PC Game Console ?

[Rakido]

http://www.discoverconsole.com/

from their FAQ's:

What is the DISCover® ?
DISCover® is a PC game console - a game console that plays unmodified PC games. As with a PlayStation or Xbox, you simply drop the disc into the console and play. The difference is the video game consoles can only play games made for their proprietary formats, while the DISCover® can play the thousands of available PC titles.

not sure, if this is a hit or miss. $299 to $399 is a bit on the expensive side.


Rakido

[Gurm]

It sucks.

- Gurm

[Umfriend]

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by Gurm
It sucks.

- Gurm

But WHY does it suck?

[Technoid]

Gurm says so

[Jammrock]

It's gay?

[Jon P. Inghram]

Great, companies will just use it as an excuse to dumb down games even worse than they are now.

[TransformX]

From: AcesHardware
VIA and Apex Introduce PC/Console Hybrid (HARDWARE)
By Brian Neal
Tuesday, January 13, 2004 12:16 AM EST

At this year's CES, there's been a surprise entrant into the home electronics space through a partnership between VIA and Apex to produce a console/PC hybrid gaming system dubbed the ApeXtreme. Anandtech has the details, which include a 1.4 GHz VIA C3, as well as VIA's CM400 chipset and DeltaChrome S8 GPU. The system plays standard Windows PC games, provided there is an installation script available to automate the game's installation process. Apparently, Apex has created scripts for 600 games and is working on more. On the input side of the equation, the system uses USB controllers, as well as USB keyboards and mice.

From the article:

On the motherboard there are three major chips - the VIA C3 processor, the CM400 North Bridge, and the VIA DeltaChrome S8 GPU. The CM400 North Bridge supports up to DDR400 memory, although Apex will determine whether they will use DDR333 or DDR400 memory in the shipping product. The CM400 also features a 200MHz FSB connection to the C3 processor, offering 1.6GB/s of bandwidth between the CPU and North Bridge.

The interesting chip is the VIA DeltaChrome S8 GPU, which is the same GPU that is beginning to ship on add-in cards within a month. The GPU is an 8 pipeline design much like the R300, and features full DirectX 9.0 pixel and vertex shader pipelines. The GPU features support for both 24-bit and 16-bit floating point values in the pixel shader pipeline. The GPU does not have support for the upcoming Pixel Shader 3.0 spec, which is a part of DirectX 9.1. The GPU on the motherboard is clocked at the same speed as the add-in cards at 300MHz, and it can be paired with anywhere from 64 - 256MB of on-board DDR memory.

The system is anticipated to sell for $399 upon launch. It may prove attractive to gamers seeking to play PC games without buying or building a full PC. Furthermore, with its relatively compact size and built-in ethernet, it might prove attractive for LAN parties, though gamers often demand high-performance and top frame-rates from their hardware and it's yet to be seen if the ApeXtreme will deliver. Also, priced at roughly twice its console competition (and three times the Gamecube's $99), one has to wonder if it's too expensive for a game console but too limited for a full-blown PC.

[GNEP]

Why did I see the picture of it and immediately think "VIA C3"? At least it shouldn't be too noisy as they run pretty damn cool. Will be slow though.

[rugger]

Boo

Can't VIA get over the NIH syndrome and throw a cheap Athlon XP 2000+ cpu into this machine. A Via C3 simply doesn't have the processing ability to play any game that could be considered modern.

The graphics card better be based of something similar to the new DeltaChrome, not the older intergrated S3 graphics.

All in all, with such a weak processor, and not enough onboard memory, I don't think this console is even going to be able to start the race, let alone make any serious profit for VIA/everyone else.

[bsdgeek]

It's using the Deltachrome S8.

I disagree about the C3, it has to be a Nehemiah core to be running at 1.4GHz and even if it's only 1/2 speed of a P3 (P3 700-like, which it isn't) the system would be faster (due to DeltaChrome vs. GF3/4ish) than the Xbox. So yes, it would be able to play any game that could be considered modern.

And you must remember that on a TV, you usually (yes, yes, I know HDTV...) only have to run at 640x480 anyway.

[rugger]

bsdgeek, a P3-700 speed processor, while it will run most games okayishly today, simply won't have the power to run the next lot of PC games.

[High_Jumbllama]

So this thing is basically a neutered PC?
This thing is gonna suck, blow, and swallow worse than the N-Gage.

[TransformX]

I disagree since all those games will be played on a TV which means they will run at a native resolution of 640x480.
Take a P-III 933 with a Geforce 4200 and run the latest games at 640x480 with all eyecandy enabled and you'll still get better fps than a normal TV set can deliver.

[Fat Tone]

Originally posted by High_Jumbllama
This thing is gonna suck, blow, and swallow...

Why is it that we see these as bad qualities when applied to a machine?

Sorry. Seriously though, I think this will flop because it will not have the reliability of a console. People will not find that they can throw just any game in there and have it work.