50 years of home video games

[+save2600]

Oh and loved the Scholastic book days! Picking out books of all genres from the catalog. There was the Scholastic book faire too, where a truck and a classroom were transformed into this magical place with tons of books available to purchase. I remember some cool Star Wars stuff and large format Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica comics that I "couldn't" live without, which I still have. Come to think of it, still have a handful of those books from BITD.  😎

 

That said and to the OP's quandary, I'll be turning the TV off (game playing too for that matter) long before I ever stop reading books, short stories, magazines, forums, etc. Already happening now in fact. Spend more time reading about gaming than actually playing anymore. Wonder just how many of us here are at this point? 🙃

[zzip]

2 hours ago, Keatah said:

Don't know if I like how Target has their electronics are set up. Half of it seems like dumb-ass cellphone cases and earbuds. A wall of 20 televisions and all look the same. An aisle of printers and 5x overpriced ink. Some speakers and memory cards. None of it seems exciting - the complete opposite of a late 1970's hobbyshop that had tons of stuff, different stuff, crammed into every nook and cranny.

 

And another thing, the electronics area in target seems half-dead, no one is ever there. Should just get rid of it!

Yeah it is kind of lackluster and dead, but department store electronic sections used to have a lot more product.   There used to be a fairly decent-sized music section, although that has been making a comeback somewhat with vinyl.

But they also used to sell a bunch of other stuff like boomboxes, large ones, unlike the little bluetooth speakers.   Walkmans,  CD-players, both portable and full-sized changers.   Stereos, stereo components,   Bulky CRTs,  home computers, VCRs,  landline phones,   music keyboards,  Boxed PC games before they all went digital,  radar detectors, answering machines, and so on.    A lot of that has been replaced by cell phones apps, or is just obsolete.   So a lot of shelf space that used to be used by electronics is no longer needed and they've filled with with phone cases and other things vaguely electronics related.

 

Also I think a lot of the excitement came from browsing for things you didn't have and wishing someday...    but now there is very little in an electronics section that I don't own or need so it doesn't seem so exciting anymore.

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, zzip said:

Also I think a lot of the excitement came from browsing for things you didn't have and wishing someday...    but now there is very little in an electronics section that I don't own or need so it doesn't seem so exciting anymore.

That's a part of the "discovery" aspect I so frequently mention. Going into the store and just wandering up and down the rows and rows of stuff. Got exposed to things I didn't know existed, things I didn't know I wanted, things I didn't know I needed. And videogame cartridges on the the shelf were big part of it all.

 

Going down to the Adler Planetarium gift store was so exciting. Not only did I get to see (and sometimes buy) space toys I got a good portion of my now-vintage space books there. Each like a journey into the unknown. What is out there? Let's go find out!

 

[Keatah]

On 9/9/2022 at 6:10 PM, save2600 said:

Your HD which was built like a tank and weighed about as much too, gets the extra packaging treatment while a glass monitor and computer just get shipping labels slapped on their boxes.  🤪

 

Had to have been a cost/insurance thing. We all know HD's were super expensive back then, but wouldn't exactly say they were fragile. Especially when properly parked. And doubly so when they came as external units encased in steel!

Oh I see.

 

Now. I was taught from zero-day that HDDs were extraordinarily delicate. Always with emphasis on the sub-microscopic air gap between the heads and magnetic disc surface. Look at them wrong, or shine too bright a light on them, and the head crashes. Digs into the surface. Captures all the momentum. And explodes with shards of metal everywhere!! BOOM!!

[zzip]

On 9/11/2022 at 2:47 AM, Keatah said:

Now. I was taught from zero-day that HDDs were extraordinarily delicate. Always with emphasis on the sub-microscopic air gap between the heads and magnetic disc surface. Look at them wrong, or shine too bright a light on them, and the head crashes. Digs into the surface. Captures all the momentum. And explodes with shards of metal everywhere!! BOOM!!

I heard the same,  I think you actually had to send commands to park them in the old days before transporting them.   Later drives were self-parking when spun down.    It's amazing that the tiny laptop drives were engineered to take all kinds of abuse-  because they are going to get bumped while spinning-  even dropped!  It's unavoidable

[Keatah]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

I heard the same,  I think you actually had to send commands to park them in the old days before transporting them.   Later drives were self-parking when spun down. 

