Play Some Classic Games For Free
One of the advantages of using a games console that has been designed to play games from the previous geration of games consoles is that you can play classic games cheaply, or even free!
Many of the older games do not have the advanced gameplay and pleasing graphics of today's games but they do provide fun and plenty of good gameplay. They can provide hours of fun for nostalgia's sake and allow you to relive the glory days of your youth. Kids of all ages can enjoy the older games as a welcome diversion to today's graphic intensive games.
Here are three options to explore for those wanting to play classic games.
Online Games
There are many sites which offer Flash or Java based games. You can find almost anything you want: Frogger, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and on it goes. There are hundreds of games available online. Many of these sites are advertising supported, and some of them contain viruses that your computer can pick up. Therefore, make sure you have good virus protection loaded onto your system and keep it up to date.
Just do a search on Google for "classic games" or something similar to find these sites.
Console Emulators
Another option is console emulators, which are programs one can run on their computer that mimic video game consoles. As with the online games, many options are available for emulators and games. In most cases, the games are not exact clones but do fairly closely mimic the gameplay of certain games. The Nintendo Super Mario franchise is one which has many cloned games available.
Multi-Game Consoles
There are many variations of this, and the idea is that you can purchase a new console that has one, five, ten or more games preloaded onto it. These units have been available for years and continue to sell well. Check Amazon.com or check your local WalMart.
Buy Older Video Game Machines
This last tip is an activity that could consume a great deal of time if you choose. You can simply buy used consoles, games, and controllers and hook them up to your television. Popular choices include the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
The first place you should check is eBay, where you can often find an entire package including the console, controllers, and ten or more games for under $50. This would be everything you need until you decide to purchase more games, and hundreds or even thousands are available for sale at any given time.
If you would rather not buy your used video game equipment online, many people have good luck locally. You can try the following:
* Craigslist (if you know how to use RSS feeds, these searches can be automated).
* Nickel-type papers.
* Yard sales (don't be afraid to offer less than the asking price).
* Second hand stores.
Here's a tip about the last item, second hand stores. These types of stores get inventory in all the time, especially non-profit stores where individuals make donations of goods. What you want is someone on the "inside" who will call you when specific items arrive that you might want. If you can get this kind of help, it will save you a lot of time. Otherwise, you will need to check back with the stores on a fairly regular basis.
No matter which option you choose, you can find classic games for free or almost free and enjoy them almost as much as today's games!
Finally, don't forget that if you have a wii games console there are loads of older generation games that can be played on your wii console and many of those games are available for pennies at garage sales and online.
Games Developers
There are three different types of developers producing products for video games consoles. There are the third-party developers, the second party developers, and finally the first-party ones. Third-party developers are not usually associated a with any particular company or corporation while the second-parties agree to a contract with a console manufacturing company and release platform exclusive games and accessories. The first-party developers are actually a part of the console manufacturing company itself and usually operate under the brand name of the company.
All these types of developing company mean we get games on various games consoles so we have to consider which games and also which games system we want to purchase.
For the Microsoft systems, the main attraction has always been Halo. Halo 1 and 2 on the original Xbox was practically the only reason many people bought one, and for many current Xbox 360, the ability to run Halo is, in a way, the primary reason it's hooked up to the TV. Sure there are other games, but without Halo 3 a lot less Xbox consoles would have been sold. In addition to the Halo franchise, Epic's Gears of War has been an exclusive for Microsoft platforms and is something of a rival to Insomniac's Resistance franchise.
Sony have Insomniac which is a second-party developer that has been with Sony for more than ten years now, and has released a game almost every single year so far. Even today as the company releases games yearly, and sometimes twice yearly it has been a very reliable company, and in a way, I would be proud to own the console they develop on. Currently, Insomniac is know for Resistance(a highly acclaimed first-person shooter) and Ratchet & Clank(a third-person platformer/shooter with roleplaying elements.
It's also worth mentioning that for about a decade, up until recently, every single core Final Fantasy game released was exclusive to Sony platforms. In any case, Square-Enix, the developer of Final Fantasy, continues to dedicate itself to the PS3 with the exclusive game rights.
For the Nintendo Wii console the first party developer games include Wii Sports which has been a very popular game and is exclusive to the Wii. It exploits many of the innovative features present in the Wii remote (or "Wiimote"). Other first party developer games include Excite Truck and Disaster: Day of Crisis. One first party developer for the Wii, Intelligent Systems, was actually founded by former Nintendo Research and Development employees. Intelligent Systems is responsible for such notable games as Metroid, Paper Mario, and Famicon Wars.
Most casual gamers will not care too much but for serious gamers who keep track of where games fit within the first, second, or third party developer hierarchy knowledge like this sets the levels of expectation for the performance of any particular game.
