Hardware Definitions
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Thursday, 14 January 2016
The Connection and Configuration of Game Platform
The Connection
and Configuration of Game Platform
Installing BloodBorne to a PlayStation 4
This is me installing bloodborne to a playstation 4, both videos show the process I took to install the game and place the disk into the console.
Connectin PlayStation 4 Controller
In this video I connected a PlayStation 4 Dualshock controller to a Playstation 4 console.
Configuring the Resolution
In this video I have changed the resolution to automatic rather than 720p.
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
StarCraft 2 Report
StarCraft 2 Report
StarCraft can be played in a client that is ran by the "Blizzard Launcher". This is downloaded from battle.net and has a number of games besides StarCraft in the Launcher however each need to be installed separately. This makes StarCraft 2 fairly platform dependant although due to the game being only on PC where as some other popular RTS's are on consoles and PC compared to other games SC2 is fairly Platform Dependant.
The Operating System Windows is needed to run the game and It can only be played on a PC OS. Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 can all be used to run StarCraft II. You can also run on a mac which requires from Mac OS X 10.9 to Mac OS X 10.10. The reason that these OS's are needed is because you are required to play on a PC that can, atleast, support one of these systems. StarCraft 2 cannot be played on Linux.
Whilst Windows XP can be used to play SC2 it should be noted that not much technical support is available anymore for XP when running SC2. Below is a list of requirements to actually run heroes of the storm but considering SC2: Legacy of the Void (the newest expansion) runs on the same engine as this it's the closest ideal requirements/drivers for the game that we know of.
https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/heroes-of-the-storm-system-requirements
C/C++ (one of the popular programming languages which is also event based) was used to create StarCraft 2 through blizzard's own engine. The Starcraft 2 engine is a very popular engine among MOBA games and RTS games that are currently or have been in development in recent years. Due to the Engine being extremely stable and C++ being event based meaning the game engine and the actually game itself is far more flexible due to event's calling from the API and past events in the game (very suitable programming language for RTS).
Only the core audio API for Windows/Mac is required to run StarCraft 2. As shown by the image above there are video requirements but the Media display has no reccomended requirements this is due to the fact that there are no add ons for audio or plugins. In terms of Graphical API it recommends a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon 7790. This is because of StarCraft's very intense graphics especially on Ulta quality. The "TV" requirements are the Resolution which is 1024x768 minimum which is fairly good for a real time stratergy game, but 1920x1080 is definitely recommended.
http://cdn.pcgamesn.com/sites/default/files/Starcraft%202%20Legacy%20of%20the%20Void%20pre-purchase.jpg
Below is Gameplay of Esports (Tier 1 Dreamhack) - StarCraft 2 Competitive Scene
http://cdn.pcgamesn.com/sites/default/files/Starcraft%202%20Legacy%20of%20the%20Void%20pre-purchase.jpg
Below is Gameplay of Esports (Tier 1 Dreamhack) - StarCraft 2 Competitive Scene
OldSchool RuneScape Report
Oldschool Runescape Report
Oldschool
Runescape can be played in either a browser (not google chrome since google
chrome doesn’t support java) or a downloadable .jar client. Oldschool Runescape can be ran on Windows or MAC OS but since it needs java I would says it's more platform dependent than most games currently, one reason Oldschool Runescape has an excuse to be not very platform dependant is because it's source code was taken from 2007 (which is what the game is based off) and runescape is over ten years old.
The Operating
System Windows or Mac OS is needed to run the game and It can only be played on
a PC OS. The reason for this is because a PC with java installed is required to play OldSchool Runescape, alwell as this the Runescape Client and launcher cannot be crossed over to a console either.
To play
Oldschool Runescape Java runtime environment is required to run the java
application, the java application is actually the oldschool runescape client. Theses are the only drivers actually required to run oldschool runescape, the graphics are rather low so not much hardware requirements are needed either.
