Task 1: Game Platform Development Timeline

Arcade

The Arcade is mainly where video games became a thing in the early

1970's, where the games were played on arcade machines where you

inserted coins to play. This was a great method as the developers can earn

a lot of money from the game and it also gives a chance for the players to

test the game for cheap unlike nowadays where we pay a lot of money

straight away and then not even knowing if the game is good or bad unless

we do things such as read reviews or watch videos on YouTube. The

machines used are fairly large and bulky, and the main control to play the

game is by using joysticks which is very different to how we play games

today. It was also good when arcade games were becoming popular since most people couldn't afford home consoles so they would go out to the arcade with their friends and then play coop games together as it was fairly cheaper and it was very interactive.

Galaxy Game

The Game was created in 1971, and was one of the last games created

in the early history of video games. In the game, there were 2

different spaceships featured called "the needle" and "the wedge" and the

objective of the game is to be the spaceship who survives whilst trying to

keep control of the ship as the movements are potentially distorted

because of the uneven gravity in space. This game was created specifically

for 2 players to face each other head to head to battle it out. The gravity is

distorted as the star that is located in the middle of the screen, pulls both of

the ships towards it to give the players more to think about and

concentrate about as each player has only a limited use of fuel and

ammunition. I think that the game has some good mechanics for the time it

was created where it gave both players a challenge as they had to think

what to do to defeat the opponent. However, I think that the objective is

fairly bland as the arena is quite small and the game will get boring very

quickly as there are not much differences you can make to each individual

game you play.

 

These are 2 of the original Galaxy Game arcade machines which are being
displayed in Computer History Museum. As you can see, the machine are
very large and overall the controls are simple as you literally have one
joystick and a button on top of the joystick. Back in the day, this was
extremely impressive and mind blowing as this type of technology
was fascinating and it put the games industry on the right path to success
by taking the first leap to creating video games. 

This is a video displaying game play of Galaxy Game. As you can see, the graphics are not particularly great and neither is the frame rate but you can see that this is a fully functioning video game that could be played for cheap and you could also have a lot of fun with people you play with.

Atari Pong (1972)

Pong was a video game that was had a simple objective as it was based of the real life game of table tennis. It was the very first sports arcade video game and the objective is very simple as each player has a dial each for to control which you twist in each direction to move your panel up and downwards. The first player the reaches 10 points is the winner and the game can get pretty intense overall when you are playing with other people or friends. There is also a single player mode where you can play against a computerised bot that can be selected at a certain type of difficulty of your choice.

I think that this game was a very good idea and people still to this day can play it and have lots of fun with it playing against friends. Playing against the computer is quite a challenge when on the hardest difficulty but it can improve your skills in a lot of the areas of the game such as accuracy, precision and strategy to score points more often against players.

In this video, you can see game play of the original pong game which is set out in a simple format and the score is showing in a very basic form. If you look at some of this game play, you can see how stiff the controls were to get precise and accurate movement as the controls were dials that you would twist which made it difficult to predict where you want to go to hit the balls coming from the other side of the field as your panel isnt very large and the ball is travelling at a fairly fast speed. I think that this game would be much better if the controls were changed around so that you could move the panels much easier and more precisely but I like the idea of having a large field and small panels as it raises a bigger challenge for the players.



Here is an image of an Original Pong arcade machine. As you can see, it is also fairly large and chunky and it has 2 dials used to control the different panels so you can move them up and down to hit the ball to the other side of the field, just like table tennis.

The Golden Age

This is where the Arcade started to shoot up in the video games industry in popularity and how much the industry was worth. Taito's Space Invaders was proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game in 1978. Its success marked the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. 

This is when the Arcades started to became really popular in places such as shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores, bars, movie theatres etc. This included popular video game titles such as Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Battlezone, Defender, Bosconian etc. This made the video game industry worth $8 billion in 1981 which is an extremely huge amount, especially considering the short period of time that the arcades had become popular. Even in 2015, the arcade is worth $20.8 billion which is well over half as much but you can see how the rates dropped down as the arcade was not doubling in price over the decades.

Space Invaders (1978)

Space Invaders is another classic arcade game that we have all probably placed at least once. The objective of the game is to destroy and defeat all of the aliens, that simultaneously shoot you. You control a rocket ship that you can move to the left and right to aim and dodge projectiles. You can also shoot the aliens so you can eliminate them and you also have shield like object you can use to take cover from the aliens attacks.

This is a video showing some game play of the original space invaders game. As you can see, the game has a simple layout and you can see that the textures in the game are better because the sprites are more detailed and objects that are there to help you/ indicate to help are highlighted in a bright green colour so you can see it clearly so you don't get them mixed up with the enemies. 

