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Hudson and NEC joined forces to kickstart the 4th generation of consoles. Unfortunately, their efforts will be eventually eclipsed once the competition arrives. Nonetheless, their console will stay on the top as one of the most compact designs on the market. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve 'incrementally', new generations of consoles...
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A console often summarised by its short lifespan and limited colour space. While technically correct, I believe these attributes tend to overlook other surprising properties.In this article, I invite readers to learn more about its internal features, many of which became predominant in the market only after the Virtual Boy's discontinuation. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating....
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Sega (and their TV ads) want you to know: Developers can't come up with decent games unless the console provides faster graphics and richer sounds. Their new system includes lots of already familiar components ready to be programmed. This means that, in theory, developers would only need to learn about Sega's new GPU... right? Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional...
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Released just one month after the Nintendo DS, Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) proved that 'horizontal innovation' is not the only way to succeed in the portable console market. This article is dedicated to anyone that wants to understand, straight to the point, how the PSP operates. It's not a short write-up, but I hope that at the end of the article you will be able to grasp the building blocks of this console (its design rationale, choice of...
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Sony knew that 3D hardware can get very messy to develop for. Thus, their debuting console will keep its design simple and practical... Although this may come with a cost! Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve 'incrementally', new generations of consoles introduce completely new ways of working. What you see here is a series of articles that...
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The internal design of the Game Boy Advance is quite impressive for a portable console that runs on two AA batteries. This console will carry on using Nintendo's signature GPU. Additionally, it will introduce a relatively new CPU from a British company that will surge in popularity in the years to come. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve...
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The Sega Dreamcast introduced many new features over its predecessor (the Saturn) to appeal to both game developers and console gamers. While this was Sega's last attempt to conquer the console market, some of the technologies which were pioneered in the Dreamcast carried on and into future mainstream devices. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend...
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As smartphones surge in adoption, the videogame market is experiencing an unusual growth led by discount App Stores and affordable development licenses. With this, one can only wonder when kids will prefer an iPhone 4 over a Nintendo DSi. In the midst of finding out the answer, Nintendo conceives a thrilling successor to its triumphant portable system. In it, users will find old, present and unfamiliar technology - many of which can't be replicated...
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The Game Boy can be imagined as a portable version of the NES with limited power, but you'll see that it included very interesting new functionality. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve 'incrementally', new generations of consoles introduce completely new ways of working. What you see here is a series of articles that will hopefully uncover...
10) NES Architecture
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At first glance, the NES appears to be just another 6502 computer, with a sophisticated case and a controller. And while this is technically true, let me show you why the CPU is not the central part of this system. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve 'incrementally', new generations of consoles introduce completely new ways of working....
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The Master System comes from a long line of succession. What started as a collection of off-the-shelf components, has now gained a new identity thanks to Sega's engineering. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend to evolve 'incrementally', new generations of consoles introduce completely new ways of working. What you see here is a series of articles...
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The Playstation 2 was not one of the most powerful consoles of its generation, yet it managed to achieve a level of popularity unthinkable for other companies. This machine is nowhere near as simple as the original Playstation was, but we will see why it didn't share the same fate of previous complicated consoles (i.e. the Sega Saturn). Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While...
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It seems Nintendo managed to bring the next generation of graphics and sounds without using expensive off-the-shelf components. But there's a catch: the new console was also designed with expandability in mind. In a world where CPUs are evolving faster than the speed of light, Nintendo ultimately depended on game cartridges to make its console shine. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is...
14) Wii Architecture
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Even though the Wii lacked the state of art graphics its competitors enjoyed, new types of control and innovative software gave this console new areas to brag about. Here we will analyse every aspect of this console, from its already-familiar hardware to its overlooked security system, including its major flaws. Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional PCs tend...
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Released a year before its main competitor, the Xbox 360 was already claiming technological superiority against the yet-to-be-seen Playstation 3. But while the Xbox 360 might be the flagship of the 7th generation, it will need to fight strongly once Nintendo and Sony take up retail space. This new entry of the console architecture series will give you an additional perspective of how technology was envisioned during the early naughties, with emphasis...
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Welcome to the 3D era! Well... sorta. Sega enjoyed quite a success with the Megadrive so there's no reason to force developers to write 3D games right now. Just in case developers want the extra dimension, Sega adapted some bits of the hardware to enable polygon drawing as well. Hopefully, the result didn't get out of hand! Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating. While conventional...
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In 2006, Sony unveiled the long-awaited 'next generation' video-game console, a shiny (albeit heavy) machine whose underlying hardware architecture continues the teachings of the Emotion Engine, that is, focus on vector processing to achieve power, even at the cost of complexity. Meanwhile, their new 'super processor', the Cell Broadband Engine, is conceived during a crisis of innovation and will have to keep up as trends for multimedia services evolve....
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Nintendo's goal was to give players the best graphics possible, for this it will partner with one of the biggest players in computer graphics to produce the ultimate graphics chip.The result was a nice-looking console for the family... and a 500-page manual for the developer. Don't worry, I promise you this article will not be that long... Enjoy! Architecture of Consoles: A Practical Analysis Looking at the evolution of video game consoles is fascinating....
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