Those who have read my entries in previous Questions of the Week know that I love console games. I grew up playing games on the old Atari system, the Nintendo 8-bit, and the Sega Master System. Some of my fondest gaming memories come from the console side. But of all the games I have ever played on the consoles, which one would I want to see ported to the PC? That's a tough question to answer, mainly because the PC and console are such different machines.

I both play and own a multitude of consoles in addition to my home PC, but the types of games on the different platforms just don't mix. The PC, with its greater memory, storage capacity, and different input devices, lends itself to longer, more cerebral games. The control scheme of the keyboard and mouse also allows for games with more complex interfaces, such as real-time strategy games. Moreover, the location of the PC - in an office or a study as opposed to the living room - means PC gaming is more of a solitary experience. Consoles, on the other hand, are geared toward a more social experience because they're plugged into your TV and generally reside in your living room. And because console entertainment is delivered through a television, most of the games there tend to be more cinematic, like Final Fantasy VIII or Zelda 64.

Final Fantasy or Megaman on the PC just wouldn't feel or play right, a feeling that has been borne out by the lackluster ports of those games that did make it to the PC. Likewise, games such as Command & Conquer that have been ported to the consoles have typically been dismal failures. What's the lesson? That the two types of games - PC and console - shouldn't be mixed.

With the Xbox announcement a few months ago, there was a lot of talk about convergence and the replacement of the PC as a gaming machine. But I don't think I want all gaming to be consolidated on a single platform. The diversity of platforms so far has helped the gaming community and driven creativity to new heights. We have such a wide range of games to play, and we can thank the competing platforms for that. If all games had to be constrained to one platform spec, we'd have less variety. And I think the idea of porting games, from consoles to PC or vice versa, takes us on that road toward convergence. And that's not necessarily a good thing. So while there are plenty of fantastic console games that are worthy of being ported over to the PC, the PC architecture - with its small monitor size and different controls - doesn't lend itself to retaining the feel of the original console game. Not only that, but I like having separate machines that offer different types of gaming.

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