Pac-man (1980)

Here is another classic video game that became such a big hit back when it was released in 1980 on the arcade machines. As you can see, the game is in full colour helping you see things in a clearer way and it makes the game look much more appealing and generally attractive. I love the look of this game because it's so retro and I love the bright colours that have been selected to distinguish what is what. When it comes to game play, the game it fairly simple but it can get fairly difficult at times when you get into rough situations, as the objective is to basically collect each ball that is placed in almost all of the spaces of the maze which you can obtain by simply going over them which gives you a certain amount of points too. The twist of the game is that there are 4 ghost monsters that will attack you and try to stop you in your path as running into one of them will take a life away from you. You can also get power ups, which allow you to basically eat the ghosts as you become all powerful and they start to run away from you, as you gain some points for eating them and it also buys you a little bit of time as they get sent back to the middle and you can collect more balls to progress to finish the level.

One of the interesting parts of this game is that each ghost had a different personality/ strategy to try and stop you from succeeding which was really good as this was something that we have never seen in a video game before and it was such a clever idea as each of the ghosts could work together to capture pacman using combined efforts.

Blinky is a red ghost who, in the original arcade game, follows behind Pac-Man. He is considered the leader of the ghosts.

Pinky is a pink ghost who, in the original arcade game, positions him/herself in front of Pac-Man.

Inky is a baby blue ghost who, in the original arcade game, has a fickle mood. He can be unpredictable. Sometimes he chases Pac-Man aggressively like Blinky; other times he jumps ahead of Pac-Man as Pinky would. He might even wander off like Clyde on occasion.

Clyde is an orange ghost who, in the original arcade game, acts stupid. He will chase after Pac-Man in Blinky's manner, but will wander off to his home corner when he gets too close.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong was released in the arcades in 1981. The objective of the game was to save Princess Peach from being kidnapped by Donkey Kong. You play as Mario and you have to climb up a series of levels with different obstacles that Donkey Kong has set up to stop you from reaching the top of each level. This game is also in full colour just like Pac-Man which was released just a year before this and I think that the colour in this game makes such a big difference rather than having the game plain black and white which wouldn't give the game the same feel as if it were in colour which also helps you identify different objects more clearly too.

This is some game play of the original Donkey Kong that was released in Japanese Arcades. As you can see, this is a full walk through showing the game from the start to the finish. The video is fairly short ending in just under 7 minutes, which implies that the game isn't very long or it won't be very long if you are a skilled or smart player. In this video, you can see how the mechanics work for all of the different aspects in the game including the main character, objects, obstacles, enemies and much more. You can also obtain power ups which allow you to destroy certain enemies in 1 hit which can help you proceed through the level a little bit easier. You also have a time limit before the game automatically kills you which means that the game wants you to be fast paced and it wants you to complete the game and save Princess Peach and I think that the face paced action is a really good feature to the game as it makes the game more fun and energetic rather than being slow paced and rather boring.

Hardware of Arcade Machines

The Hardware in an arcade machine would vary on the type of game that the game would be running. Obviously, each machine would have good enough specifications to run the game that it would be playing or else it would be pretty much pointless of having an arcade machine for that game since it wouldn't be playable.



Here is an image of what your average Video game arcade machines look like. They have large structures and they have a screen to display the game play, some controls to play the game and also a coin slot below the machine to insert the coins so you can play the game. They are usually decorated in a design of the game that that machine plays so that they can stand out easily and they look more appealing to the players rather than them being rather bland and plain looking without any sort of decoration. The graphics of an arcade video game are probably not going to be the greatest in resolution, as the arcade is more retro themed using classic titles or fun coop mini games that everyone can enjoy. There is also the budget that each arcade game developer has to maintain for the machines and the technology used to be much harder to find and use properly to actually run a video game when the arcades were first founded.

Advantages/ Disadvantages

An advantage of the Arcade genre of video games is that it is a very interactive video game experience, as it allows the user to leave the house and interact outside and move around, like playing with other people, playing a wider variety of video games and also you can overall enjoy yourself more since you don't have to worry about where you get up to in the game as these games are almost always short and sweet so that everyone can play them and have lots of fun.

Another advantage is that it is simple. All you need to do it insert the coin, and then play. You don't have to mess about setting anything up or installing or doing major updates because the game is completely finished and playable, which is good because this means that the user doesn't have to wait around to play the video game.

A final advantage is how you can play video games for cheap (depending on how many times you play the game). For example, you can go out to the arcade and spend a small amount of money whilst playing video games in the arcade and have some really good fun with the couple of pounds you have spent. Compared to something like a PC or a console that you would have to spend a lot of money of listing things such as the device itself, the display, the controllers, electricity etc, the list goes on. This could cost a lot of money and it could just generally not be worth it if you don't play video games very frequently and it would benefit a person more to go out to the arcade to play some video games using only a small amount of money.

A disadvantage of the Arcade is that you can easily get carried away and spend a lot of money by playing too many video games. Of course I did mention that the arcade is fairly cheap, but you can get addicted very easily and end up spending all of your money very quickly on video games if you wound up dying alot or want to play with multiple friends/ have multiple turns. It could also depend on how often you went to the arcade to spend money to play video games. For example, you could go the arcade and spend £10 in pretty much an instant which is quite a lot of money if you add it up and gather a total sum of money that you have spent at the arcade overall. This could lead to you thinking that it probably would of been better to buy a home console or PC, where you could buy the game for a high price but then play the game as much as you want so that you don't actually spend any more for the game itself, which would be more beneficial as you would end up saving a lot of money.

