Thursday 12 March 2015

Unit 20: Computer Game Platforms and Technologies

Assessment 1: Game Platform Types

Nintendo Wii


CPU: The system has a processing unit of PowerPC-based Broadway processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, reportedly clocked at 729 MHz

GPU:  The system uses the ATI Hollywood GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process, reportedly clocked at 243 MHz

RAM: 88 MB main memory (24 MB internal 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB external GDDR3 SDRAM). 3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and frame buffer.

Memory Storage:  512 MB built-in NAND flash memory, Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 32 GB), Nintendo GameCube memory card (required for GameCube game saves), Slot-loading disc drive, compatible with 8 cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc, Mask ROM by Macronix.

Size and Portability : 44 mm (1.73 in) wide, 157 mm (6.18 in) tall and 215.4 mm (8.48 in) deep in its vertical orientation, slightly larger than three DVD cases stacked together. The system weighs 1.2 kg (2.7 lbs.), which makes it the lightest of the three major seventh-generation consoles.

Game Library: 1359 games planned or released. Wii Sports sold a total of 82.54 million copies worldwide. It has since become the bestselling game of all time.

Series: This home console is the successor to the Nintendo GameCube and acts as the predecessor to the Nintendo Wii U.

Unique Point: The motion controls of this console is what makes it unique. The motion controls coupled with incredibly fun games such as Wii Sport and No More Heroes have kept Nintendo at the top of the video game console market.

Limitations: The console is not as powerful as its same gen counterparts. The controller is made to play motion based games so it is not ideal for use as a conventional gamepad.

Rating: Personally I think the Nintendo Wii is a very innovative console and the motion controls, although not perfect, are revolutionary. It does however suffer because of its inferior GPU and CPU and so has a less than stellar game library.

Nintendo WiiU:


CPU: The Wii U uses a custom multi-chip module (MCM) developed by AMD, IBM and Renesas in co-operation with Nintendo IRD and Nintendo Technology Development. The MCM combines an "Espresso" central processing unit (CPU) and a "Latte" graphics chip (GPU), as well as a SEEPROM memory chip. The Espresso CPU, designed by IBM, consists of a PowerPC 750-based tri-core processor with 3 MB of shared L2 cache memory and clocked at approximately 1.24 GHz.

GPU: The Latte graphics chip contains both a "GX2" GPGPU, which runs Wii U applications, and a "GX" GPU, which enables backwards-compatibility with Wii games. The GX2, designed by AMD, is based on the Radeon R600/R700 architecture and is clocked at approximately 550 MHz.

RAM: The console contains 2 GB of DDR3 system memory consisting of four 512 MB (4 Gb) DRAM chips with a maximum bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s.

Hard Drive Memory: The console includes either an 8 GB (Basic) or 32 GB (Premium (WW) / Deluxe (NA)) internal eMMC flash memory, expandable via SD memory cards up to 32 GB and USB external hard disk drives up to 2 TB.

Size and Portability: Dimensions 6 x 1.75 x 8.5 inches. Weight : 2.65 lb. Again this console does not have a portable battery so would require mains connection to be used. Therefore its portability is limited.

Series: Nintendo is a massively successful company that creates video game consoles and games. Nintendo have released several different video game consoles throughout the years, but the Nintendo WiiU is a direct sequel to the largely successful Nintendo Wii.

Unique Point: The WiiU features an interactive controller much like the Nintendo DS drawing pad. It is used to interact with many of the games on the WiiU and adds a unique feel to games such as New Super Mario Bros where the player using the gamepad can create platforms for the other players to jump on.

Game Library: There are currently 457 games planned or released for the Nintendo WiiU. Nintendo has a very strong library of console exclusive games such as New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda, etc. The highest selling games for the console are: New Super Mario Bros. U - 4.16 million. Nintendo Land - 3.09 million. Super Mario 3D World - 2.17 million.

Limitations and Rating: The Nintendo WiiU console has a less powerful CPU and GPU than its generation counterparts. This means that the WiiU cannot play games that are very CPU or GPU demanding such as Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. It is not as expensive as other consoles of the same generation but it is still a lot of money at around £160 pounds for the basic console. I think this is too much money for the limited game library on the system.

Nintendo 3DS:


CPU: The main processor (CPU) is a ARM11 MPCore-based dual-core processor manufactured at 45 nm. One processor core is dedicated to games and applications, while the other core is exclusive to the operating system, enabling multitasking and background tasks. These tasks are handled seamlessly in the background during gameplay or while the system is in sleep mode. The system also contains a single-core ARM9 processor, enabling backwards compatibility with Nintendo DS games.

GPU: The graphics processor (GPU) is developed by Digital Media Professionals, and consists of a semi-custom PICA200 processor.

