GameBanshee Forums

I'm a PC user, and don't own consoles of any sort. However many games nowadays are produced primarily on consoles, and don't have ports or equivalents on the PC. Even ports and their equivalents take quite some time to appear, from a few months up to a year later. I was wondering if it would be possible to create a console reader that could be plugged into a PC via USB, that would make use of the PC's computing and graphical power, as well as a PC screen's higher resolution. Controls could be mapped to the keyboard, or a controller could be plugged to either the PC or the reader. An accompanying program that linked the disc reader to the PC's hardware via DirectX would be used.

1) It would open up the market for a group of users that spend money on powerful PCs, and don't wish to waste their PC's power by spending time on a console. It would also be more portable and more convenient for mobile users who cannot carry around a whole XBOX or cannot find a TV.

2) Game developers would not need to spend time and resources trying to port or simultaneously develop the game for console and PCs. Some of the extra time and resources could be spent on bug-fixing and finishing touches. It might also be used to bring down game prices for competitiveness.

3) Production of the reader would be cheaper than that of producing a whole console because the reader would not need to include graphics and audio processors.

I did discuss this for a few minutes with my friends, and they came up with some drawbacks:

1) The market may be too small, and is economically unfeasible.

2) Bug problems between the reader and different sorts of computers / hardware might make the reader too problematic.

3) Too much effort on the part of the console developer to further produce such a product, or might not be technologically possible.

4) Possibility of piracy of the reader program.

Any ideas anyone? Any comments are welcome - although I personally doubt such an idea would come through to Microsoft or Sony.

What you are essentially talking about is an emulator program, which are already in existence. Not to mention a very a gray area of a gaming in terms of legality.

Well, the xbox has a ps/2 adapter so you can play fps's with keyboard and mouse. It works pretty slick. I know it's going in the direction opposite of what you're asking, but it's legal.

Yes, somehow I knew the emulator issue would come up. As a matter of fact up till now no one has successfully produced a PS2 emulator, even half a year before the next PS iteration will appear on the market. I don't know about the Xbox, though.

I'm not asking for others to produce an emulator, I'm wondering if it is feasible for Sony or Microsoft to produce an actual DVD drive that maybe came with a BIOS or something, that could be linked to the proprietary software reader provided with the drive. Then again, crackers nowadays seem to be able to crack anything, so I suppose controlling piracy would be a really thorny issue.

Ned - Yeah, I've heard of those before. Then again, you need a normal keyboard for it. I use a laptop, so that's another no-no for me.

PSX PC

Maybe not quite what you were looking for, but amusing all the same

Actually, there are a number of useable PSX emulators on the net, as well as Xbox and PS2 emulators.

As for making a drive that can play another companies games, it's poor business sense to do so, as one of the big cash crops of these business' lie in the initial sale of the console.