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Microsoft to Introduce GBA-competitor?
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that Nintendo will have a competition in the handheld market soon. ZDnet has an article that says Microsoft's plan to introduce a 'Media Pad' which includes among other things 'serve as a portable game player in conjunction with Microsoft's Xbox video game console.' So I guess the news I heard regarding their interest in the portable industry will soon come true, the question is, can they take the crown from Nintendo?"
Wonderswan: not coming to this side of the ocean even though it has Square and Final Fantasy behind it.
While I don't doubt M$'s money and ability to release this thing (and it looks like gaming is a side feature), compete with Gameboy it won't. Gameboy is an unstoppable monster. Every kid has one, they're backward compatible so there is a library of a zillion games, and companies are releasing GBA versions of the SNES games a bunch of us adults loved. M$'s doohicky may exist, but will never compete.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
I don't know about other people's connectivity, but my cable modem connection is a bit flaky at times. Reguardless of how valuable or useful it may be, is Microsoft going to solve the problem bad ISP's? How is the average consumer going to know the cause is the ISP and not the device?
The idea of a mobile computing device that acts as a game, computer and universal remote is pretty cool. High end audio, video, entertainment systems are similar though very expensive.
Are people willing to reboot their DSL/Cable modem to get their universal remote to work, or will they pick up the other remote?
Good news then.
Just wait a little bit longer and the guy over at:
http://www.portablemonopoly.com/
Will be selling kits that enable you to add back lighting to your gameboy advance for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-$50.
It's even toggleable to save battery life.
I see no evidence that Nintendo is interested in anything other than TV and handheld game machines. They are not interested in DVD's, MP3's, the web or other multimedia/general computing unlike Microsoft. Granted, Microsoft has dipped it's feet in the game industry with the X-Box, but everyone who's reviewed it has something negative to say and with good reason.
Microsoft focused on the fastest processor, most amount of memory, lots of storage (for caching and game saves) which is important in the computer market but not necessarily in the game market. Console Game players are interested in the playability/funness factor of a game over the graphics/specs of the game. Take Halo (Xbox) for example, it's nice looking and could be lots of fun, but it just screams for a mouse and keyboard. It needs lots of buttons (all the time) and it needs a FPS movement that only a mouse in "mouselook" mode can really deliver on. Where as if you look at Luigi's Mansion (GameCube) you use very few controls (all the time) and it's movement is very natural for a "gamepad" controller, it would not be natural for a keyboard and mouse. Microsoft's mistake is taking what they know about computers and trying to apply that to a console, whereas Nintendo has been in business since 1951 and started selling video games in 1971, in that tine they have learned a thing or two about making a fun, playable game. This is one market Microsoft will NOT dominate in.
Intel got exclusive rights to StrongARM
Nintendo got exclusive rights to Atlantis
since GBA is just a ARM7 + custom sound off the APB
Wrong. The GBA programming model includes a 16.78 MHz ARM7TDMI, plus custom chips that do DMA (that is, hardware-accelerated memcpy()), legacy tone generation, sound FIFOing, pulse-width modulation, and background and sprite scrolling, scaling, and rotation. (Read More...)
different enough that nitendo cant sue and developers have to recompile but easy enought that you could have a compiler switch do all the work
Sorry, it's not as easy as a recompile of a program that uses the Allegro library. The graphics subsystems may be too different. AFAIK, Windows CE devices use only a dumb frame buffer; GBA has six modes, three character graphics modes (some include affine mapping) with up to 128 sprites on top, and three framebuffer modes with up to 128 sprites on top.
(except the sound and that could be redone easy enough)
Heck, Nintendo even calls the GBA's FIFO-based sound system "Direct Sound," no relation to Microsoft's DirectSound.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This article was completely misrepresented by the slasdot summary. After reading the device, it sounds nothing like a GBA, or a GBA competitor. Maybe slashdot users don't know what Terminal Services is.
The device is based on Terminal Services. For all you linux users out there, it means its just a DISPLAY for processes running on another device. Think of it as a dumb X-Windows display.
Sure, it might show incredible graphics that are rendered on the XBOX 6 feet away from you, because its just painting the pixels, it doesn't need the fancy 3D hardware, etc. But my point is, the XBOX will have to be 6 feet away! This isn't a device you would take to school, take on a plane, take everywhere that you take a gameboy.
From the article:
"Microsoft's Terminal Server software shifts many computing functions off the device and onto other computers--owned either by the individual or by a service provider. Consumers can't really use a Mira device without a persistent connection to a more powerful computer."
The only way it could come close to competing with the portability of the GBA (which is the whole reason you use a GBA), is if it uses a constant connection to a nationwide wireless network. Then you are talking monthly fees.
Not a competitor in my book.
Thanks for the misinformation, try again!
You can still become a GBA developer. However you must do it through a publisher. If you work out a deal with a publisher Nintendo can still approve you as a developer. All this "cap" limits is small-time hobby development, which has never amounted to anything on conoles.
As far as a lack of games, I would point out that when someone signs up as a developer they don't produce a full game in 2 weeks...
So Microsoft can get no-name first timers with no money, no plan, and nothing good enough to interest a publisher...yay.