RAM: The system contains a total of 128 MB of system memory consisting of two 64 MB (512 Mb) FCRAM chips developed by Fujitsu, with a maximum bandwidth of 3.2 GB/s. However, 32 MB are reserved for the operating system and unavailable to games. Additionally, the system contains 6 MB of VRAM.

Storage Memory: The system includes 1 GB of internal flash memory manufactured by Toshiba, but it is mostly used by the operating system and its pre-installed applications. The system's memory can be expanded via an SD memory card slot, which supports up to 128 GB SDXC memory cards.

Unique Point: The Nintendo DS series uses two screens. One of these screens is a touchpad and is incorporated with many popular games such as Art Academy, Cooking Ma’ma, Nintendogs etc. The top screen is able to produce a three-dimensional effect without the need of 3D-enabling glasses using a parallax barrier.

Game Library: There are currently 612 games planned or released for the Nintendo 3DS, however the 3DS is backwards compatible with its predecessors so there are actually many more games available for the console. The Nintendo 3DS shares similar exclusivity with the Nintendo WiiU with games such as Pokemon and Mario Kart. The highest selling games for the console are 1. Pokémon X/Y-10.9 million 2. Mario Kart 7-9.4 million 3. Super Mario 3D Land-9.4 million.

Series: This console is the latest in a long line of Nintendo consoles. This line includes: Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS lite, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DS XL, Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL. This line is also the successor to the popular Game Boy line of portable consoles.

Limitations and Rating: Being a handheld console, the Nintendo 3DS has less powerful hardware than less portable consoles. This limits things such as graphical quality, objects rendered, etc. For example, if you ported a game over from Xbox One to Nintendo 3DS it would have to be scaled down drastically to be run properly.

PlayStation:


HCI:
Based on the button system of the Super NES controller, but added a second pair of shoulder buttons for easier navigation of a 3d environment. Uses a 12 button layout, arrow keys, shoulder buttons and triangle, square, circle and X buttons along with a start and select function buttons. Later models (dual shock) introduced two analogue sticks to control movement and camera view.

CPU: 32-Bit RISC CPU with 5KB L1 cache, running at 33.8688 MHz

GPU: 32-bit Sony GPU, 1MB 256×448 to 640×480 pixel resolution Maximum colour depth of 16,777,216 colours

Size & portability: 1.77 x 10.24 x 7.28” 3.97 lbs

RAM: 2 MB main DRAM 4 kB instruction Cache 1 kB non-associative SRAM data cache

Storage Memory: 1MB per memory card

Games available: 7918 game titles on this platform. Some famous exclusives being, crash bandicoot, spyro, metal gear solid and gran turismo.

Limitations: Originally didn’t have analogue sticks to have more than 4 directional movement. No longer has release gamed for this platform. No connectivity to other consoles or the internet, only coop play. Outdated hardware.

PlayStation 2:


HCI: Dual shock 2 PlayStation controller

CPU: Processor: MIPS-based "R5900" clocked at 294.912 MHz, 64-bit

GPU:  "Graphics Synthesizer"(GS) clocked at 147.456 MHz, 4 MB Resolution from 256 x 224 to 1920 x 1080

Size & portability: 11.9, 3.1, 7.2” 4.9 lbs

RAM: 32 MB

Storage Memory: 8mb memory card

Games available: 1,850

Limitations: No longer has games released for this platform. Can only display at 480p. Outdated hardware. Not able to download digital copies of games.

PlayStation3:


HCI: Dual shock 3 PlayStation controller

CPU: The PS3 uses the Cell microprocessor, which is made up of one 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based "Power Processing Element" and six accessible Synergistic Processing Elements. A seventh runs in a special mode and is dedicated to aspects of the OS and security.

GPU: The RSX, based on the NVIDIA G70

Size & portability: 32.5, 9.8, 27.4cm

RAM: 256MB

Memory Storage: 60MB – 500mb

Games available: 812 games (multi-platform: 644; exclusive: 150; console exclusive: 11)

Limitations: Had issues with overheating.

Playstation 4:


The central processing unit (CPU) consists of two x86-64 quad-core modules for a total of eight cores, which are based on the Jaguar CPU architecture from AMD. Each core has 32 kB L1 instruction and data caches, with one shared 2 MB L2 cache per four core module. The CPU's base clock speed is said to be 1.6 GHz, with an unknown uptick in speed for CPU-intensive usage.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is AMD's GPGPU-capable Radeon GCN architecture, consisting of 18 compute units (CUs) for a total of 1,152 cores (64 cores per CU), that produces a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOPS. This processing power can be used for graphics, physics simulation, or a combination of the two, or any other tasks suited for general purpose compute. It is a customized version of AMD's 7870 GPU, with 2 CUs disabled.

