To: Travis who wrote (14269 ) 6/3/1998 7:31:00 PM From: RX4PROFIT Respond to
Think Different "NinSonyTosh"
by Don Crabb
Contributing Editor and Columnist
doncrabb@maccentral.com
June 3, 8:00 a.m. ET
In a short news story Monday, I reported on the deal between Microsoft
and Japanese computer gaming giant Sega Enterprises Ltd. to produce a home video game system based on Windows CE, called Dreamcast. In that
story, I also offered the opinion that "Apple and its renewed game
efforts, plus clever products like CodeWarrior for game box embedded
processors, ought to argue for Mr. Jobs talking with Mr. Sony and Mr.
Nintendo about deals similar to the MicroSega pact."
Since then, my email and voice mail have been on fire (which, for a guy who already gets 3,000 email and 200 voice mail messages in a day, is saying something). Many of you weighed-in with your suggestions for
Apple's response to the MicroSega game initiative, including this one (I have received 50 of so variants of this same idea): "...Apple [should] stop all games development for the platform and instead do one of two things, perhaps sequentially as a better market survey might indicate.
"First, just bundle a Nintendo 64 with all consumer Macs, or at least
provide a rebate coupon for the purchase thereof, good for a new system or N64 games. This really made sense when all consumer and education Macs came bundled with a cheap video-in card. In fact, [I've] managed to hack open an N64 game box, attach the circuit board to the inside of a Mac and rip open a slot for the cartridge on the side of the Mac LC5200 and rewire everything internally to run the Mac as a Nintendo console - even screen-in-screen!!
"The second option for Apple would be to just do that -- hardwire an N64 into a consumer Mac as "the" game system. Nintendo is a logical choice, due to its better consumer profile amongst the already Mac-cognizant crowd and similar marketing approaches. At E3, a product was about to ship which translated video game console pictures at higher PC monitor resolutions. This is what Apple should do with the iMac.
"And Nintendo is really the option, because Sony is firmly in the PC
camp and it has long been rumored that they will combine their next
generation of PlayStation brand consoles with some sort of PC
functionality using the Windows paradigm."
Besides the Mactendo concept, many of you argued for Sonytosh:
"I couldn't agree with you more regarding Apple forming a relationship
with Sony or Nintendo. How about this: "[Apple] forms a partnership with Sony [to] build a PlayStation console into every Mac.
"[Apple could also] create a [software] box: the "PlayStation box" (i.e. not Blue Box or Yellow Box) where you can launch your PlayStation games right off the desktop. Build this into every Mac and suddenly you've got heaps of games for the platform!
"[While] I recognize that the Nintendo platform is most likely superior to the Sony, the fact that the Sony comes on CDs would allow for easier integration and lower cost."
All of which makes the following rumor reported to me this morning by a several usually reliable Apple insiders all the more intriguing..."We [Apple] are working on a scheme to allow Sony and Nintendo games to play directly on Macs and to allow Sony and Nintendo developers an easier cross-development effort for games that they want to deploy both on Mac OS and the game platforms."
Which led me to ask the obvious: How will Apple accomplish this? "We're looking at both a hardware solution and a software solution, and on the later are working closely with Metrowerks," my Apple sources told me.
Well, well, well. Even if this rumor is just wishful thinking, or the
internal grinding of Apple axes, it's definitely worth exploring as a
real gaming extension for the six color pomme.
Don welcomes your feedback at <doncrabb@maccentral.com>
