|
| ||
| ||
 |
 |
|
|
A lot of people think that playing games online with multiple people or browsing the web on your console is something new, but heres the true beef: online console gaming is nothing new! From Genesis to the N64, all of them have had something that allowed them to connect to the internet for multiplayer gaming and/or web browsing.
The Beginning Next came Sega TV, for the Genesis, this wasn't really an online gaming thing, but it did allow you to play demos of games that were never released and/or coming out, the service was $10 a month and like the X Band it failed for the same reasons as MPath's online gaming service. Than during the SNES days, multiplayer gaming was far from a priority, and because of former bombs, they just gave up for a few years and than the current-gen systems came out, the first to get internet access was the Sega Saturn. The Sega Saturn, the first of current-gen systems was going to have a modem peripheral later in it's life, but it never came out. As we remember from our history lessons, the Saturn failed and Sega never really recovered from the loss. Soon after came the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, it would support multiplayer gaming on Nintendo's now closed Randnet. The N64DD was originally supposed to be released in 1997, but the system add-on suffered many delays and was only released in Japan in late 1999 to an extremely low user base. Randnet was only online for a few months and than Nintendo shut it down.
The Present In September 2000 Sega opened up SegaNet for it's Dreamcast, the first truly successful online console gaming community. You can join SegaNet which costs $20 a month, and is a full ISP optimized for online gaming on your computer and Dreamcast. You can also use your own ISP to connect to the service for free. The Dreamcast offers up some really great online games, Quake 3, Phantasy Star Online, and NFL 2k1. You use the Dreamcast's internal modem to connect or you can purchase the broadband adapter. In August 2000 Nintendo also announced it's MobileSys adapter for the GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance. This little add-on allows users to connect their portables into their cell phones and do multiple things. From playing online with other people to posting your scores on a database and other things. This little jigger was released in Japan recently and the service is free. At the moment Nintendo is still planning how to launch it in the US. Recently Vodafone, a company in the UK has announced that they are developing web browsing software and gear for the PS one (The PlayStation). They are currently developing things for the system and are planning to release the various things later this year or early next.
The Future The GameBoy Advance is also becoming online compatible. There will be online multiplayer games that will be released in the near future. The GBA will use the MobileSys and other means to connect to an online network for all of it's online features and support. There are currently a few games in development that will support online play, such as Mario Kart Advance. The GameCube's online network is also on the horizon. With 56k and broadband modems in development by Nintendo's partner, Conextant Systems. Nintendo promises that online play will be a big part of the system. A few months ago Nintendo restructured alittle and appointed people that were in charge of the network. Also, game developing companies such as RareWare have been looking for people specializing in networking and such, so you can only imagine what the future holds for the Nintendo GameCube. The Xbox is also coming with a modem, allowing online play for it's games and web browsing. Not much more is known about it, except that a 56k modem will be standard with a broadband add-on as optional. So there you have it, the history of online console gaming. I hope this is informative to and it clears some things up. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© 2000, 2001 OneBigVillage.com.
No content may be copied from our site without permission from the current
owner/Editor-In-Chief. NintendoVillage.com is in no way affiliated with
Nintendo or any of it's second or third parties. All content is ©
their respective owners.
|
