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          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="../index.html">Contents</a><br>
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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 21</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../columns.1"><font size="-1">Pad 
          Happy</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Hardware Wars</font></p>

        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:nickf@saqnet.co.uk">Nick 
          Ferguson</a></font></font></p>
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        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">PC gamers might wonder what 
          all the fuss is about – in a three year period, they’ve seen the birth 
          and extinction of several generations of soundcards, processors, RAM 
          formats and 3D accelerators. Console owners just aren’t used to that 
          level of change! Compare the specs of a high-end PC around the time 
          of the PlayStation’s release to the P2 450 of today and the difference 
          is astonishing; Sony’s hardware, in comparison, hasn’t changed one iota. 
          Does it matter? PC owners may laugh at a machine with a plodding CPU, 
          double-speed CD-ROM drive, 2MB of RAM and elementary 3D hardware but 
          approximately 40 million people worldwide are happily playing games 
          (that don’t crash) on it.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">One pleasant truth about 

          console gaming is that you <i>don’t</i> have to upgrade to see improvements 
          in the games you play. Over the life-span of their machine, console 
          owners see an incredible increase in the technical quality of their 
          titles (try comparing the PlayStation’s first game, <b>Ridge Racer</b>, 
          to last year’s <b>Gran Turismo </b>- or Nintendo’s flagship title <b>Mario 
          64</b> with <b>Banjo-Kazooie</b>) as programmers get to grips with the 
          subtleties of their systems. PC owners have to upgrade their CPU with 
          each generation of <b>Quake</b>, but console owners are playing <b>Tekken 
          3</b> on exactly the same machine they were playing the original <b>Tekken</b> 
          on, four years ago. If nothing else, it makes you wonder how far current 
          PC technology could be pushed, if it wasn’t for the ever-present upgrade 
          on the horizon.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Upgrades for consoles are 
          always a possibility, but they risk fragmenting the market for potential 
          developers. Nintendo cleverly avoided this problem with their 4MB RAM 
          Pack, which isn’t <i>required</i> to run any games but gives players 
          the opportunity to play newer titles such as <b>Turok 2</b> in glorious 
          hi-res. A peripheral that once looked like it might prove a real shaker 
          in the console market was the N64’s proposed disc-drive add-on, the 
          64DD. Utilizing 64MB magnetic cartridges, the 64DD would greatly increase 
          storage space (over the N64’s standard 8-32MB cartridges) and its read/write 
          capabilities promised untold opportunity for player interaction and 
          influence within game worlds. Now, the 64DD looks dead in the water 
          – Nintendo have admitted it will not be released in the US or Europe, 
          and most likely not in Japan either (yes, despite those credits in <b>F-Zero 
          X</b> for the &quot;64DD programmers&quot;)! Gamers lamenting its death 
          should realize that the primary reason it got canned was because Nintendo 
          was unable to come up with the revolutionary software they promised 
          the format would deliver. The wasted man-hours they must have spent 
          on this ill-fated peripheral beggar belief…</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What excitement lies ahead? 
          Well, the Dreamcast has landed – with more of a whimper than a bang. 
          By all accounts, the best of the early software (<b>VF3 and Sonic Adventure</b>) 
          has proven less than breathtaking, and the remainder of the most promising 
          titles have been pushed back until well into 1999. Anything you might 
          hear about PlayStation 2 has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but rumors 
          of backward-compatibility, DVD technology and a release date the far 
          side of 2000 all seem more likely the louder they get. Nintendo, too, 
          have confirmed that they are already working on a successor to the N64 
          (not so surprising, considering the format’s nosedive in Japan) and 
          Rare are known to already be underway developing titles for it. And 
          lest I forget, NUON had better emerge from its hiding place if it wants 
          to make the slightest impression in the minds of gamers (case in point: 
          I wrote almost this entire article before I remembered about it).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nobody knows for sure which 
          technologies will emerge as the most important in the next few years, 
          although I certainly feel it’s unlikely internet access will emerge 
          as a major selling point for any games machine. As I stated at the beginning 
          of this article, it all boils down to the games. Sequels, ports, re-makes 
          and big-name licenses will take you so far, but there must be real innovation 
          with a new format for it to take off. In a perfect world, game designers 
          should feel horrendously limited by the formats they have to deal with, 
          ideas &quot;too big&quot; for current technology, but the truth seems 
          to be that ideas often get ‘scaled-up’ rather than ‘scaled-down’ when 
          dealing with new and powerful platforms. Sometimes these ‘scaled-up’ 
          ideas are hopelessly inadequate (there aren’t many titles sadder than 
          <b>Robotron 64</b>) - you wonder if Core are going to bother coming 
          up with a new direction for the tired <b>Tomb Raider</b> franchise when 
          it eventually migrates onto 128-bits. Then again, even the mighty Shigeru 
          Miyamoto seems to use new technology to build on what he’s produced 
          before, rather than starting afresh. Do I ask too much?</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For what it’s worth, my own 
          personal take is that Dreamcast (although a fine piece of technology) 
          will be substantially outperformed in the market by the eventual successor 
          to the PlayStation. PlayStation 2 will be a much more powerful platform, 
          plus its (alleged) DVD technology and backwards-compatibility will make 
          it the must-have platform over the next five years. Hardware isn’t the 
          only advantage Sony have - confidence is high about their future in 
          the games industry and most developers must be keen to support the new 
          machine. Dreamcast launched too soon – there’s still enough life in 
          the older machines to last through 1999, and then we have the new PlayStation 
          to look forward to. I know this is speculation without a shred of real 
          evidence, but if I have my facts right I really can’t see it going any 
          other way. Dreamcast is certainly a system to watch – if it becomes 
          huge in Japan, then launches with a reasonable price-tag and awesome 
          selection of titles in the US and Europe this Autumn, then things might 
          be different. But if you wanted to go out and buy a system tomorrow, 
          I’d have to recommend the Nintendo 64 or the PlayStation. What does 
          that tell you?</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i><font size="-1">- 
          Nick Ferguson is an increasingly regular contributor to loonygames.</font></i></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Pad Happy logo illustrated and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Pad Happy is 
        &copy; 1999 Nick Ferguson. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it, or you'll get some real force feedback.</font></i></p>
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