Hyrulian Hero
Zelda Informer Codger
The Verge sucks but I skimmed an article today that got me thinking about console design. They pointed out that the original XBox had an eject button that sat higher and larger than the power button and was ringed by leds. They went on to say that the eject button becoming more obscure on subsequent XBox consoles showed the waning importance of physical media.
I don't see myself ever choosing digital over physical and that may have something to do with what I was raised on. In the same way that vinyl started off with huge album art and inserts and then evolved to 8-track, cassettes, CD, and digital, game consoles started off with big boxes and cartridges and cassettes, then switched to CDs where we still got manuals and great box art, then started going digital and now we even get empty boxes with download codes. But the Super Nintendo, GB line, 64, Genesis, etc. proudly and prominently displayed their games for all to see. We never even got a major disc-based console release with a airport to see the disc. The days of cartridges standing vertical out of their consoles remind me of what gaming was for me as a child.
No dash board to give the console a personality, no multimedia features to waste time with, the console was nothing but a means to play your games. Even in hardware clones of retro consoles today, none that I can think of hide the cartridge, they all display it proudly.
But everyone has their own preferences about console design, what is you favorite console design and why? What design features should console designers incorporate or leave behind?
(I'm sure this thread has been made before but without guidance on what constitutes "relevant", I'll just take a chance by cluttering up this board.)
I don't see myself ever choosing digital over physical and that may have something to do with what I was raised on. In the same way that vinyl started off with huge album art and inserts and then evolved to 8-track, cassettes, CD, and digital, game consoles started off with big boxes and cartridges and cassettes, then switched to CDs where we still got manuals and great box art, then started going digital and now we even get empty boxes with download codes. But the Super Nintendo, GB line, 64, Genesis, etc. proudly and prominently displayed their games for all to see. We never even got a major disc-based console release with a airport to see the disc. The days of cartridges standing vertical out of their consoles remind me of what gaming was for me as a child.
No dash board to give the console a personality, no multimedia features to waste time with, the console was nothing but a means to play your games. Even in hardware clones of retro consoles today, none that I can think of hide the cartridge, they all display it proudly.
But everyone has their own preferences about console design, what is you favorite console design and why? What design features should console designers incorporate or leave behind?
(I'm sure this thread has been made before but without guidance on what constitutes "relevant", I'll just take a chance by cluttering up this board.)