« BBQ Comix Presents: Destroy All Xboxes! | Main | PSP OWNZ U! The Playstation Portable will Kick Ass »
Optical Allusion
Yesterday I was thinking about how cool optical drives are. I was thinking about how much better we are with CD than Cassette tape, CD-Roms than stacks of floppy disks, CDs games than cartridges, CD-RWs than Zip Disks and DVDs than copy protected VHS.
The Compact Disc dates all the way back to 1977 and has evolved a bit over the years but it is still they are the format that defined our digital world. On line distribution of media has a long ways to go until they surpass the shear number of music, games, music and software delivered by CD and DVD.
CD-Roms were synonymous with Multimedia in the early 1990s and I remember a question on the TV show Jeopardy defined a computer with "Multimedia" as one with a CD-rom drive. CD-Rs have become such a shear force that Canada now has a tariff in the importation of them. This is regardless if it is used for legitimate purposes or not.
However not all high tech devices think that optical drives are the way to go. Nintendo resisted optical drives with the Nintendo-64 and lost the majority of their market share and developers to Sony and their CD based Playstation. Then when Nintendo embraced optical technology with a custom sized mini DVD format for the GameCube they created the only current video game format that has not been cracked and pirated.
Nokia has decided to go with storing games in memory chips in the N-Gage but they are selling games on mini CD-roms that must be installed using a Windows PC and a USB cable. So not only is it three times the price of the Gameboy Advance SP the games are going to be much harder to buy and install.
Sony has laid the big smack down when they announced t hat the Playstation Portable was going to use an mini optical disk enclosed in a protective plastic casing called UMD, Universal Media Disk. Like a Sony mini disk but smaller, 2.4 inches and hold a lot more data, 2.4 gigs.
This is a big deal for Nintendo because it means that Sony's system will have an insane amount of data to store the game and the media will be very inexpensive to manufacture. I don't see how Nintendo could not include an optical drive into the next GameBoy system now that Sony has proved that they can do it.
However I have seen some thin mini notebooks and Tablet PCs that omit the internal optical drive in order to reduce weight and space. I am not sure if this is a good idea. When this happens you are forgiving the ability to major install software, play a new music CD, watch a DVD, Make MP3 files of a CD or burn a CD-Rom with out hooking up an external drive. We are defiantly at the point when we can omit a floppy disk drive from a PC but I don't think we are at a point where we can take out the optical drive. If there are mini-notebook or Tablet PC users who are sans-CD drive and disagree with me do speak up.
When I was in Seattle I watched a DVD briefly of Army of Darkness when we were drinking Bubble Tea, Then I tried to burn a CD but I had the speed to high for NES files back at BBQ's place and finally I listened to a music CD that I had just purchased that day on the ferry. I could have not pulled any of those off if I did not have the DVD/CD-RW drive built in.
I see the reasons that Steve Job had for keeping a floppy drive out of the Next computer and the iMac but giving up an optical drive today? That is nuts.
Jake at July 29, 2003 
Nerd
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/cgi-bin/mtype/mt-tb.cgi/308
Comments
when i think of CD's i remember a time back in '94-95 when i saw an infomercial on late night tv for a product from Sony that enabled you to record on CD's...it wasn't much bigger than an old style walkman, and of course they were mini-discs...
i remember telling my (unrequited) love interest all about it (he was a major gadget freak) and he didn't believe me!! said they would never let people record their own CD's b/c of copyright and piracy and all that...heh
and look where we are now...
Posted by: lilly at July 29, 2003 7:58 AM
http://www.gamespy.com/arcade/success.shtml
a free no strings attached offer for a game pro magazine subscription for free 1 year.I thought of jake!
Posted by: rah at July 29, 2003 8:31 AM
On I knew all about Mini discs. I used to read Wired Magazine back before it be came cool.
Wow they still publish Game Pro?
Posted by: Jake at July 29, 2003 8:54 AM
Can somebody tell me wht mini disks are so popular in Japan but fell flat in the U.S.? I think minidisks are supercool.
Posted by: pete at July 29, 2003 10:28 AM
Cultural differences Pete. The non MP3 mini disc is actually a lossy compression ratio and it was sort of like a CD based tape system. Also don't you know that bigger is better? You can't buy a Puff Daddy album on MD?!!
Posted by: Jake at July 29, 2003 10:33 AM
Hmmm. Well I would like to get a player i think. One of the new japanese models perhaps. Smaller is definitely better in this case. I guess the mini disk went the way of betamax for some of the same reasons here.
Posted by: pete at July 29, 2003 10:41 AM
Actually Mini Disc is really cool for storing and playing Mp3s. Re-writable too.
Posted by: Jake at July 29, 2003 10:48 AM
Thanks for the vote of confidence over at that other blog Jake. I dont know if they will pick me up or not but it could be fun.
Posted by: pete at July 29, 2003 2:57 PM
They said they need more than one editor so I think you have a real shot and have impressed them.
Posted by: Jake at July 29, 2003 3:07 PM
Hey i just installed open office's windows version of Word....word? It was quick and easy and it totally kicks arse! I will need it to post political grammar checked postings on watchblog. It seems the only concern with bringing me on was that my comments had too many mistakes so i wont have to deal with that problem anymore. I decided to register the product because they gave it to me for free. Heh.
Posted by: pete at July 29, 2003 8:22 PM
