Mobile and TV platforms and their limitations

Mobile and TV platforms and their limitations

This will be my final post on this blog. This post will cover both handheld and TV plaftforms, along with their advancements and their limtations.

Mobile Platforms

A mobile platform, often referred to a handheld platform, is a platform which is self-powered (inbuilt, rechargeable battery) and self-contained, and can be taken/transported anywhere, hence the name.
Mobile platforms are easy and flexible to access, and allow people to play on the go. They are not restricted with movement. They can be taken almost anywhere due to the size and weight, which is really handy. Some mobile platforms also have other functions apart from gaming, and some have gaming as a secondry function. There is quite a variety of mobile platforms out there.
To make things easier to understand, when going on towards specifics, I will use the term "mobile" for phones and pads (gaming as secondry) and the term "handheld" for the actual gaming platforms (gaming as primary).

Handhelds started off with the early LED (Light Emitting Diode) devices, like the ones that the company Mattel used to make, and compared to the more modern handhelds of today (which are now LCD), were really basic, but one has to admit, they were very successful. Some of the reasons why they were so successful back then is because they were (mostly) cheap, they didn't need to be attached to a wall in order to play, you could take it with you through town and so forth.

Handhelds started off in the 70's as rudimentary games where the a game displayed flashing lights and one had to advoid the lesser lights. Keeping to the principal that these handhelds used LED, or flashing light, other games like racing and sports simulaters were made.

In the 80's, there was a huge advancement in the technology of handhelds and the handheld game market with the introduction of devices, or handhelds, with LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology. One of the most famous of these (then) newer devices was Nintendo's Game & Watch series, which, like all of the handhelds before it, had the games pre-installed. However, the Game & Watch had, instead of one, two games installed. These were just labeled "Game A" and "Game B", with "Game B" being either a different (as in similar) game or a harder version of "Game A".
These devices used "sprites", or still images, that would move around the screen ("sprite" are not animated, instead the image/sprite is switch with another in the image array) giving the illusion of actual movement. These newer handhelds would soon bring about new innovations like the D-Pad (Directional Pad), and handhelds like the Game & Watch also told the time.
These (then) newer handhelds were immesely popular and swept (hit and dominated) the market very quickly, and comapared to consoles, they had better graphics, but, movement was limited to the pre-set available destinations and the backgrounds in the games were all static (still).

In 1989 was the next major advancement handheld technology. It was the Game Boy, developed by Nintendo. The Game Boy changed the handheld industry to such an extend that it's almost immeasurable. Not only was it the first handheld to feature a "Start" and a "Pause" button, but it also had two action buttons (A and B) which allowed games to be more complex, and, what in my opinion revolutionised handhelds the most, was that it had a slot for game cartidges. Up until the Game Boy came out, you had to get yourself a new handheld if you wanted a different game, because games were pre-installed. The Game Boy was the first generalised handheld, meaning that you could play many games on it, through the use of interchangable cartridges, without having to to buy a new handheld. These game cartridges themselves were a huge advancement in technolodgy. Cartridges were cheaper to make than a handheld with a pre-installed game, and cartridges can also be kept in pocket to be used on the go. As an additional bonus, the Game Boy, with the use of a link cable, allowed network play between other players, for games like Pokémon. Three hugely successful games that most people have played on a Gameboy are; Pokémon (Nintendo), Super Mario Land (Nintendo) and Tetris (created by Alexey Pajitnov).

Many companies soon after followed suit and made handhelds similar to the Game Boy, however, these weren't at the same quality as the Game Boy. For example, Sega made the Game Gear a year after Nintendo brought out the Game Boy, and even though the Game Gear had a colour screen, it lacked quality software (and the games weren't as good as that of the Game Boy). In the same year as the Game Gear came out (1990), Atari, still trying to keep its hand in the games industry, brought out the Lynx, which, even though it had superior hardware, lacked good titles and had a bad battery life. The Neo Geo Turbo Express (1990. The name should've been thought-over better) was, out of all of them, the most powerful, and the design resembled the Game Boy a bit, however, it was badly marketed, poorly designed and it was extremely expensive (they obvious didn't do their research properly).
Everyone who knows Nintendo well enough will know that when they bring a product onto the market, they make upgraded models of the original and tweek the later versions only a bit to make them better, keeping it almost the same and just improving it at an expert level. This is why Nintendo is, most likely, the best company when it comes to handhelds. They are exert marketers and they prolong a platforms life, as said before, expertly. The Game Boy, with all of the competition it was already getting, proved to be the best on the market then.

In 2004, handhelds evolved, with the arrival of the (then) next-gen handhelds, like the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable (PSP). With these, gaming on handhelds went to new heights. The big cartridges found with Game Boy are replaced for the DS with smaller cartridges, and the PSP had UMD's (Universal Media Discs) as a storage medium, which could also contain media other than games (like films and songs).
And as to expect, quite recently, newer and more powerful installments (devices/handhelds) hit the market. The PS Vita (2011. The old PSP upgaded), the PS Vita Slim (2014. Redesign of the PS Vita), Nintendo 3DS (2011. Upgrade of the DS, with 3D capabilities.) and the Nintendo 3DS XL (2012. Larger model of the 3DS with slight redesigns).