For Oldschool
Runescape, the java programming language is used, it is an object orientated
programming language. Java was used to create the RS2 on a framework because at the time in 1999 when Runescape was first developed this was the best programming language to base MMORPG's off in the creator's opinion. RS3 is now coded in HTML5 and Java and OSRS (Oldschool Runescape) is still developed in java to this day.
The Java SE 7
graphics API is required to run Oldschool Runescape. In order to run the game
itself one essentially needs to install java to their PC/Device. The graphics of Oldschool Runescape are definitely not the best and are even considered some of the worse in MMORPG's compared to most modern day RPG's. As mentioned before the reason for the "bad" graphics is due to the game being developed between 1999-2007 and only the source code has been edited so far.
Only the core
audio API for Windows/Mac is required to run oldschool Runescape. The sounds in OSRS are done through MIDI files that are encrypted within the client. This means no plugins besides the client are required so the requirements are little to none upon getting a windows/mac PC.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
The History of Television gaming
The History of Television gaming
The Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300 is a television released by Sony that incorporates a playstation 2 into a television. The specs are exactly the same as the PS2 (obviously), the television is a 22 inch, 720p and HD. The only downside to the Television which is that the old games of the playstation 2 will still play in standard definition rather than a higher definition. Personally I feel like this TV has a lot of potential in the games industry as a product, although I feel like the PS2 incorporation was a little out of date, perhaps the Xbox 360 or PS3 would've been a far bigger improvement, although this is something that the industry could take into account with future television's or consoles.
The Dream cast Drivers was a collaboration between CSK and Sega.
The Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300 is a television released by Sony that incorporates a playstation 2 into a television. The specs are exactly the same as the PS2 (obviously), the television is a 22 inch, 720p and HD. The only downside to the Television which is that the old games of the playstation 2 will still play in standard definition rather than a higher definition. Personally I feel like this TV has a lot of potential in the games industry as a product, although I feel like the PS2 incorporation was a little out of date, perhaps the Xbox 360 or PS3 would've been a far bigger improvement, although this is something that the industry could take into account with future television's or consoles.
The Dream cast Drivers was a collaboration between CSK and Sega.
The History of Mobile gaming
The History of Mobile gaming
1997-2000
Mobile games really kicked off in 1997 when snake was released and Tetris was later released in this year. Snake first appeared on the Nokia 6610 phone, it was estimated to have shipped around 400 million copies of the game with the phone. My opinion as too why snake was so popular is that it was addicting, you wanted too keep beating the previous score all the time. The next step was too make something called WAP games. WAP stands for Wireless Application protocol and it allows mobile phones to connect to the internet. Considering YouTube and Facebook weren't around on phones then this was really evolutionary for gaming and actually shaped the modern day app market.
What game designers wanted to do with WAP was simple, hopefully make multiplayer games such as connect 4, chess or naughts are crosses. The key feature here was making a turn based game, I think this could've been quite interesting for the mobile and it would have definitely shaped modern turn based games today. Because of Infra red connections between phones, people could play Snake 2 in 2 player this also has shown how far the online or social gaming of mobiles has grown since 1997.
Picture Source: http://d3jgkzl5mcxi5w.cloudfront.net/2013/01/snake.jpg
2000-2001
Steve Jackson's Sorcery was another successful game in the mobile games industry at this time. It was a turned based fantasy adventure game. There was one graphical drawback which is the game frame was limited to 3000 pixels and games were still monochrome at this time too (black and light blue).
There was also another game called "Alien fish exchange". The core aspect of this game was pick an alien and breed it. Initially players start with 2-3 aliens in a fish tank they must feed. the whole aim of the game was too keep them happy so they could breed into new mutations, I personally like the whole idea of this, it was unique for the time and the "happy" and "feeding" options of the fish were definitely unique to the time, it reminds me of Tamagochi somewhat and may have influenced the mobile game industry but not greatly. Another feature of the game is you can breed further exotic types of fish and these can be sold to the restaurant for cash. This game also had a Leader-board which shows off (for the second time besides snake and Tetris) a competitive feature to mobile gaming.
