Mindless Juices

So, Nick has done a nice job providing all the links you need to catch up on the latest and greatest on the horizon for gamers. Part of the geeks inheriting the Earth means we're playing video games and we don't plan on stopping. And, yes, we're gonna teach our children how to play. I just wish they'd stop thinking that we're going to buy a video game just because they made a movie or a comic book about it. It needs to actually be good. Segway into my post... So, with regards to the Revolution, the PS3 and the 360, I feel its my duty to remind you that the key to any console is good game support. There are reasons why Nintendo has lasted so long, why Xbox broke into a market where many others have failed, why Sony didn't follow the path of Sega. The reasons are games. We'll start with Nintendo. Better yet, I'll just say Franchis-endo. Metroid, Mario (Bros., Kart, Party, Tennis, Golf, etc.), even more Yoshi spin-offs, Zelda, Kirby, Pikmin, Monkeyball, Donkey Kong, Castelvania and even Pokémon... The list goes on. These guys are the kings of never letting a great thing die. Sure, they've made mistakes, but they've recovered and continued to slap glorious fresh paint and sparklies on great things that we fell in love with... and have done so over and over again. Shoot, Sabrina's favorite game is still Tetris. The Revolution's backwards compatibility means the initial game library for it is massive. This is important... Now, just about everybody had an 8-bit Nintendo. Not everyone had a Super NES or N64 or a Gamecube. If the Revolution can deliver, it's a chance to play those games you only dreamed about playing for hours on end when you were a kid. Remember hating your friend for owning one when you didn't? Remember how much you loved to go over to his house to play video games? Doubt the replay value? Check out MAME or any other emulator. These wouldn't exist if people didn't still want to play these old games. It's safe to say that the majority of us missed out on a Nintendo console or two and there may have been a game or two that we would have liked to play. What's it worth to play the games of "old"... This brings us to Sony. How did they make it in an increasingly competetive market, especially with their PS2? Well, the PS2 was destined to make it for the same reason the Revolution is banking on: Instant game library upon delivery of console. You pull your PS1 out of its hole in your entertainment center and you slide in the PS2. You just add to your library of games and now you can watch DVD's, too. Brilliant! Sony also managed to contract several major publishers exclusively back in the day. They released games left and right... Some straight to the bargain bin. The point is, whatever it is you wanted to play, it was probably available on PS2. So, that brings us to the new kid on the block. The Xbox was a crazy venture. The Xbox was going after Sony's PS2 and I just told you how it was destined to make it. Microsoft had virtually no game library, no publishers' contracts, nothing to make this thing work out any better than the Turbografx 16 or the Dreamcast (which actually had more going for it). The key to Microsoft's success was DirectX. It's where the Xbox got its name. Microsoft developed DirectX to help integrate the gaming world into the PC world. Gilly Bates saw the growing gaming market and knew Windows wouldn't survive if it didn't support it. DirectX, now up to version 9, allowed game developers to easily integrate with the operating system to access the hardware. As it developed, it allowed developers to push the envelope of PC gaming further. Then, a couple of geniuses (not Bill, by the way), realized the potential for DirectX to make it easy to develop console games and that Microsoft was all ready to enter the console market. Billy was smart enough to let them try. Then, Microsoft swooned the guys at Bungie to make Halo (rumor is they were making it for Apple to launch on the Macs). This game single-handedly put Xboxes in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of homes. Microsoft Game Studio released dozens of PC titles on the Xbox. Now, they're a major player. And, DirectX is simpler than ever and more powerful than ever... The 360 will be something with which to contend. So, the moral of the story? The hardware is nice to know and fun to tease ourselves with, but it doesn't matter much. Many systems with superior hardware have come out over the years and flopped, failed and faded. Game developers have to want to make games for your system, publishers have to be wooed and contracts have to fall into place, and the guys who can put together the biggest library of good games will ultimately win. I don't think there can be any losers from these three. So, just make sure that your friends get the other systems... The ones that you don't buy so you can still play those games. Post Script: I had to "teach" my spell check *SO* many words... Pikmin, Sega, Xbox, DirectX, etc.