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EVO Linux Gaming Console Opens Pre-Orders
Engadget is reporting that Envizions, maker of the EVO Linux game console, has finally announced final specs and opened the doors to pre-orders. All bets are off until users actually see the hardware, but it will be nice to see a new player in the market. Of course, this assumes they put some time into a little polish that is usually expected from the gaming community (that website, yikes) and some effort into a killer game library. "Envizions say that the console will run a modified, quick-boot distro of Fedora called Mirrors (which can be upgraded to a beefier build named Mirrors Evolution X), and will feature a "cloud" service stacked with Amiga (!) games and an Akimbo-based video service. Beyond that, proper titles will be sold online and on SD cards for around $20." I'm sure they won't forget to send Slashdot a beta review copy with a couple of games.
With the exception of the "Amiga" snippit, I can't find anything on the internet regarding what games this is going to be able to play.
What, exactly, does "proper titles" encompass?
Will it run PC Games?
Maybe ANY games from any other console?
Will developers need to write games specifically for this? Why would they do so?
Or are we simply going to be limited to the vast selection of Linux Games on the market?
This thing is going to retail for $380. For $19 more I can buy a PS3, install their linux distro, play all of the games this system can play, all of the games PS3 can play, and also play blu-ray movies.
I'd really like to know, who is their target audience?
That this will become a hackers toy, rather than a gamers toy. They're targeting a pretty small market if they feel the need to advertise their Amiga library. Maybe they want to go for the nostalgic and hacker audiences, but unless this brings something to the table that the Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo can't patch into their current consoles I just don't see it gaining any steam.
Lemme see here...
Many of the vaporware game consoles and PDAs over the years have convinced Linux users to plunk down pre-order cash before a product existed. Of course, the product often never materializes.
I wouldn't put too much credibility into anything offering pre-orders until they are vetted as a reliable company with actual hardware in the mail.
Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again. :-P
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
That's what you get for posting from an EVO Linux Gaming Console.
Well people often play commercial games for free, so there is at least symmetry.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Subject says it all: if they are able to sell the system at a profit then they will be wildly successful. Why? Because the machine has excellent specifications for the price (love that footprint) and if it is at all reliable then it's going to be a moneymaker. I'll buy one to replace my Xbox as the system which runs XBMC, since I now have an HDTV and the Xbox can't really handle drawing the XBMC interface fluidly at 1080i (and doesn't have 1080p at all.) I've bought two (ooh, two) Xbox games at full retail; while you might laugh about the $10 in licensing fees that netted Microsoft, I bought the console used so they definitely didn't eat anything there. If these guys can make a profit (any profit) on the hardware and then make a few bucks per owner on games, they're in the money.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
> All bets are off till users actually see the hardware, but it would be nice to see a new player in the market. Of course this assumes they put some time into a little
> polish that is usually expected from the gaming community (that website, yikes) and some effort into a killer game library.
But apart from the mystery spec, shit website and lack of games, it's a killer console. I'm sure Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are holding crisis talks.
Now we can pay $20/game to play games we can otherwise download on our computers for free?!
So for the price of an XBox 360, I can buy a console that doesn't have -any- video games that were written this decade yet, and future games will cost $20.
Newsflash: Game developers want to charge more than $20 for games. They aren't going to bother making games for this thing when they could make them for 360 or PS3 and sell them for more.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
No it's not. It a very bad sign. See, every so often a company comes along and sees how profitable the gaming industry is. They then think to themselves, "well, that's EASY! I should get a piece of the pie!" Then they spare no imagination (literally, none at all) in creating the most generic "game console" known to mankind. Without fail, they always copy the PS2 controller design. (Which isn't even that great to begin with.)
Then when they stroll into the market thinking they're going to pick up a few dozen studio partnerships and get about the business of selling this generic piece of plastic. Except, shock and horror! None of the game studios are taking them seriously! Why oh why?!? Don't they see how awesome and moneyful* this venture will be?!?!
Eventually, the company runs out of money and hangs their heads in shame. Those stupid game studios. It's all their fault.
