Virtual Reality at GDC 2008

Retro consoles classic consoles and retro gaming at Retrohead at www.retrohead.co.uk. I have done some hard research into what went on at GDC 2008 and...what? Oh, well, I looked at the write ups in the March editions of several magazines...thats what I said wasn't it? Hard research! So as I was saying...GDC 2008...the place where game developers the world over converge to show off their skills to try and get that elusive exposure finished this past February and whilst it appears it was a mute affair there was one piece that caught my eye. A speech from the respected Ray Kurzweil. Ray is an inventor and futurist and has worked very closely with the likes of Bill Gates. If you want to know more about him just Wikipedia him up and their is a wealth of information. His speech was a lengthy one but there was one particular part that caught my eye;

Ray said "....we are going to spend more and more of our time in virtual reality environments, and eventually we will be fully independent of real reality. The barrier to this next step is full-immersion gaming....The fear has always been that someone immersed in a virtual reality is going to forget about real reality..."

This small point got me thinking because this is something that I along with many other people have been thinking about for years. It even follows on from a previous 'One for the road' about Nintendo and where gaming is heading in terms of originality.

Could gaming turn into a real virtual reality where everything in that world can be affected, could you essentially get into a fist fight with some mob gangster or dodge real time bullets (naturally I would not expect to die from one). But how far could this go?....and this is something I have discussed before. Could we be so satisfied with our virtual reality lives that we never leave the game-space? Have a piss pipe to piss in, a conveyer belt for food intake etc etc. Would we need to do anything again? It sounds highly far fetched and I am assuming here that this would not be a relity for many many years to come but have a think, in years to come would a virtual world become so much of a better option that we become accustomed to that way of living. If that was the case surely a piss pipe or food conveyer belt would just be an extension of that idea. The virtual world might sound a lonely place now but with sites like second life having millions of pounds/dollars being spent on it...real money for virtual items...is that not a first step towards this world anyway? Hell...your in the virtual world and you fancy ordering some goods, speak to the bloke down the road and he can order it for you..pay him some virtual cash that is wired to your real world bank card, go down the road some more, slag off the local scum and run away to your virtual home. There you find your virtual wife who is in fact only upstairs on her virtual machine in the real world talking to you asking why you have been out fighting again. Are you still with me?

For that to happen the virtual reality world would have to be really good. For the first 10 -30 experimental years it would be a bit naff. A bit like gaming when the Atari 7600 was around...good at the time..but look where gaming has come in 20 years! If virtual reality started naff on a consumer scale, imagine what might happen in the first 20 years and then another 20 years after that.

I dont know if we would have piss pipes to be fair, but certainly virtual reality could be something out of this world and it only takes a little imagination at what you could do with it. Then again, films like the Matrix can further that imagination...instead of taking the films real ending, replace it with this one...the Matrix is actually a gaming network of the future when the human race becomes wholly set up in this virtual world...and everyone forgets that it is virtual reality. That might sound madness but just think....

Virtual Reality at GDC 2008

I have done some hard research into what went on at GDC 2008 and...what? Oh, well, I looked at the write ups in the March editions of several magazines...thats what I said wasn't it? Hard research! So as I was saying...GDC 2008...the place where game developers the world over converge to show off their skills to try and get that elusive exposure finished this past February and whilst it appears it was a mute affair there was one piece that caught my eye. A speech from the respected Ray Kurzweil. Ray is an inventor and futurist and has worked very closely with the likes of Bill Gates. If you want to know more about him just Wikipedia him up and their is a wealth of information. His speech was a lengthy one but there was one particular part that caught my eye;

Ray said "....we are going to spend more and more of our time in virtual reality environments, and eventually we will be fully independent of real reality. The barrier to this next step is full-immersion gaming....The fear has always been that someone immersed in a virtual reality is going to forget about real reality..."

This small point got me thinking because this is something that I along with many other people have been thinking about for years. It even follows on from a previous 'One for the road' about Nintendo and where gaming is heading in terms of originality.

Could gaming turn into a real virtual reality where everything in that world can be affected, could you essentially get into a fist fight with some mob gangster or dodge real time bullets (naturally I would not expect to die from one). But how far could this go?....and this is something I have discussed before. Could we be so satisfied with our virtual reality lives that we never leave the game-space? Have a piss pipe to piss in, a conveyer belt for food intake etc etc. Would we need to do anything again? It sounds highly far fetched and I am assuming here that this would not be a relity for many many years to come but have a think, in years to come would a virtual world become so much of a better option that we become accustomed to that way of living. If that was the case surely a piss pipe or food conveyer belt would just be an extension of that idea. The virtual world might sound a lonely place now but with sites like second life having millions of pounds/dollars being spent on it...real money for virtual items...is that not a first step towards this world anyway? Hell...your in the virtual world and you fancy ordering some goods, speak to the bloke down the road and he can order it for you..pay him some virtual cash that is wired to your real world bank card, go down the road some more, slag off the local scum and run away to your virtual home. There you find your virtual wife who is in fact only upstairs on her virtual machine in the real world talking to you asking why you have been out fighting again. Are you still with me?

