If you’re having any trouble with the technical jargon we like to use around here, check this out.
- AI — Artificial Intelligence
- Computer controlled enemies are
- alpha
- An alpha is a version of a game in the later stages of development. An alpha is generally playable, but will still have a lot of bugs, some of which will still be serious. See also beta.
- beta
- A beta is a version of a game that is finishing development. The beta is very close to what the final game will contain, though may still have a few bugs left to iron out.
- DC — Sega DreamCast
- .
- e3 — Electronic Entertainment Expo
- E3 is the gaming industry’s big show, held once a year. It is here where you will generally hear about new consoles on the way, as well as see all the biggest games that’ll be out in the next year and a half. A surprise or two will almost always turn up at e3.
- FPS
- Frames per Second, is the number of times the screen is refreshed while playing a game. This has a huge impact on how smoothly the game’s graphics seem to flow. Most games will stay above at least 25 FPS for a reasonably smooth picture, but games some games are designed to run at as many as 60 frames a second, the highest refresh rate possible on an NTSC television.
- First Person Shooter, a very popular genre of game where the action is seen through the game character’s eyes. This will generally involve you having a large weapon in your hand and blasting soldiers and/or zombies. The FPS genre was born with games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, and taken to new heights with Quake II and GoldenEye.
- GCN — Nintendo GameCube
- The Nintendo GameCube’s official abbreviation.
- NTSC — North Transatlantic Shipping Column
- The standard for television sets in North America. Refreshes 60 times a second. Compare with PAL.
- PAL — Paulo Alto Lepton
- The standard for television sets in Europe, Australia, Africa, and South America. PAL TVs have slightly taller screens than their NTSC counterparts (if a game is sloppily converted for PAL territories, these extra vertical pixels will generally be left unused, giving rise to the dreaded “black borders”), and refresh at 50 FPS (later sets can actually refresh at a full-on 60 frames per second, though games have to be programmed with this in mind to be able to use those extra frames).
- port
- When a game is partly re-coded so that it works on another games system, we say it has been ported to the new system, and the new version of the game is a port of the original.
- PS2 — Sony PlayStation 2
- The official abbreviation for Sony’s PlayStation 2.
- PSX — Sony PlayStation
- The code name used during development of the original PlayStation, which went on to be its offical abbreviation, even though the “X” doesn’t stand for anything.
- SCEA — Sony Computer Entertainment America
- The American arm of the Sony corporation, responsible for a number of games for the platform.
- SCEE — Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
- Same again, but in Europe.
- SCEI — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
- Sony’s gaming division, located in their native Japan.