Game Storage Medium

 There are two types of Game consoles those that use cartridges and those that use compact disks/blue-ray disks. Two known users that use both of these storage data are the Sony Playstation series and the Nintendo Series.
      

The reason why the consoles change there storage medium is because cartridges are very expensive to keep upgrading the memory in them so both sony and nintendo worked together to introduce the compact disks as a new medium but nintendo back out of the compact disk idea because they thought it wouldn't be popular but sony kept to it and introduced the original Playstation 1 and Nintendo are best known for their Handheld games such as the gameboy colour, advance and DS/3DS. The playstation series became more advanced with there CD-ROMS such as the playstation 3 game disks are on a Blue ray disk and the playstation portable storage is a small disk inside of a protective case.

Over the years from the simple tapes to catridges to now disks; people have found ways and new technologies to pirating the game data. The tapes where simply copied by coping the data onto another tape by using a tape recorder machine, disks were pirated from placing the data from one storage device to the disk such as music and films or simply documents.

hardware and software technology

Interface devices

Interface devices are hardware which you can use to control or use the computer or gaming console such as in your computer you can use your mouse to access all sorts of software programs and for gaming consoles you can use your gaming pad to control and play your game and character as you go through a story.

There are a massive amounts of interface Devices all over the world to be used in all sorts of ways such as the mouse which is used for accessing programs inside of a PC, Gaming Pads and joysticks to be used for gaming, Remote control for switching over the television channel and tampering with the sounds and lighting and motion sensor devices which is used for mostly for gaming such as the xbox kinect, Playstation eyetoy and move and Nintendo Wii though sky has combined with Microsoft to add sky programs onto the xbox and to be used on the Kinect device as you no longer need a Remote to tamper with the configurations.

The PlayStation 1 and 2 Interface devices are both the PlayStation gaming pad, the eye toy and a Dance mat are also interface devices which you can use to play certain games on all the playstation consoles. 

The Xbox 360 interfaces are the Xbox 360 Gaming pad which is played on all games minus the Kinect games, The kinect is another Interface device which is exactly like the nintendo wii interface and eyetoy fpr the playstation 2 where a sensor picks up your hand movements and you can play certain games that befit that and also you can watch sky player and change the channel and so on with the kinect just by moving your hand across the screen. 

Nintendo Wii is a nintendo made console that plays all the famous nintendo classics and other brand games. The interfaces for the Wii is a Wii remote that responds to the wii sensor as the wii remote responds to the gameplay of all the wii games. The wii has other interface devices

The Saga Overdrive interfaces is the saga control pad only as that is a very early console series so all of the overdrives games the gaming pad only.

CPU

The CPU stands for Central Porcessing Unit, its purpose inside of the computer tower with the motherboard is to process all the data and makes sure everything such as renders of images, animations, video output and any other type of program to work effortlessly as you go from program to program.

The CPU or processor for short is located in the center of the motherboard in both the Personal Computer and that of a gaming console itself. (since i can not add arrows onto blogger to show where the processors are i will tell you that the processors on these two jpeg images are located; for the blue one literally in the middle the silver square and for the green motherboard it is located on the left hand side of the big fan).  

 A central Processing Unit works as a helper for the motherboard as the motherboard gives power and cobines all of the components to work as one the processor will make computer hardware perform better and more perficient such as the graphics card will help the videos you watch or the games you play but it is down to the processor to help that performance and make it seem the graphics card seem it is a lot better than it actually seems. In these two images are 2 different processors

 What determines the power of a CPU is?

The playstation and playstation 3 CPU are both the same thing but the ps3 CPU is far stronger since it deals in high resolution gaming such as Computer Generated Images(CGI).The Ps2 Does 6.2 megaflop whilst the ps3 did 2.18 gigaflop.            

CPUs have upgraded for years since they was  first introduced in the 1980s from a single core all the way to a quad core CPU. What this means is if you had a single core processor than that processor can only do 1 operation at a time so over the years the processors have been increased by adding a second processor onto the 1 one to make it a multiple core with better clock speed to boot which means the pc would go faster and do twice as much stuff and so on till the latest quad core CPU.

