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A Brief History of Downloadable Console Games
Ant sends in a story at CNet about the evolution of downloadable console games, ranging from Intellivision's PlayCable in 1981 to the modern systems we see today. Quoting:
"Intellivision was the first home console to let users download games via a coaxial cable line. Subscribers rented a special cartridge that hooked up to local cable and would be able to download single games that could be played until users decided to download new titles. The service's downfall was a result of innovations to Mattel's Intellivision game system, which began using cartridges with ever-increasing amounts of memory. The PlayCable service could no longer keep up, since the special cartridge could hold only a fourth of the total space that newer games required."
Console game downloading services, giving hackers holes to load homebrew through since 1981
I remember the Sega Channel. I got to test it out on our cable system prior to launch. ...I spent way too much time playing Earthworm Jim, but at least I was on the clock!
Great idea, but they screwed up by not making a version for the SEGA Saturn (or whatever the next generation was), which was already in the pipeline and may have even been released that year. That's fairly typical of the time though, since everything was completely proprietary.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
You haven't the foggiest troll.
The thing had less than 2K RAM. 640K would have been a dream. I had a system and loved it.
You can have a look at some of the ROMs for it here:http://www.rom-world.com/dl.php?name=Intellivision&letter=G
15K is a 'big' one.
Sometimes it's good to broaden your research horizons beyond clicking the "Related links" on Wikipedia articles. As usual, this journalist was not qualified to present this as "the history" of downloadable games.
Here is Telesoftware, from 1982: http://www.pembers.freeserve.co.uk/Teletext/Telesoftware.html
During the cassette-based computer period it was possible to record programs transmitted as part of radio programmes also.
Hoho - I know it's sad but I can't help but go "awww!" when I read anything about the quaint old gear of my childhood when a kilobyte was a big deal. The (relatively) simplistic technological feats of those days which were the bleeding-edge marvels of their time now made to seem awfully twee against even the most commoditised of modern computing.
It's through the wonder of 8-bit assembly languages, or software on audio cassette or "color screen" being something to crow about that I dimly understand why some folks get misty eyed about classic cars.
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
Don't worry Microsoft will patent that now
That and the fact that cable penetration (excluding a few select cities) was pretty low in 1981.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
The article only mentions $15 per month for Sega channel in 94-98.
PlayCable in 81-83 at the same cost would seem pretty steep.
At 43 I am old enough to have been the target demographics I was using an atari 400 at the time.
Cable did not have the bandwidth to keep up much less have bigger games also by the time this ended cable internet was starting up and they need the bandwidth for that and the growing number of channels and the start of digital cable.
play cable hit the same thing it eat up lot of bandwidth that was needed for new channels at the time.
The lack of bandwidth is likely why they never came out with more ram space for games.
ba weep gra na weep nini bon
Bandwidth had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. The sizes of the games of that era were minuscule, we're talking 4-16k for Intellivision games. When you got to the Sega era, the channel used two 3Mhz channels with a combined 6Mbit/s data rate. The service wasn't even interactive, like PlayCable it simply broadcast all the available offerings in a loop, and yet the selected game was still received in less than a minute. Because of the technical requirements at the head end for the Sega Channel Sega had a huge impact on cable companies cleaning up their network and improving their infrastucture to pave the way for modern cable internet. No, bandwidth was certainly not a concern.
Technically bandwidth was an issue. If the cable company cant properly utilize the entire bandwidth of a cable line then that's the bottle neck for the service.
I remember SEGA channel it would take 10minutes to pull a 4mb file.
Yup, "homebrew" has become the new "backup copy" as a euphemism for "pirated games".
In order to develop video games, I need to get a job at a video game studio that has a console license. But in order to get a job, I first need to develop video games to build a resume. How do I break the Catch-22 without homebrew?
it's like paying for cinemax without the sex
I went through two of those ginormous, 9V-battery-powered Gameline cartridges. That was like magic, being able to log in to a proto-BBS using an Atari 2600. It's not like the games were that great, but the whole process of connecting, logging on, and browsing the service was entertaining all on its own. Just trying to figure out how it worked, and why it broke so often, probably set me on the path to being a hacker.
I had no idea that CVC (the operator) became America Online, but it makes perfect sense. Gameline had mainstream distribution, proprietary dialup networking, and a walled garden full of crappy content. Anyone who actually remembers AOL will recognize the similarities immediately.
No mention to the Zeebo console being tested in Brazil.
Zeebo is a download only console, meant for 3rd world countries (where pirating is high).
Though in my opinion it is a bit expensive (US$250, which is more than the monthly minimum wage in Brazil). If they don't make the games really inexpensive, it will fail miserably. Another missing feature is browsing the internet.
You can learn more about it here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10252999-17.html
Reminds me of my old TI99/4A which had 8K of RAM. the 4K RAM upgrade was huge and allowed me to run much larger games.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
The ZX Spectrum used to store it's games / programs on audio cassette, a few times channel 4 (UK TV channel) would "play" the code of a demo game and you could plug your cassette recorder into the audio out of your TV and "download" the game.
As someone who has done some ROM hacking (SNES), I think you must be insane to use actual hardware instead of emulators to develop.
The only NES emulator with a fully cycle-accurate CPU and PPU is Nintendulator, and that doesn't run well on my cheap, underpowered laptop. So I test most builds in the FCE Ultra that I can apt-get from Ubuntu's repository. At least one or two builds a day go on an NES with a PowerPak (CompactFlash adapter), or more often if I'm testing something that relies on cycle accuracy such as scroll splits. All extended play testing, which sometimes requires a second player, is done on a PowerPak because I only have access to player 2 every other weekend, it's hard to get player 2 into my home office, and some maneuvers that are supposed to be easy on an NES controller are easier on an NES controller than on a keyboard.
And some consoles aren't emulated well at all. The Wii emulator Dolphin, for instance, needs a PC much newer than even my desktop PC. Luckily, homebrew developers can upload builds to it over Wi-Fi.
it is not "code speak for pirates". Here's 61 homebrewed games in cartridge form for play on your Atari VCS/2600. My game Medieval Mayhem, an updated take on Warlords, is one of them. My other homebrew, Stay Frosty, was part of the 2007 Holiday Cart, Stella's Stocking.