Possible Apple Games Machine??

[doug]

Ive spoken to a friend of mine, (who works in the games indstry, working on X-Box titles) and there are strong rumours of an Apple games console, (similar to the xBox) being readied by Apple.

HMMM, wonder if ths means we get decent games soon huh?

Havea good day y'all

Doug

[AdmiralAK]

Apple and Bandai had made the pippin machine a while back but it wasnt a big success

[endian]

It wouldn't surprise me a bit. I think it'd be more than a games machine though (think "Digital Hub") and have email & web access, be able to store & edit digital photos (and possibly video), rip cds, etc.

With everything MS is throwing/can throw behind Xbox I dont know that a 'mere' games machine from Apple would be too successful.

[terran74]

Nintendo is opening up its gaming platform to other hardware manufacturers. As a matter of fact Matsushita is going to make a verison of the Game Cube that has DVD and more settop box like features.

As you may or may not know, the Nintendo GameCube is using an IBM 400 mhz G4 PowerPC 'gekko' processor and an ATI graphics chip which ATI bought from another company.

Sound familiar? Sounds like a mini-mac doesn't it. The only difference is that this G4 does not have an Altivec "velocity" unit.

This would be an easy thing for Apple to do in making a hybrid MacOS/Nintendo web gamestation... although... iCube--Gamecube? hrm...

The likliness is very slim though. Apple may be good at keeping such projects hush hush, but Nintendo has shown no sign in working with Apple on any product and Apple tried it years ago with Pippe and failed. The GameCube is more powerful than a dreamcast but comes no where close in power as the Xbox and Playstation 2 are supposed to be.

I honestly think Apple SHOULD do this. They are opening all those stores, they could totally boost Nintendo by becoming a Nintendo reseller. Have you seen the size of those stores? What in the world are the going to fill them with? Even Gateway countries weren't as large as the space on Michigan Ave where the Chicago store will be. This would be great BECAUSE Apple would have 1 more reason for kids and parents to stop into an Apple store...

Any opinions?

[AdmiralAK]

Competition is getting really fierce in the gaming market and "newcomers" would not fare that well. Sony & nintendo the 2 biggest companies now are in the lead, sega killed its hardware manufacturing for consoles anyway, atari went the way of the dinosaur, and other companies are now exinct. Newcomers wont have an easy time swaying customers to their camp.


Admiral

[kilowatt]

Hey, yall. Remember when apple had the pippen out? And, when they had the Newton? And that newton-laptop-like thing? Oh, and apple was running out of money and almost folded?

I wish they would just outright say "We are apple computer, inc, and we make high-end computers for 3d graphics, cinamatography, and graphical editing. We don't make arcade computers, digital notebooks, or things for college students to waste their money on."

I worrie about products like the g4 cube. I mean, whats the point of the cube? Anyone who buys a cube (well, almost anyone) wouldn't mind just buying a g4 power mac.
And what about the iBook/power book thing? Why not just make one model, with alot of options?

I think all this variety will cost apple. Sure, these things are cool. But its like playing with fire. If apple makes a video gaming system, email and web access, too, people will just be more confused.

I've got more to say on this, but my lunch break is almost over.

[AdmiralAK]

If YOU are confused NOW...then be thankfull that you did not know or deal with apple before jobs took over!

This is NOTHING. The concept is simple

powerbook --> high end
iBook --> "low end"
iMac --> low end
PowerMac --> high end.

Simple, anyone can keep track of it, why are you complaining.

As for newton, IT WAS THE BEST THING, and still is! I own one! Its better than the newer PDAs and it is 5 years old! The "laptop" version was called the eMate and you can still find em (along with the newtons) on ebay! I wish I had one. Pippin was a bad idea granted but all computers that came out of apple have been great. THere is NOT RULE that says that a graphics station cant be a word processor, or a games machine or what have you. A computer is a tool that you can use for any purspose you want!

Hell you can even make a bomb out of it if you want!

Admiral

[rharder]

bomb...

Which is what the airport security guards must have been thinking of. On the ScreenSavers show on TechTV they mentioned that someone had been detained at the airport because the titanium in his Titanium PowerBook had set off alarms with the bomb-sniffing machine. LOL!

-Rob