Misc. Info

March 2, 1999 4PM EST

Sweet Mother of Pearl, what a machine! After years of waiting, today Sony finally announced the next generation PlayStation. Read the story over at Next Generation Online. No name, no RAM stats or real specifics, but worth a read. If you read my previous PlayStation 2 rant about 5 months ago, I mentioned I would be disappointed if most of what I said then didn’t come true. Well, I’m not disappointed, I’m ecstatic! Goodness gracious, we’re in for some serious gaming! Some key statistics:

• At least 250MHz 64 bit processor
• Hardware Bezier curves support
• Probably in the neighbourhood of 13 million polygons/sec (full effects.)
• DVD drive
• Dolby Digital, maybe even DTS sound
• Backwards compatible

The processor is a real masterpiece, for more info read the EE article. This is no ordinary general purpose, kitchen sink processor! Somehow the SH4 in the Dreamcast loses its lustre... Hardware support for Bezier curves! When Kutaragi a while go said "Their R&D goals are so near-sighted that they are only paying attention to gradual changes in graphics technologies that can be developed in lockstep with the short-term PC product-development cycle" he wasn’t kidding. This is truly the next generation. It’s hard for us to imagine what games will look like after a while with this kind of power and possibilities.

• "Tekken 5: 1^st person mode: You’re about to double whammy Nina, when you notice her glancing over your shoulder. You duck and sweep, and blam, her twin is on the floor behind you." It could happen!
• "In RR5, the water on the windshield makes things hard to see. You hit the wipers and are again reminded it’s time to replace them." Reality!
• "Unreal 2: As you’re about to finish off your worst adversary so far, his skin comes alive and it looks like actual people are trying to get through his skin from the inside, while their screams totally surround you." MPEG2 textures!

You’ve got to wonder what 10+ million polygons (alive through bezier curves) look like, after admiring Sonic Adventures on the Dreamcast pushing less than 2 million flat polygons? 4.7GB of storage! Why not dual-sided 9GB? It’s in the spec. A tad more than the 650MB we’ve gotten used to. Plenty of room for lots of code, lots of high resolution textures and lots of MPEG2 videos! Suddenly the 1GB on the Dreamcast becomes a bit whimpy, doesn’t it? Not to mention it’s Dolby Surround compared to Dolby Digital. If you haven’t heard the difference, you’re in for a treat. I can’t wait for being fully immersed with sound, while the bass from the sub shakes the room as the grenades rain around me! Not to mention that it is backward compatible. It didn’t say specifically how backwards compatible... All software, some software, memory cards, all hardware, some hardware? But it is a good thing, old titles certainly will look better.

Let’s do a quick reality check before I sign of for today. What will the world look like come fall 2000? First of all, Dreamcast software will most likely be on it’s third generation. It will look good and play good. Price will have dropped a tad. But, not really a problem since it seems PS2 will smoke it right off the field. Sure, Sega has a unique software library, especially from their arcade division, but... Naomi for the arcades? I think "No more"!!

However, the PC is an entirely different matter. The Pentium III or it’s successor will have hit 1GHz (no kidding!), Voodoo will be on its 4^th or 5^th generation, TNT on its 3^rd or 4^th. DVD and 128 MB RAM are standard. DirectX7/OpenGL will be firm standards, eliminating ancient driver woes for programmers. As far as polygons are concerned, the PC will easily match the PS2. Not exactly the same scenario as when the PlayStation originally arrived. But, a PC like this will still be $2000+. The PS will not. Conclusion: Not as easy of a win as in ’95, but still a win!

Sony came, basically from nowhere in 1995 and did the impossible. They totally took over the console industry. No console company has every had two really successful product launches in a row. Sony will. Kutaragi is not going to let others dethrone him after all this time, he is back with a vengeance.

I’ll be back with more info as soon as it becomes available!