P4

User guide for setting up a PS4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZemmqjP5xfRUptcWJxakRRaGM/edit?usp=sharing


Video showing me setting up a PS4




video of console to console/LAN



Video of WAN

P3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZemmqjP5xfX2IwWnVTTDdjdG8/edit?usp=sharing

P1 - Categorizing gaming platforms

In this current day and age, there is a wide variety of gaming platforms. The most commonly used platforms are currently: Stand alone systems (consoles), PC/MAC/Linux, Handheld consoles and mobile. Older platforms that are

Handheld Game Platforms:

Nintendo Gameboy

The Nintendo Gameboy was the first handheld console released by Nintendo. The original Gameboy and its variants (Play it loud, colour, pocket and light) have sold over 118 million units in total. The most popular games on the console included Tetris, Pokémon Red and Blue, and Pokémon Gold and silver. It is widely considered the first successful handheld console as it was much more affordable and had more sales than the Atari Lynx. specifications for the Nintendo Gameboy include an 8bit processor at 4.19MHz and a total of 16Kb of RAM.


Sony PlayStation Portable

The PlayStation Portable is a more recent handheld console. It was Sony's attempt to over through Nintendo and become the king of the handheld consoles. The PlayStation Portable used the same OS as the PS3 and a similar control layout, with one less analogue stick and no L2 and R2 buttons. The system used disks rather than cartages, although the disk was enclosed in a plastic case that was inserted into the console. The system also had online capabilities and worked with PSN (PlayStation Network) which allowed players to play with people over the internet, and featured a web browser. The first version of the PSP had 32MB of RAM and 32MB of storage space. The newer version of the system (the PSP GO)has 64MB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Compared to its main competitors (The Nintendo DS Family) the PSP has much better hardware than its competitors, only being out done by the Nintendo 3DS which has 128MB of ram.

Standalone Game Platforms:

Sony PlayStation One

The PlayStation One was one of the first 32Bit console. It was released in the late 90's and was also one of the first consoles to use a CD ROM to play games. Having sold 102.5 million units world wide, the system was very successful. There were 3 variants of the console, one using the coaxial cable to connect to a TV via the aerial port, and the others using composite cables. The system consists of a motherboard, processor, RAM and GPU. It has 3mb of ram total and plays at a resolution of 640x480.

PC

PC is by far the most technologically advanced gaming platform. It has the longest history, and is backwards compatible with most games. Current PC's are very expensive compared to most other gaming platforms, but they have more functionality than most things like standalone consoles. New variants of PC's are on the horizon though, with the likes of the steam box coming up, which opens up a whole new opportunity for cheap gaming PC's. Many current-gen PC's come with 8GB of ram, which is a lot considering that less than 10 years ago it was amazing to have more than 512 MB of RAM. PC's also allow for a lot of customizability as you can pick and choose from a large range of hardware. They also allow the user to be able to overclock their components. The future of PC is very vibrant, with technologies such as the oculus rift and the Omni coming up in the near future.

Arcade

Arcade games were the first platform that saw a big impact on the economy and society. some of the first arcade games, such as space invaders, caused issues like a shortage of coins in japan. There are still arcades today and many people still enjoy using them as they are very nostalgic, although they can cost a lot if you enjoy playing them a lot. Arcades are a dying breed in this current age as you can replicate all of the games on a PC with very few issues for almost no cost (although it may be illegal). Arcade machines were very popular throughout the 1980's and this is when most of them were built. Arcades are made up of a bezel, a monitor, 1/2 arcade sticks and a computer that runs the game.

Mobile

The first mobile game was Tetris in 1994. It was inbuilt on the Hagenuk MT-2000. Since then the mobile gaming industry has become one of the major gaming platforms, due to the sales of smartphones. They are made available on the iOS and Android operating systems. Many mobile games use a 'Free 2 Play' business model, meaning that the game is free to download, but you can put more money into the game to progress further. Due to the increase in mobile gaming, many indie-game developers now create games for mobile rather than PC as it is more profitable and much easier to do.

My Platforms

How much of a gamer are you?

I would say that I am a pretty hard-core gamer. Currently I put most of my time into a game called APB Reloaded. I currently have close to 600 hours played on APB reloaded an have invested a stupid amount of money into the game as it is a free to play game. I have about 50 games across steam and origin. I play games because I have nothing better to do, and they do not require much physical effort. I have owned many gaming platforms throughout my lifetime. My first gaming platform was the original Nintendo GameBoy. Since then, I have owned a PS1, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, GameBoy advance and all of the Nintendo DS variants. My earliest gaming memory is choosing my first Pokémon on Pokémon red version and making the terrible mistake of only levelling up one Pokémon. My favourite gaming platform is currently PC. I like to game on PC because of the modding community that can be found on most games, which makes many games such as Skyrim and LFD2. The community as a whole is also much better than it is on any other platform (its nice not being screamed at by 13 year olds on Call Of Duty). My favourite genre of game is MMORPG's. This is because I do not have to be my self all of the time, and many of these games have a lot of customizability, much like APB Reloaded. I am making a 2d platformer game currently because I thought it would be easy, but it is not.





