Platforms (P1/M1/D1)

Introduction

This blog post is going to display knowledge from myself and others around the world. This knowledge will help people understand the different platforms and inform the about their development and what they are.

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Console

Firstly we have consoles, consoles are platforms usually designed for game, a few examples 'Xbox' and 'PlayStation'. These two very successful companies have come very far. Sony first console what created in '1994' named the 'PS1'. This console brought out some amazing games such as 'Spyro' another great game 'Crash Bandicoot' and many more. Then Microsoft brought out a console name 'Xbox', this console brought out the famous 'Halo' series. Both of these consoles where bringing out amazing, high selling games and this is where the rivalry began. The consoles in all eras are always competing against each other for the best console of the year; this consists of console companies such as 'Nintendo', 'Sony', and ‘Microsoft’.

These three top brands are famous in the gaming industry for their top consoles, each of these consoles are almost identical inside, meaning graphics cards, RAM, CPU, yet they look different on the outside and how it's displayed on screen, each console comes with its own GUI system. Each graphic user interface is different depending on the console, the GUI are set up depending on the certain aspects such as in peripherals, an example or a console well known for its use of peripherals on the system, that console is known as the "Wii". With this console you point a controller at the screen and interact with buttons. You can do this in similar ways with all the consoles; this is what defines what console does what.

What makes consoles different from arcades is the ability to play with friends over the internet and the fact once you have purchased the game, you don't have to pay every go.

Pros

• Play the game/games in your house
• Local multiplayer (split screen)
• Plug and play, easy to set up
• Patching of games is limited and rarely causes much delay for games you play often
• Required updating of console itself is limited
• Most people have a bigger TV than PC monitor, so big screen gaming is more feasible

Cons

• Graphically inferior to high-spec PCs
• More restrict controls, with keyboard and mouse better for some games
• DLC can be unnecessarily expensive for what you actually get. (Fable 2!)
• No dedicated servers
• MMORPGs would not work on Xbox 360 (live subscription and MMO monthly fee! Not likely.) MMORPGs might work for PS3s, but they're more natural on PC
• Games are more expensive
• RROD/hardware faults generally mean entire console needs to be sent back to get fixed
• Games you play less often may have major patch updates needed before game will load

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Arcade

This amazing video shows us what arcades could become, technology is always growing, even in older systems (older ideas). Arcades similar to this one require payment to play, and when you lose or finish the game, it will reset and you will have to pay again to play. This is a good business plan, and has worked ever since 1971, when the students at 'Stanford University' had created the first coin operated machine. There is a main, noticeable issue with arcade cabinets... They can only be played in an arcade, and they are not portable, this limits the spread of the games within the arcade from becoming popular.

Arcades are boxes containing consoles, they have RAM, they have CPU's, and they have operating systems. Software and hardware are the same as a computer. This is because computers are mobiles, consoles, arcades, televisions are all the same, and just on the outside they are different.

The arcade cabinet consists of Marquee, a marquee is the name/developer of the console, this is found at the top of the arcade cabinet, its colorful and has a back light behind it. Then below that we have the speaker location, the speakers which are connect to the PCB board and plays the game sound. Below that surrounding the monitor we have the bezel, this is a piece of plastic which protects the arcade monitor, the monitor depending on its ages is either a LCD flat screen or a CRT. Below the monitor we usually have the instructions panel, this tells the user how to play the game on the arcade cabinet. After the panel we have the actual control panel, this panel is where the user will use the controller to interact with the game inside the cabinet. Finally we have the coin door, the coin door is where the user will input money inorder to play the game, Its usually a £1.

Pros

• arcade controls are easy to use and learn.
• the time in which you play it varies on how good you are at it, so a £1 could last you the whole game.
• social, gets you out and meet people.

Cons

• payed to play.
• big and bulky.
• not portable.

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PC

PC being the most optimization platform, being able to upgrade any piece of hardware to your own standards, whereas the consoles and other platforms, you’re limited and upgrading is not possible. PC are the most expensive platform out there, this is because PC's are always being upgraded, the hardware within the. PC's cost more than the hardware in all the others. However to keep things fair, PC's games are also one of the cheapest. Computers made games what they are today, without people experimenting on them; the first game console could never have been built.

