Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1 Capabilities of Last Generation Consoles
Platform
Xbox
PS2
GameCube
CPU
733MHz
294.9MHz
485MHz
Graphics Processor
250MHz
147.5MHz
162MHz
Maximum Resolution 1920 × 1080
1280 × 1024
Up to HDTV
Memory
64MB RAM
40MB RAM
43MB RAM
Controller Ports
4
2 (4 optional)
4
Media
4x DVD-ROM
5x DVD-ROM
3x DVD-ROM
(3.2
-
6.4GB)
(3.2
-
6.4GB)
(1.5GB)
Digital Sound
Dolby 5.1 DTS in
gameplay
Dolby Pro Logic II
Dolby 5.1 for DVDs
Hardware Audio
Channels
64
48
64
Hard Disk
Yes
8GB
Add-on
No
Internet
10/100 Ethernet
port
Optional modem/
broadband
Optional modem/
broadband
DVD Movies
Yes
Yes
No
There
t there? The
change from the PS2 to the PS3 is nothing short of remarkable. But hardware capa-
bility doesn
'
s a serious leap in capability from that first table to the second, isn
'
a great lesson that sometimes less is more.
When I wrote the second edition in 2004, I had a line about desktop hardware that
said: After all, you can ' t find CPUs topping 2GHz in the console world . Funny
how times change
'
t mean you
'
ll sell more
today that statement is completely wrong. A few years after this
edition is published, it will be wrong again! I also wrote that consoles were always
lacking behind desktops for raw processing and graphics power. That statement
isn ' t as true in the PS3/Xbox360 era and certainly won ' t remain true when their suc-
cessors start to emerge.
Desktops are still ahead when it comes to memory and hard drive storage, but they
are falling behind in cool controllers, like you see with the Wii. With all the consoles
being Internet-capable and having space on their hard drives, consoles even get to
send updates. The lines are definitely blurring. But the cool controllers aren
'
t driving
the popularity of PC games anymore;
instead,
it is social gaming on sites like
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