Picture Source: http://media.pocketgamer.biz/2008/12/9638/2000-sorcery-2001-r471x.jpg
2001-2002
In 2002, there were 2 phones that were released that could support better software for mobile phone gaming. This language could finally come past turn based games or snake, the 2 phones that were released were the Nokia 3410 and the Siemens M50. The only drawback to this revolution of mobile games was that the phones could still not support colour yet and the resolution was also not as good as it could be with just 96x64 pixel screens.
Because of this companies stuck with WAP which was improving and finally brought colour to the mobile gaming industry. A good example of a new game with colour at this time is JAMDAT Bowling because of it's BREW technology which was the second biggest US network operator.
Space Invaders was also a fairly innovative game for it's time. It's still played today showing it has shaped the games industry, it was a large success and was a arcade game before it was released on mobile. This is probably why it was released on mobile in the first place (as it was played so much on the arcade machines).
Picture Source: http://media.pocketgamer.biz/2008/12/9633/jamdat-bowling-r471x.jpg
2005-2006
iFone was a UK mobile publisher in 2005-2006 era of mobile gaming. Through contacts the company was able to release versions of Atari's and Infogames' console games for mobile. iFone was named the best publisher for mobile gaming in 2005. Whilst I believe this too be important Atari and Infogames soon fell in terms of popularity and sales, iFone definitely made a difference but in my opinion it was not enough to make a large difference.
2007-present
January 9th 2007 was the release of the very first Iphone. This year was extremely significant when it comes to influential moments in gaming history. The reason the Iphone was revolutionary is because the app store is still used today, it's been going for 7 years now and has been incredibly successful. The app store is essentially a large market of games and apps that can be downloaded to any Iphone supporting an up to date version of Ios (as most of these games require IOS). This platform for buying games was as simple as downloading music as an Mp3 and payments could be made easily. This shows us the way that consumers use the Iphone, still today millions use the platform to purchase mobile video games. Evidence of the popularity of the app store on the Iphone include Angry birds: 3 billion downloads, Temple Run a 3D infinite runner: 1 Billion Downloads. In my opinion the app store released by Apple is a great platform for buying and distributing games for indie developers and large game companies, as a user of the platform myself I use the app store weekly and it's easy to use and very simple.
1997-2000
Mobile games really kicked off in 1997 when snake was released and Tetris was later released in this year. Snake first appeared on the Nokia 6610 phone, it was estimated to have shipped around 400 million copies of the game with the phone. My opinion as too why snake was so popular is that it was addicting, you wanted too keep beating the previous score all the time. The next step was too make something called WAP games. WAP stands for Wireless Application protocol and it allows mobile phones to connect to the internet. Considering YouTube and Facebook weren't around on phones then this was really evolutionary for gaming and actually shaped the modern day app market.
What game designers wanted to do with WAP was simple, hopefully make multiplayer games such as connect 4, chess or naughts are crosses. The key feature here was making a turn based game, I think this could've been quite interesting for the mobile and it would have definitely shaped modern turn based games today. Because of Infra red connections between phones, people could play Snake 2 in 2 player this also has shown how far the online or social gaming of mobiles has grown since 1997.
2000-2001
Steve Jackson's Sorcery was another successful game in the mobile games industry at this time. It was a turned based fantasy adventure game. There was one graphical drawback which is the game frame was limited to 3000 pixels and games were still monochrome at this time too (black and light blue).
There was also another game called "Alien fish exchange". The core aspect of this game was pick an alien and breed it. Initially players start with 2-3 aliens in a fish tank they must feed. the whole aim of the game was too keep them happy so they could breed into new mutations, I personally like the whole idea of this, it was unique for the time and the "happy" and "feeding" options of the fish were definitely unique to the time, it reminds me of Tamagochi somewhat and may have influenced the mobile game industry but not greatly. Another feature of the game is you can breed further exotic types of fish and these can be sold to the restaurant for cash. This game also had a Leader-board which shows off (for the second time besides snake and Tetris) a competitive feature to mobile gaming.
