DISCover 'Drop And Play' PC Games For ApeXtreme Discussed

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with Loren Kaiser regarding his company's DISCover software system that "aims to let users play PC titles on televisions as though they were console games." He discusses licensees of the technology that include the recently announced ApeXtreme PC 'console', though comments: "We don't like to use the term 'licensing' because we provide a BIOS chip that contains portions of the software. They're also getting our database of scripts, and several programs that work together that we call the DISCover engine." He also touches on example games such as Battlefield 1942, where the DISCover system makes it so "you put in [the] Battlefield [CD, and] the game starts right up." As for optional upgrades and add-ons, he says: "We'll handle the patches. As far as the mods, we'll just work with the mods that hit critical mass, the major ones."

Comments

Battlefield

[Anonymous Coward]

"you put in [the] Battlefield [CD, and] the game starts right up."

I call bullshit.

Battlefield is a 2-disk game, four if you include both expansion packs. And the version 1.5 patch was 140MB. I don't believe that you can play this game properly if you don't install it to the hard drive. It's going to be crippled or have reduced functionality otherwise. If I were the publisher of a PC game I'd be furious that somebody was attempting to work around my installers - I'd refuse to provide technical support for anybody doing so.

The only way their "technology" could work withouth interfering with the game is by detecting which disk was put in the CD drive and launching the appropriate game executable from the hard drive - provided it had already been installed. Which isn't anything to write home about since Windows autoplay is supposed to do this anyway.

sniff sniff

[castlec]

How Are The Scripts Updated?
Each time a new PC game is launched or about to be launched, your DISCover(R) console will use an Internet or phone connection to pull down the new script/s. It's a bit like the TiVo(R) model.
Obviously, it must learn how to properly execute stuff, but I really don't like this idea. Not like there is any sensitive data or anything, or at least, there better not be, but there is potential for a dick to hose your system through script replacement.