Another thing that could be bad about the arcade is actually travelling to the arcade. Especially in modern day, we only see arcade machines less frequently in places such as the pier or city centers which could lead to travel issues or the arcade not being in a place that is easy to get to. Now this obviously wouldn't apply to everyone as many people could actually live close but for someone like myself who lives in the countryside, it's not as easy to travel about just to go to the arcade. This leaves me leaning towards using home consoles or PC's to play video games as I just don't see why I would waste most of my day and use quite a bit of money for travel to get to the arcade.

One last thing that I don't really like about arcades is the lack of variety of video games. Of course there are a lot of video games dedicated to the arcade, but these are all small mini game type games that we can play one time and never really want to play it again because we have alreay completed it. The video games in an arcade can get boring fairly quickly which could lead to people going to the arcade and then never coming back. The arcades purpose is to play short video games outside and then move along to another video game, but I think that this reason could be another reason why arcades aren't as popular as they used to be. It seems that people want to play longer games with interesting and inteulectual stories that can be enjoyed for hours and hours, which the arcade does not offer to its customers. 

Console

Consoles were the devices that allowed people to stay at home and play games rather than go outside to the arcade to play video games. 

Magnavox Odyssey

This console was initially released in 1972 and it was the first home game console that was ever created. The games that were available for this specific console were all mainly sport based games, which were all simple and fun at the same time. Not many people had this console because of the expense that it costed and you pretty much needed everything with the console such as a TV so that you could actually play it. You got some games with the console but you also had to buy some games separatly or with the "light gun".



The Video game crash


During 1983 video games and the industry experienced a huge crash especially with games on the Atari 2600 when games like E.T and the 2600 version of pac-man were hyped up yet delivered poorly. This caused many games companies to go bankrupt abandoning their consoles and created video games, consumers and retailers lost faith in the market and all North American games consoles were discontinued by 1984. It was with the NES that the market became popular once against due to its detailed graphics and amazing games. The NES was the highest selling console in all of North America and gave birth to one of the most globally recognised characters of the gaming world. Mario became this global icon with his appearances in the Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 1985

The NES is pretty much the main moment of when the consoles became a big thing for gamers. The NES allowed us to play video games at home rather than going out to the arcade, which was a huge thing back in the day. The NES came with a variety of video games to play such as Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Kirby's Adventure, Ice Climber, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Tertris etc. As you can see, these are even still very well known and popular titles to this date as we see games that are either in the same franchise as them and we even see remakes of original games with updated graphics and fixed bugs.



As you can see, the design of the console is very simple. You have the power button, the reset button, 2 controller ports and a cartridge opener where you would put the game into the machine. Looking at the controller, you can see that it could be kind of uncomfortable to hold looking at the shape of the controller which could be a fairly bad thing for people that play for a lot of hours at a time as it could could strain or hand pains which obviously wouldn't be good for the player.

Game Boy

The Game Boy was a rather important console that many of us are probably familiar with to this date. The Game Boy was released not too long after the NES as it was only released after by a short time of 4 years. The amazing thing about this console is that you had the ability to take the game wherever you wanted to since the device was completely portable and wireless which was really good since you could walk around with it, take it outside or even play it while in the car. The device was powered using 2 double A batteries which gave the Game Boy a reasonably long life time which was really good. The Game Boy also had features such a lights where if the batteries were running out, then the light would switch from Green to Red indicating that you need to save your game in case it were to suddenly die or it mentally prepares you to be ready to put new batteries in it.




PlayStation


The original console in the series, the PlayStation, was the first video game console to ship 100 million units, 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch. The PlayStation was introduced in 1994 and it was significant because it allowed us to play new types of games with upgraded graphics at a steady frame rate. The device isn't the most complex of designs as it has a large disc opener, a power button and an eject button. You also had the large slots/ ports for the controller and the memory card which you used to store your game data on since the machine didn't have a hard drive large enough to store it. This was fairly good and efficient because you were able to transfer data console to console such as you play the game at home on your console and then you can bring your memory stick and continue from the point you left off just by inserting the memory stick into the other PlayStation (of course they have to have a copy of the game as well).



You can see how the controller has been designed to fit more comfortably in the hand rather than older consoles. Everything on the controller is put in a better place as everything is easier to reach and it just feels better in the hand compared to older gen consoles.

N64

The N64 was released in 1996(JP, NA), 1997(EU, AUS) and 

GBA /(SP)

The Game Boy Advance was an upgraded version of the Game Boy/ Colour, as the device had better specifications, colour, quality and screen. The Advance was basically a device that you would flip to open and close the view the screen and play the game which was different to the Game Boy as that was a device that was just flat and wasn't adjustable. I really liked this feature as it was new and it just seemed really cool back in the day when I used to play games such as Pokemon Fire Red and I could easily carry around my GBA as it was small and then play the game practically wherever I went.



Here, you can see 2 versions of the GBA. The one on the left is the original GBA and the one on the right is the GBA SP.