The first mechanical computer was made in 1822; this was made by 'Charles Babbage'. Then we have the first programmable computer, which was technique the first functional computer, the name of this computer was 'Z1' and it was made by 'Konrad Zuse', it was made somewhere between 1936 and 1938. The first computer for the public to use was 'IBM 5100 Computers' and the 'Apple 1 and 2' these computer cost roughly £600, and could raise up to £3000 depending on the amount of memory, now compared to the newer PC's out today, that £3000 will buy you a lot more, components are cheaper and there are much better parts, such as RAM, CPU's and similar peripherals. Then once the internet was integrated with the computers, it changed who PC's where as a whole, Google came around and games where invented, YouTube and many great companies such as these.

Pros

• It is much cheaper than the AppleMac.
• Since there are more people using a PC than a Mac, you're more likely to find help.
• You can remodel the personal computer to suit your needs and even assemble your own customized version.
• Getting cheap or even free software for PCs is relatively easy.
• Most anti-spyware and anti-virus programs work well with the PC.

Cons

• The PC is more open to virus threats.
• Windows XP is a clumsier interface than the AppleMac operating system OS X. 
• Sometimes, software for PCs tends to be unnecessarily complex.
• Since there are so many models and manufacturers for PCs, you need to be more alert about what you opt for.

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Mobile

Mobiles when came out was this amazing, being able to communicate with others whilst being able to play games and listen to music. PC could do this yet they were not portable nor pocket size. Phones however have not always been small and compact and did not come with the new touch screen. Mobiles main area of gaming lies within the iPhone's App Store, this is where games such as 'Angry Birds and Jet pack Joyride' originated from. These games are addictive and can be played anywhere at any time, thanks to mobile development. Mobiles are a hand held device, there are other hand held devices which play a variety of games, and an example would be 'Game Boy', released in 1989 with its amazing 8-bit graphics which blew peoples mind.

Phones started out as button pressed commands with numbers. These numbers where used to call people, and some of the newer phones came with directional buttons which allowed you to play games such as 'Snakes'. Now phones come with touch screens and a few buttons, they want to make there devices more interact-able, the issue that comes with touch screen devices is that the device is very delicate and can break very easily, from the image above (picture of the iPhone with Angry Birds on it) you can see the most of the device is a screen, and surrounding the screen a thin border, this border cannot protect the phone from a great fall.

Pros

• having more uses than gaming, (texting, calling, web browsing).
• portable.
• can become its own wifi hotspot, it can connect to the internet - providing you have paid for that type of contract.

Cons

• the newer smartphones are easy to break.
• the games on the device are not next generation, they are simple and basic.
• they are small and easy to lose.

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Television

Television has come as far as all the other platforms. TV's have only recently become a interactive gaming platform, with built in consoles along with touch screen ability and the 3-D effect. TV's where once mechanical, this is where television started. There are newer TV's out, smart TV's with amazing resolutions, presenting amazing pictures, and costs a lot of money, however you quality you get out of them makes it worth it. TV's have also changed in size, the first TV was 5.9", and compared to the largest TV now a days is small. Today's largest TV is 201".

The largest TV being 201 inches can unfold and change heights all from a click on the remote. This is the future of televisions.

Watch it unfold

Next Generation Of Outdoor TV's

This link shows you how the TV unfolds, this amazing piece of technology shows what we have accomplished and where the future will be.

Pros

• Television are increasing in size, so bigger screens to play games on.
• Newer TV's can support VGA and HDMI inputs, meaning you can plug consoles and computers into them.
• Some TV's come with built in systems such as "freeview" and "console".

Cons

• Fairly expensive.
• Take up alot of room, they can go on the wall, but need large wall space.
• Easy to break (newer TV's)

