Confused on the term "port"

Not Gabe Newell

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Jul 14, 2013
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I've been hearing the term "port" thrown around a lot lately, but I'm still a little confused about it. Maybe you guys can clear it up for me.


If a game is ported from a console to a PC (such as Castlevania: LOS), is it a "console port" or a "PC port?"
 

oplinger

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either or really, it depends on context.

usually, how I see it used most, is with "console port" where it's ported from consoles to the PC. Software wise to port means to transfer, so it's a console transfer, or a PC transfer. So the preceding word to port is the origin of the software.

But people will gladly use it the other way with PC port for...reasons.
 

KOMega

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I'd like to think that it's the thing that it's being "ported" to.
So when someone sees the words "PC port" they can easily tell that whatever that item is, is now available for PC.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I always assumed games are "ported towards" (as in "abridged"), so a PC port would be a game that has been ported (i.e. adapted) to the PC from whatever console.
 

Jazoni89

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wombat_of_war said:
you dont see many games ported from pc to console so pc port isnt used much. normally ive seen it used as what its coming from so a console port is a console game thats ported over to the pc
Not back in the day...

It was normally PC to Console ports over a decade or so, there were a ton of them on the Dreamcast for example, Omikron, and Starlancer being just two examples, not to mention the unreleased enhanced port of Half-Life.

There isn't many now, because most devs now tend to develop for consoles, then work out a PC version around it, but you still get a few examples of PC to Console ports now and again, The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition for the Xbox 360 being one of them, which was a excellent example of a highly graphical PC game being reworked for old hardware, and still looking fantastic.
 

Zhukov

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I've heard them used interchangeably.

*Game X is ported from console to PC* - "Oh hey, we're getting a PC port of X. Sweet!"
*Game Y is ported from console to PC* - "Nah, I wouldn't buy it. It's just s shitty console port."

Given the current primacy of consoles, you can safely assume that when people use the word port they're talking about a game going from console to PC rather than the other way around.
 

Diddy_Mao

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KOMega said:
I'd like to think that it's the thing that it's being "ported" to.
So when someone sees the words "PC port" they can easily tell that whatever that item is, is now available for PC.
I usually go the opposite direction. I've usually assumed it to be a shortening of the term "import" or "imported" and when I'm discussing other things I define them from where they're being imported from.

Japanese import toys, European import cars and so on... so if a game was originally a console game that was later "ported to a PC I would define it as a "console port."
 

romxxii

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Not Gabe Newell said:
I've been hearing the term "port" thrown around a lot lately, but I'm still a little confused about it. Maybe you guys can clear it up for me.


If a game is ported from a console to a PC (such as Castlevania: LOS), is it a "console port" or a "PC port?"
"Console port" is used to refer to PC games in a derogatory manner, as if to imply that the game retained the shitstains of the "lesser" gaming devices, such as larger fonts and controller-friendly interfaces.

Mind you that I have absolutely no problems with games ported over from console to PC. This is just the definition I regularly hear, usually from jackasses complaining about the loss of complexity in recent Elder Scrolls sequels.
 

Rariow

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"FarCry 3 had an awesome PC port. Tonnes of options, mouse works great, and clearly a lot of thought was put into translating it into PC."

"Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition was a shitty console port. It ran like crap, the mouse was often janky, and it didn't come close to taking advantage of the full capabilities of even middle-range PCs"

(Please note that both of the above are examples. Both are generally true, but some of the features I've said were good/bad may not have been so)

So, basically, a PC port is when a game is translated from console to PC with great care to make it work well on PC. A (shitty) console port is the same, except the game's not been translated properly: Controls may be bad with keyboard and mouse, or it may have been poorly optimized.

At the very least, that's how I always interpret the terms. There's no real difference between them, but that's how I most often see them used. Of course, this begs the question "what do you call a game ported from PC to console?". This happens rarely enough that I don't think there's a commonly accepted term for it, but I always go with "the 360/PS3 port of game X".