Discover The DISCover Console

Thanks to GameShark.com for their interview with Curtis Kaiser of DISC regarding their forthcoming DISCover "PC game console". Kaiser describes the DISCover as "a game console that plays unmodified PC games. As with a PlayStation or Xbox, you simply drop the disc into the console and play. The difference is the video game consoles can only play games made for their proprietary formats, while the DISCover can play the thousands of available PC titles." Entry-level models will be priced from $299, and the company is trying to tout ease of use as the biggest advantage of buying the DISCover over a normal PC - "...patching scripts will be received through the DISCover network. Patches will automatically be applied to any installed program or they will be applied as part of the installation process."

Comments

Re:Patent for using a TV instead of a monitor ?

[Puggs]

Whats patentable?

well this apparently: Home entertainment system for playing software designed for play in home computer

Which in more detail is:
A dedicated apparatus for playing unmodified prerecorded software in a home computer system, and more particularly an apparatus, housed in a home entertainment system chassis, for playing in a home entertainment environment the existing body of interactive multimedia software that has been formatted and published for compatibility with standard personal computer platforms such as the MPC CD-ROM platform. Video and audio output signals are generated in response to the processing of the multimedia software program, which are fed to the home entertainment system for presentation to an audience. A further aspect is the provision of a "drop & play" feature which automatically initiates playing of multimedia software in a sequence that appears to be similar to playing audio Cds, i.e., without requiring any further action from a user after selecting play. This feature is in part provided by a table containing installation information for each of numerous multimedia software titles; entries in this table are preferably indexed by an identifier that can be uniquely derived from a given CD-ROM or other published multimedia media such as a diskette.

non clickable link cos its 5am here: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm &r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5721951.WKU.&OS=PN/5721951&RS=PN/ 5721951%20

So they appear to have patented a the ability to be able to put a pc game into the cosole & have it run automagically

Re:Patent for using a TV instead of a monitor ?

[Thing 1]

What is patentable about that?

I haven't read the entire patent (like most software patents, it's very verbose), but you can look it up here.

There's a link on their web site to that patent (bottom of the About page).

That's the 700 dollar machine

[cgenman]

Just pointing out, what is listed is the specs for the high-end machine. The 300 dollar machine specs with

A Via CPU and motherboard

40 GB hard drive

512 MB Ram

SIS graphics card (http://www.xabre.com/)

A reviewer at E3 commented that "the $299 unit, on display at the show, struggled to run Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. The game, released in 2002, couldn't manage a steady frame-rate, and sometimes dropped to completely unplayable levels, if only for a few seconds."

So no, there would be no point in buying one for parts.

Next-Generation systems need to blow all current systems out of the water. This one appears to struggle to keep up. Sad.