What is More Important In A Console?

[racketboy]

This question can apply to either new or old consoles.

I wanted to get some insights on some aspects of consoles that aren't talked about as much.

Forget about graphics or even the actual games are on a system.

What about the little things that can make a system enjoyable. that we sometimes don't think about.

 

[CrazyGoon]

Console design, baby! When I look at the console, I image together pictures in my mind, as to what the console brought to the table. Of course, controllers go hand in hand with the console design so they are not excluded. Although, this answer is more meaningful to me when I look at previous game systems - today's systems don't really differ as to what games you get (and how they look). But nevermind.

 

[lordofduct]

I selected Console Design as I believe it is referring to the hardware design.

Back in the day a console was designed more for gaming (unlike these consoles today like XBOX which run kinda like a freakin' comp).

Old school consoles sucked so much power out of meager processors and put together a very unique experience. What is it a genny runs at, 7.5mhz??? somewhere near there, do you see any comp running at that doing what a freakin' genny can? NO! A computer can look better then a comp, but then our computers are running on these 2 Ghz processors with a half gig of RAM and a video card suped up with 128 megs of RAM and its own fast processor.

And with all this power, you need an absurd (in comparison to the console) amount of power just to emulate said console.

As I always said, comp games are always FPS because its for the flashy money makers... consoles are for the artists.

That is skill when you can create beauty when limited with the color palette and amount of things going on at once. With a comp you just up the system requirements. (yeah there is a limit in the sense of making the game available on cheaper systems, but still you get the point... DOOM 3 is one of these cases!)

When you limit your media, great things happen... such as Myst, so much beauty in this comp game. I really do feel it partly had to do with the creators deciding to approach with the idea that they wanted it playable on most any computer system.

Ah I make no sense at times, but I think you all get what I mean.

 

[MasterAkumaMatata]

What about PRICE? mg:

 

[racketboy]

Price isn't often overlooked

 

[link343]

Load times, prices of games,online compability.

 

[it290]

Out of the ones you mentioned, I'd say the controller is most important, but they're really all pretty important. I wouldn't buy a new console that had shitty video output, or excessive load times. The only thing I don't really care about is the look of the machine. Sure, it's nice if it looks cool, but the PS1 for example was a great machine even though it was ugly as hell (IMO). Also, sound is pretty important to me -- I hope all next-gen games make good use of real time DD 5.1.

What is it a genny runs at, 7.5mhz??? somewhere near there, do you see any comp running at that doing what a freakin' genny can? NO!

You need to get yourself an Amiga 500, man.

 

[Malakai]

With all of the entertainment stuff (games, video, and sound equipment) out there now, they need to make everything stackable. That means flat, durable for other things to sit on top of them, and front loading. I'm sure a lot of you has tried to hook up a bunch of consoles and stuff to one tv. I've had probably 10 different things hooked up at once, and only a few pieces stackable. It gets to be a mess.

Some VCRs stackable, some not, laserdiscs not stackable, because it'll put pressure on the plastic rails and possibly bend them, dreamcast being a top loader, sega cd being an ackward shape, receiver/amps being able to hold weight but shouldn't because of temps, cd-i not being able to hold the weight, even though it's a front loader, gamecube, genesis, duo.... Damn, it'd be awesome if they'd just make stuff rack mountable atleast.