GPU






A GPU is a Graphics Card and oversees everything you see and how the quality is within that graphics card. Whatever you see on a tv screen it is thanks to GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) either it is from a graphics card from the gaming console or from the graphics card from the Personal Computer.
The difference from a CPU and a GPU is that a central Processing Unit is pretty much the brains of the computer such as it helps circulate the data and helps all the components work together to make the console/computer to work. The Graphics processing Unit tells the computer that there is video quality on the graphics card and if you have a television plugged into your console or PC the screen will pop up with what the graphics card is telling the television to show.
The simularities to both the GPU and CPU is that they both respond to coding or C++ language and there for the data or binary (01001010110101) will transfer all around the computer to tell each component that they will do this and will correspond with the sound card to make visuals and sound work simultaneously. A graphics Pipeline is basically a randerizing renderer that deals in 3 Dimensional  primitives as input in other words it will make sure that the pixels in the 3D model and plane are rendered perfectly and smoothly without fault.














MEMORY

RAM stands for Random Access Memory
The reason why Random is needed in a gaming console is because like a Personal Computer it is used for the game speed such as the games on a pc and console will run smoothly and quickly with the loading times depending on the memory of the RAM. The problem however is that Consoles only have a small amount of ram such as a PS3 has 256mb of RAM and a Nintendo WII has 24mb of Video RAM (VRAM) and 64 mb of DDR3 RAM, so if a PC had anything of these amound of mega bytes to play a game then it will not work as a console is purely based around gaming whilst the PC has many different uses for that persific RAM from the graphics card and CPU.
The reason why the ram has it's own memory, the graphics card has its own memory along with a hard drive/SanDisk Drives is because RAM is based on how fast your console/PC can "think" and a HDD/SDD is based on how much data/games your pc/game console can store. The graphics card is different as it uses RAM memory all built into the graphics card itself, the reason for this is because the graphics card is built to show what is on the screen of your monitor/television so it will need a DDR3 chip to keep consistancy such as no lag time and to hold the information of the video or game itself depending on what viewport the game or video is in such as if the game was first person view it will only show what the character will see and change the binary to calculate what the graphics will be next when the character moves his head (camera moves).

     



Handheld gaming platform

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_game_console
Timeline




The handheld gaming console didn't come around till 1970s these devices were called tabletop electronic game device which came out in 1972 they are also known as a non video electronic game. One of these tabletop games is the waco's electronic tic tac toe.







In 1976 Michael Katz a marketing director told hos engineers to make a calculator sized sports game which came to be known as autorace where you race on the device itself. A football version came out soon after.











In 1979 the Milton Bradley Company invented the Microvision which is another gaming device that plays multiple games the first game to come out was a game called block buster where you bounce a pixel which is a ball and you have to break other puxels which represent bricks.

In 1980 Nintendo got on the bandwaggon by making the nintendo game and watch which he thought of in 1979 as he saw a man play with his calculator on the speedtrain. The game and watch or G and W for short made 4 games in 1980 called ball,flagman, vermin, fire and judge.






In 1982 Bandai came to the portable gaming hype by introducing the Bandia LCD solarpower the game that is most mentioned for this portable console is Terror House which is a horror 2D game.








In 1989 and 1990 in the UK the Gameboy Original was made and became poplular as it sold over 1 million copies roughly at the end of the yeat of it's release.









In 1990 for Japan and 1991 in europe the Saga gamegear was released his saga hand held and it was made to be a portable version of the saga Overdrive as you can see from the game being played on the saga handheld.





In 1995 the saga nomad is a more updated version of the saga game gear such as it can play all of the saga games regardless of region and it was believed to have touch screen until the devolopers realised it would cost over £250 when being sold on the shelves so the idea was scrapped.







In 1998 the Game boy Colour came out which means it took 8 years for Nintendo to upgrade from the original to the colour. As the name says this new version of the gameboy has colour unlike the original which is a low poly black and white version.












In 2001 the Gameboy Advance was released which is 3 years after the colour came out. The gameboy advance is a little more advanced then colour when it comes to the battery power but unlike the colour the advance hasn't cot a LED connection to connect to online players for games such as pokemon etc.





In 2002 the N-gage is both considered a Mobile Phone and a gaming device which is made by Nokia Phone company. This console/Phone was the first combanation.




In 2004 the Nintedo DS was released with a new range of touchscreen along with the two screen displays to operate with but the bottom screen is touchscreen only. The cartridge is a little different to the gameboys type and can't support thier cartridges as it will not fit or even work.







