The Platforms for Gaming: Part 2
By: Patrick WendoDate: 2020-06-09
As we covered last week, there are plenty of gaming platforms out there that you could get into. This week we take a read into the other two major platforms out there. Let’s dive right in.
Nintendo has been in the gaming business for a while. Starting off by being producing Playing cards in 1889, it later joined the video game scene in the 1970s. Nintendo is most famous for its title Super Mario that has had multiple video game clones and TV spin-offs. Nintendo console list includes the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), The Nintendo 64 (N64), the Game Cube, The Wii, the Wii U, The Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and The Nintendo Switch, the Switch Lite. Ideally, it has the most different entries into the gaming console scene. The Switch, which is the latest console, has titles like the Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Odessy Mario Kart, and more. The Nintendo switch doubles as a handheld console and a home console in that it can be linked to your TV and the joycons(its controllers) can be removed from the handheld console.
Don’t mess with a Grandma playing on her Wii
Finally, we have a PC or Personal Computer. In terms of available games, the PC platform has the largest libraries with almost half a century (about 40 years) worth of games available for play thanks to the PC’s stellar backward compatibility. Backward compatibility means the ability of a platform to play games from the previous generations. The PC platform also gives out the most performance of any game console. It also offers a wide range of entry from low-end computers to one percent of computers. The only drawback of the PC is that a mid-tier computer that is able to handle most modern-day titles can be pricey. Up to $1500 if you also include the peripherals like Keyboard, Mouse, Headphones, and the Monitor. However average laptops for gaming are in the $700-$1000 range and will handle most titles albeit with some struggle. Despite this barrier to entry, the PC has a couple glaring advantages over consoles. For starters, the aforementioned Game library is massive and multiple online game repositories like gog.com will sell them at a throwaway price. Also, for most PC games, you are able to tweak your game settings to match your system performance. This ideally means changing the graphic rendering options so that your computer is able to play the game at a comfortable frame rate, a feature not available in consoles as they all have the same hardware spec. PC titles are plenty and I would argue that PC has the second-lowest barrier to entry as most people have a PC these days.
Pic courtesy of a hardcore gamer in Kenya Gatehi Mwaniki @gatman_vidz
Regardless of what platform you chose to play your video games on, the idea of gaming is to enjoy yourself. Some would argue that one platform is better than another but in reality, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you enjoy your platform for what it is.