VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS
Sony PSP
Size-wise, the PSP is everything you want it to be. It's slim enough (less than an inch deep) to fit into a shirt pocket, and light enough (a little over a half pound) not to make your pocket sag. Most of the front of the unit is taken up by the big 4.3'' diagonal 16:9 ratio screen, with four-button thumb controllers on either side for game play. Additional memory can be had by using Sony's Memory Stick Duo-format flash drives. There's also a WiFi connection, for multi-player gaming. Games are available on miniature DVD-like disks that Sony calls Universal Media Disks (UMDs). This is a 2.4'' disk that can hold up to 1.8GB of data almost three times the capacity of a larger CD-ROM disk. It's impressive technology, even if it's more proprietary than universal. As for game play, prepare to be wowed. The PSP is every bit as powerful as its older PS2 sibling, and the graphics are amazing for a unit this size. Game play itself is fluid, and the thumb controllers are surprisingly ergonomic. Bottom line, the PSP is a great little game-playing device. But the PSP is more than just a game system. You can also use your PSP to play MPEG-4 videos, which you can find at PSP Connect (psp.connect.com) and other sites. Sony even offers Image Converter software to convert videos stored on your PC to a PSP-compatible format. And, of course, there are plenty of prerecorded movies for the PSP, on Sony's UMD-format disks. It's actually a nice little movie player, all things considered. While the PSP won't replace your PS2 console, it will let you achieve the same level of game play when you're out of the living room. And the added features especially the video playback and ability to store and display digital photos make the PSP a good choice for an all-around media player. It definitely puts the more limited Nintendo DS to shame!
Sony PlayStation 2The PS2 is the premiere home video game system today, leaving both Microsoft and Nintendo in the dust. Is it because the PS2 is such a high-performance system, or because there are so many great PS2 games available? That's a chicken-and-egg question, and who really cares in the case of the PS2, you gotta like both the chicken and the eggs! BTW, the latest version of the PS2 is exceedingly sleek; it's 75% smaller than the original console, only about an inch thick.
Microsoft Xbox 360Despite achieving the number two spot in U.S. console sales, Microsoft's Xbox video game system never quite took off the way some folks expected. Microsoft hopes that all will change with the launch of the second-generation Xbox 360 in November 2005. Features include a detachable 20GB hard drive, three 3.2GHz processors, 512MB RAM, a custom ATI graphics processor with 10MB embedded DRAM, wireless controllers, and surround sound; games display in full 720p/1080i 16:9 ratio high definition.
Nintendo GameCubeNintendo's GameCube might be starting to look and feel a little long in the tooth, but it's still a formidable video game system not least because of the wide variety of quality games available. It's actually a snazzy little system, small and compact, and you can't beat the game play. It may not be as graphically advanced as Microsoft's Xbox or upcoming Xbox 360, but who cares when the games are this good? (Also, you can't beat the hundred-dollar price!)
Atari Flashback Classic Game ConsoleNow we're talkin' retro-cool. The Atari Flashback is a new millennium version of the classic 1980s Atari 7800 game console, complete with 20 classic games built-in. The console looks and feels like a genuine Atari 7800 (the successor to the popular 2600), and features two classic 7800-style controllers. The built-in games include Atari 2600 classics like Adventure and Yars' Revenge, as well as 7800 hits like Asteroids and Centipede. And you get it all for a twenty-dollar bill sweet!
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 126