In 2005 the first Playstation Portable was released as the very first Portable gaming for the Playstation as it is a more improved version as the PS2 but it has even worse graphics then the PS2 and uses it's own type of gaming cartridge but as a disk inside of a case this type of cartridge is called a UMD (Universal Media Disk).


The Psp GO is the second version of Playsyation Portable as it is a new look to the psp and doesn't support UMDs but only runs on internal memory which means you need to buy the games of the Playstation store. The GO was discontinued early on after it's release because they wanted to concentrate more on there new Handheld so the product was dicontinued in both europe and japan and only available in america.




The Nintendo 3DS was released on Febuary 2011 and became a new generation of handheld gaming as it is the first handheld to support the 3D visual which would only be for Cinema (filming). The Nintendo is designed exactly like the original DS as it uses the same type of DS Cartridges so it supports original DS games and uses a stylus for the touchscreen. Even now the 3DS is at the top of the list when handhelds are concerened.




The Playstation Vita was released in Febuary 22nd 2012 and it the top range of the playstation portable versions. The vista like the 3DS supports touchscreen and a front and back camera. This handheld has two analog sticks which is new to the handheld franchise which makes it easier for certain types of games. It also a very good tool for internet use as it can support either 3G or wifi depending on your buy. The touchscreen unlike the 3DS is very different as you can touch the back of the handheld and the front of the screen and it effects what goes on in the game. The problem with Vita is that at the beginning it did not support PS2 or PS1 as they are not compatable and you can not play PSP UMDs as it is also not compatable as vita has it's own type of UMD but can be bought and played via the playstation Store.

Playstation Timeline

The Sony computer entertainment company created the Playstation console series From Play Station 1 to 3 along with the portable version of PSP (Playstation Portable) and PSP Vita.


1994 is the year that the first playstation was released to the public all over the world which made a huge impact as it was played with disks and not cartridges and the graphics was more improved then that of nintendo and and saga. The Playstation 1 had over 100 million units which was sold all over the world in over 9 years, it is also noted that the playstation 1 is easily chipped by removing only the spring inside of the disk holder. The Playstation 1 slim was created in the year 2000 which was a different look from the original, it had a different start up menu, a better protection from being chipped and a lack of parallel and serial ports.

The Playstation 2 was released all over the world in the year of 2000 which is a bigger and fatter version of the Playstation 1 and in the colour of black instead of grey. The playstation 2 plays DVD films and music CDs, it also plays better graphic resolution games unlike it's predecessor which are DVD ROM disks. Just like the Playstation 1 the playstation 2 also has a slim version which is said to be a lot faster in memory than the original which was released in 2004. The slim even though it is a smaller, thiner and a quieter version to it's original it overheats within a few hours of use as the fan inside is too small and not as powerful as the original PS2.

The Playstation Portable was released the same year as the Playstation 2 slim in 2004 and is the first Portable gaming console to be made for the playstation. The PSP is the first Portable gaming to have games being played by a small disk called a Universal Media Disk (UMD for short) instead of a cartridge and  it is modeled to look like the Playstation 3 as you can see the home screen. Over the years that the original was made they started to make more versions of the PSP such as the slim 2000 and 3000 which are exactly the same but the 2000 is a slimmer and light version and the 3000 has a built in microphone for certain games that require it.


In 2009 the PSP GO was released but unlike its predecessors' the Go doesn't have a UMD drive. To buy games you have to purchase them online in the playstation store. To keep up with people buying games and storing the game data on the GO they improved on the memory cards and internal memories to store and hold so much memory such as 16 gig of flash memory and has a max memory of 32 Gig.

In 2012 the PSP Vita was released and is on Par with the 3DS max as this is the first playstation touchscreen. The Vita is the latest of PSP series and supports a new kind of UMDs and can't support the old ones but can still play old PSP games but via the playstation store. The vita has better graphics then its predecessors and improves on the graphics of the old games and has new and better functions such has two duel sticks, it has better internet capacity as it is compatable with 3G Motion sensor just like that of the playstation 3, able to combine with your PS3 such as if you pause the game on your ps3 you can carry on on your Vita and also play against players on the PS3, it has a front and rear camera for a simulated fighting as a perfect avatar of yourself fights another avatar of someone else. The only bad quality as of yet for Vita is that if yuo buy the 3G bundle then everytime you use an online feature such as checking the leaderboards or playing a game online and even using the GPS will cost you money because you are using the signal which 3G uses the radio wave signal that transmits to phones.