DS

The Nintendo DS was another device that adapted from the game boy but they had a lot of new features and controls that were added to the system itself. For example, the DS now had 2 screens rather than one as the bottom screen was used for selecting options etc. as you were able to use the touch screen feature. Of course it would depend on what game you were playing as you could be playing a game that is based off the touch screen which is good and I think that this was a really good feature because it was new and it seemed like Video game consoles were starting to adapt and become better. The Nintendo DS also had a new type of cartridge system made, where the cartridges were smaller and thinner rather than it being rather wide and chunky leading to issues such as breaking the cartridge or being hard to carry multiple games around. 



Xbox 360/ PS3

The PS3 and the Xbox 360 are consoles that were released that could perform much better than the other consoles and had so much more different features that benefited the user lots.

 The PS3 was released in 2006 for Japan and US and following up for EU and AUS in 2007, and it was developed by Sony. You had the ability to easily play games online with friends by connecting via internet or wireless without the connection frequently cutting out as the connection was much more stable than other devices. You also had a home screen where you could do other things that were added as features such as add friends, send messages, browse the internet, go onto the PS store, download themes which I thought was a really good feature as it made the console feel like my own as I had the ability to customise my account and give my account an original name that nobody else could have. There were many games that the PS3 could play as the PS3 was a main source of gaming for 8 years as it's just around about now where the PS3 and the XBox 360 is starting to die out and everyone is upgrading to the newer consoles which have just recently been released.





Wii

The Nintendo Wii was released in 2007 and it was a really unique and new type of thing back when it was first released. You had a motion type of controller you pointed at the sensor you would place above the TV which would act as a cursor for you. I think this was a really good idea because it was new and fresh, where it got many people interested such as myself. I did enjoy the Wii quite a bit when it was first released since everything was new and I was really enjoying myself but I think that a lot of things about t he Wii could be improved and better games could be made for the console. There were games like Wii sports, Wii fit, Just dance and many more that were really fun to play on the Wii by yourself or with friends since it gets everyone involved and more energetic which I think is something that Nintendo achieved with this product. I think this product was best to play mini games however such as Mario Party, Warioware etc as it got everyone involved and it was such a fun experience.With the Wii, you have 2 different controller, one is the main controller which goes in the left hand with the sensor and main buttons and then in the right hand, you have the nunchucks, which is basically an analog stick and 2 triggers on the end of the stick. They were fairly difficult to get used to but I think that they were really fun to use.

Here is a video of Mario Party 8, which was a game that I have played and really enjoy playing with my family. I think that this was a success since everyone had fun and the game was really enjoyable since it was similar to a competition. 

3DS

The 3DS was the next step from the DSi, with not too many new features added but the whole system was cleaned out and upgraded slightly. Of course, the 3D like feature was added where you could change the graphic of the image of the top screen to make it seem like it has this 3D/ Realistic type of effect. The 3DS could still play normal Nintendo DS games but it could no longer play GBA games like the DS/DS lite could, which was quite a shame but I could see the reason why they did that as the games for those specific consoles were fairly outdated and had older technology applied to them.





Wii  U

The Wii U



Ps4


The PS4 is a brand new console that was released in 2013.

Here are the specs that a PS4 would have. The CPU is clocked at a powerful 1.6GHz, the GPU has a frequency of 800MHz, a pixel fill rate of 25.6GP per second and a texture fill rate of 57GT per second. This is easily capable of running games at 60FPS without any stuttering or freezing and it can handle 1080p gaming easily. There is plenty of RAM in the system to keep the games and background processes flowing quickly and 1TB is more than enough storage unless you download all of the games through the PS store.

Looking at the console and controller itself, you can see how clean the design looks as it gives off a futuristic type of feel with the sharp parallelogram structure. The controller is similar to the PS3 controller but has some changes that have been made to it so that the player can have a better overall experience. The handle grips are much longer so you can fit your whole hand around it and also the analog sticks have been made much better as they now have a grove inside of it for better thumb comfort. The new controller also has a new touch screen like panel which can be used in the home screen and during the game play of some games. I think that this is a pretty cool feature when you get the chance to use it because it's new and fun when you can actual use it.

Xbox one

The Xbox One is pretty much the PS4's main "rival".

Here are the specs that an Xbox One has. They are very similar to the specs of the PS4 but slightly different. 

An advantage for console gaming is that you can stay at home and play games. It might sound lazy but there is literally no rush to get on and play a game like it would be at an arcade and you could end up possibly queuing up just to play a game. The systems are literally plug and play so you don't have to mess about choosing specific specs and build the system and all sorts because it's already done for you.

 Another advantage could be the controller could be more comfortable of easier to use that a different controller such as keyboard and mouse for computer. The layout is all there for you and it isn't difficult to pick up the controller as everything on controllers; especially modern controllers is in the right place to comfortably use. 

Another good thing is that you can use modern day consoles for more than just gaming, such as Netflix, internet etc, which is really useful as it can be easy to access and you can easily do other things on the same console you use to play games. The consoles are fairly cheap compared to a high end of the range computer as consoles tend to start out at very high prices and then they tend to drop to a much lower price a year or two later which allows more people to buy the console so that they can play games.