Cases in Point (Note the controllers):
Indrema
Mattel Hyperscan
Phantom Game Console
If you ever see a game console that uses a rip-off PS2 controller, run the other way. FAST.
* Hey, it's a perfectly cromulent word!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Seriously, what a horrible idea. I don't see how this has any hope of competing with the three consoles that are on the market now. It doesn't have an impressive graphics chip, so it isn't going to blow people away with visuals. At the listed price point, it doesn't have any real price advantage (you can get a 360 for $300, a Wii for $250, a PS3 for $400). It doesn't seem to have ANY new games, much less games that you can't get on another console. So what's the draw?
OSS isn't an answer. Consoles gamers really don't care. The reason people like to buy consoles is to get cheap hardware to play games and no problems. They aren't buying them to write their own software. For that they buy, well, a computer.
I cannot see how the hell they expect this to succeed.
2009 will be the Year of the Linux Console.
That's right, you just read it on the internet -- it must be true!
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
(that website, yikes)
Hmm - Flash used gratuitously where regular HTML + bitmaps would do nicely: CHECK.
Given that they're going to use Flash, failure to take advantage of Flash's main advantage, vis. nice, scalable, anti-aliased vector images: CHECK.
Annoying "mystery meat" navigation system: CHECK.
Annoying textured backgrounds under text: CHECK (at least choose a texture that doesn't look like compression artefacts!)
Crummy English: CHECK. (two words, guys: proof reading!)
Now, I'm not a FOSS purist who's going to curse them unto the seventh generation for merely using Flash, but if FOSS/Linux is going to be one of their USPs they might want to consider their target market!
So, if the console/software designers had any role in that website - forget it.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
How many more $200-$400 game consoles does the market need? My opinion is that we need fewer than we have. I would like to see more $50-$100 game consoles. I think there is a place in the market for an inexpensive console that everyone can afford, that has some built-in networking for purchasing content and service.
It could be as basic as $50 + $7.50/puzzle game. Plus if you focus on online purchases you don't have to setup retail channels, and you don't have to battle the used game market.
Wii, 360, PS3, iPhone, and Amazon Kindle are examples where a consumer device is plugged directly into an online store for buying apps. But all those devices are over $200 (except maybe a used 360).
Specs don't have to be fantastic either, if you aim for simple games that "non-gamers" like to play. I'm just thinking out loud here, but there are a lot of options for the hardware while still being fairly economical. The 600MHz OMAP3530 (ARM) can do HD resolutions and 3D graphics, although I think a game system would have to be around $125 if you use that to break even. Maybe if VIA does a Nano with integrated chipset(System-on-Chip) the prices might be low enough for an x86-64 based console. But even if it was just an SNES with ethernet welded onto it, that would be good enough for a fair number of simple games. And SNES hardware is incredibly cheap to reproduce (I have an Chinese SNES clone that cost $30). But I think most of us would be willing to pay double or triple to have something that could do vector graphics and maybe light 3D.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Because Nintendo made up for the lack of HD graphics by having a new/original controller. This thing seems about as powerful as the original Xbox (CPU is better but GPU is worse). For the price they are asking, you can get a PS3 that has a lot of games, plays blu-rays and dvds and a lot of other stuff. If Linux is your thing you can also install it on the PS3.
Mada mada dane.
does it run windows?
"If you ever see a game console that uses a rip-off PS2 controller, run the other way. FAST."
You mean like the PS3?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Well PS controller hasn't changed much since the original Playstation.
Let's look at the major competitors.
XBox - Buttons in approximately the same locations/quantities + the white and black buttons.
XBox 360 - Same thing as XBox except that black/white have been moved/removed (can't remember which).
Nintendo 64 - No where close to PS controller design.
Gamecube - Similar feel to PS controller, except that the right side buttons are arranged in a different format.
Wii- Totally different.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
XBox - Buttons in approximately the same locations/quantities + the white and black buttons.
The important difference is the location of the left analog stick.