For that to happen the virtual reality world would have to be really good. For the first 10 -30 experimental years it would be a bit naff. A bit like gaming when the Atari 7600 was around...good at the time..but look where gaming has come in 20 years! If virtual reality started naff on a consumer scale, imagine what might happen in the first 20 years and then another 20 years after that.

I dont know if we would have piss pipes to be fair, but certainly virtual reality could be something out of this world and it only takes a little imagination at what you could do with it. Then again, films like the Matrix can further that imagination...instead of taking the films real ending, replace it with this one...the Matrix is actually a gaming network of the future when the human race becomes wholly set up in this virtual world...and everyone forgets that it is virtual reality. That might sound madness but just think....

Neo Geo pocket: A joystick never beaten

So, this will probably be a very short 'One for the road' but its an important one. Its not often people actually discuss what was the best joystick or thumb stick or joypad but maybe this little article will get people talking.

Your probably wondering 'why would anyone care', well, people do care, they just dont realise it. Whilst your sitting there playing on your 360, PS3 or even your SNES or NES you are using the one accessory that will probably determine how much you enjoy a particular game. Use a bad joystick and that game can quickly become the bain of your life. Use a good joystick and that game can become the best gaming experience of your life.

The Neo Geo Color thumb stick (pictured above left) in my humble opinion is perhaps the finest example of any joystick/thumbstick around, even in todays hi-tech world. The ease at which the stick moves enables you to perform moves that you could only dream of on any other device. It makes game play sublime and I have never sat there and thought "My god, if only I had a better stick". Which is exactly what the next Joystick did....

The Atari 7600 joystick (pictured right), if ever there was a joystick to throw out of your window, this is one of them. Try and play on this and you will quickly find that frustration rules the day. But perhaps there is one stick that can save the day for the Atari. That honour might just about go to the next contender...

This little blob to our left is actually the PSP thumbstick...and what a terribly horrible piece of rubbish this is. Some people do like it, or at the very least 'put up' with it. Its a mystery why because quite simply it has to be the most ill conceived stick ever manufactured. Play on this at your peril. This is not to say the PSP is bad...well...actually...lets say thats another 'one for the road'.

So if thats the worst of the worst, are there any sticks that can compare to the Neo Geo Color?

Well perhaps a couple come close.

The Cheetah joystick (left) was a wonderful stick back in the late 80's to early 90's. I personally played Sensible World of Soccer with this and it withstood a lot of hardship. One of the key things to achieve on SWOS was the 'curl'. To be able to magically curl that ball around the keeper from 40 yards was key to becoming awesome as opposed to just good. Many sticks were poor to good at this task but the Cheetah was one of the few that pulled it off to a high standard.

But what of today's market? I actually can't comment on the PS3 as I regret I have not yet had a chance to use it controllers, but it cant be that different from the PS2 controller. As for the 360 I have to say its very good and crosses the divide of hardcore gaming to its XBLA games very well indeed. Although a dedicated arcade stick would not go amiss.

What of Nintendo though.....

As you can see...over the years they have kept to a formula that has worked. No stick in sight. Although this applies to most of its consoles and hand-helds over the years, there are the odd exceptions from the N64 to the current Wii. Now thats more than a stick! Regardless how unique and individual it is, I doubt very much it will go down as one of the best sticks ever conceived. I have money on that Nintendo will not do a 'Wii 2' and we wont see the Wii sticks again, its rare for Nintendo to do the same thing twice...or at the very least, if they do a Wii 2 then it will be very different from the current one. Having said that....there is probably a good reason why I am not a betting man.

So stick or pad? Well both have their place, if its stick go for the Neo Geo Color, if its a pad....there is only one Nintendo.

Microsoft Kills Retro?

Sony has backed a winning format at long last! Forget Betamax (Left), forget Mini disks, Blu-Ray has won the HD disk format war. This is all old news now and you are probably thinking "What has this got to do with gaming?". Well I've been following this story since the two formats HD-DVD and Blu-Ray started the battle.

You see Microsoft put it's faith into HD-DVD, they even made a nice little add on player (add ons never succeed but that's a whole other blog). That player is now retailing for as little as $50. A Microsoft big wig as gone on record as saying that Disks aren't important. That Movies and games on disks are going to be
a thing of the past.

This may be true, I sincerely hope not, but then again I am now more likely to download my music from I tunes than buy a CD. I thought that I would never give up my CD's.

