Might as well put my bit in...

When I read about the Xbox, I nearly jumped out of my skin - Microsoft? Selling console games?! They barely sold PC games! I guess there''s a time for everything, though.

As for performance, I''m not holding my breath, for a few reasons:

1) Tight competition. Dolphin is still being a little tight-lipped about their machine, but they claim the latest technology, also.

2) Overhead. How the machine will perform is a little iffy when it claims to have a version of Windows in. I''ve never played a console with an OS as big as Windows built into it.

3) Architechture. I have no idea what all the components are, or how they are connected. It''s uncertain if it''ll have any bottlenecks in due to the x86 chipset. This applies to all the other consoles as well.

4) Games. I know getting vendors isn''t a problem for Microsoft (they''ll probably blackmail them or something), but in the end, this will really be the deciding factor, not the speed of the system itself. Remember how good Final Fantasy VIII looked - on a Playstation?

Wow i actually read through all the posts!!!
Anyway, first about the OS. Windows being the OS dosen't mean it's Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT..., it'll probably be a very small OS with some basic functions. Remember all it has to do run a game.

Second, if the money is in the games MS has no problem. They publish games and have published quite a few good ones, such as Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, Motocross Madness.

Third, As to why MS changed to the Intel processor, i believe it's not because of the money but because of the compatibility of the graphics card and prcessor. The graphics card is made by NVIDIA and will probably be some form of the GeForce. For those who don't know there have been numerous issues between AMD Athlon and GeForce cards.

Finally, by the time the system comes out PCs will be far ahead, there are already 1GHz processors out for the PC and i hear intel has a 1.5GHz processor imagine what will be out by the end of 2001. And graphics cards develop faster than processors GeForce 2 has been announced and the new Voodoos(which have been getting positive reviews) should be out soon.



+AA_970+



Edited by - +AA_970+ on May 13, 2000 12:42:36 AM

Well AA_970, I tend to agree. But I''m still having a hard time with PCs being on pace with the Xbox current specs.

MS is (according to their updated site)now claiming a sustained fully lit/shaded tri output of 150,000,000. Current PC cards are at 30mil max(anyone know if this shaded/lit?). I just can''t imagine PCs being that powerful with the limitations put on them with backward compatibility. The Xbox uses a unified memory architecture which allows devs to use the system memory for any aspect of design(sound,texture,etc), this also allows direct access without the bus speed limitations imposed on PCs(at least no where near as much).

As for the OS, its a stripped down version of windows. Basically just the kernel needed to start the system and support DirectX. I believe its been stated that MS is trying to get down to under a meg b/c of memory limitations imposed by a larger kernel.

About games, well MS has definitely had a checkered pass. But if this years E3 is any indication it won''t be a problem. Look Dungeon Siege, Motorcross Madness 2(prolly 3 when xbox ships), and other topnotch games that MS is publishing. They also have Digital Anvil who will be publishing Freelancer when Xbox ships. Not to shabby. Last, MS is already aggressively going after third party console devs. They''ve got EA, Square and others interested and wiling to back them.

I don''t care for MS, but its impossible that they won''t become a major factor in the console realm. Sony didn''t do much at E3 this year(except MGS2), so MS definitely has a chance to make some noise in the next year.

I read in a gaming magazine that all the operating system for the X-Box will be is a 500K Windows 2000 kernel. Also, I read that all of the demos that Microsoft showed (except for the one with the woman and the robot) were running real-time.

I also strongly suggest people read the book Hard Drive. It is an insightful book about Bill Gates and Microsoft.

-Icarus

Square isn't backing MS, but EA is. Along with most US game companies, Midway, Acclaim, etc. And while MS may port its PC games to Xbox, that's where the problem lies. What about original, Xbox only titles? A lot of people are going to be busy porting at a cheaper rate, so they can sell PC and Xbox games of the same title, and theoretically make more money. AoE? Arguably my favorite PC game, but it wouldn't really work well on a console until everyone has HDTV, and a mouse. (a keyboard too, to chat) Controllers just don't wotk for those kind of games.

And, actually, by admittance of Microsoft themselves, the demos at GDC were all prerenders. They had another company create moviesaccording to what the Xbox supposedly can do, so we don't know the real capabilities yet.

And to quote someone who went to GDC "Yeah, well, look at the PS2 demos." And went on to talk about how the PS2 demos looked better than the actual games do.

-Jesse

Edited by - JesseJenson on May 14, 2000 2:20:54 AM

Yes but those prerenders only show 10% of the claimed power.

Square is in talks with MS, not to be an exclusive dev, but a dev nonetheless.

i´m a bit worried with the fact that x-box is american console, well let´s face it the japaneses are better game designers than us (with some exceptions),and i don´t wanna see that ugly and oversized girls that american designer put in their games(like that one in the x-box demo)in all games...

-i run off of my stock of fun phrases

"i´m a bit worried with the fact that x-box is american console, well let´s face it the japaneses are better game designers than us (with some exceptions)..."

Ah come on that''s just stereotyping. Half-Life, Quake (all of them), Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Starcraft, etc... were all made by american companies.

+AA_970+

MASARANDUBA posted:

i´m a bit worried with the fact that x-box is american console, well let´s face it the japaneses are better game designers than us (with some exceptions)

That seems a tad ignorant...

Nah, MASARANDUBA, they''re just better developers than you.

Isn''t Microsoft in some sort of deal with Dreamcast? I have a DC, and it says on the bottom right corner ''compatible with Microsoft WindowsCE''...?? Woudln''t that mean that MS and DC have some sort of partnership? This has been kind of bugging me, but can anyone explain the relationship between the two?

'I'm sorry Dave. I'm Afraid I can't let you do that...'