RAM : The PS4 contains a total of 8 GiB (16×4 Gbit (512 MiB) memory chips) of GDDR5 unified system memory, and is capable of running at a maximum clock frequency of 2.75 GHz (5500 MT/s) with a maximum bandwidth of 176 GB/s. This is 16 times the amount of RAM found in the PS3 and is expected to give the console considerable longevity. The unified memory architecture allows the CPU and GPU to access a consolidated memory, removing the need for separate, dedicated memory pools.

Audio Processing Unit: Sharing the die with the rest of the components of the APU, is a Digital signal processing SIP block that is either identical to AMD TrueAudio or shares a certain amount of similarities with it.

Hard Drive Memory: The console includes a 500 GB hard drive, which can be upgraded by the user.

Size and Portability: Dimensions: 2.09 x 10.83 x 12.01 inches. Weight: 6.17 lb = 2.8 Kilograms. The PlayStation 4 requires a mains power connection to run as it does not have an internal battery. This limits its portability as it is both rather cumbersome and would need at least 80W of power at its minimum setting.

Series: The PlayStation 4 is part of the highly successful PlayStation range. This includes the massively successful PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 4 is the successor to the previous PlayStation consoles and is the most technically impressive. It does not feature backwards compatibility and has its own PlayStation 4 Dualshock controller, named the Dualshock 4. See the next section for information on the Playstation 3.

Game Library: There are currently 448 games for the in production and released. This consists of 178 that are available to play. The highest selling game for the console to date is Killzone: Shadow Fall at 2.1 million and was sold with the game console. The second highest selling game for the PlayStation 4 is Infamous Second Son at 1 million.

Limitations and Rating: This console is part of the next generation of consoles so the hardware is supposed to be top of the line. However, it is not as powerful as commonly available PC hardware for a similar price so it is rather disappointing. The console is locked to 30 frames per second at 1080p which is rather low compared to the PC standard of 60 fps and heights of 4k resolution, which is 4096 x 2160. Personally I haven’t used the PS4, however from what I have seen I believe it to be overly expensive for what the hardware consists of. The one saving grace of the PS4 are the games that are exclusive to that platform. These games are titles such as Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Remastered, Infamous: Second Son, etc.

PlayStation Vita


HCI: The device holds all the original features of the normal Dualshock controller that appear with other consoles developed by Sony. These include a D-Pad, the Square, Triangle, and Circle and X buttons and two joystick analogue sticks. The additional features the device supports are a touchpad positioned on the back of the device and camera on the front and rear of the console.

CPU: - Internally, the device features an up to 2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor (3 of the 4 cores are usable for applications).

GPU: - Quad-core GPU SGX543MP4+.

Size and Portability: The 2000 (2nd Generation) model is 20% thinner and 15% lighter compared to the original model.

RAM: - The console has 512 MB RAM, 128 MB VRAM.

Storage size - The PS Vita Slim has 1GB of internal storage memory. Users are unable to use the 1GB internal memory and any expandable storage simultaneously, as access to the internal memory is only possible if no memory card is inserted. Upon inserting a PS Vita memory card, the system will offer to copy the existing data from the internal memory to the new card. The PS Vita is incompatible with standard memory cards, such as SD cards, and instead stores data on proprietary PS Vita memory cards, which are available in sizes of 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB.
Games Library: As of March 9th 2015, there have been 961 games released for the PSVita.

Series: This platform is the successor to the PlayStation Portable in PlayStation series of handheld consoles.

Unique Point: The portability of this console makes it rather unique, but what really made this console standout was its touchpad in the second generation of this device. It opened up different ways of interacting with games and different ways designers could interact with players.

Limitiations and Rating: The PS Vita has a very small screen size and console size. This makes playing the games quite fiddly and some users may struggle with using the small controls. The graphical and processor power of the device is significantly weaker than that of next gen consoles so this limits the game library and the quality of games.

XboxOne:


HCI: Xbox One wireless or wired controller

CPU: 8 Core AMD custom CPU Frequency: 1.75 GHz

GPU: Clock Speed: 853 MHz(originally 800 MHz) Shader Cores: 768 Peak Throughput: 1.31 TFLOPS

RAM: 8GB DDR3 Clock: 2133MHz Bandwidth: 68.26 GB/s + 32MB eSRAM Bandwidth: 204 GB/s(102 In/102 Out)

Storage Memory: 500 GB Hard Drive non-replaceable, External Hard Drive support available

Size and Portability: Dimensions: 3.1 x 10.8 x 13.1 in. 7.05479 pounds in weight.