Every game controller outside of the Dual Shock -- including the original PSX controller -- is designed so that the primary inputs on both sides are directly under the relaxed thumb. Thus you get the face buttons on the right where they are in every controller, and the left analog stick where they are on everything that isn't a Dual Shock. On the original PSX controller and other pre-analog controllers, the D-Pad was in the primary position on the left. For the Dual Shock, they just added the two analog controllers to the existing PSX controller without changing the primary input locations 1) in case analog didn't take off on PSX and 2) to not mess with playing older games. The analog stick was intentionally placed in a sub-optimal place. It stayed that way on the PS2 and PS3 because of brand recognition.
When a new game company starting from scratch with no history or anything decides to emulate the Dual Shock and not fall back on basic principles, this is indicative of a deep problem with that company.
The enemies of Democracy are
Yes. This is a Windows console with a crippled Linux version also for sale for a lower price.
The Linux version is cheaper and lacks the SD reader, Wireless networking hardware and it isn't supported by their NVE Movie Service and Say2Play (wtf that is).
They have a game store up already and it looks like its all Windows games.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
So basically your comparing huge multinational corporations who entered the gaming markets with some no name company? Yeah, that's totally analogous!
Crappy Website built with a crappy 50$ template in a very crappy manner. Tacky template music. Boilerplate pictures of some office building somewhere in the about section. Crappy pictures of crappy boxes with what looks like your standard Mini-ITX package in them and way overpriced purchase options to buy them. Bets are ten to one that this is a scam and you won't even see any hardware at all if you fall for it. /. - let alone the buzz in the comments right now - is beyond me.
Nothing to see here, move along. How this even gets any attention at all on
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
You mean reserve. Not sure why we accepted the newspeak gamestop was pushing, it's exactly the same old annoying process by which you give someone money and they promise to give you something at some point in the future.
If there is a difference, it's that game retailers (again gamestop) try to punish those who don't "doubleplusadvanceorder."
Nintendo wasn't a huge multinational company when they entered the video game market.
But they were also not a no-name company. They were a 90 year old company when they moved into the electronic gaming market. Before then they were well-known company in Japan who made card games and all sorts of toys. So while not a multinational company like Sony or Microsoft they weren't a no-name like EVO. Secondly, by the time they had come out with their first gaming console, they had built up a reputation in arcade games both in Japan and America. So unlike this company, Nintendo actually had it's name out their long before they released the Famicom/NES.
>> you get to play a static, old version of Linux ...just shows how little you know.
>
> You mean like the kernel of the Long Term Support versions of Ubuntu OS?
LTS versions of Ubuntu will get new kernel releases. That's rather the point of the S in LTS.
Plus, you can install any other kernel you like. Some of us weirdos even have versions of the
stock kernel running on their copies of Ubuntu LTS.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
YHBT. Nintendo was well-known in gaming when they got into consoles, because they made arcade games. Before that they made playing cards, which are game-related. Microsoft was well-known in gaming when the Xbox came out, the Xbox's name is really the DirectXbox (look it up) and Microsoft had already been publishing games for many years. IIRC Sony, too, had been involved with publishing video games for years by that point (they are currently the fifth-largest publisher -- I'm having a hard time finding cites... but I could swear I've seen Sony logos of some sort on numerous cart-based console titles. I couldn't have played so many games for so many years and not be able to remember something like that? I recall it being a white square rotated 45 with a purple feather-looking something-or-other running up and down the middle of it. HTH, HAND.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm very interested. Seriously. Does anyone remember the game for the Apple II called (I could be a little off) Trans-Canada Trucking. You drive a truck across Canada, picking up stuff and what not. It was all text based - Kind of went like this: Welcome! You are in Calgary, you need to drive to Edmonton to pick up some product.
> Drive to Edmonton
Your truck is not on.
> Turn on truck
Truck is on.
> Drive to Edmonton
Your lights are off. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue, eh.
> Turn on lights
Your lights are on.
> Drive to Edmonton
It is raining; your wipers are off.
> Turn on wipers
Your wipers are on.
> Drive to Edmonton
You arrive in Edmonton and pick up your load. You need to deliver it to Toronto... and so on.
Anyways, this Garbage Truck driver still sounds better than quite a few of the new games. I would prefer this to the new 50 cent game.
Fixed that for you. eh.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci