I just had a rather far-fetched idea but the more I think about it the more it seems to make sense.
Firstly anyone remember the Atari 520ST and the Amiga 500? These were general computers that were really built for gaming in mind. They never challenged the PC's at that time for the kind of non-gaming applications you cold run (even though the ST did have some pretty cool MIDI interfaces). They were basically pretty powerful machines for their time and had a keyboard stuck to them with a mouse coming separately.
Well why don't either Microsoft or Sony do something similar (I cannot imagine Nintendo doing it but perhaps they should consider it too).
Design a console with keyboard in mind and also an oppurtunity for non-gaming applications to run and be user-configurable. The XBOX as it is now already has a hard drive inclusive of its design and could quite easily run for example a Paint program. You could hook your digital camera to it via a standard port (USB2 or Firewire) mess around with your pictures and print them off on some standard port (USB/USB2).
I think these new consoles are wonderfully powerful (a PIII compared to a 68000 is like comparing a Wrights brother bi-wing to an F-16) but only used for gaming or whereever the proprietory format wants their console to be targetted. A more open market could see consoles used in the home for a variety of tasks (some of which would be unimaginable to the big guns who designed/marketed the machines). This could finally break the Wintel dominance in the PC market also.
I have been hearing so much rhetoric from Sony maybe it is time to look back and simplify the process for the end-user and the guys making freeware/shareware products. I mean this would be a revolution in the Console market...and could potentially make the Console makers tons of money in other markets too.
The infastructure is already in place, Linux, the hardware is in place even in this generation of consoles. I think all we need is a company with big enough balls to take on MS, Intel et al head on and do something Apple has been dreaming off. In fact all the Console manufactures really got to do is make sure they have a steady supply of great games and people will do the rest for them.
Just a thought.
Firstly anyone remember the Atari 520ST and the Amiga 500? These were general computers that were really built for gaming in mind. They never challenged the PC's at that time for the kind of non-gaming applications you cold run (even though the ST did have some pretty cool MIDI interfaces). They were basically pretty powerful machines for their time and had a keyboard stuck to them with a mouse coming separately.
Well why don't either Microsoft or Sony do something similar (I cannot imagine Nintendo doing it but perhaps they should consider it too).
Design a console with keyboard in mind and also an oppurtunity for non-gaming applications to run and be user-configurable. The XBOX as it is now already has a hard drive inclusive of its design and could quite easily run for example a Paint program. You could hook your digital camera to it via a standard port (USB2 or Firewire) mess around with your pictures and print them off on some standard port (USB/USB2).
I think these new consoles are wonderfully powerful (a PIII compared to a 68000 is like comparing a Wrights brother bi-wing to an F-16) but only used for gaming or whereever the proprietory format wants their console to be targetted. A more open market could see consoles used in the home for a variety of tasks (some of which would be unimaginable to the big guns who designed/marketed the machines). This could finally break the Wintel dominance in the PC market also.
I have been hearing so much rhetoric from Sony maybe it is time to look back and simplify the process for the end-user and the guys making freeware/shareware products. I mean this would be a revolution in the Console market...and could potentially make the Console makers tons of money in other markets too.
The infastructure is already in place, Linux, the hardware is in place even in this generation of consoles. I think all we need is a company with big enough balls to take on MS, Intel et al head on and do something Apple has been dreaming off. In fact all the Console manufactures really got to do is make sure they have a steady supply of great games and people will do the rest for them.
Just a thought.
) 650 euro for the amiga500 + another 400 for the monitor . 