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History

Date	Arcade	Console	PC	Mobile	TV
1862					The first still image was sent
1873					Learnt how to send images by signals
1876					The year the idea for a TV at home was made
1900					The year television got its name
1907					Cathode rays and a vacuum tube where introduced
1921				Mobile Radios in cop cars
1924					The moving picture was developed
1925					The television was tested publically
1928					The first station was named W3XK
1936			Konrad Zuse		200 sets of TV’s where in use
1937					CBS was the first major television network to be made
1939			HP 200A Audio Oscillator
1945				First Phone
1947				First Mobile Phone
1950			ERA 1101		Colour was released on TV’s
1964			CDC´s 6600 supercomputer
1969					The TV was used to record and play footage from the moon
1971	The Galaxy Game, Computer Space		Kenbak-1
1972	Atari Pong	Magnavox Odyssey
1973			TV Typewriter	Frist Handheld Conversation
1975	Interceptor	Magnavox Odyssey 100 and 200
1976	Moto-Cross	Atari Pong	Apple 1
1977	Space Wars	Atari 2600	Commodore PET, Apple 2
1978	Taito Space Invaders
1979	Atari Asteroids		Atari Model 400 and 800	First Commercial for mobile phones
1980	Pac - Man		Apple 3
1981	Nintendo Donkey Kong, Konami Frogger		Osborne I
1982	Sega Star Trek	Atari 5200 Super System	Commodore 64	First Phone Company Made “Nokia”
1983				Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
1984			Apple Macintosh	Call Handoff
1985	Vs. Super Mario Bros, Tekken World Cup	Nintendo Entertainment System	Microsoft Windows
1986		Sega Master System, Atari 7800
1987	Street Fighter
1988	Sega Tetris
1989	Exterminator	Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Genesis		Motorola MicroTAC 9800X
1990				2G technology, the first digital phone call was made
1991	Street Fighter 2	Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
1992	Mortal Kombat			Motorola International 3200
1993	Mortal Kombat 2	Atari Jaguar		The introduction of the pre-iPhone, introduction of text messaging, BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator
1994	Tekken, killer instinct,			Nokia 1011
1995	Time Crisis	Sega Saturn, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Sony Play Station
1996	Metal Slug	Nintendo 64		Motorola StarTAC, Nokia 8110, Nokia 9000 Communicator
1997	The House Of The Dead				Panasonic creates the first flat screen
1998	Dance Dance Revolution		Apple iMac	Nokia 9110i, Nokia 5110
1999	Drum Mania	Sega Dreamcast		Nokia 8210, Nokia 7110, Nokia 5210, Benefon Esc, Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar, Nokia 3210
2000	Police 911	PlayStation 2		Ericsson R380, Nokia 3310, Ericsson R320
2001		Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Game Cube		Nokia 5510, Nokia 8310, Ericsson T39, Ericsson T66, Ericsson T68, Siemens S45
2002	World Club Champion Football			Nokia 3510(i), Nokia 7650, Sony Ericsson P800, Nokis 6100, Nokia 6310i
2003				Nokia 1100, Nokia N-Gage, PalmOne Treo 600, Nokia 2100, Nokia 6600, BlackBerry Quark 6210, BlackBerry 7210
2004		Atari Flashback		Motorola Razor V3, Sony Ericsson P910, Nokia 3220, Nokia 7280
2005	Sangokushi Taisen	Xbox 360		Nokia 1110, HTC Universal, Motorola RAZR V3 Magenta, HTC TyTN 100, O2 XDA Flame
2006		Play Station 3, Nintendo Wii
2007				iPhone, HTC Touch, Motorola Q9H, LG Shine, LG Viewty
2008				iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold, HTC Touch Diamond
2009				BlackBerry Curve 8900, LG Versa, LG Xenon	all-digital television viewing
2010			iPad	Apple iPhone 4, HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Legend,
2011		Nintendo 3DS		Apple iPhone 4S, HTC Inspire 4G
2012	Gunslinger Stratos	Sony PS Vita, Nintendo Wii U		Nokia Lumia 900, Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, iPhone 5
2013		Playstation 4 Xbox One		iPhone 5S, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4

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References

(Nintendo Logo) http://etgeekera.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nintendo-mario-logo.jpg
(Sony Logo) http://geforce3d.net/Gallery/v/2207-1/sony_logo.jpg
(Microsoft Logo) http://danilett.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Microsoft-Logo.jpeg

(Arcade Picture) http://bouncyvibe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/RetroArcade1.jpg

(Gaming PC)http://cdn3.pcadvisor.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3414408/gaming_pcs_buying_advice.jpg

(Angry Birds iPhone)http://cdn2.www.babble.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/5963e7a73542d48c7ed3f2d258e5294e.jpg

(3D Television)http://www.conceptpersonnel.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/3d-tv.jpg

(Unfolding 201" TV)http://www.ftp-sgpartners.net/tdceu/uploads/uploaded/C_Seed2.JPG
(Pros and Cons of a console) http://www.denofgeek.com/games/11924/is-console-gaming-really-better-than-pc-gaming
(Pros and Cons of a PC) http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/article/1661/Compare_the_Pros_and_Cons_of_Buying_an_Apple_Versus_a_PC