2001-2002
In 2002, there were 2 phones that were released that could support better software for mobile phone gaming. This language could finally come past turn based games or snake, the 2 phones that were released were the Nokia 3410 and the Siemens M50. The only drawback to this revolution of mobile games was that the phones could still not support colour yet and the resolution was also not as good as it could be with just 96x64 pixel screens.
Because of this companies stuck with WAP which was improving and finally brought colour to the mobile gaming industry. A good example of a new game with colour at this time is JAMDAT Bowling because of it's BREW technology which was the second biggest US network operator.
Space Invaders was also a fairly innovative game for it's time. It's still played today showing it has shaped the games industry, it was a large success and was a arcade game before it was released on mobile. This is probably why it was released on mobile in the first place (as it was played so much on the arcade machines).
Picture Source: http://media.pocketgamer.biz/2008/12/9633/jamdat-bowling-r471x.jpg
2005-2006
iFone was a UK mobile publisher in 2005-2006 era of mobile gaming. Through contacts the company was able to release versions of Atari's and Infogames' console games for mobile. iFone was named the best publisher for mobile gaming in 2005. Whilst I believe this too be important Atari and Infogames soon fell in terms of popularity and sales, iFone definitely made a difference but in my opinion it was not enough to make a large difference.
2007-present
January 9th 2007 was the release of the very first Iphone. This year was extremely significant when it comes to influential moments in gaming history. The reason the Iphone was revolutionary is because the app store is still used today, it's been going for 7 years now and has been incredibly successful. The app store is essentially a large market of games and apps that can be downloaded to any Iphone supporting an up to date version of Ios (as most of these games require IOS). This platform for buying games was as simple as downloading music as an Mp3 and payments could be made easily. This shows us the way that consumers use the Iphone, still today millions use the platform to purchase mobile video games. Evidence of the popularity of the app store on the Iphone include Angry birds: 3 billion downloads, Temple Run a 3D infinite runner: 1 Billion Downloads. In my opinion the app store released by Apple is a great platform for buying and distributing games for indie developers and large game companies, as a user of the platform myself I use the app store weekly and it's easy to use and very simple.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
The History of PC gaming
PC Gaming
PC Gaming is a influential and game changing part of the modern video games industry. One of the main reasons for this is, without a doubt, PC's have been more powerful than consoles for a long time. This is because more powerful components can be put into the machine and tampered with (overclocked) to produce a better outcome in terms of graphics and rendering. PC Gaming vs Console gaming is a very common topic in the games industry, whilst PC is certainly better for the players wanting to modify the game also known as "modders", and for better frame rate and graphics capabilities and features, even the standard keyboard and mouse is often preferred. It also holds lots of problems for the developers. Comparing it too a home video game console a PC is completely different. Pieces can be changed and swapped at ease as long as they are compatible so you could upgrade a graphics card and processor etc.
Piracy
Developers often worry about piracy when producing games for the PC, and it's a big issue for developers in the industry especially indie developers. The reason piracy is so bad is because the people producing and making the game essentially get payed from the profit the game turns when copies are sold either digitally or physically. Piracy is the act of illegally downloading the game which is completely free to get a copy of the game with a vast majority of the same features as the legitimate version. Piracy for gamer's isn't as much of an issue and can sometimes benefit gamer's if they get away with it. This is one of the main downsides to PC, piracy is very common form of theft and most who do so are normally a younger group of people.