APB Reloaded fun police

P2 Hardware Technoligy

GPU (graphics processing unit) - The GPU is an extra Card that can be added into a PC. This is a separate processer that handles nearly all of the graphical processing. Most GPU’s have dedicated memory called a ‘frame buffer’. This is where rendered framed are stored before they are displayed through an output device. Many effects such as motion blur and fading are applied using the frame buffer, as they have to use 2 or 3 frames to create one frame with the desired effect on it. There are also a few other PCI cards that can be added to a machine, theses include networking cards and sound cards. All consumer grade motherboards come with on-board GPU, Sound and Networking chips.

The GPU is the most important part of a gaming PC. A mid range gaming PC will have an NVidia X60 GPU, for example, a GTX 660 or GTX760, or they will have a 7800 series AMD GPU, for example a 7850 or 7870. The GPU is what makes a gaming PC run games so well, as it has a dedicated processor (or two in the case of the NVidia GTX 690 or AMD HD 7990) to render all of the images. Also, the GPU offers dedicated RAM to the system to use as a frame buffer, to enable the system to still be able to use most of it's RAM.

CPU - The CPU is one of the main component in a PC. This does most of the calculations that are required by programs. Every command that the computer does will at some point pass through the CPU, for example when you open a program the CPU is responsible for finding the required files and moving them to the RAM. The speed of a CPU is measured in Hurtz. Most modern CPU’s speed is measured in MHz (Mega Hurtz) or GHz (Giga Hurtz). There is also a small memory cache between the CPU and the RAM to store frequently used data on.
Most gaming PC's will opt for an Intel CPU. This is because each core can do calculations much faster than an AMD core. This is beneficial because it allows the game to calculate physics such as ragdolls and movements quicker, allowing for a smoother experience. If a user was planning to live stream games to a platform such as Twitch.tv, then they may opt for an AMD processor, this would be beneficial because they generally have more cores and are able to multitask much more efficiently. CPU's can also be overclocked. This is where you tell the CPU to run at a higher frequency than it normally does. This can give you better performance when gaming, as the CPU can carry out calculation much faster than it can at its stock clock speed. Overclocking also has negative effects as it can shorten the life of the CPU and make the system unstable.

Memory (RAM (Random Access memory)) - RAM is volatile memory. DRAM is used to store data on that the machine requires access to all of at the same time, for example if you were working on a word document, the word document would temporarily be stored in the RAM until it is saved and closed, which will result in it being transferred to the main storage device. There are 3 ‘generations’ of ram. They are DDR1, DDR2, and DDR3. The only real difference between these are that DDR2 is faster than DDR1 and DDR3 is faster than DDR2. The ram dims are also different, and they are not backwards compatible.  DDR2 runs at double the speed of DDR1, and DDR3 runs at double the speed of DDR2.

VRAM is the memory that is used as a frame buffer on Video Cards


Game Storage Mediums

HDD (Hard disk drive) - The hard disk drive is where all of the data created is saved. A HDD consists of a platter and a reading arm with a magnet on the end. Data is written the platter by polarising the metal on the platter so that the magnet can read the platter using the magnet. This translates into Binary ( 1’s and 0’s) which is the language that PC components use to communicate.

SSD - Solid State Drives are another form of storage. Unlike HDD’s, they do not have any moving parts making them much more reliable if being used regularly, but may loose data if they do not have a current running through them because they will become depolarised. They are made much like flash memory, but can not complete anywhere near as many read/writes as a HDD. SSD’s are also much more expensive than HDD’s, due to them being much faster than HDDs, but at the same time they  have much less capacity compared to a HDD.

Interface devices

 

Computers can use any interface device. The most commonly used for gaming is the keyboard and mouse. All of the keys on a keyboard can be used for commands within games. Most commonly WASD for movement, pared with the mouse to aim/target and left mouse button for your primary command, along with mouse X and Y to aim. This is possibly  the best layout for gaming as it allows you to easily translate controls from an FPS to an MMORPG or any other game. Some people also use controllers from games consoles with their PC’s. This can be useful when playing a game that requires precise movement, which is offered by the analogue sticks on a controller.

  Power

PSU (Power supply Unit) - The power supply brings electricity from mains to the components in the computer its self. There are 2 types of power supplies. The first, called Modular, allows you to only plug in the cables that you need, for example, if you did not need any Molex connecters, then you would not need to plug that type of wire into the power supply. Many power supplies have an ‘80Plus’ rating. There are 4 tiers, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Towards the 80plus platinum end of power supplies they start to become up to 90% efficiency. Some power supplies have more that one rail. This means that the Over Current Protection is monitored on separate rails rather than all together this is because of the underwriter laboratories guidelines that say only a certain amount of power can be delivered through one rail. On a single rail power supply (most modern power supplies) the OCP monitors the current all together rather than separately this helps stop the PSU from shutting down if you are not using all of the power that the PSU can provide.


PC hardware poster
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZemmqjP5xfTzFMV1FKZFlsQjg/edit?usp=sharing
Xbox 360 hardware poster
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZemmqjP5xfeEo0VHVvQ0JTMkk/edit?usp=sharing