Disadvantages about console gaming is that it isn't as customisable as another platform such as PC, as you can't choose what parts you want to use, you are limited to what you can do other then play games and also, you can't do thing such as mods as easily as you can on PC unless you hacked the system which isn't a very clever idea. Some games that take a lot of power to run using the CPU and GPU will usually have capped setting so that the frame rate stays stable. This means that you will not experience the game in the same way as if you had the specs strong enough to play the game at the higher quality with high enough frame rate. 

Another bad thing about console gaming is that the video games could end up costing quite a lot that you could play for as long as you want but if you want to play lots of different games, then it's going to cost a lot of money unless you buy them from a second hand shop. Also, when a new console from the same franchise has a new device, then you usually can't play the game from the old console on the new one. For example, when the PS3 upgraded to the PS4, then PS3 games were no longer valid since they don't work on the PS4 meaning that all of the games you have bought for your PS3 are basically useless unless you keep using the older console instead of the new one which would be a fairly stupid process of having them both set up or switching them around. However, The Nintendo Wii was able to play Nintendo GameCube games, even though the discs are a different size which is something that I really liked because I used to love Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD, which were both GameCube games and I was able to play them both on the Nintendo Wii so I didn't have to mess about switching consoles and I could keep on using the Nintendo Wii.

PC

PC gaming is becoming more and more popular over the recent years, as the variety and overall performance for the games are just much better than other platforms.


Amstrad CPC 464

The Amstrad CPC 464 was a computer created to compete with the other home PC's around the 1980's and the computer sold over 2 million units.

The hardware in the Amstrad was very basic but back in the day, these specs were very impressive. The CPU was clocked at 4mhz, 64-128mb KB RAM, CGA VRam Graphics card and a magnetic tape for storage. Comparing these specs to the specs in a modern day computer, they are very weak and wouldn't be able to run barely any games today, as they are simply just not powerful enough. The monitor that was used with this computer had a resolution of 160 x 200 which is also very small and not a very impressive resolution compared to now where we have 4K graphics.

Paperboy was a popular game that was on the PC which was in full colour and the objective of the game was to deliver papers whilst avoiding various obsticles. The game used raster graphics to maximise performance since the computer couldn't perform any better since the specs aren't good enough.

Here is some gameplay of paperboy. As you can see, the game is fast paced and rather enjoyable. It looks good for the time it was released and the platform it was created for,

Doom (1993) 

Doom is a science fiction horror themed FPS which was created by id Software. Doom is used for a lot of inspiration for other FPS games as it is considered one of the most inspirational titles in video game history for having pioneered for now-ubiquitous first-person-shooter. In game play of Doom, the levels were split up into 3 different episodes each containing 9 levels each. 

In this game play video of Doom, you can see the FPS features that modern day games have even today. It was an inspirational game as nobody had ever seen 3D used in a video game and other companies take lots of inspiration from this game. In the game, you were able to freely roam around and explore the map how ever you wanted, whilst killing the hordes of demons from hell. Each level had a different type of area to explore and the levels were also huge too, which gave the player a better experience of the game and they were able to play the game for a much longer time than other games.

There are games such as GTA 5 and Left 4 Dead where gameplay can be extended and more enjoyable by using in game "mods" which change up gameplay in a different and new aspect. You can do things that you haven't been able to do in any other version of the game such as the console

Controls Keyboard/Mouse

Keyboards can come in different layouts. In the UK, we use the QWERTY Keyboard layout which can be useful in many ways because it's a PC. Firstly, we can pretty much set any control to any key we want to use on the keyboard which would benefit us as it could potentially be more comfortable to use. There are also many different types of keyboards including various brands such as Corsair and Razor and then there are different type of keyboard such as Mechanical and Rubber dome. It's all preference and a keyboard might not matter as much for some games and it make make the biggest difference ever in others. For example, in osu! you can use the keyboard to tap using 2 keyboard keys and it will probably be more comfortable if you use a mechanical switch which doesn't take a lot of pressure to activate the key.

There are many different mouses out in the market for us gamers to buy. There are mouse with different designs to fit the hand more nicely, there are mouses with customisable DPI which allows us to change the sensitivity of the mouse to something that we would find more comfortable and easy to use and then there is different types of sensors in the mouse which are Optical and Laser sensors. The Mouse is a very important part of PC gaming as it is your aim for pretty much any game are you use the mouse to look in different directions.Having a good mouse could improve the way you play a game since it has better a more reliable sensors that can make the difference of winning the game or losing.

Here is a YouTube video of one of the top UK osu! players, known as Doomsday, playing using a mouse a keyboard. In this video, you can see how well he has trained to become very accurate using his mouse and keyboard as he is very comfortable with the setting he has chosen and the position he uses them. He has also set his own custom hots keys so his tapping fingers and a further distance away apart because he finds it more comfortable.

Hardware

Hardware in a PC can change depending on what you want in a PC since building a PC can potentially be a completely customised process. There are so many different parts that you could buy for your PC to make it work for what you need it to work for which is something that I really like about PC gaming.

