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Razer Unveils Portable Gaming Device Concept
MerelyASetback writes "Razer has shown a new concept for a gaming device that uses a pair of 7-inch multitouch displays as well as a layer of tactile, dynamic keys on the lower screen. Much like the Optimus Maximus of yesteryear, this keyboard would enable gamers to place different screens underneath depending on the title, and even within a game — you could imagine the keys shifting to account for different POVs, levels, scenarios, etc. Internally, the concept is based around an Intel Atom processor, but there's no word on what kind of GPU would work alongside of it."
That's be great but it better damn well support my Nostromo. I don't game on a PC without it.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
I hope they sell a unit!
..it looks like the game needs to support this thing for it to work properly, and that's where all these fancy ideas usually fail; it'll get 2-3 games that supports it, but in a year everyone's already forgotten about it and moved on. It'd be different if they went ahead and developed an actual standard API that games could use to display parts of their UI on other devices and that API worked with every manufacturer's devices, it might actually catch on! But.. well, given how short-sighted and greedy companies usually are they will just try to lock people to their own devices and then wonder why it didn't work.
I don't know what uses there are for a keyboard displays like this and the Optimus. It's one hell of a cool gimmick and is sure to be a great conversation starter, but to actually use it? I hardly ever look at my keyboard. I don't want to!
Tactile feedback isn't new, but it hasn't been perfected to a point of being usable yet. The rest is already done with existing technology, just not how you expect. Think a pair of iphones/ipods/ipads in a setup like the NDS_XL and put something that beats the snot out of the iphone and 3DS together and you'll have something I want. Till then Intel Atom is pathetic, and the ability to play games on one is a joke, just like intel's graphics.
Captcha: Atomize
Why can't they pick something more normal and business oriented, like "Biggus Clickus"?
Obviously designed by people who are not gamers. Where is my analog input device? Keys only? Hello? How am I supposed to look around in a 3D game, or point and shoot, or turn, or do practically anything else that requires more than just keys?
Nope, these jokers think that PC gaming is all about the keyboard - just watch the ad video. Yeah, right. Because the keyboard is what makes PC gaming what it is. Errr...
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
So, how'd you go around playing something like Quake - or even World of Warcraft without being able to use the mouse for free-look/turning?
Seems like a cool little gadget for quick remote login - but I'm quite sure the pricetag will make it rather useless for that purpose just as the lack of mouse (together with small screen) will make it useless for "real" gaming.
Intel Atom sucks for games and the newer one lock in the older Intel gma video.
Even Atom + nvidia is not that good.
and you're gonna build a gaming laptop on the Atom?
As Anonymous Coward pointed out, the Atom is more powerful than the CPU in a PSP, 3DS, or older iPod touch. (I'm unsure about comparing it to the A4 in the iPod touch 4.) I'd imagine that games designed for an Atom-based platform, especially one with the GeForce 9400 in an ION chipset, can look better than games for almost any existing gaming handheld.
An in order CPU like Atom
Each of the three cores in the Xbox 360 CPU is also in-order. But like the Xbox 360 CPU, the Atom CPU has multithreading so that if an instruction gets stalled, instructions from the other thread fill the pipeline.
I play handhelds (ds, psp, phone) due to their simplistic controls. If I wanted to play a game that uses that many keys, I'm going to use a laptop.
the awesome scooter technology from the 90's. Now that would be a wicked awesome company to define a new innovative gaming device for future generations!
I went to battle M.C. Escher, but drew a blank.
you will have to look down to see the controls instead of the game just saying "press X to do blah".
Nintendo DS games appear to work around this.
Even Atom + nvidia is not that good.
But it's better than, say, PSP. On a 7" screen, you wouldn't need the graphics cranked up as high.
Looks like this experimental keyboard from Microsoft.
https://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/content/projects/uist.aspx
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
One it was made to be REALLY cheap, and Two it was made to be REALLY low power. Now does anyone here actually associate really cheap and really low power with WINDOWS GAMING?
No, but it's precisely what we expect of handhelds. You assume that should this device take off, no developer will target it. I could even see the device containing a stripped-down Linux to run games that the developer cares about porting.
I thought service costs were completely independent of the phone model, at least if you buy the phone outright.
Smartphones aren't commonly sold outright where I live. For example, I can't walk into an electronics store, try a phone, flash my credit card, and walk out with a paid-for unlocked phone. Instead, electronics stores sell unactivated phones that are still locked to a carrier. Some (e.g. T-Mobile G1) won't even start apps without a SIM inserted, instead being locked to only make voice calls to emergency services. I could buy an unlocked phone online, but I'd have no way to try it first (cue return shipping and 15% restocking fee if it ends up unusably unergonomic), and they're still often twice the price of an iPod touch because they're meant to compete with an iPhone, not an iPod touch.
Notice what they were demoing on the screen? Quake 3. That's 12 years ago, sir. Not even Call of Duty, or Joint Operations, or Battlefield 1942? And you're talking about modern gaming in the portable platform? As a developer, I would be simply too ashamed of myself to show that in public, as if my target audience wouldn't be able to identify it. "Oh look, flashy pictures and things that move! Is that a new awesome game? Yeah, sure it is..." I'm sure it's probably a licensing thing, they could have even done enough changes with the open source to say that it's not actually Quake 3, so there's no licensing issues. I wouldn't think Razer would have a hard time getting a game publisher to let them demo something better. Still, I just couldn't believe my eyes. Not to mention that it's "portable", except you still need to have a desktop surface for the mouse in order to actually play the game. At least that's better than them thinking you could use the 7" screen as a touch-mouse, since we've all seen how much that sucks on smaller devices. "I think I'm aiming at it, but I can't see what's under my finger".
And I love how the first guy is just so serious the entire time. It could be a complete parody, and he wouldn't even have to change the tone of his voice, and it would be hilarious. In fact, for the first minute, I thought it WAS a some sort of industry comedy sketch by The Onion sponsored by Razer, and was waiting for the final punch line. "PC gaming has always been impossible in a portable form factor." My immediate thoughts were "Hah, you mean my laptop? The joke must be some huge desktop gaming rig in a backpack with an armrest for the new Razer mouse... Oh, the punch line is, they're demoing Quake 3, and they're serious? Wow."
This thing could actually be a significantly awesome device, but that preview was just so misguided and self-detrimental that I can hardly bring myself to care.
With my Dell Streak I tried it in an O2 store
For one thing, O2 doesn't operate in my home country. For another, a Dell Streak without service is still very expensive (twice the price of iPod touch or Archos 43).
then ordered online
As I understand it, trying in a store with the intent of buying online marks one as a "demon customer" to the store's management. And it still doesn't address the problem of discovering that a phone fails to run apps without a SIM, or products that one can't find in any nearby store. For example, back in May, I tried three local stores that sell cell phones; none carried the Nokia N900 phone. More recently, I couldn't find a single store that carried the Archos 43 Android-based media player.
the majority of folks will have smartphones
Even primary-school children, whose parents make much of the market for E-rated games?
in 10 years
Such a time horizon is off the radar of home entertainment product makers.
There must be a lot of cheap used iPhones and the like around already.
Like the iPod touch, these can't run any app not in the App Store without a jailbreak. Would Apple accept game controller apps in the App Store?
as a gaming device, too large and bulky. But kudos to a new kind of Netbook concept. I mean, seriously they did nothing more then take a netbook and put the Optimus keyboard on it, this is not innovation. People are "blown away" way to easily these days.