text:
History of video games/Platforms/Atari 5200

Launch
The Atari 5200 was released in the United States of America in the summer of 1982 at a cost of $270.

The console struggled in the market, as regular consumers did not like that the 5200 could not play their old 2600 games they owned. While backwards compatibility as a concept was novel to game systems at the time, a lack of support for old games harmed sales. Complicating matters, poor coordination by Atari lead to 2600 games flooding the market after the Atari 5200 release, which probably harmed the success of the system by not only reducing the incentive to upgrade, but also by releasing major games that would be incompatible with the 5200.

Legacy
Production of the Atari 5200 ceased by May 21st, 1984 as Atari announced the successor system - the Atari 7800. Over one million Atari 5200 consoles were sold.

Technology
The Atari 5200 was based on the Atari 400 computer and used an 8-bit 6502C CPU clocked at 1.79 megahertz. The Atari 5200 has 16 kilobytes of RAM. The Atari 5200 had 2 kilobytes of storage for its BIOS.

By being based off of Atari home computers, game ports from these computers to the 5200 were supposed to be easier. The trade off was a radically different architecture from the prior Atari 2600, potentially resulting in less portability between the two.

Notable games
Wikipedia has a list of Atari 5200 games.

Special Editions
A special version of the 5200 was made for use in hotels.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Magnavox Odyssey²

Launch
The Magnavox Odyssey² was preceded by the original Magnavox Odyssey game console and the Odyssey series of dedicated consoles. Unlike those consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey² featured a full computer, and could run games on cartridges.

The Magnavox Odyssey² was launched in 1978 at a cost of $100. Early titles often had poor support for the keyboard and other system features, though support improved over time. A voice module was also released, which was another feature which was panned for its poor integration with games.

Legacy
Magnavox Odyssey² production ended in March of 1984, correlating with the Video Game Crash. The system had been on the market for a fairly long time, indicating company investment in the system.

The system was followed by the Philips Videopac+ G7400 in European markets, though this successor system too was scrapped during the Video Game Crash.

Technology
The CPU of the Magnavox Odyssey² was an 8-bit Intel 8048 clocked at 1.79 megahertz. The system had 64 bytes of RAM and 128 bytes of video RAM.

The Odyssey² has a built in membrane keyboard with 49 keys.

Notable games

 * Quest for the Rings - An early video game to use a companion board game.
 * Stone Sling
 * Turtles

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Astrocade

History
The Bally Arcade was originally developed by Midway. Midway had been producing machines for amusement arcades since 1958, giving the console significant pedigree.

Announced in 1977, the Bally Astrocade was launched in April 1978 at a cost of $299. Cartridges cost as little as $24.95 and as much as $39.95. The launch of the console was somewhat botched by an initial attempt to sell the console through mail order and specialty computer shops rather then at traditional retail outlets. The Bally Astrocade was known for its high end graphical capabilities while on the market as late as 1982.

A Bally Astrocade was used in the development of the early digital art piece Digital TV Dinner by Jamie Faye Fenton, which was broadcast on television in 1978. While not a game itself, this early piece of digital art utilized game glitches to create a meaningful artistic experience worthy of public distribution. This was also among the first notable exhibitions of glitch art.

The Astrocade was later acquired by Astrovision, a company based in the city of Columbus in Ohio, roughly around 1980. The system was on the market until 1984 or 1985,  a fairly long time on the market for a console of this generation.

Technology
The Bally Astrocade has an 8-bit Z80 CPU clocked at 3.579 megahertz. The Astrocade has 4 kilobytes of RAM. The system has an 8 kilobyte ROM which is loaded with four software applications.

Early models of the system were especially prone to overheating, though all units suffered from cooling issues.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/ColecoVision

Launch
The ColecoVision had been preceded by the Coleco Telstar series of consoles, where Coleco had familiarized themselves with the home gaming market.