Advantages/Disadvantages

An advantage of PC gaming is that you can fully customise your PC to make it your own, which you can't do on other platforms such as the PS4 or Xbox One as it's already done for you. This means that you can create a PC so it can run the games you play at a steady and high framerate so you can enjoy the experience of gaming which is very important for a gamer. You can buy literally every part in a PC whether its the CPU, GPU, RAM, PSU etc.

Another advantage about PC gaming is that your PC is not just for gaming and it can be used for more than just games. For example, you could go on the internet and watch videos, livestream or even listen to music. The good thing about this is that you can do this even whilst gaming which is really good because you can't do this on the console either.

Another good thing about PC gaming is that you can change up the displays you use for gaming. The GPU can allow you to use multiple monitors to view different screens which could be really useful in many purpose such as work, gaming, multitasking, watching videos etc. This is really good because it benefits you as a whole since you can do multiple things at one on multiple screens.

You can buy a mouse a keyboard specifically to your liking which is a really good feature as you can be comfortable whilst gaming and also get the best experience out of it.

A disadvantage about PC gaming is that the PC itself is most likely going to be expensive, probably more expensive than a console. each part will cost a lot of money depending on how good the specifications are and this could cost a lot if you buy expensive GPU's and CPU's.

Another disadvantage is that

Mobile

Mobile gaming is something that has evolved and became a bigger thing over the recent years with new additions that have been added such as software and better phones being released so that they can support the game itself much better. 

Snake

Snake is a classic game that was first released on the Nokia 6610 in 1997. The objective is to get as big as you can and stay alive as long as you can. You could collect/ eat little blocks to grow longer; the more you get, the higher score you will have. This game would get addicting and more difficult as you would always want to beat your current high score over again and again. You wouldn't be able to cut through the walls in the original version of snake and this would make it difficult as you could easily get yourself stuck and force yourself to run into your initially failing and have to restart over from the beginning.

The graphics of the game were fairly simple as every image was created using large pixels and the image was also flat. Good specifications aren't really needed as the snake moved fairly slowly in the game anyway so it wouldn't have really effected the outcome. I think that this game is really fun to keep playing when you have some time to kill and this game also had new franchises with updates and different features/ graphic changes which was nice for players that enjoyed playing the game. 

Here is some gameplay of the original snake II. As you can see, the game gets progressively harder as you get longer and longer and you are moving at a fast speed. You can't hit yourself or the sides of the map or you die which is hard because the longer you get, the more space you take up and the game just becomes too difficult at some point unless you are amazing like the player in this video 

Space Invaders

Space Invaders was a classic in the Arcade but it was also recreated for the mobile and fully playable with the same features as the arcade version. The mobile version was released in 2002 and it became quite popular because of how popular the game originally got in the arcade version.



iPhone

The iPhone was first released in 2007 where mobile gaming had pretty much changed forever. Users had access to the app store where they could download various things such as games, music or just general applications that could help out. The iPhone was a really big change mainly because of the specs that the phone had and also the touch screen feature that the phone had that phones before that didn't have and it made controls and interaction with the games much different than before. The iPhone has developed over the years where everything has improved in pretty much every way and many new features have been added in various updates and new games that have been released for the phone itself. 




Android


Angry birds

Angry Birds was first released on the iPhone in 2009 and the game became extremely big and sold over 2 billion copies in January 2014. The aim of the game is to kill all of the pigs using specific birds as you pull them back in a catapult like object and fire them at the pigs. This game got fairly addicting but I must admit that some levels got me fairly frustrated because it was difficult and I never had enough birds to take out all of the pigs.

Here is some game play of Angry birds. As you can see, the concept is fairly simple but the game itself can get fairly difficult and frustrating. There are several different birds that each have different abilities when you tap a second time when the bird is flying through the air. You get so many birds to try and destroy all of the pigs which is where you need to start using your mind so that you can destroy all of the pigs before you run out of birds to fire at them. You also need to be good at predicting where the bird is going to land and how it is going to change the area you are playing around since you could make it even worse by making rubble fall and get in the way of your path.

Love live! school idol festival

Love Live! School idol festival is a game that is more popular in Japan after the music and the anime based around the songs created by the school idols known as "μ's" (Pronounced muses) and more recently "Aqours". The game was published by Bushiroad and KLab and released in April 2013 for iOS and June 2013 for Android. It is a rhythm game  where you play songs formed by the idols and you click the circles to the rhythm. I think that this game is really enjoyable as I play it myself and it's a really good game that has characters that I like and am familiar with and also it's good to kill time and I enjoy playing it daily as I also regularly listen to the music produced by them as well.

In Love Live: School Idol Festival, you can collect Love Gems by doing certain quests and completing certain songs which can allow you to purchase new Idols which is very nice because you could get your favourite character or an ultra rare character that has a very low chance of being rolled.

