Hey Everyone!
I thought today I would talk about the good and the bad when it comes to arcade platforms and consoles.
Now we all know how much we love consoles and arcade games. If you didn't then you probably wouldn't be reading this! I remember hearing stories from my parents about when they used to go to the arcade and compete with their friends to see who could get the best scores on Q*bert or Pac-man.
But its not to say that arcade games were the best, because the fondest memories I had are of when I first got a Playstation 1 which my was got by exchanging cookery books with our next-door neighbour. I used to play Spyro and Crash Banicoot on it for hours until 1 was told to go outside instead. Even though everyone has good memories with these platforms like everything.... they have faults.
So seeing as I have already mentioned the PS1 lets start from there shall we. Sony released their playstation 1 in 1994 and in the first four months it sold o.85 million and now over all it has sold 102,490,000 console units in total plus with having sold 962,000,000 game units, its top selling game being Gran Turismo.
When it was first released everyone who had the playstation loved it,and Critics praised the console for the quality of its 3-dimensional graphics. However for the time the price of it wasn't the cheapest which was one of its problems like nowadays each time something new comes out the price is just so extortionate its crazy take the playstation 4 for example when that first came out it was costing £400 and now a year or so on and its still over the £300 mark. to get the latest gadgets you have to have the money. There has only been proper hardware problems when it comes to the playstation 3 and its tendency for swallowing up CD's/ Disks never to be returned unless you wanted to take the chance of opening it up and retrieving it yourself. However apart from that the playstation 3 did have its good points with the ability to change the hard drive and it did have great graphics quality, plus people were happy because it was family friendly with a built in Blu ray player.
Now, playstation isn't just know for its well created consoles it also created the strangest and more random adverts which would just make you question things, but then I guess that was the idea right? To try and get you to look into what they were doing and to get you intrigued. I mean not only did they have you wondering what they were doing they also had well known people advertise there games too, to make people think "wow! okay then seeing as they're playing it I want to as well".
Microsoft is next on our list and we'll be talking about the Xbox.
Okay so the original xbox never really had any problems, they were pretty chunky/ bulky but to be honest that's all that was the problem. Unlike the 360 which was where all the problems started to arise. Since the 360 people have always associated the Xbox with having problems like the "Red ring of death"(RROD) which everyone who owned one would pray they wouldn't have to deal with. There was also the thing of comparing it to the Playstation 3 and you wouldn't be able to play blu-rays on it as it didn't have the support for that which meant that there was limited family use. However in the respect of multi player gaming its online support, Xbox Live, was and always has been alot better than the playstation because there is always more people online and there is just a wider Xbox community. The only problem with Xbox Live is the fact that you have to pay for it, but with that subscription you also get discounts and free games which can be quite new to the market.
More recently with the Xbox one however, people have been frustrated at the fact that its not possible to play their beloved Xbox 360 games on their new console because its not compatible. The early releases of the PS3 allowed you to play your PS2 games on it but unfortunately with the more updated ones that function was gone. Other problems that people have complained about is the kinect and how sensitive the microphone is and it usually didn't understand the command you were giving it so most of the time its actually easier to use a controller and do it yourself then talking to the Xbox. However, there is one good function that Microsoft added to the One which is the "snap" tool. This allows you to "snap" an app alongside something else, so you could be on the internet whilst being on a game to try and overcome an obstacle so its like multitasking but on a console instead,
Entering the realms of Nintendo with their Wii console. Can we all just firstly agree on the fact that Nintendo has always been quite a family friendly company, with their famicom which from 1986 to 2003 sold over 4.44 million units and their more recent console the Wii which since its release has sold over 101.44 million units worldwide. The Wii has always had positive feedback, to start with it had the classic games including Zelda, Super Mario and Donkey Kong, but not only did it have good games it was something created for more of a casual gamer so there was nothing to tie you down to playing all the time as you could just have a quick play and then turn it off again if you didn't feel like playing it again. There was the problem however of people breaking household objects by not having the remote strap on and then they would fling it across the room. This obviously isnt Nintendo's fault because each time you either start up the Wii or a game of the Wii then it would warn you to keep the remote strap on at all times to stop anything from happening, but obviously people don't listen.
I mean once I did smack my sister over the head with the remote which led her to fall off the sofa and be concussed but I would like to add I did win the game so it was all for a good cause. But what I'm getting at is that Nintendo has never really made anything with a proper error to it and their products are mainly for the casual gamer but its good stuff and there isnt much to be complaining about, so if you're after that kind of stuff then you should totally go for it.
The great thing about having a console at home meant that you could always play it whenever you wanted, you could change the games too and you weren't tided down to just one. Also with the Prices too it was the thing of you just having to pay once and then playing it to your hearts content instead of paying a little and then only getting a few minutes and then paying a little again to get longer.
That was one of the problems with Arcade platforms.
Arcade games were always great, but only if you had the money and time to go to them. They were a great place to meet new people and socialise with existing friends and compete with others but the problem was that once consoles became a thing then arcades almost became redundant. It was the type of thing where if your friend had a console then you would meet up and go to their house to play because it was easier instead of going out to the arcade and playing games there. Plus when consoles were new it was really cool if you knew someone who had one as it was such a different thing to be able to play video games at home instead of going out.