The Playstation 3 is the the second to last of Playstation consoles and the most formiddable as of yet as the console is built for lots of things such as music, movies, gaming and most of all online chatting. The gaming side is more advanced then the playstation 1, 2 and portable as the ram and graphic memory is that of a gaming computer. The PS3 has made 2 types of slims such as the first playstatopn slim seen on the right of the original ps3 and the new PS3 slim which has just come out this year. The both slim was made with twice as much memory as the original and far smaller then the original. They also improved on the RAM and internal memory to access the internet better.  

 

 

 

The playstation 4 is soon to come out in winter 2013 and is the latest in all the playstation series of consoles and hardware. The Playstation 4 has taken a massive leap just like the xbox to be something closer to that of a PC as games are now stored on the cloud storage even though they both have 500gb of HDD. What the cloud storage means is that it is more skype based as you can talk to friends whilst playing your PS4 game and even record your game and edit the footage to be uploaded onto youtube or anywhere on the internet. The PSV or PS Vita is very well connected to the PS4 as the PSV is more adept to the better graphical games and the PS4 was centered around the PSV aswell.

 

 

Personal Gaming Computers

Personal Computers  http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=cmptr  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_game
Personal computers are basicly a computer which you use for your own personal use and only you can use that computer one at a time. They evolved primeraly for military, scientific,governemnt and business use as they are the ones who needed it the most for there daily use in information gathering and intel and because it cost a massice amount of money to aquire one. Over the years for personal computers the cost to purchase one became a lot less to what it costs to have them now so over time as the personal computer came into existance universities, small business and homes where starting to pay to have them up until today where computers are a big thing in everyday life either if it is socialising on websites, making documents on business programs, improving on artwork on artistic programs and even gaming from a gaming PC disk.

Personal computers as i have stated before can play 3D enviroment games which would usually just be on a gaming console but this generation of computers are now distributed into three sections: some computers are business made computers which is strictly for programs such as microsoft office to make documents, presentations and mathamatical aquations, the other type of computer is a purely gaming computer which is good to make games, play games watch good quality videos and clip scenes. The last type of computer is a home based computer is is a mash of both business and Gaming where you can do work and play games but not as great as the business or gaming model.


Gaming in computers is exactly like playing on a console weither you want to use a gaming pad or use your qwerty keyboard and mouse. Most people are compfortable playing with their QWERTY keyboards and mouse instead of a pad and can manage the strain that gaming pads make easy.


Personal Gaming Computers have became quite popular since Apple brought out the mac in 1984 as it is the first computer to come with a mouse. In 1998 the IMAC came out worldwide and became an even more success as it was more powerful then a lot of the computers out there as it was built with more memory and more graphic capacity even though it was very expensive to most as the price ranged to £1000 or more.

Even though there is a ton of different brand and make PCs the PC will always be customizable and always upgradable if you know how to. With the help of many types of hardware components such as graphics card, sound card, processor, the motherboard and even the computer case you can build your PC in any direction you want such as if you want to make it a game based pc, an office based computer or if you are simply an enthusiast (someone who wants simply the best components for either wor or play). PCs are versitile and fragile on the software side or even the hardware side such as if you get a virus from a program or internet site, or if your components are either old and losing fuctionality or if you acciddently hit your PC.

 










How the PC is different from a gaming console is because the PC was built for a ton of fuctions whilst the gaming console was built for simply gaming and entertainment. The PC has to handle the binary code (0101011) for all kinds of application such as the anti-virus and many of the computers many software as well as the PCs hardware such as the processor, graphics card and the rest of the components. The gaming console only has a small bit to code as all the hardware is specifically made for the entertainment side such as gaming itself. The memory of both machines tells you a lot as well as consoles only need a small amount of ram such as Nintendo Wii has only 24MB of ram and 64MB of VRAM, the playstation 3 has 256mb of both ram and vram so if any PC has these ram sizes then the PC will lag constantly in whatever it is that you do as it needs all of its memory for everything that is stored on the PC and for the PC to run smoothly and effortlessly. Even though PCs arn't considered competitive with gaming consoles is because PCs can easily be upgraded whenever you please such as get a more powerful and better graphics card such as the reason why PC game graphics are far better than the latest consoles and consoles can't as they are intergrated into the gaming motherboard itself and would damage and destroy the console if you attemped to change or remove the hardware.