used.
Should a few PDA vendors adopt some kind of ROM storage format that enables games to be loaded then that would make the PDA platform much more of a viable gaming device - games wouldn't need to be installed on the device and that would also give outlets something physical to "sell", which means that it gets out into the market easier.
I personally carry an XDAII with me all the time - while I'm out and about, not only does it have all my contact and calender info its my phone, MP3 player, PDA, moile web browser, etc., etc., to have one of these in the future thats capable of playing with semi decent 3D would be ideal for me.
[edit] You editted the post and said pretty much what I did. However, I don't think a large storage device should be used.
Problem is I don't think they ARE. Short of large-capacity hard drives, which are at least more fitting for such devices (but WAYYYYY excessive for their filesizes and will increase their cost excessively. But at least it could still be utilized as an ultra-portable and otherwise-functional PC HD.) what use would a large ROM drive have for other than gaming? I suppose also MP3 playback--if the quality was high enough and the ROM's easily recordable--but we already know which direction MP3 players prefer, and building MD-like capabilities into PDA would likely cost as much as a hard drive, and require other concessions to boot.
The established market does not have uniform gaming specs nor much incentive--at least for high-end gaming (you can get plenty of gaming for the platform otherwise as it is). And to ESTABLISH a market for it would take a ton of incentive from a single manufacturer and FOCUS on gaming, rather than as "enhancement" to PocketPCs and the like. The Tapwave Zodiac is testing it in one way, as its design is more conducive to gaming, but it really changes nothing else--it still functions like a Palm PDA and expands like one; it just flipped the orientation and added an analog button. To get a PURELY gaming handheld that can attract serious developers and be worth occupying shelf-space at major retailers, a device has to go MANY steps further.
Handheld tech is not small enough or cheap enough to allow for this kind of convergence yet, and since there are many options to pursue on the gaming front first--and more to come--both the gamers and the gaming companies will be there first. Offhand, I'd say only Microsoft would have the desire or the wherewithal to push through a PocketPC-Gamer handheld, and though no doubt they're keeping an eye out, I don't think they're in any hurry to enter another market where they may create another loss-leader, if they at all try to make a device that could be gaming-focused, connect to each other and to Xboxes easily, and also function as a totally functional PocketPC in its own right. The market hasn't yet shown how much they'll want the PSP either. (Not to mention if rumors are to be believed--that the base Xbox2 may not come with a hard drive--then it seems they're more wary and cost-conscious as they proceed.)
The established market does not have uniform gaming specs nor much incentive--at least for high-end gaming (you can get plenty of gaming for the platform otherwise as it is). And to ESTABLISH a market for it would take a ton of incentive from a single manufacturer and FOCUS on gaming, rather than as "enhancement" to PocketPCs and the like. The Tapwave Zodiac is testing it in one way, as its design is more conducive to gaming, but it really changes nothing else--it still functions like a Palm PDA and expands like one; it just flipped the orientation and added an analog button. To get a PURELY gaming handheld that can attract serious developers and be worth occupying shelf-space at major retailers, a device has to go MANY steps further.
Handheld tech is not small enough or cheap enough to allow for this kind of convergence yet, and since there are many options to pursue on the gaming front first--and more to come--both the gamers and the gaming companies will be there first. Offhand, I'd say only Microsoft would have the desire or the wherewithal to push through a PocketPC-Gamer handheld, and though no doubt they're keeping an eye out, I don't think they're in any hurry to enter another market where they may create another loss-leader, if they at all try to make a device that could be gaming-focused, connect to each other and to Xboxes easily, and also function as a totally functional PocketPC in its own right. The market hasn't yet shown how much they'll want the PSP either. (Not to mention if rumors are to be believed--that the base Xbox2 may not come with a hard drive--then it seems they're more wary and cost-conscious as they proceed.)
marconelly!
Veteran
Capcom was selling their emulated games that way. They stacked them on the very low capacity CF card and sold them in the stores. However, for any bigger game you'd need at least 128-256MB Compact Flash or SD cards, which are in itself quite expensive. I don't thjink it's that much a question of standard (among CF and SD you have 99% PPCs covered), as it's a question of price.
Despite all that, I use my Ipaq 1945 for gaming all the time. However, it's mostly emulated games from SNES, Genesis, Atari ST, etc... even Metal Slug X from Playstation
marconelly! said:
Exactly. And we already HAVE the capacity to do this just from PDA's the way they are. But the directions games are going will outgrow this quickly, and it hasn't proven at all attractive to any US (or European either, I don't think) developers as it stands.
Price eliminates the standards we have (as we've seen no tremendous advancements coming down the pipe), so a new one will have to be created--or the only other option (large-capacity HD's) brought on board. If the PSP takes root--and with Sony's mindshare in this area and the attractiveness of the platform in general it stands to reason it will--any future GBA competing at its level or other gaming handheld will need a ROM drive that can at least get them close, as cartridges are right out. This will apply to any crossover attempt from PDA's as well.
