Games are going small in a big way, with both Sony and Nintendo announcing powerful new handheld gaming devices.
Sony fired the first shot by unveiling specifications for its PlayStation Portable (PSP) unit. Nintendo managed to steal a bit of Sony’s thunder by announcing its dual-screen portable system, code-named Nintendo DS, will ship in the United States by year’s end. Neither company revealed pricing for the upcoming units.
Sony says the PSP will offer top-notch graphics and audio, in a sleek portable black package that measures 6.8in by 3in by 1in. The device sports a full-colour 4.3in, 16:9 wide-screen LCD display; built-in stereo speakers; 32Mbyte of main memory plus 4Mbyte of embedded memory; and a lithium ion battery that should run about 10 hours between charges.
Games will appear on Sony’s new Universal Media Disc media, a 60mm optical disc technology that’s smaller than a standard CD but can contain up to 1.8Gbyte of data. The company also plans to offer music, movies, and other entertainment content via UMD
media in the near future. The PSP will also support Sony’s Memory Stick Pro Duo storage media.
Although Sony may be the big dog in the console market, Nintendo is the clear leader in mobile gaming. The main innovation of the Nintendo DS is its dual 3in displays, which will offer users
multiple perspectives, depending upon the game. In some instances a single image stretches across both screens, while in others the player can view two different perspectives at once.
In addition, the DS will feature touch-screen capabilities, the first-ever handheld to do so. Different games will use this feature in different ways. For example, in some games you might point and shoot by tapping on the screen.
The DS will also include a built-in microphone, so eventually users will be able to interact with their games using their voice.
Nintendo won’t use optical media for the DS, instead opting for a new, proprietary solid-state media that the company says will offer up to 1Gbyte of storage. In addition to games, Nintendo plans to offer its own multimedia content on the media. A second slot
on the DS will accept today’s Game Boy Advance games, ensuring full backward compatibility.
In terms of sheer graphics power, Nintendo’s offering won’t compete with Sony’s PSP. While the company offered few specifics about the unit’s internal components, executives compared the DS’s 3D graphics to the company’s older Nintendo 64 games, and noted the best games don’t always require the latest technology.
31/05/04
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers