Secondary Hardware:The Revolution will not have a hard drive. Now, before you pick up your torches and pitchforks, hear me out. I think this is a good idea. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are shaping up to be proverbial "does it all" machines, and personally I don’t think that the industry is ready for that. Both consoles will need an incredible amount of user-friendly streamlining to function and interact with the consumer at a reasonable level, and with all the bells and whistled packed into them, I don’t think it’s going to work out that way. The typical consumer, the people who are intimidated by technology, will be confounded by the massive amount of options available to them. Nintendo is keeping things simple.
Instead of a massive hard disk, the Revolution will utilize 512MB flash memory cards, which can be swapped in and out with ease. This is perfect for the average consumer; Nintendo wants a machine that not only tech-geek gamers can operate, but a console that is easily approachable for five-year old kids and eighty-year old grandmas too. A hard drive can be a finicky piece of hardware, and is far more likely to fail than flash cards. Cards are also much easier to understand and use. Nintendo promised that the data stored on the flash units could be transferred to an SD card, or to a PC, for management and storage. The Revolution’s data saving format is easy to use for everyone.
And since the PS3 and 360 hard drives will mostly be used to store pirated MP3’s anyway, I think Nintendo is on the right track.
The internal memory is being developed by MoSys, and there isn’t a lot of info on it now. It’s 512 meg of 1T-SRAM, and that’s all they’re saying. Suffice it to say that MoSys is a reliable manufacturer, and their memory on the GameCube is solid and efficient.
Connections/Video Support: Some people got a close look at the Revolution at E3, and they reported on what hind of hookups it has on the back. Apparently it has proprietary component/digital out, and two USB 2.0 slots. Makes sense; it’s all standard equipment these days.
Now for the part I don’t get: there will be no, repeat NO high definition support. What?!! Nintendo sights a lack of HD cable sales for the GameCube, and promises that Revolution games will still look great. My answer: of course the Cube had a small HD following, you had to order the freaking component cables from a website! They were practically impossible to find on the shelf! And, of course, there were fewer HD TV’s during the Cube’s lifetime, and they were rather expensive.
A common trend in technology is that it gets smaller, faster, and overall cheaper within a short amount if time. HD TV’s are following suit. They will be quite common in a few years, and Nintendo needs to keep up on this one. They’ve bucked trends before; sometimes they were right, often they were wrong. They’re making a mistake here, and I can feel it. Who knows, maybe if enough people complain, they’ll change their minds. Start the letter writing campaigns, people.
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