You did. The stepper motor, with metal cables/bands rigged up like pulley or conveyor belt, needed to be commanded to pull the heads to safe area where head crashes were ok - such as a textured surface. There could have been sensors to detect power-loss and automatically retract the heads, but that was considered too expensive and bulky. Would've needed bigger capacitors or a small battery to keep everything running for the few extra seconds. Hence the manual parking by a program or the os or the firmware.

 

As the tech was refined, and voicecoil actuators became standard, the motor could act as a generator if power was lost. The momentum of the spinning platters is considerable. Provides a few seconds of power for the drive to retract the heads to a safe zone or load them onto a ramp that lifted them off the surface entirely.

 

3 hours ago, zzip said:

  It's amazing that the tiny laptop drives were engineered to take all kinds of abuse-  because they are going to get bumped while spinning-  even dropped!  It's unavoidable

The parts are smaller and lighter. If you drop a watch on the floor it's likely to keep working just fine. If you knock over the grandfather clock, all bets are off.

 

When a laptop hard disk is dropped, there is ample warning time. Yup. The HDD has gravity sensors. It detects freefall and yanks the heads back into the parked position long before the computer hits the floor. Some will also stop the rotation of the disks. Shock sensors are similar but have much less time to work with, so the heads are just retracted.

 

Another concept (not sure if it became real) was the angle of attack of the heads was changed, to provide extra air cushion. This was practically instant and done with piezo actuators. Think ground effect air compression.

 

HDDs have two shock ratings, operational and non-operational. And there's a huge difference between the two. So if you achieve can non-op status before hitting the ground, you get like 300G 5ms protection! And the g-sensors do just that.

 

These sensors are semiconductors and typically iphone-parts-sized. Means small enough to be integrated into the controller chip itself if so desired.

 

Hope that makes sense.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Keatah

[Keatah]

Now of course with SSDs, the better ones, they have supercaps that maintain power long enough for the controller to shut down properly, close files, flush the cache. All to protect against power failure. Physical shock protection is of course not an issue with SSDs nowadays.

[+save2600]

All I know is hard drives have always been super durable IME. Even the ones inside the original iPod, probably for reasons outlined above. Accidentally dropped one years ago while it was playing. Damn thing still works just fine to this day! ha
 

Same with HD's that have been a part of countless automobiles for years and years. Between all the jarring, atmospheric and environmental challenges, talk about a real torture test and testament to their durability.

[+save2600]

Struggling to remember a time that a HD ever went completely kaput on me. Experienced plenty of file system mishaps corrupting data, and requiring a complete format and reinstall of the OS when using Windoze of course. Have had CF cards used as HD's get corrupted on the Amiga side of things too. But a complete mechanical hard drive failure that's rendered itself totally useless? Don't believe so.

[+GoldLeader]

On 9/9/2022 at 4:34 PM, Keatah said:

I remember we had the Scholastic book club thing. It was a small newspaper-like publication we'd get 4 times a year in grade school, in the 1970's. It had that sweet'ish wet smell. It was about 4 or 6 pages. And I ordered two books from it, "Planes and 'Copters", and "Sharks". Basically 1st - 3rd grade reading level. And I loved it! Still have both of them today.

 

And you're still at the same reading level so...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry!  Couldn't resist!  LOL

[adamchevy]

On 9/13/2022 at 4:13 PM, save2600 said:

Struggling to remember a time that a HD ever went completely kaput on me. Experienced plenty of file system mishaps corrupting data, and requiring a complete format and reinstall of the OS when using Windoze of course. Have had CF cards used as HD's get corrupted on the Amiga side of things too. But a complete mechanical hard drive failure that's rendered itself totally useless? Don't believe so.

I've only ever had a mechanical harddrive failure one time over the years.  One of my Western Digital Drives died in a Raid 1 configuration.  It was one of those backup My passport type devices made by Western Digital.  It had an advertised 1TB capacity, which ended up being 2 1TB drives.  I used the other drive in the raid thereafter as a backup on its own, and it worked fine for many years.

 

I still use a Velociraptor 300gb 10krpm drive on my kids Linux homework computer for extra storage.  Ive owned it for many years and it still works like new.  I recently backed up a large part of my 8bit, 16bit, and 32bit roms to it and it works great.  Its where I pull all of my roms from when I play on Stella.  I find it comforting to use, and I hope it lasts for another 15-20 years.  I keep it located on the desk mounted vertically in one of those USB3 type devices that accept Sata input.  I like using it because it doubles as a decoration.  It looks like that picture but it has my hard drive in it, not this weeb piece of crap.

