What they hell happened to video game consoles?

Started by the_antithesis, June 08, 2013, 02:03:56 PM

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the_antithesis

So, those of you who might remember, I've been obsessing over this thing for no good reason at all.

[youtube:3rvfj97m]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_l9Mjwmick[/youtube:3rvfj97m]

Cheesy Chinese black & white game console with worse resolution than the original Gameboy and all the games are unlicensed ports. What's not to love?

But that was over seven years ago, now. So I decided to see what the manufacturer, Timetop,  was up to now and foundthis:



A handheld with Wiimotes? How ridiculous.
Have a look at the features.

Quote?Game simulator?support 8 bit??3D Games
?Video/Audio Player
?Digital Video Camera
?E-Book
?Picture Preview

So it plays NES, SNES, Gameboy and Gameboy advanced games. But what's with all that other shit? This isn't a smartphone, is it?

Is it?

Now, I'll be the first to admit that technology, especially portable technology, is heading toward all in one devices. (which is incidentally the name of Timetop's game console thing. Allinone. All one word. Genius.) I'm still looking to a smartphone as a portable gaming device over a Playstation Bob Villa or a MigraineDS or whatever. But how does it make any fucking sense to make a game system that is also a smartphone you can't make calls from? Or text, which is more important.

The advantage of a dedicated game machine is that it's cheaper and designed to do one thing really well. Granted, that last one has taken a hit in recent years as smartphones have long since rivaled dedicated gaming platforms in terms of graphics and the like. Which leaves the cheaper bit, which is shot in the foot by making it a music player, a video player, a digital camera, an ebook reader. I mean, jesus. Does it play games, too? Only if your good and the stars are aligned, I suspect.

I honestly don't know what to think. Multimedia is like a virus that's spreading to everything these days. But I wanted a multimedia device, I'd just get a smartphone. Pity that means getting a controller for it to have real buttons instead of using a touchscreen.

SilentFutility

Wrote a huge response, log-in timed out. Fuck.