The thing that is bugging me about this is, if future consoles rely on downloadable content. What is going to happen to the retro market of the future? Who is going to want to buy a console with games stuck on a hard drive? It will take all the choice away from the retro game buyer. It will be like buying an arcade plug and play console.

It's a little ways off I guess but I hope that MS are barking up the wrong tree. I hope that this retoric from the guys at the top of MS Games, is just posturing due to them smarting from losing a format battle.

I still think it is possible that we may see a Microsoft console with Blu-Ray inside. Games are getting bigger and bigger. Metal Gear Solid 4 is rumoured to be nearly filling a Blu-Ray disk, so MS needs to think about this issue and quickly.

But for now we will have to wait and see. Goodbye Retro, hello download?

This Post was written by 'Paul the Elder'

Retrohead - Retro passion (Retro consoles and more)

Nintendo - Reinventing the Wheel

Since 1958 when William Higinbotham released ’Tennis for two’, gaming machines have been around for us to lose ourselves in for hours upon hours. Ok, the first proper video games would not be released until years later but since 1958 has gaming changed that much?

Many would argue it has, and certainly in some respects that is true, after all ‘Tennis for two’ was effectively an early example of what would become ‘pong’ and we have come a long way since those days.

In terms of graphics and what can be achieved with hardware there is no doubt the future is bright and has been getting brighter since those caveman days of 1958. You only have to play a game on Intellivision then an Atari 2600 then on a NES then on a Playstaion and finally on an Xbox 360 and you will see how far we have come. Who knows we may be playing fully holographic games by the year 3000. That’s something I would like to see but does that even count as ‘graphics’? I guess that’s a whole other ‘One for the road’.

Aside from how good graphics can actually get in the future, the other aspect of gaming is ‘innovation’, a mantra that Nintendo pedals in today’s market. Have games and gaming become more innovative? If hardware has leapt and bounded into the 21st Century like Bambi on steroids, we would suggest that ‘innovation’ has come into the 21st Century like a tortoise with bronchitis, coughing and spluttering with not much to look forward to. In terms of games, you could argue that they are all the same. One FPS after another, one RPG after another and so on and so on. Gaming really has not changed that much. Is today’s Call Of Duty 4 any different to the ‘Doom’ of old? In many ways, it is, but only in terms of who your enemy is, your objectives and graphic capability. Its still shooting at enemies with guns on a screen with graphics. The same goes for any game type. Games will always evolve in terms of the graphics and what your enemy is but real ‘innovation’ has not come around for a long time. Innovation has come in the form of ‘light guns’ for example, who would have thought in the 60’s that we would be shooting weapons at a real time responsive screen for example.

Nintendo has recently claimed that their DS and Wii are innovation incarnate. With their touch screens and motion sensor bars etc..

Few people though have failed to notice that none of this is innovative. The motion sensing has been done before with the NES accessory the ‘Power Glove’. The touch screen has been done before with everyday PDA’s and also the Gameboy pretender the Tiger Electronic ‘Game.com’. The DS has a ‘blow hole’ in it. This has been done before with another home console favourite. You also may think the Wii’s ability to let you download games like the 360 and PS3 is also quite innovative for its time…the Intellivision in 1980 was the first console to have this ability. Technically.

Its all been done before. So what is actually new? Nothing is new. If anything Nintendo have just re-invented the wheel. They have polished what was already there. That’s not a bad thing, just that it proves that innovation is non-existent in today’s gaming world.

So what exactly are we after? For that answer you have to look at TV programmes like ‘Tomorrows world’ and the ‘Gadget Show’, Fancy playing ‘Pac man’ with you as ‘Pac man’ in a virtual street layout? Perhaps you want to have rumble pads attached to different areas on your body, one hit to the groin area and ooooh that’s gotta hurt! Maybe future gaming should involve true holographic arena’s. Some of these things have been trying to break onto the market since I can remember, so maybe even they could not be classed as innovative…but the difference is, these ideas have never made it to mainstream gaming. Is that due to cost? Most probably.

So what about 30 years from now….will we playing on a Nintendo ‘Puu’ with them claiming that ‘rumble pads’ are innovative? What road will gaming go down? Will we still be sat in front of our TV screens playing Call of Duty 3001? Is this all gaming has to offer, better graphics? How real could graphics get? If they got too real would the censors put a stop to gaming? At that point would gaming not have to evolve again and become genuinely innovative? Gamers have not complained about innovation..ever!, since the height of gaming in the late seventies and through to the late eighties gamers have accepted that TV screen based gaming is all there is. Whilst graphics get better and better every 5 years why should people complain. If it ever gets to a point where graphics really cant get that much better without actually being true-to-life what will happen then? That’s when true innovation for gaming will have to take effect and then we will see a whole world of innovation because for the companies that don’t innovate, I would suggest they wont be around for long and we may even enter a dark age of gaming.

Retrohead - Retro passion (Retro consoles and more)