Status Update

There haven't really been any new developments in the project lately, and we've been silent for about a year so I figure it's time for an update.

Currently the project is still in the planning/design phase.

Over the past few years Google's Android platform has come to resemble much of what I had envisioned for this project, only with a focus on cell phones rather than game consoles. It's possible we could maybe even use it as a base now, but probably won't as Dalvik is still limited to only Java bytecode.

The main difference between the Open Game Console concept and Android is that video games take a front seat for us, while they seem to be an afterthought on Android. Our original goal to avoid what's now regularly referred to a fragmentation was to restrict approved devices to use the exact same hardware components in addition to our OS. Over time we realized this was too limiting for our humble beginnings and looked for a solution where multiple hardware permutations could be allowed. The idea is to have an extensive benchmarking suite that could test every component and then rate your system. Based upon your system's performance rating you would be given a simple, single digit classification and then developers could optimize their games to target each class's minimum specs. For example, a level 1 system would be our minimum supported performance, a level 2 would be a much more powerful system (roughly twice as high) and so on. We might would also feature a level 0 class where the system would not be considered powerful for anything beyond a simple game like Solitaire, but could still be used for multimedia purposes like streaming video. Metaphorically, in this case a level 0 system would be like the Roku, a level 1 system would be equivalent in power to a Wii and a level 2 system would be akin to an Xbox360 or PS3; with higher levels emerging as enough of a performance gap emerged in new available parts.

As we have no company behind us, the likelihood of our project actually taking off anytime soon is pretty slim, so we would be more than happy to offer our designs and ideas to the Open Handset Alliance in helping target Android as a better gaming platform in the future. Furthermore, as more and more of the applications we use move to the cloud, gaming will eventually follow as projects like OnLive and Gaikai are already attempting today and in the next decade a console may not even be necessary anymore.

Domain Change Imminent

As our hosting situation has never really sorted itself out, and very little progress is being made on the project right now, I will probably be giving up the opengameconsole.org domain name soon when it comes up for renewal. If any news on the project should emerge you can continue to check here at opengameconsole.blogspot.com

March Update

So just so you know the project's not dead, here's a little update. Still no word from our supposed new host, so still no forums. It's looking like, financially, I won't be able to build my prototype this month like I had hoped...so we remain vaporware a little longer :/

I've been thinking alot about the OS/firmware lately. I'm considering 2 paths right now...go with the traditional unix-style hiearchy and simply add a new /packages/ directory for games and apps installed via our download store. Or the other possibility is to go the brand new GoboLinux-esque route I had planned, but start on a low-level, core distro upon which the "game center" distro (as I'm calling it now) can be built. Option 2 is very interesting/compelling to me...but it will take an immense amount of time, and alot of expertise I do not currently posses, so there's a good chance I'll end up just going with option #1.

I'll post again when there's something worth telling ;)

New site?

Well, I'm not sure if the new site is going to happen just yet after all...I haven't heard back from our new host in quite a few weeks. For now, I will continue to give status updates via this blog, and you can use our old Forumer message boards until things get straightened out.

Just In Time...

At the very last possible minute we have found a new host. The old forum has been backed up, and should transition without any losses if all goes well. We should have a new site up and ready in the next few days.

News

This will be the news blog for the Open Game Console project. We have gone thru many phases and planning periods over the past 3 years, but not a whole lot has come from it so far.

When we have something to actually show or talk about, a new site may emerge, but for now you can look here for updates.