Steam
Steam is a global network for gamer's and today is one of the biggest social networks on the internet for gamer's alone. Players can track pretty much anything with steam, what their friends are up too, what they're doing on a specific game, achievements their friends unlocked, and invite their friends to the game through steam. Another major thing about steam is it's a massive game library made by Valve (the makers of Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half life). A vast amount of PC users use steam to purchase all their games, it is essentially the PC equivalent of Xbox live or the PlayStation network. As a PC gamer myself I feel that steam is a very good resource for me, I have personally purchased from steam and it's library has more games than Xbox 360 and Although I personally don't like the layout It is very professional, the application also displays how much time you have put into the game as well which I personally use quite a bit. In my opinion steam is one of the most useful pieces of gaming software, it's more of an online social network than anything else and really helps connect with friends.
Picture Sources:
http://cdn.dailypost.ng/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/piracy.jpg?a1f46c
http://i.imgur.com/yLJX5.png
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/dell/cnet_dell_alw14_gallery_06_800.jpg
PC Gaming is a influential and game changing part of the modern video games industry. One of the main reasons for this is, without a doubt, PC's have been more powerful than consoles for a long time. This is because more powerful components can be put into the machine and tampered with (overclocked) to produce a better outcome in terms of graphics and rendering. PC Gaming vs Console gaming is a very common topic in the games industry, whilst PC is certainly better for the players wanting to modify the game also known as "modders", and for better frame rate and graphics capabilities and features, even the standard keyboard and mouse is often preferred. It also holds lots of problems for the developers. Comparing it too a home video game console a PC is completely different. Pieces can be changed and swapped at ease as long as they are compatible so you could upgrade a graphics card and processor etc.
Piracy
Developers often worry about piracy when producing games for the PC, and it's a big issue for developers in the industry especially indie developers. The reason piracy is so bad is because the people producing and making the game essentially get payed from the profit the game turns when copies are sold either digitally or physically. Piracy is the act of illegally downloading the game which is completely free to get a copy of the game with a vast majority of the same features as the legitimate version. Piracy for gamer's isn't as much of an issue and can sometimes benefit gamer's if they get away with it. This is one of the main downsides to PC, piracy is very common form of theft and most who do so are normally a younger group of people.
Steam
Steam is a global network for gamer's and today is one of the biggest social networks on the internet for gamer's alone. Players can track pretty much anything with steam, what their friends are up too, what they're doing on a specific game, achievements their friends unlocked, and invite their friends to the game through steam. Another major thing about steam is it's a massive game library made by Valve (the makers of Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half life). A vast amount of PC users use steam to purchase all their games, it is essentially the PC equivalent of Xbox live or the PlayStation network. As a PC gamer myself I feel that steam is a very good resource for me, I have personally purchased from steam and it's library has more games than Xbox 360 and Although I personally don't like the layout It is very professional, the application also displays how much time you have put into the game as well which I personally use quite a bit. In my opinion steam is one of the most useful pieces of gaming software, it's more of an online social network than anything else and really helps connect with friends.
PC vs Consoles
The PC has had a long war with consoles in the modern day gaming industry, even argues that PC's are better than the latest consoles (PS4 and Xbox One). Whilst this is true for mid budget/high budget PC's, people who don't have the money to afford an expensive graphics card or processor can't get a good enough PC. In addition to this, people require the knowledge to build PC's to actually save money, where as consoles are just plug in and play and actually warn you not to take it apart this is obviously more user friendly and definitely is in the consoles favor in terms of which is better on a budget and with little experience. The PC actually has similar external features, USB ports, ethernet port, HDMI connections but it's different that VGA cables are needed to be connected to the monitor, so PC has more external functions than any next gen console. Console has far less graphics capabilties which would put the PC ahead of consoles, some argue graphics aren't everything in a game but let's be honest, if GTA or any other hyper realistic game was offered in Ultra settings (max settings) it's a better gaming experience.
Picture Sources:
http://cdn.dailypost.ng/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/piracy.jpg?a1f46c
http://i.imgur.com/yLJX5.png
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/dell/cnet_dell_alw14_gallery_06_800.jpg
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