blazorthon
Distinguished
- Sep 24, 2010
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Dedicated handheld gaming consoles are really starting to get obsolete by now (at least, in my opinion). What would be better is making a few smart phones with similar hardware and making a dock for them (or just making them have the game controls built in) and making a platform to develop games for. Most people don't want to buy expensive handheld consoles anymore and I'm willing to bet that most people who would buy them would prefer getting a good smart phone that has a good library of games and such like a console could. It would need to be a little thicker (maybe up to 20mm or so) and have a very good battery, but with a cheap dock or even just a sliding keyboard or have the controls integrated into the phone in a way that is non-intrusive for non-gaming usage, but still intuitive for gaming usage).
I know that I would be willing to pay larger prices for such a device as I would for a smart phone that can then do pretty much anything except for very performance heavy things that would necessitate a laptop or desktop. Give me a small line of X86 Atom based Android phones that have good input controls, a decent gaming library (an emulator that can play all of the GB games, and some older home console games in addition to new games), and a battery that can allow play for a full day (or a little play for two to four days) and I'd be happy.
For the battery, like I said, give me a thicker phone. It would be easier to hold than these phones that are getting as thin as monetary coins such as nickels and quarters and have the battery life to last as long as my dumb phones and older mobile gaming consoles. My old GBA SP and DSs can last for days and if Sony, Nintendo, or M$ (if they get into this) think that everyone is going to settle for four to five hours of battery life, then they're wrong. Sure, some people would, but not everyone.
If the controls get integrated into the phone, then maybe they can also be used for other things when the phone is't being used as a gaming console. For example, two small analogue joy sticks could fold up and down (have a small locking mechanism to put them back down so they don't go down when you don't want them to) or even be used for things such as navigating through the screen. I know that if I didn't need to touch the screen of my phone to flip the page of an eBook or scroll through a web page, that I'd be happier off. Joysticks to scroll instead of touch gestures could really be helpful.
For people who want to run desktop style programs (I know some people like to run stuff such as Ubuntu on their phone and an X86 phone is just too cool for trying stuff like running desktop X86 Windows programs on), the joy sticks could provide a far better replacement for the mouse in moving the cursor than the touch screen ever could.
A dual or quad core ARM or Atom would also actually provide quite a bit of processing power. If I'm not mistaken, these Medfield Atoms are fairly similar to the netbook Atoms in performance, even if it takes a Hyper0Threaded Medfield to come close to a single core, non-hyper threaded netbook Atom. A dual core Medfield would be quite a bit of mobile processing power if this is true. A quad core Cortex A15 would be even better, but that would kill the X86 compatibility... Maybe Intel could be convinced to make a quad core Atom, even if it sacrifices Hyper-Threading to do so?
Intel might be convinced of this if such an idea is brought up by Sony, M$, or Nintendo. I would really like to see an Android with such capabilities made by Sony. Of course, Apple could do something like this too and although I'm kinda an Apple hater, even I could admit that it would be pretty cool even if it was Apple who actually did this.
Give me something such as an Android with a dual core (or if Intel goes for it, a quad core) Medfield, 1GB of RAM, good controls for proper gaming (one or two analogue joy sticks and a few buttons), thick profile to fit a battery that can last at least ten hours of heavy gaming (not that I'd spend that nearly much time gaming at once, but it would mean a long battery life for when it's not being used for heavy gaming and that it can be used for heavy gaming over short periods of time for several days), a good camera (8MP with a large enough lens to properly accommodate that many pixels), a decent front facing camera (I've wanted to see a 2MP one with a decent lens, but 1.4Mp could do it too), 16 to 64 GM MicroSD card (if reasonable, how about two slots? It'd certainly be a big enough device and these slots are so small), 3G/4G, WiFi B/G/N, FM radio, great graphics (one of the upcoming Medfield dual core chips is supposed to have graphics equal to the A5X and that seems reasonable), and a 720p or better 4.3" or so screen with great contrast etc as the top model.
Bring it down in CPU cores, RAM, etc for a few cheaper models. Let's have a top end, a low end, and one or two mid end models. All models need to be able to play all games, so they need similarly performing graphics, but the rest of the phones can be toned down in the cheaper models. Let's see a $600-$700, $450-$550, $300-$400, and maybe a $175-$250 model. Three or four models seems like a great number because you can offer all of them with the advantage over other smart phones of having a great gaming repository and proper gaming input controls, but still have a little variety that allows low budget customers to have the great gaming advantage and allows premium paying customers to get premium feature phones with the same gaming advantage, but with the extra features that you would expect to see with the more expensive flagship phones.
Of course, it would also need good marketing, but something like this seems like it could be a great product. Maybe if Sony does this, they can also get Amazon on-board for a good music store, a preexisting app store in addition to the Android market, and more. Apple could also do a good job on something like this, but I'm not sure of an Apple gaming platform that goes beyond casual gamers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most serious gamers not really Apple fans? Like I said before, I am kinda an Apple hater so my opinion on this might be kinda biased, but that's the feeling that I get from the Apple devices. I'm convinced that Sony+Amazon or M$+Amazon would be the best choices, but M$ would then lose out on the Android market and be stuck with their own... It's just too small for something like this right now, although it is doing fairly well (I think that M$ is going to break 100K WP apps sometime in this quarter).
