DECEMBER 2014 ;e Costco Connection 51
By Steven L. Kent
WHEN AN MIT student named Steven
Russell created the first computer game, in
1962, he had to make it a two-player duel
because the most powerful computers of the day lacked the processing ability needed to create
drone opponents. My, how things
have changed.
Nintendo’s original Game
Boy, released in 1989, had more
processing power than all of the
computers NASA used to send the
first man to the moon. Processors
went from the 8-bit Nintendo
entertainment systems to Super
Nintendo and Sega Genesis systems, with their 16-bit processors—and then
to Sony PlayStation, with a 32-bit processor,
and to Nintendo 64, with 64 bits.
Let’s put it this way: In evolutionary
terms, the original arcade game Pac-Man was
stored on 16 kilobytes of read-only memory.
By comparison, most Xbox One and
PlayStation 4 games are stored on 50-gigabyte
Blu-ray discs that hold over 3 million times
more data than those Pac-Man discs.
So what can you do with 3 million times
the memory and several thousand times the
processing power? A lot, if you look at today’s
modern consoles.
Sony: games, games, games
Having released three previous consoles
and two handheld systems, Sony Computer
Entertainment is comfortable with the tradi-
tional model of a game-centered uni-
verse displayed by its new PlayStation
4 (PS4). Sony is preparing to release a
pantheon of exclusive new titles, with
headliners like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s
End and The Order: 1886, a violent
quasi-steam-punk thriller.
Too much suspense?
Sony also has the free-
wheeling LittleBigPlanet 3
and a truly magical adven-
ture game called Rime.
And those are just the games Sony is
publishing itself. PlayStation 4 owners can
also look forward to popular third-party
offerings such as the latest Call of Duty,
Madden NFL, Need 4 Speed and LEGO
adventure games.
Games galore
Consoles have come a long way
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The PS4 is much more social
than its predecessor. The new console supports up to 2,000 online
friends. And the PlayStation app,
on Apple and Android platforms,
enables smartphones and tablets
to become second screens for
games that support the feature.
Microsoft looks for more
Make no mistake,
Xbox One has not,
will not and cannot
abandon the traditional gaming
scene, but Microsoft has its eye on
the changing future. The
company released Halo:
Master Chief Collection in
Racing fanatics will be pleased to see
Forza Horizon 2, an intricately detailed driving simulation featuring more than 200 cars.
Microsoft’s other big game this
Christmas will be Sunset Overdrive, an
exciting, hard-core, end-of-the-world shooter
that combines a punk-rock mentality with
Tony Hawk physics. And those third-party
hits like Call of Duty—they’re all available on
Xbox One as well.
While PlayStation 4 has a bigger library
of games, Xbox One is redefining the role
consoles play in the home. In an opening
bid to show Xbox One can do more than play
games, Microsoft added Skype, an audio
and video alternative to telephone calls, to
their console operating system. Now Xbox
owners can call and video chat with friends
and family around the world at no charge.
Skype is great, but Microsoft insists that
even more impressive innovations are just
around the corner.
Complete entertainment systems
Both of these consoles are all-in-one
entertainment systems, which means they
play movies on Blu-ray and DVD, offer
Internet browsing and can be used to stream
movies from Netflix, Amazon Instant Video
and your UltraViolet library. Which system is
on your wish list? C
Steven L. Kent is a video game historian and
science-fiction novelist.
special section electronics
The Costco Connection
Costco features Microsoft Xbox One and
Sony PlayStation 4 consoles, as well as a
variety of video games, in the warehouses
and at Costco.com. You can also find
Nintendo products on Costco.com.
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