Buying A Games Console As A Gift
If you decide to buy your child or grandchild a gaming console, there are certain things you should take into account in order to get the best possible choice for them. Here are a few of the things to consider when deciding what console to purchase.
First of all, there is the prices. It's rather self-explanatory, really. Not only should you decide just how far you are willing to go in terms of the console itself, but keep in mind the cost of the games and accessories. Games on the Xbox 360 and PS3 generally cost $60 at release, while Nintendo has promised that their games on the Wii will not cost more than $50, as an example. Do you plan on buying a game to go with the console? And then there's controllers. While the Wii itself is extremely cheap for a console, a complete controller can cost up to $60, almost twice as much as for other consoles.
Then there is the nature of the games on the platform. The Wii is currently considered a family-oriented console, with many party and multiplayer games available. The Wii is a very kid-friendly console at the moment, whereas the Xbox mostly excells in terms of shooting games, and the PS3 has many types of games, but most of them are geared toward older kids.
Is the person you are buying for a fan of a particular developer of company? If he has experience with games on older Nintendo systems, the games on Wii like Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, and Metroid Prime 3 may be familiar and fun. However, if he's allowed to play more violent games and enjoys shooters and whatnot, the Xbox 360 has a better offering in that area. Not that he won't find good shooters on the Wii, but they are not as readily available as on the 360, or the PS3 for that matter.
Another thing worth mentioning is that online play on the Xbox 360 requires a monthly or yearly membership subscription, whereas on the Wii and and PS3 it's completely free.
Lastly, how are you going to buy it? At a store, or online? If you are planning to buy extra controllers or games, etc, you can save money with an online bundle. On the other hand, you have a better selection if you buy all the things you think you need seperately at a store.
When it comes down to it, the process probably isn't nearly as complicated as it looks. I'm sure you will make the right decisions to get the perfect console.
Graphics The Wii And The Amiga
The arguments about the graphic power of Wiiconsole compared to other current systems will continue and people will have their favorite systems and want to defend their choice but there is no doubt that the most important feature of any system is what games are available and how good the gameplay is.
To demonstrate the point here is a video which briefly shows 100 games that were available for the Amiga home computer and many of them date back to the 1980's. The graphics were good in their day but now look a little basic but these games had oodles of gameplay and gamesplayers were enthralled.
You don't need incredible graphics to have superb gameplay which is why the wii console is so good with it's motion sensing controllers which give you the feeling that you are a part of the game instead of simply watching.
Is The Wii The Best Games Console?
Get two video game console players together and they will surely argue about which system is the best. One will say that
their console is more powerful, has better graphics more games, or better controllers and the other will argue for other features being more important.
The thing is that everyone has different ideas of just what "better" means and what makes for a better games console, so it is better if you can be more specific in your reasoning when it comes to such arguments. Nobody really knows what "best" means. If one console were "better" than another, how could you possibly prove it? So, using specific arguments and logical reasoning, here are three ways that I think the Wii is superior to the Playstation 3.
First off, the Wii is more innovative. Nintendo wanted to make something completely different from what everyone else had done before and that is exactly what they did by developing an all round entertainment system. It's a totally different and very much more effective control scheme in many ways.
The PS3 was Sony's first shot at utilizing the Sixaxis controller, which does implement motion control but this was put in effect after the Wii was announced and when it's technology had already been shown off. The Sixaxis is neither original nor innovative, and it is not nearly on the same level as the Wii Remote.
Secondly, the Wii is much more accessible for anyone to pick up and play. Not only is the wii remote extremely simple to pick up and play and offers superior control in almost every area and there are alternatives for those places where it doesn't do so well. An example of this is in fighting games.
Motion-sensing my not suit some people when it comes to fighting games, simply because such games often call for a series of quick commands in a short amount of time to successfully pull off powerful combos. If you find this is the case for you, simply put down the Wii remote and Nunchuk, and plug in a "Classic" controller, or even a Gamecube controller.
Lastly, the Wii is the more advanced because Nintendo got tired of the race to make consoles with better, and better graphics. They took a step back and studied the competition. They realised that their competitor's consoles were very similar to each other. In fact, whenever either Sony or Microsoft come out with a console, the only fundamental differences between it and their last venture was that the new one has "better graphics".
I don't think that is really that clever. Yes the graphics are better, yes the graphics chip is incredibly powerful but is playing the console any different? Nintendo wanted the wii games console to do something different. It wasn't an easy decision and nor was it an easy task but they brought out something that changed the way we all think about games consoles.
It was a risky move but they wanted to focus more on control and gameplay than on graphics. They succeeded in a big way as the customers bought the wii in huge number. Yes, the wii is truly groundbreaking technology.
