retro Archives - Page 12 of 20 - Intensive Gaming Diary

Xbox Documentary Series on YouTube

Posted on December 20, 2021January 11, 2022 by Viljami

It’s been 20 years from the release of the first Xbox or should we call it original Xbox. This was Microsofts successful attempt to get into game business. The path was rough. There were several obstacles on the way.

So the history of this gaming console has been collected to a form of a documentary series. It has six episodes in it that are about 40 minutes per episode. It is possible to view this series from YouTube for free. I can definitely recommend this for someone that has been interested in gaming for a while or to someone that just finds this content somehow interesting.

I have watched five episodes out of six. They have covered topics like the dominance of PlayStation as a gaming device in consumers living rooms and how Microsoft felt that their business was in danger. They just had to react and go from producing software to creating some hardware in the form of a new game console. It wasn’t always clear that there would be a product like Xbox now is in the markets.

So the first chapters describe how Microsoft started in the gaming business. I think everyone that has been involved in consuming games can say that they remember these problems that Xbox 360 had. There were so many consoles returned. It was said that the console was rushed. It wasn’t properly tested. So lots of products ended up returned. Microsoft handled this problem as well as they could and it cost it a lot of money.

I am going to watch the last episode of this series soon. The story is now in the beginning of the battle between Xbox One and PS4 and how Xbox declared that its console would fit perfectly in almost everyones living room. It is also clear that Nintendo had to play its cards in this game also. Did you know that Microsoft made an offer to buy Nintendo way back? If you are interested in this documentary series you can find “Power On: The Story of Xbox” from YouTube.

Role of Gaming Merchandise

Posted on December 5, 2021January 11, 2022 by Viljami

How do you feel and think about gaming merchandise? I am talking about coffee mugs, t-shirts, posters, books and so on. I have two gaming mugs that I like a lot. I have some gaming t-shirts. One of them is Diablo III and the other has a large Atari logo printed on it. I have also read some books about games like Diablo, Starcraft and Halo. Of course I also have many other books related to games and gaming. I also have some science fiction books. My favorite books are non-fictional and often I read life stories like Elon Musks, Stephen Hawkings and Steve Jobs’.

For small time independent gaming companies this is definitely a way to get more promotion and income for their game designing efforts. So it feels nice to spend some money knowing that it will be benefiting that company a lot. What about major big time game studios? Do they need your support? Do they need it as much as some smaller gaming companies? Of course they need to make some money also so they can bring you new games that are of good quality.

What do you get out of buying this kinds of merchandise? Maybe you have some nice brand that you admire and somewhat even respect. In gaming it is very meaningful to find games that you like and even love. Some games have more importance than others. Some games’s logos and graphics are just so legendary. While gaming is increasingly popular you find this merchandise even more and more available in stores and even some supermarkets. You don’t necessarily have to go to game shop anymore to get these material things you like and love so much.

Do we need more material things made for gamers or is this too much already? Should we put our money to something more important even if we are dedicated to our dear hobby? Do game companies actually benefit of merchandise and what are relations of companies that produce these t-shirts and mugs.

Could PS2 Classic be Possible?

Posted on September 7, 2021January 11, 2022 by Viljami

You might remember the release of PlayStation Classic. It might have been a disappointment. At least that was what everyone thought like about it a year after its release. I am pointing to a fact that its price dropped from the original 120 euros to as low as 20 euros. That was the lowest price I ever saw it sold for. I bought it for 40 euros. There might be a debate about do you have the right to hack the device.

PlayStation Classic had 20 games with it. Those games were not the best ones and there’s not even a debate. These games could have been better. There could have been more games included. There could have been better game pads included. But even with its flaws the system ended up in my living room after all. It definitely was worth of its low price at least for me.

But would it be possible that there would be some day a gaming console called PS2 Classic? We can start to think about how many good games would there exist on the system. Or we can talk about the system requirements of this device. If one PS2 game takes about 4,7 GB of space, and if there were 20 games released with it, they would require a space of 94 GB. Maybe there should be at least about 120 GB of space on the hard drive.

We can also think about how powerful the system should be considering about processor and graphics processing. There is already an emulator that you can run on your PC called PCSX2. It doesn’t require so much from GPU and CPU of your PC. You can run it on a even an older computer today. A while ago this wasn’t possible. We should thank the progression of computer related technology for that.

If these technical issues were finally solved and there would be a system released we can come back to the first issue I mentioned. There would be a maximum number of games. What would the games be and would every game be available for it? This could be a limitation. There were many good games that were released for PS2. Would there be only like 10 games on the system? Would it be possible to hack the system? Would you have to do it to make it reasonable to even buy the thing? And finally – how much would the thing cost and would it be different than just running (illegally) your favorite PS2 emulator on your home PC? After all since the games are in DVD format you can play them, or rip them, directly simply putting the disc in the tray of your PC after getting your hands on the BIOS some way.

I have to mention that this text has barely scratched the surface of this matter. After all it’s not so much about what the fans or tech hobbyists think about. It is about if it’s reasonable to release a system like this. Is it profitable? And is it worth the effort? If you have some deeper hardware knowledge or experience in circuit design or electronics you might understand something more deeper in this matter. I am not a specialist and these are only some of my thoughts about this matter.