User:Masem/Video game console

In video games, a video game platform or system represents the hardware and software needed for a video game to operate. While most early video game platforms were dedicated hardware, most modern gaming platforms include hardware, operating systems, and additional software that enable more complex video games to be used.

The video game industry has generally be driven by development of games for personal computers and home and mobile consoles, but more recently, mobile gaming and virtual reality have gained broader attention.

Personal computers
Personal computers can serve a variety of functions, and since their inception have been used to play video games. Most of the time, these are not dedicated game platforms and do not adhere to any hardware requirements, though standardized operating system and software libraries enable developers to build games that can meet a wide range of hardware capabilities. As these are open platforms not under control by any single vendor, gaming on personal computers is considered open and of low-cost, which has drawn a large number of indie games. Some attempts have been made to create a minimum set of requirements for personal computers to assure compatibility, such as Steam Machines.

Currently, the bulk of video games are released to support Microsoft Windows, though macOS and Linux operating systems are supported. While games for personal computers used to be shipped on magnetic or optical media, the primary distribution for personal computer games today is through digital storefronts, such as Steam, Origin, or GOG.com.

Home console


A home video game console is a standalone electronic unit manufactured by a specific company, which hooks up to a video monitor, and controlled through a game controller. While consoles up through the first generation of consoles (ca. 1976) generally had games hard-wired into the unit's electronics, most subsequent home consoles use a variation on game cartridges or optical media for the distribution of games, allowing many different games to be played on the unit simply by switching the cartridge or media. More advanced consoles, starting from the sixth generation (ca. 1997), include their own operating system, which allow for additional functionality. The latest consoles include online services, digital storefronts, and other entertainment options such as watching steaming media services. Currently, the home console market is dominated by Microsoft's Xbox line, Sony's PlayStation line, and various Nintendo consoles.

Handheld console


Similar to home consoles, a handheld console is a small self-contained gaming system that includes a screen for the user and build-in controller buttons within the unit. Handhelds are generally of lower computational power than home consoles. Like home consoles, handhelds initially were built to support one or more games hard-wired onto the unit's electronics, but since have switched to game cartridges, optical media, and digital distribution to support a large variety of games. Currently, both Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's PlayStation Vita are the leading handheld systems.

Arcade


"Arcade game" generally refers to a game played on an even more specialized type of electronic device that is typically designed to play only one game and is encased in a special, large coin-operated cabinet which has one built-in console, controllers (joystick, buttons, etc.), a CRT screen, and audio amplifier and speakers. Most arcade games are offered as a standard up-right display, but may also include table-style cabinets. More recently, arcade games have incorporated some type of physical motion for the player, such as racing simulators that provide seats that pivot and rumble in response to the game. Video arcades enjoyed great success in the 1980s, but arcades have waned since, though specialized family entertainment centers and movie theaters still offer a selection of arcade games.

Mobile
With the advent of standard operating systems for mobile devices such as iOS and Android and devices with greater hardware performance, mobile gaming, including smart phones and tablets, has become a significant platform. While many mobile games share similar concepts with browser games, these games may utilize features of smart devices that are not necessary present on other platforms such as global positing information and camera devices to support augmented reality gameplay. Mobile games also led into the development of microtransactions as a valid revenue model for casual games.

Microconsoles
Microconsoles are generally small consoles designed to run lightweight operating systems, such as iOS or Android, so that mobile games and other applications can be played through them onto television or video monitors. These may also include other applications supported by the operating system, such as streaming services.

Cloud gaming
Cloud gaming is an online gaming platform, where the user only needs specific software and game controllers, but not the hardware itself, to play a game from a computer or console. Instead, the software enables the player to play the game over the Internet directly on a computer or console unit, with the remote unit performing the complex game engine and graphical rendering, and streaming the resulting audio and video back to the player.

Web browser
The web browser has also established itself as platform in its own right in the 2000s, while providing a cross-platform environment for video games designed to be played on a wide spectrum of hardware from personal computers and tablet computers to smartphones. This in turn has generated new terms to qualify classes of web browser-based games. These games may be identified based on the website that they appear, such as with "Facebook" games. Others are named based on the programming platform used to develop them, such as Java and Flash games.

Emulators
Emulation allows one computer system to simulate the operating system of another computer system, thus emulating the second platform on the first. Within video games, this frequently allows users to play games developed for an older system to play it on more modern hardware. Emulators thus require a software version of the original game, such as a ROM image for game cartridges, along with other software related to the original platform. Emulation is often provided as a legal means to play older games by the copyright owners.

Virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) games generally require players to use a special head-mounted unit that provides stereoscopic screens and motion tracking to immerse a player within virtual environment that responds to their head movements. Some VR systems include control units for the player's hands as to provide a direct way to interact with the virtual world. VR systems generally require a separate computer, console, or other processing device that couples with the head-mounted unit.

Others
Some electronic hardware devices such as graphing calculators may include built-in game modes.