The ColecoVision was released in June of 1982, selling for $195 USD. Console shortages were a concern for Coleco in November 1982. Despite this 500,000 units were sold in 1982. Yet shortly following this, production in the United States was briefly stopped in August 1983 to make capacity for Coleco Adam computer production, which used the same manufacturing facilities.

Legacy
Having sold 6 million units, the ColecoVision ended production in 1984 so that Coleco could focus on their Cabbage Patch Kids toy line and their Adam home computer. The ColecoVision was officially discontinued in 1985. The changing of production from ColecoVision to Coleco Adam is commonly seen as a massive blunder by Coleco. The Coleco Adam launched with a flawed design which was nearly self destructive that caused over 60% of produced units to be returned as defective. As a result the system was a massive commercial failure which helped contribute to the bankruptcy of Coleco by loosing hundreds of millions of dollars in spite of large revenue generated by other massively successful product lines.

The Coleco partnership with Nintendo lead to a prototype unit being demonstrated to Nintendo employees in Japan, inspiring Nintendo Research & Development Number 2 Department to match or exceed the capabilities of the ColecoVision during the development of the Famicom.

Though the company that created the ColecoVision went bankrupt, a few later consoles made by others would bear the Coleco brand. This included the Coleco Sonic of the 2006. This would also briefly include Chameleon of the mid 2010's before the naming rights were revoked.

Compute
The ColecoVision CPU is the 8 bit NEC D780C-1, a variant the Zilog Z80A clocked at 3.58 megahertz.

The ColecoVision has 1 kilobyte of RAM and 16 kilobytes of video RAM.

Hardware
The ColecoVision has an 8 kilobyte ROM.

A Texas Instruments TMS9928A was used for graphical output, and could display 32 sprites with 16 simultaneous colors out of 32 possible colors.

Colecovision cartridges leveraged bank switching for increased ROM sizes.

Expansion Modules

 * Expansion Module #1 allowed the ColecoVision to play Atari VCS games.
 * Expansion Module #2 was a driving wheel controller.
 * Expansion Module #3 turned the ColecoVision into the Adam computer system.

Notable games

 * Donkey Kong - Port
 * Zaxxon
 * Illusions
 * War Room
 * Rocky Super Action Boxing


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Vectrex

Development and Launch
Development of the system began in 1980, as a way for the company Smith Engineering to use surplus one inch cathode ray tube displays that several employees found at an electronics store while out for lunch. Initially a handheld, the system was redesigned in 1981 to have a nine inch display and be a tabletop unit. Debuted at CES in 1982 and received positively, the console launched in November of that year at a cost of $199.

Crash
Initially the system sold well, which lead to it being acquired by Milton Bradley, and further leading to the price of Milton Bradley stock doubling. The Vectrex saw its national launch in Spring of 1983.

Due to the Video game Crash of 1983 sales suffered. In 1983 price of the system was reduced twice, once to $150, and then again to $100. These issues were compounded by poor sales of the Vectrex internationally.

Discontinuation
Most histories cite the discontinuation date of the Vectrex as 1984 following the large costs the system incurred on Milton Bradley, about 16.5 million dollars, and their subsequent 1984 merger with Hasbro. Some sources claim that it was Hasbro who made the decision to discontinue the system. However two articles in the New York Times of early 1984 claim it was discontinued prior to the acquisition in late 1983. Other contemporary sources seemingly paint a different picture, though perhaps not a mutually exclusive one, with at least one late 1984 magazine article discussing the recent discontinuation of the system, and a then current demand for remaining stock. A January 30th, 1984 Wall Street Journal article reported the Vectrex had been discontinued recently.

Renewed Interest
Following the discontinuation of the Vectrex, Smith Engineering regained the rights to the system and attempted to redevelop it as a handheld in 1988. The revised system was scrapped due to a price exceeding $100. A surviving and operational portable system system exists at the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas.

Jay Smith required the rights to the system in 1996 and released the rights to the Vectrex to the public for non profit use in 1996. Hobbyists created upgrades for the system, such as a 2017 project that adds a 32 bit coprocessor expansion to improve system graphics. In early May 2020, an open source clone of the Vectrex called Scopetrex was designed, and can to be used with an oscilloscope as a vector display.

