Casino sign up bonus games and other video games may have become mainstream in the 1980s but online casino and other gaming today doesn’t look anything like it did 40 years ago. Meet the Nintendo Entertainment Center, the height of high tech for ‘80s gamers which took arcade games into the realm of home gaming entertainment.
Along with a “lock and key” system that was designed to prevent reverse engineering – a system that is still in use today – the Nintendo and subsequent home consoles featured an ability for gamers to engage in interactive stories.
That type of immersive gaming experience may be taken for granted today but in the same way that players of the ‘80s couldn’t have imagined where gaming would migrate over the ensuing decades, gamers of today can only marvel at the new technology that is available and wonder what the gaming experience will look like in the coming years.
Some of the newest gaming technology now on the market includes:
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality tech isn’t new but their effectiveness continues to increase. As the name suggests, Virtual reality (VR) involves the use of simulation and computer modeling to enable a person to interact with a sensory environment or an artificial three-dimensional (3-D) visual. VR is accomplished through the wearing of a helmet that presents a view of a stereoscopic screen view with animated images of a simulated environment.
As VR tech expands, gamers are getting an increasingly vivid and more fully immersive gaming experience.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality is a technology that creates an environment that allows for a perspective that is unique to the player. The goal of AR is to make the game applicable to real-life situations through the integration of text, audio, graphics and other virtual enhancements with real-world objects.
AR is different than VR in that it’s a different way of shifting a user’s experience. AR isn’t a simulation of reality but rather it integrates the user’s interaction with the real world in order to add value to the experience.
Voice Recognition
You don’t even have to pick up a controller to play your game. Voice controlled gaming is now a reality as computers recognize voice commands. You can direct the console to turn on and off, control gameplay, play selections from your media library, interact on social media, search the web and more by giving voice commands to your gaming system.
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition and 3D scanning technology gives system the ability to recreate your image in the gaming world. Gamers can maximize this technology to transfer their expressions to digital creations or create a custom avatar that resembles them. There are also new cameras that give developers tools to create games that are adapted to the emotions of the gamer.
The technology works by scanning 78 points on a person’s face so, for instance, if your face shows that you’re experiencing difficulties (maybe you are grimacing), the system would lower the intensity of the game to allow you to continue at a lower level of difficulty.
Gesture Control
It may be hard to believe but there’s a technology that allows you to interact with your device by gesturing. This technology is especially useful in first person shooter games where you use the natural movements of your body to connect with the game controls. Wave you hand and you can shoot, lead groups, move objects and more. The technology works with a camera that tracks 22 points in your hand so in many cases, you don’t need your controller at all.
Graphics
High tech graphics once meant 8-bit imagery but today there are photo realistic textures that allow players to experience games in fully rendered worlds. Playability increases through the higher image quality to give the gamer the sensation that s/he is right inside the game.
Another advance in the world of gaming graphics is the high-definition display in which televisions with 4K capabilities deliver crisp images with vivid colors.
Like VR, AR tech has been around for awhile but it’s evolving quickly to make gaming environments more authentic than ever before.
Wearable Gaming
Gamers can indulge in their favorite pastime with smartglasses or smartwatches to playing video games becomes more portable than ever. The same technology that is used for fitness applications can, developers noted, be used for entertainment applications to provide more convenient gaming activity.
Cloud Gaming
Mobile gaming has moved from a “feature” of the gaming experience to an expected element of online gaming. Cloud gaming, however, is relatively new that moves the games onto cloud. This lightens the load on video gaming systems by reducing the need for powerful hardware.
There’s no need to limit a game according to the amount of memory available on a disc or a console. Developers can now stream games through the internet which opens the games up to massive-server-size limits.
Live Streaming
Live streaming enables gamers to stream their gameplay to others, in real time. There are numerous reasons for such streaming – the entertainment value for the viewers, the pleasure that it gives to the players and the opportunities that it gives to gaming communities to communicate with each other.
There are numerous live streaming services including some of the biggest names in Internet technology so it’s expected that this sector will continue to grow.