Lets touch onto the other type of mobile gaming, mainly those on phones.
One could say that mobile games began when Nokia got the Finnish game developer, Taneli Armanto, to make Snake. Snake was a very simply game, that was hellishly addictive though (kind of showing that even simple games can be very fun). Every one of Nokia's 3310 phones had Snake already installed onto them (and compared to a lot of modern phones, the Nokia 3310 take years to break, whereas most modern smart phones only require you to sit on them or drop them).

Some games these days on phones are actually either cut down versions of popular console games, or independent games of a popular console game series. This has all become possible because phones are becoming more and more powerful every year. Some of the most modern phones are a bit like small computers now.

However, cut down versions of console games are the only kind of games found on phones these days. Most games on a phone are actually made to be used only on a phone, meaning that they are mobile exclusive games. Games like these include Cut the Rope and Angry Birds.

TV Game Platforms

So, what is a TV games platform? Very basically put, the TV itself is a platform. With early, and a lot of modern, TV's, there would be small games (like Tetris) installed on the TV and the remote, with its coloured buttons and its select buttons, was the conroller. Ceefax is an early example of this. It was an extremely basic information system which had some very basic and simple games.
But recently, there has been a surge in interest in TV games platforms. Apparently, so many people are wanting games on Smart TV's, that it's going to cut out consoles altogether. But personally I don't think that that is true. It is true that there has been a rise of interest in games on Smart TV's, however, I do not believe that a console gamer is going to give up consoles for games, like Angry Birds, on a Smart TV, because a Smart TV can't replace the things that a console gives you. In my opinion, and that of a lot of my friends, if Smart TV's are going to have games on them, then they should stick with casual games.
Apart from gaming, Smart TV's have an internal operating system along with the ability to connect to the internet, allowing them to download and launch apps like Youtube or Netflix.

Because of the increase in Smart TV popularity, many companies out there are now competing with each other to get a good share of the increasingly popular TV games platforms market (please keep hardcore games of them, because it'll just ruin a good game series experience. Go full on with the casual games though). Smart TV's, because they have an internal operating system, are able to download software and games either directly to the TV or to the set top box, but for a price.
Most TV's, including Smart TV's, have USB ports. These are usually for USB sticks with various different types of media files on them (like videos and music). But the USB ports on a Smart TV are able to support controllers, and even today, the technology for Smart TV's has increased to the point where android phones, iPhones, iPads and the like a able to be wirelessly connected to the Smart TV to be used as a wireless motion controller.

Limitations

Like with all the other platforms previously covered in this blog, even mobile/handheld and TV games platforms have their limitations.

• Mobile (phone) limitations: Phones these days have a battery life of about 20 or so hours, but games take up a lot of processing power, cutting a phones battery life (while playing the game) to maybe 4 hours, depending on how much the game needs on processing power. The graphics on mobile games won't really be a good as on consoles, because a phone's graphics card wouldn't be as powerful, nor would the phone's hardware. Another limitation is that games and software on phones tend to "out-date" your phone after about 3 years. What I mean with that is that you can buy a brand new phone, but after about 3 years, certain types of softwares and games are no longer compatible with your phone after some updates. Meaning that no matter if you de-install, you wont be able to install the software of game again, which forces you to buy a new phone. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Young (2013) is no longer compatible with Snapchat because the phone is "out-dated" (too old).
• Handheld limitations: Handheld may offer easy access and can be taken anywhere, but, there is still the matter of battery life. Without access to a charging station, 3DS will last about 3 days in sleep mode, 3-5 hours when playing a 3DS game and 5-8 hours while playing a normal DS game, and most people tend to play 3DS games these days so that means that if you are travelling long distance, at one point you'll be bored because the battery will have run out (in other words, the limitation here is access to charging places/wall socket). Handhelds are also partially limited by how you care for them (sitting on them could break them, pressing too hard on the screen can cause the touch sensors to not work anymore, etc.).
• Smart TV limitations: Like with mobile platforms, some Smart TV's may have problems processing fast paced, high quality games. Also, the use of phones and pads may prove to have some problems at some points, as connectivity does degrade depending on the distance and the age/model of the phone/pad. Probably a (somewhat) amusing limitation is a users arm strength, because like in the Angry Bird video with the Smart TV, as soon as the player lowers their hand/arm, the Smart TV's sensor wont be able to pic it up, so a user is also limited to how long they can keep their arms up. However, the most painstaking limitation on this are the prices. Some range from £698.98 to £1,299.

We have covered enough in all the posts on this blog to know just about how big and competative the games industry really is. There is a lot of money to be gained there is one does their research right and has good ideas. But this blog doesn't just show us about how profitable the games industry is. It has shown us the advancements in technology we have made (LCD isn't just used in handhelds, but also in TV's), but also how it has changed the way the some people think and how they used to, and now, spend a lot of their free time. There is so much which can be taken from here and used for many things.
With this this blog is concluded (finished) and I want to thank all who've taken the time to read this.