Limitations and Rating: The limitations of this console are very similar to the PlayStation 4. However it does not have as good exclusive game library in my opinion so the console suffers. If I was to buy a next gen console it would most likely be the PlayStation 4 because of its better exclusive library.

Xbox 360:

CPU: CPU speed3.2 GHz. CPU cores3

GPU:  GPU speed 500 MHz

RAM:  512 MB

Storage Memory: The original Pro configuration of the system came with a 20 GB hard drive, which was also available to purchase separately (for the Core model, and later the Arcade model, which did not include a HDD). This was upgraded to 60 GB in September 2008, and the 60 GB HDD was also made available at retail.

Size and Portability: DIMENSIONS: 3.27 x 12.17 x 10.16 inches.  WEIGHT: 7.72 lb

Limitations and Rating: Had to pay for Multiplayer service. Not very durable and when originally released there were a lot of cases of the console breaking completely in a few short weeks or the first time someone used it.

PC (Personal Computer)


HCI: Traditionally mouse and key board, but using port extensions and third party drivers other controllers and devices can be used. This includes things such as graphics tablets, Xbox 360 controller, etc.

CPU: Dependant on the user's choice, any processor is compatible.

GPU: Dependant on the user's choice, any graphics card is compatible.

Size & Portability: Laptops are extremely portable as they are designed to be small and slim to fit into bags and cases, however they are more expensive compared to PC.
Standard PC towers are usually very large and have to be stationary with a mains power supply running through them. This limits their portability vastly.

RAM: Dependant on your motherboards ram slots, you can have any amount or type of ram. The fastest type of ram currently is DDR5.

Storage Memory: Dependent on the user’s choice. You can either have a hard drive or SSD of varying sizes.

Games available: Including emulators the PC has a gigantic amount of games for the platform. The large library of Steam is just one example of the open access to games for the platform.

Limitations and Rating: You can potentially spend thousands of pounds on the latest computer components. Potential for contracting a computer virus that could damage the system. Not easily portable. In my opinion PC has the most freedom because of the variety of components that you can buy. This makes it one of the better choices and its only drawback is that you have to learn about the various components more so than if you bought an Xbox One.

Android (HTC ONE M8)


CPU: - Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, quad-core CPUs

GPU:  5.0 inch screen, Full HD 1080p

Size and Portability: 146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm (5.76 x 2.78 x 0.37 in) 160g

RAM:   2GB RAM

Storage Memory: - Total storage: 16GB, available capacity varies, Expansion card slot supports micro SD memory card for up to 128GB additional storage

Games Library: The Google Play App has more than 1.4million apps available on the market.
Series:  This device is the predecessor to the HTC One M9 and the successor to the HTC One Mini 2 in the HTC One smartphone series.

Limitations: The small lithium battery would cause problems as it would constantly need to be charged up. Also lithium batteries tend to degrade over time and would cause problems for the player. The graphical and processor power of the device is significantly weaker than that of next gen consoles so this limits the game library and the quality of games.

IOS (IPhone 6)


GPU: - PowerVR GX6450 (quad-core graphics)

Size and Portability : 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 in) 129g

CPU:  Dual-core 1.4 GHz Cyclone (ARM v8-based)

RAM:  internal memory of 16/64/128 GB, 1 GB RAM

Games Library:  1.4million downloadable titles from the App store.

Unique Point: The portability of Android and IOS devices is what makes them 

Series:  this device is the successor to the IPhone 5.

Limitations and Rating: The battery needs to be charged regularly as it has a small battery life. The graphical and processor power of the device are significantly weaker than that of next gen consoles. This limits the game library and the quality of games for the system. In the early stages of the App Store there were lots of interesting and unique titles available for free or for purchase, however now there the market has become over-saturated and you can spend large amounts of money on games that are unoriginal and "time-wasters". Examples of this are games like Clash of Clans, Dungeon Keeper, etc. With the rise of micro-transactions in free-to-play games there is now a horde of in-ambitious money grabbing developers.

Ratings

I haven’t used a lot of the consoles on this list. The ones I have used are the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 1 + 2 + 3, Nintendo DS, IOS and PC. I have explained my thoughts about these consoles in their dedicated sections. My list of best to worst consoles that I have used is as follows:
1.       PC
2.       PlayStation 3
3.       Xbox 360
4.       PlayStation 2
5.       Nintendo DS
6.       PlayStation 1
7.       Nintendo Wii
8.       IOS

This is a separate list of my rating of the consoles that I haven’t used:
1.       PlayStation 4
2.       Nintendo WiiU
3.       Xbox One
4.       PlayStation Vita
5.       Nintendo 3DS
6.       Android

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