 

 

[adamchevy]

On 9/10/2022 at 12:05 AM, Keatah said:

That's a part of the "discovery" aspect I so frequently mention. Going into the store and just wandering up and down the rows and rows of stuff. Got exposed to things I didn't know existed, things I didn't know I wanted, things I didn't know I needed. And videogame cartridges on the the shelf were big part of it all.

 

Going down to the Adler Planetarium gift store was so exciting. Not only did I get to see (and sometimes buy) space toys I got a good portion of my now-vintage space books there. Each like a journey into the unknown. What is out there? Let's go find out!

 

I sure miss going to Software Etc, CompUSA, OfficeMax, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Sears, and the mom and pop PC stores.  It makes me want to open a store just so I can walk through it.  Even the Frys electronics down in Las Vegas where I grew up is now gone.  Its just not the same scrolling through Newegg, or any website for that matter.

 

There was also a Good Guys located down by Sunset Station in Henderson that had a bad ass retail setup for Car and Home Audio thats now gone.  They had sound proof rooms setup with push button panels that would allow you to select different types of home theater/car audio equipment and test them out.  All while sitting on a nipple soft leather sofa.  What a loss to the world.

[Keatah]

I think the pace of "progress" and innovation and change seriously needs to slow down in the consumer space. We don't need new models of whatever it is we currently own coming out every 6 months. I also believe that these rapid changes have made it more difficult for retail stores to keep up with displayed products. Combine that with cost-cutting pressure and the displays are likely gonna go.

[adamchevy]

3 minutes ago, Keatah said:

I think the pace of "progress" and innovation and change seriously needs to slow down in the consumer space. We don't need new models of whatever it is we currently own coming out every 6 months. I also believe that these rapid changes have made it more difficult for retail stores to keep up with displayed products. Combine that with cost-cutting pressure and the displays are likely gonna go.

Yep, we are on a slippery slope leading to obviously no retail locations.  With the high price of real estate/retail rent, I'm sure we aren't to many years away.  Now I understand why my Grandpa only left his house to get a steak or to take my grandma shopping.  And most of the time she went by herself.  I'm sure his world had changed so much over the course of his 95 years that he didn't recognize it anymore.  

[Keatah]

38 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

I've only ever had a mechanical harddrive failure one time over the years. 

I've had maybe 9 or 10 personal drives go sour on me over the past 30 years. Out of a total of maybe (on avg) 40-50 in the household at any one given time. Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? Not really, considering the usage these things see daily, they've done admirably.

 

In any case and in retrospect it was a good thing they failed. Learned how to use utilities to recover, repair, and migrate the data. Learned what and what not to do. Battle tested! And haven't lost anything yet.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Keatah

[Keatah]

4 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

Yep, we are on a slippery slope leading to obviously no retail locations. With the high price of real estate/retail rent, I'm sure we aren't to many years away. 

Yes. We may have to get to that point before it reverses. If it ever reverses. You know what? I've done much less exploratory shopping with online retailers than I used to do with brick'n'mortar. If I'm curious about something I can just read a little more info online and pretend I've experienced the object. You can do that when you get to be as smart as I am. No need to actually spend the money and acquire it.

 

4 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

Now I understand why my Grandpa only left his house to get a steak or to take my grandma shopping.  And most of the time she went by herself.  I'm sure his world had changed so much over the course of his 95 years that he didn't recognize it anymore.  

I ain't even nearly as old as your gramps and I been doing that sort of thing for years.

 

Anyhow I take great pride in fixing up my old tech stuff. Love twisting the industry's panties every now and then. Only buying replacements when absolutely necessary.

[adamchevy]

36 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Yes. We may have to get to that point before it reverses. If it ever reverses. You know what? I've done much less exploratory shopping with online retailers than I used to do with brick'n'mortar. If I'm curious about something I can just read a little more info online and pretend I've experienced the object. You can do that when you get to be as smart as I am. No need to actually spend the money and acquire it.

 

I ain't even nearly as old as your gramps and I been doing that sort of thing for years.

 

Anyhow I take great pride in fixing up my old tech stuff. Love twisting the industry's panties every now and then. Only buying replacements when absolutely necessary.

My gramps died 17 years ago now.  

 

I do much the same, just read about it online and its as if I have experienced it to some degree through the research.  But not because I am smart, mainly because I'm poor.  Not actually poor, just 4 kids poor.  Which goes back to the whole not being smart thing.