RJ Mical On The DS, PSP, Current Game Hardware

Thanks to 1UP for its interview with Amiga luminary and 3DO and Lynx co-creator RJ Mical, discussing many facets of portable gaming, including his views on the Sony PSP ("Well, the thing I dislike most about it is that I didn't get to do it"), possible disadvantages for the Nintendo DS ("The running joke in the [Fathammer] office [when touchscreens and styluses were being tested] was that we were actually funded by the screen makers; they could increase their sales, because indeed, people were always breaking their screens"), and lessons learned earlier in Mical's career ("Probably the most important thing I learned from the Lynx: never trust focus groups... They all told us to make it big, so we made it big.")

Comments

Toughness

[tprime]

Up until this point, only the PSP has been questioned with respect to how well it will fare with a 12 year old tossing it around. People have said that the screen might not be able to last.

It might not be the first time that it has been mentioned, but it is the first time that I thought about problems with the DS holding up. Giving a 5th grader a pointy stick (stylus) and telling him to "gently touch" the screen is probably that will result in a lot of DSs with holes in the bottom screen. It probably won't happen, but Nintendo could create a solid secondary market of selling replacement LCD screens.

Re:Toughness

[cowscows]

I wouldn't give a five year old something that expensive to play with anyways.

I think most of the concern about the PSP's screen is that it's generally unprotected by the design of the device. The clamshell on the GBA SP and DS makes both of them far more suitable for tossing into your bag, pulling them out for 10 minutes while on the subway, and then tossing it back in when you get to your stop.

Outside of Japan maybe, noone's going to wear their PSP around their neck like sony's be showing off. So you'll have to buy a bigass case for it (which will also have to protect disc media I guess), and that just adds a whole other step that makes it less convenient.

I've got a case for my GBA SP, I use it to organize my stuff when I'm going on long trips. But for day to day usage, the thing just sits around, floating from between my nightstand, my desk, and my living room. The casing shows some evidence of all that movement. The screen, fortunately, does not.

Industry insider.

[Xenex]

"...Amiga luminary and 3DO and Lynx co-creator RJ Mical"

Amiga.

3DO.

Lynx.

Long chain of success there!

Re:Industry insider.

[sammaffei]

The Lynx failed due to lackluster advertising and pitiful developer support from Atari (i.e. Tramiel Co.). The Lynx was a great handheld and wasn't truely outdone until the TurboExpress showed up in the market.

I personally used one for about 10 years (until it finally gave out).

Re:Industry insider.

[Taulin]

The Amiga was pretty successful here (US) too. The problem was the 'war' that was going on between PC lovers and Amiga lovers. PC lovers would always say 'I need it to do word processing, so I got a PC'. Meanwhile, Amiga owners just said 'whatever'. This lack of app support is one key factor that the Amiga did not do better in the US, but it is still a success. The Amiga 3k and 4k would have been a real contender if Commondor didn't screw up.

Durability

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I gather, talking to people who were actually at E3, the DS's screen is a type of touchscreen noone has seen before... its like noone knows how it works, but it's really durable. Check out the forums at http://www.n-sider.com/ for stories of people really trying to damage them and coming up unsuccessful. I don't belive Nintendo has anything to worry about in terms of durability of the system. They've never released anything that was prone to break down, whereas Sony is on what? It's 3rd or 4th version of the PS2? They couldn't make a durable product even AFTER going through a whole previous generation of console manufacturing? I really hope the PSP does come with some kind of protective case. And I don't doubt the DS will survive something closer to a nuclear blast.

Re:Durability

[Zangief]

I remember a Miyamoto Interview on Gamespy, in which he comented that the sonic game was excesive, and that it damaged the touch screen from the intense rubbing. He said that they would create guidelines for the use of the touchscreen.

However, lately Nintendo has delivered some very resistent products. SP for example. Gamecube has a rate of failure notably lower than PS2/Xboxes (but it has its problems). So I think that the DS won't have any problem of this kind

Re:Durability

[Allison Geode]

Sony is on what? It's 3rd or 4th version of the PS2?

sony's on their 10th version of ps2, actually. i just bought one, myself, and the biggest difference between mine and my friend's first-gen, is that his makes a grinding noise while reading discs (from age) and mine has no iLink port, but it does have an infrared port between the reset and eject buttons for use of remote control without needing a 'plug-in.'

Focus Groups...

[FatElvis2000]

Never trust Focus Groups... a very common fall-back. Rule #1 of new product research, don't expect to walk in a room of 8 random people and expect them to tell you what to do. They can only respond to what you show them, and only in the context of what you showed them prior. Did they show consumers a small device? How many groups did they conduct, and who with? The vast majority of focus groups are a waste of money, and a crutch for insecure designers, product development, advertisers, and marketers so they have something to blame later for their failure. Use the qualitative to build depth, gain insight, and tasty verbatims to include in internal communications. But not to decide how big a portable gaming device should be. If I were the researcher in the room I'd immediately start to wonder about gamers asking for a "big" portable gaming machine.... at odds with 50 years of tech miniaturization trends. LOL. So the failure of the Lynx is blamed on Market Research. Give me a break.

Re:Focus Groups...

[gmezero]

They probably hired the same focus group that told NEC to make make the PCEngine/CD system larger in the US, hence the monstrosly sized TG-16 with CD base. Remember, "bigger is better" cause it's all about the size of your p3n1s :b

Re:Focus Groups...

[GlenRaphael]

[focus groups] can only respond to what you show them, and only in the context of what you showed them prior. Did they show consumers a small device?

Yes, as a matter of fact they did. From the article:

Probably the most important thing I learned from the Lynx: never trust focus groups. In all the focus group testing, and we did a lot of it with consumers, we had a bunch of different models that we showed them. [We asked] "which one do you like? Which one would you like to have it be?" We showed them big ones; we showed them little ones. We showed them gigantic ones; we showed them little tiny ones. They loved the big ones. They all told us, "Make it big. Make it big. This one feels like it's substantial and I'm really getting my money's worth." They all told us to make it big, so we made it big. And when it came out on the market, they all said, "Why is this damn thing so big?" It'd drive me nuts, because the original Lynx was mostly air space inside. We put it in, because that's what they told us they wanted.

GOOD NEWS NINTENDO FANS

[StingRayGun]

The person who created lynx and 3DO doesn't think the DS will work! He likes the PSP instead!

This is great news! The Nintendo DS will be a huge hit!