Here is some game-play of LLSIF, showing someone play the song "Soldier Game" Performed by Umi Sonoda, Eli Ayase and Maki Nikishino. As you can see, this player is using his/her finger to tap to the beat of the song at a fairly fast rate as this song is rated "Expert". I like that people can play this game in different ways like this person is using his index fingers but I use my thumbs when I play because I find it more comfortable. I think this is a perfect game for the mobile as it is addicting but not too addicting, it is based of an anime that I'm fairly sure a lot of people enjoy considering that the Love Live! franchise is one of the biggest trends going on in Japan at this moment.

Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO is a recently new game that came out in 2016 and it is a game revolving around the extremely popular franchise of Pokemon which is known worldwide and this was a really good way to get people hyped for the game since its based around the games and anime of our childhood. When this game got released, everyone was playing it since it became so big and the app itself was free. Everyone played the game and the objective of the game is to go outside and capture Pokemon using the GPS signal that your mobile has. I think that this game got over hyped as the game was not mentally prepared for the audience that all came to play it since there were so many people that the servers pretty much fried up. The game isn't very complex and there isn't much else to do rather than catch Pokemon which lead to me getting bored of the game fairly easy. It also caused a lot of real life problems such as trespassing and crime which obviously isn't a good thing. This game in my opinion wasn't a very good success as most people don't play it much anymore as the game was over hyped by in reality, there isn't actually that much to do within the game. I think that this game was good while it lasted but the idea wasn't thought out all of the way and the game should of been fully prepared for all the people that wanted to play it.



Hardware

The hardware in a phone changes depending on which phone you are actually using at the time. Newer phones tend to have better specifications and are able to run games at better frame rates and resolutions which is always good in a gamers view. There are loads of smartphones that can play a huge amount of mobile games nowadays with the main operating systems being iOS, Android and Windows. All of these have their differences but they all operate very similarity and I think that they are all really good.

Advantages of mobile gaming is that you can easily play the game wherever you are since the game is on your phone which pretty much everyone carries around with them all the time. The games are simple and they work just right for the phone, whilst there are many different types of mobile games for anyone to play and enjoy for themselves. The games won't be as amazing as games with 4k graphics and such like PC and console gaming which is fine in my perspective as I don't really see graphics to be the greatest thing about games and I enjoy the game for the overall content. However, the mobile is good for killing time and I think it's just really handy that you can play games on your phone and you don't have to wait staring at a wall or a window when you can enjoy yourself by playing a mobile game.

Disadvantages about mobile gaming is that it can drain your battery easily, especiially games like pokemon GO which used both your GPS and 3/4G which drains your battery really fast and you probably would need your phone in case of any emergencys that could potentially happen whilst you are out. Another disadvantage is that the graphics arent the best and neither is the framerate but I believe that you can have just as much fun on lower resolution games or just more simple games whilst you play on your phone.

Television

TV is casual way to play games through a TV. The games are usually generic and can get fairly boring after a while but I think that they could possibly be fairly entertaining for a little while. The games are games that are in the TV or some with the subscription etc. This is useful as the user doesn't have to mess around and can jump right into the game. I suppose TV gaming has recently gotten better because of the new TV software that is being created such as smart TV's and new TV's also have things such as 3D features. 

Hardware

TV's have got much better over the previous years. They have had better quality graphics, better response times, better colour, faster at processing and image, better sound quality etc. We have recently gotten smart TV's which allow us to do extra things through the internet such as play different types of games, stream movies, YouTube video etc. I also like how TV's can come in different sizes to benefit the user, for example, if you are by yourself or close to the screen, then it would be better if you had a small and thin TV so you wouldn't strain your eyes and you would see the full image perfectly fine. Also, you can get huge 3D LED Smart TV's now which I think would be more beneficial for people playing together such as friends and family.

Advantages of a TV is that the graphics are good since the games are fairly simple which is good because you can read and see everything clearly. Another good thing is that the games that you play are usually free or very low cost because it's literally inside of your TV. It's easy to play the games and you don't have to wait about since the game is practically already installed onto the TV so you don't have to install it again or do any updates which initially saves a lot of time.

Disadvantages of TV gaming is that it's personally fairly boring, generic and there's just generally not much to do on a TV game. Using the TV remote is kind of tricky to get used to the controls since it's a remote and not a controller we are used to. Another thing is that I don't think TV gaming has the big variety we need to actually enjoy and get into this TV gaming kind of thing.

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

This is a TV game that I think is probably one of the best for the TV since its a fun little game that can be played with friends and family with simple controls as you basically just answer questions. I think this is the perfect kind of game for the TV as it's simple, it's fun to play with other people and it just makes sense for the platform. The objective is to answer questions until you reach up to one million pounds, originally based of the TV programme. You have multiple options in the game just like the TV programme such as phone a friend or ask the audience. I've played this game myself and it was pretty fun to play with family and friends as it can also get you thinking about interesting questions that you may not of known the answer to before so you could learn new things whilst playing this TV game.



Here is an image showing what the game could look like when you are playing it. You have some power ups in the corner and you have questions that you need to answer.

Plants VS Zombies

This game is another game adapted from the mobile application. It's a strategy game where you place different plant down to defend yourself from the zombies. This game is pretty fun and I think it can be quite enjoyable for time you play it as there are several levels that you progress through and it's just overally pretty good to play.