Another problem with arcade machines is that they would cost alot to manufacture just for one game, whereas with consoles you just have to create the console then mass produce the games which saves money and materials. For the time that they were more favoured they were great but as soon as consoles became the craze arcade machines became less fashionable.
So thats that, hope you've enjoyed reading, until next time
Fairwinds fellow internet travellers
Kristine
I thought today I would talk about the good and the bad when it comes to arcade platforms and consoles.
Now we all know how much we love consoles and arcade games. If you didn't then you probably wouldn't be reading this! I remember hearing stories from my parents about when they used to go to the arcade and compete with their friends to see who could get the best scores on Q*bert or Pac-man.
But its not to say that arcade games were the best, because the fondest memories I had are of when I first got a Playstation 1 which my was got by exchanging cookery books with our next-door neighbour. I used to play Spyro and Crash Banicoot on it for hours until 1 was told to go outside instead. Even though everyone has good memories with these platforms like everything.... they have faults.
So seeing as I have already mentioned the PS1 lets start from there shall we. Sony released their playstation 1 in 1994 and in the first four months it sold o.85 million and now over all it has sold 102,490,000 console units in total plus with having sold 962,000,000 game units, its top selling game being Gran Turismo.
When it was first released everyone who had the playstation loved it,and Critics praised the console for the quality of its 3-dimensional graphics. However for the time the price of it wasn't the cheapest which was one of its problems like nowadays each time something new comes out the price is just so extortionate its crazy take the playstation 4 for example when that first came out it was costing £400 and now a year or so on and its still over the £300 mark. to get the latest gadgets you have to have the money. There has only been proper hardware problems when it comes to the playstation 3 and its tendency for swallowing up CD's/ Disks never to be returned unless you wanted to take the chance of opening it up and retrieving it yourself. However apart from that the playstation 3 did have its good points with the ability to change the hard drive and it did have great graphics quality, plus people were happy because it was family friendly with a built in Blu ray player.
Now, playstation isn't just know for its well created consoles it also created the strangest and more random adverts which would just make you question things, but then I guess that was the idea right? To try and get you to look into what they were doing and to get you intrigued. I mean not only did they have you wondering what they were doing they also had well known people advertise there games too, to make people think "wow! okay then seeing as they're playing it I want to as well".
Microsoft is next on our list and we'll be talking about the Xbox.
Okay so the original xbox never really had any problems, they were pretty chunky/ bulky but to be honest that's all that was the problem. Unlike the 360 which was where all the problems started to arise. Since the 360 people have always associated the Xbox with having problems like the "Red ring of death"(RROD) which everyone who owned one would pray they wouldn't have to deal with. There was also the thing of comparing it to the Playstation 3 and you wouldn't be able to play blu-rays on it as it didn't have the support for that which meant that there was limited family use. However in the respect of multi player gaming its online support, Xbox Live, was and always has been alot better than the playstation because there is always more people online and there is just a wider Xbox community. The only problem with Xbox Live is the fact that you have to pay for it, but with that subscription you also get discounts and free games which can be quite new to the market. More recently with the Xbox one however, people have been frustrated at the fact that its not possible to play their beloved Xbox 360 games on their new console because its not compatible. The early releases of the PS3 allowed you to play your PS2 games on it but unfortunately with the more updated ones that function was gone. Other problems that people have complained about is the kinect and how sensitive the microphone is and it usually didn't understand the command you were giving it so most of the time its actually easier to use a controller and do it yourself then talking to the Xbox. However, there is one good function that Microsoft added to the One which is the "snap" tool. This allows you to "snap" an app alongside something else, so you could be on the internet whilst being on a game to try and overcome an obstacle so its like multitasking but on a console instead,
I mean once I did smack my sister over the head with the remote which led her to fall off the sofa and be concussed but I would like to add I did win the game so it was all for a good cause. But what I'm getting at is that Nintendo has never really made anything with a proper error to it and their products are mainly for the casual gamer but its good stuff and there isnt much to be complaining about, so if you're after that kind of stuff then you should totally go for it.
That was one of the problems with Arcade platforms.
Arcade games were always great, but only if you had the money and time to go to them. They were a great place to meet new people and socialise with existing friends and compete with others but the problem was that once consoles became a thing then arcades almost became redundant. It was the type of thing where if your friend had a console then you would meet up and go to their house to play because it was easier instead of going out to the arcade and playing games there. Plus when consoles were new it was really cool if you knew someone who had one as it was such a different thing to be able to play video games at home instead of going out.
Another problem with arcade machines is that they would cost alot to manufacture just for one game, whereas with consoles you just have to create the console then mass produce the games which saves money and materials. For the time that they were more favoured they were great but as soon as consoles became the craze arcade machines became less fashionable. So thats that, hope you've enjoyed reading, until next time
Fairwinds fellow internet travellers
Kristine
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