36.2 Hardware: Game storage medium

Game storage medium

Proprietary

Proprietary is when someone has the ownership of something and it can only be used by them. If it’s a company, they will have to keep control of their product or technology. Also, they don’t let anyone know the source code (how the product/technology was made). An example of a company which use this are Microsoft. Microsoft have many products which are in the market and they don’t share the source code of the product or how it came to be, and they make sure that no one finds out as they have a proprietary license. This means, when you purchase any of Microsoft’s products/software you can use the software, but you can’t modify it. This is used for gaming with games and software, so it makes it much harder to cheat within the game or to hack the software.

Standard

A standard medium storage is a type of storage system which is in every computer system. Game storage media is also a type of storage medium. An example of standard medium storage would be a magnetic tape or hard disk. A magnetic tape was used to record video and audio and the user could play it back. It was mainly used within tape records and VHS tapes to store them in. From this point, the magnetic tape was popular as users could record and make their own films from the comfort of their home and they could watch pre-recorded videos. Also, at the time, the quality was considered good. However, a drawback of the magnetic tape was that it could easily break or get damaged by tangling up and making it unusable and the data would be lost. For gaming this wasn’t useful as games needed a lot more memory to store the data such as textures etc. and the magnetic tape was very slow, so it wouldn’t be useful for storing games. A hard disk was used to store data or information on such as photos, videos etc. Also, for gaming a hard disk was much better to use as there was better access speeds as well as the amount of data that could be stored within the hard disk.

Flash memory is a type of memory card which can be plugged into other devices such as computers to transfer data etc. This was used as an efficient method to store data/information. An advantage of using flash memory is that its fast, compact and lightweight compared to a hard disk. This can be used for gaming as it can be used as a game storage medium and it doesn’t overheat. There are two types of flash memory, Smart flash and compact flash. Compact flash was developed by SanDisk and they’re a little bulkier than smart flash however it allows for greater storage and increases performance for slow processors.

Optical disc (CD/DVD/BD)

An optical disc is used within CDs and DVDs as it is the format disk. It is used as its cheap to make. It isn’t impacted by magnetic disturbances or power surges like other components. It is much more reliable than magnetic tape. Also, optical disks have a large capacity to store information.

A compact disc (CD) is a type of digital storage medium that can be used to record, store and play back audio, video and other data. The sound quality on the CD is very high. The way it works is it focuses a 780 nanometre wavelength laser onto the disc and when the disc rotates the laser measures differences in the way the light is reflected off the bottom layer of the disc which converts it to sound. For gaming, the CD was used as a CD-ROM for the original PlayStation, Sony had advanced in hardware upgrades and graphics their CD-ROM compared to Nintendo’s ROM was huge, Sony had 700MB of memory whereas Nintendo had 64 MB of memory on their cartridge. This was a huge advancement as games could be played on CDs and more games and data could be added to the CD. Along with this, having 700MB meant that there could be better textures and graphics for the game as more data and information can be stored. A standard CD has a maximum storage capacity of 700MB and 80 minutes of sound can be stored.

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is a type of digital optical disc which can be used for storage such as audio, video etc. Also, it can store much more as it has a lot of space. The DVD is good for films and games to be stored as it has a good resolution and improved graphics. The way it works is the information is scratched into the disc and then the information is read by a laser. Game developers use this method for gaming as it is cheap, and the storage capability is suited for it. Due to technological advancements game developers have started using Blu-ray for games and there is more storage space for games.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a digital optical disc storage format. It can store long videos in good quality such as 720p, 1080p and 2160p. The Blu-ray disc is a storage medium which can be used to store data and information. The way it works is that a violet laser is used to read the disc this means information can be stored with more space, even more than the longer wavelength red laser which is used for DVDs. For gaming, Blu-ray discs are used for modern consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is because the access speeds are fast due to its violet laser also it has a great storage space which is good for games. Also the load times would be faster.

HDD/SSD

HDD (Hard Drive Disk) is used for storage space. HDD uses moving mechanical parts such as fast spinning platters and magnetic heads which are used to write and read data. This means there is a delay when loading data. However, for gaming HDD is better long term as it has much more storage space and you can store up to 2TB of information and data which is very friendly for gamers who download games. The access speeds will be fast but not as fast as SSD and this is because of the RPM (Revolutions per Minute) of the spinning platter.

SSD (Solid State Drive) is used for storage space. SSD doesn’t use any moving mechanical parts but relies on flash technology. This means that there are no spinning disks or any noise. Also, by using flash technology there are lower latency times and the SSD can load data fast. For gaming, this would be good this is because a lot of games can be stored on the SSD and a lot of memory can be used. Also, the access speed is fast as flash technology is being used and there is low latency which means it is fast to load data. The storage space would be good too as SSD can store up to 256GB. This means load times are going to be fast.

HDD

SSD

Anti-piracy means that it is illegal to copy DVDs and video games on to any storage medium. As technology advances, it is much easier to copy information. Cartridge games are the most pirated games as it’s very easy to copy. It is also getting much harder to stop piracy. With newer games, they have the capability to do this by formatting. When the files are copied, due to the format of the file, it will the software will recognise the file and stop it from being played. Some have missing files or include piracy warnings. With games, if you copied a game, it may detect that you’re using a copy, or it might ban you and remove you from the servers.