Here is some game play of Plants vs Zombies and as you can see, you have different plants that do different thing and you use those plants together to form a strategy to defend yourself from the zombies, as they also have different abilities also so you have to sort them out as well.

VR

define

compare

future

Overall, I personally think that each platform of gaming devices have all been successful in their own way to the players that play the games. I think that some have passed their time and won't really become a big thing in the future but then there are some that I think could stretch out even further than they have to become even better and improve our experiences as gamers.

Firstly, the arcade was extremely popular back in the day and it is still a pretty good attraction to this date. It's always fun to go out to the arcade to go and play various different games that can keep both you and your friends entertained and it is fun with pretty much anyone, which could be very convenient for days out for example. There are coop games that can be played with multiple people and each of these people will probably enjoy the game and have a good time because they are having fun and experiencing the game in a much more interactive and unique way that we wouldn't get if we just sat at home and stared into the screen of a monitor. I think that the arcade could have a really good potential in the future if things are looked at the right way. For example, I think that more coop and interactive games should stay and be added to the arcade as I find that this would be a really good way to enjoy the game, meet new people and also just generally have a really good time.

The Console has came a far way through the past 45 years that the first home console was produced, which was the Magnavox Odyssey. The games, the Graphics, the technology, pretty much everything has improved and continued to stretch out to proceed in success for the home console devices. We have seen how games have evolved through the generations of each new console and frachise looking at graphics, game play features and new technology that has been added just to improve experiences with the gaming consoles. For example, the PS4 has just released the new PSVR which is basically virtual reality for the PS4 which is very good as it is simple, plug and play, and you can experience the games in a completely new and amazing way that we have never seen before since this technology is brand new. I think that in the future, consoles will still be a big thing or the biggest thing since they are such a simple device that anyone can use and all the technology for the system is constantly improving.

The PC is a gaming platform that is always constantly improving, with new hardware being released, new video games, graphics, software and much more. you can custom build a PC to your liking, for exactly what you want to use your PC for. If you just want to browse the internet, you could get standard cheap parts which would be good as you would save money and not have unnecessary things that you wouldn't need like a top of the range graphics card. If you wanted to play casual games, then you could just buy a standard range CPU, GPU, RAM etc. Computers are extremely customisable and the performance of a PC al depends on the specification that are in the PC itself. The PC is probably one of the main things everyone has in their home as they are not just used for gaming bu also things such as office work, documents, browsing the internet, editing etc. I think that the PC will personally keep evolving and keep improving because of how popular and customisble the devices already are. There is also VR for the PC, which I think works very well with the device itself as you can experience the game in a different manner and it just works a lot better with a PC, since you can upgrade the PC to the standards of what it needs to be to run any game. I think the PC will keep getting better and better with more game releases with higher resolutions and better overall graphics and game play.

The Mobile is probably a device that is going to keep improving and evolving as we all pretty much use them on a day to day basis for pretty much everything. We use them for calling, messaging, social media, browsing the web and of course, gaming. The mobile games are more aimed towards playing when you have a bit of spare time such as waiting for the bus, waiting for lesson to start, before you go to sleep etc. Many games have time based kind of systems, especially for the mobile phone. What I mean about this is that you get for example, 1 point per 6 minutes. A game that comes off the top of my head is Love Live! School Idol Festival, as this game has a system where you have to gain so many points (LP) in order to play the game. This is good as it means that the player doesn't play the game forever because they run out of points and can't play anymore until they restore them. This is very good by the mobile industry as it leans towards making us not get consumed by the video game by playing it too much but it can help us balance out the time well so that we can play the game whenever we need to or get enough points. I think that mobile gaming is definitely going to improve since the mobile is a device everyone uses pretty much all the time and the industry could benefit off it hugely, because of the amount of people that use their phones on this day. VR is also coming out for phones, such as the HTC vive and the Samsung Gear. I think that this could potentially get big but I can't see it becoming an extremely big thing since you have to wear a big thing on your head which you probably won't go outside in and the device itself is fairly expensive. I think systems like VR would be more suited on devices where you wouldn't have to really move about so much such as the home console or a PC.

The TV wasn't really a gaming platform that really appealed for me. It was rather bland and the games were kinda meh. You could gain access to play these games through things such as subscriptions, software on a TV server, satellite/ cable connection, the TV remote etc. There are some good things about TV but I can't really see a good future for any "TV gamers" out there. Maybe this is because I haven't really TV gamed but I think that the other platforms are just generally better in many ways I see that TV is kind of dying as a whole. For example, BBC three has shut down and moved to an online source, which is pretty much some good solid evidence showing that the internet is pretty much taking over the world. I don't think that TV gaming is going to be a big thing in the future as it isn't really a big thing now.

Overall, I personally think that the PC, Console and mobile all have a future in the gaming industry. They are the devices that a lot of us use the most, for example, we all need a phone so we can get in contact with family and friends since the device is pretty much a necessity now and we all have one. This means that if the mobile gaming industry created games for the mobile that were really good and addictive, then the mobile games industry would benefit/ profit of this a lot.