Well, I think that Sony+Amazon would be the best way to go as of right now. Sony has the experience with gaming devicesand phones to pull it off and Amazon also has experience and the additional music/app stores necessary to make this a great platform for many different purposes. Do any of you want to supply some thoughts to this? Maybe if we get something good thought up, we could get Sony (or another such company) to do something with the ideas.
I know that I would be willing to pay larger prices for such a device as I would for a smart phone that can then do pretty much anything except for very performance heavy things that would necessitate a laptop or desktop. Give me a small line of X86 Atom based Android phones that have good input controls, a decent gaming library (an emulator that can play all of the GB games, and some older home console games in addition to new games), and a battery that can allow play for a full day (or a little play for two to four days) and I'd be happy.
For the battery, like I said, give me a thicker phone. It would be easier to hold than these phones that are getting as thin as monetary coins such as nickels and quarters and have the battery life to last as long as my dumb phones and older mobile gaming consoles. My old GBA SP and DSs can last for days and if Sony, Nintendo, or M$ (if they get into this) think that everyone is going to settle for four to five hours of battery life, then they're wrong. Sure, some people would, but not everyone.
If the controls get integrated into the phone, then maybe they can also be used for other things when the phone is't being used as a gaming console. For example, two small analogue joy sticks could fold up and down (have a small locking mechanism to put them back down so they don't go down when you don't want them to) or even be used for things such as navigating through the screen. I know that if I didn't need to touch the screen of my phone to flip the page of an eBook or scroll through a web page, that I'd be happier off. Joysticks to scroll instead of touch gestures could really be helpful.
For people who want to run desktop style programs (I know some people like to run stuff such as Ubuntu on their phone and an X86 phone is just too cool for trying stuff like running desktop X86 Windows programs on), the joy sticks could provide a far better replacement for the mouse in moving the cursor than the touch screen ever could.
A dual or quad core ARM or Atom would also actually provide quite a bit of processing power. If I'm not mistaken, these Medfield Atoms are fairly similar to the netbook Atoms in performance, even if it takes a Hyper0Threaded Medfield to come close to a single core, non-hyper threaded netbook Atom. A dual core Medfield would be quite a bit of mobile processing power if this is true. A quad core Cortex A15 would be even better, but that would kill the X86 compatibility... Maybe Intel could be convinced to make a quad core Atom, even if it sacrifices Hyper-Threading to do so?
Intel might be convinced of this if such an idea is brought up by Sony, M$, or Nintendo. I would really like to see an Android with such capabilities made by Sony. Of course, Apple could do something like this too and although I'm kinda an Apple hater, even I could admit that it would be pretty cool even if it was Apple who actually did this.
Give me something such as an Android with a dual core (or if Intel goes for it, a quad core) Medfield, 1GB of RAM, good controls for proper gaming (one or two analogue joy sticks and a few buttons), thick profile to fit a battery that can last at least ten hours of heavy gaming (not that I'd spend that nearly much time gaming at once, but it would mean a long battery life for when it's not being used for heavy gaming and that it can be used for heavy gaming over short periods of time for several days), a good camera (8MP with a large enough lens to properly accommodate that many pixels), a decent front facing camera (I've wanted to see a 2MP one with a decent lens, but 1.4Mp could do it too), 16 to 64 GM MicroSD card (if reasonable, how about two slots? It'd certainly be a big enough device and these slots are so small), 3G/4G, WiFi B/G/N, FM radio, great graphics (one of the upcoming Medfield dual core chips is supposed to have graphics equal to the A5X and that seems reasonable), and a 720p or better 4.3" or so screen with great contrast etc as the top model.
Bring it down in CPU cores, RAM, etc for a few cheaper models. Let's have a top end, a low end, and one or two mid end models. All models need to be able to play all games, so they need similarly performing graphics, but the rest of the phones can be toned down in the cheaper models. Let's see a $600-$700, $450-$550, $300-$400, and maybe a $175-$250 model. Three or four models seems like a great number because you can offer all of them with the advantage over other smart phones of having a great gaming repository and proper gaming input controls, but still have a little variety that allows low budget customers to have the great gaming advantage and allows premium paying customers to get premium feature phones with the same gaming advantage, but with the extra features that you would expect to see with the more expensive flagship phones.
Of course, it would also need good marketing, but something like this seems like it could be a great product. Maybe if Sony does this, they can also get Amazon on-board for a good music store, a preexisting app store in addition to the Android market, and more. Apple could also do a good job on something like this, but I'm not sure of an Apple gaming platform that goes beyond casual gamers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most serious gamers not really Apple fans? Like I said before, I am kinda an Apple hater so my opinion on this might be kinda biased, but that's the feeling that I get from the Apple devices. I'm convinced that Sony+Amazon or M$+Amazon would be the best choices, but M$ would then lose out on the Android market and be stuck with their own... It's just too small for something like this right now, although it is doing fairly well (I think that M$ is going to break 100K WP apps sometime in this quarter).
Well, I think that Sony+Amazon would be the best way to go as of right now. Sony has the experience with gaming devicesand phones to pull it off and Amazon also has experience and the additional music/app stores necessary to make this a great platform for many different purposes. Do any of you want to supply some thoughts to this? Maybe if we get something good thought up, we could get Sony (or another such company) to do something with the ideas.
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