Technology
The Vectrex CPU was a Motorola 68A09 clocked at 1.6MHz. The Vectrex had 1 kilobyte of RAM, split across two four bit chips. Software cartridges contained 8 kilobytes of ROM.

The built in display is a monochrome Samsung 240RB40, which has a size of 9 inches by 11 inches. A General Instrument AY-3-8912 is used for audio. A prototype for Vectrex with a monitor capable of displaying one of three different colors at a time was made, but never released on the market.

The Vectrex was the first home console to use an analog controller. The joystick was self centering. An optional second controller could be used. An optional light pen and 3D Glasses were released for the system.

Notable games
28 games were released for the system during its production.

1982

 * Armor Attack
 * Mine Storm
 * Rip Off
 * Scramble
 * Solar Quest

1983

 * Spike - Featured voice synthesis and a mascot character.
 * 3D Crazy Coaster

Mr. Boston's Clean Sweep
A limited production game meant to promote liquor, with only 4 or 5 copies known to exist.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Arcadia 2001

History
Phillips created an example platform for one of their chipsets, leading to a number of small mostly compatible consoles based on their specifications, one of the most popular being the Emerson Arcadia 2001. Other notable compatible systems included the German Tele-Fever and the officially licensed Canadian console Leisure Vision.

Emerson Radio cooperation released the Emerson Arcadia 2001 in 1982.

Thousands of game cartridges for the Arcadia 2001 were barred from sale due to legal issues.

Compute
The console is powered by a Signetics 2650A CPU clocked at 3.58 MHz.

The system has 1 kilobyte of RAM. Some materials suggested the Emerson Arcadia 2001 had 28 or 24 kilobytes of RAM, which was not true.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Intellivision

Development
The Intellivision is based on the General Instrument GIMINI 8900 platform.

Test marketing for the Intellivision occurred in the area around Fresno, California in 1979.

Launch

The Intellivision was released in 1980. In 1981 the system cost $299.95. Cartridges for the system cost between $24.95 and 34.95 in 1981.

An internal group of highly paid, hardworking, and secretive team of developers known as the Blue Sky Rangers worked on producing games for the Intellivision through at least 1982. A 1982 Ford concept car featured a built in Intellivision.

The Intellivision and the Atari 2600 competed fiercely in the market, leading to the first major console war.

Legacy
The Intellivision lasted on the market until 1990. The Intellivision sold over 3 million consoles.

Mattel's next console was the HyperScan in 2006, though there is little relation beyond the parent company between these consoles.

Compute
The Intellivision had a 16 bit General Instrument CP1610 CPU with 10 bit instructions clocked at 894.886 kilohertz (About 0.89 megahertz) and 1352 bytes of total RAM.

The Intellivision output at a resolution of 160 by 196 pixels with 16 colors.

PlayCable
The Intellivision had an online service called PlayCable that operated from 1980 to 1983 that allowed downloading games over a cable TV connection.

Third Party Lockout
The Intellivision II was released in 1982, featuring a ROM that tried to keep third parties who were not licensed from making games for the system. This was among the first lockout methods used on a major console, and would refuse to boot unless a Mattel copyright screen was shown, though because this was implemented while the console had already been on the market, it caused incompatibility with some prior official games. The system was not effective in stopping unauthorized third parties from publishing Intellivision games.

Notable Games
125 games were released on the Intellivision.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/TurboGrafx-16

Launch
The PC Engine was launched in 1987 in Japan, and saw a North American release as the TurboGrafx-16 in Fall of 1989. The TurboGrafx-16 cost $200 at launch in the United States of America.

The console saw two major contemporary variations in the PC Engine SuperGrafx and the TurboDuo. A portable version of this console would later be released as the TurboExpress.

Legacy
Global sales of TurboGrafx-16 consoles totaled 10 million. The system was never released in Europe, and sold only 2.5 million consoles in North America.

NEC would later attempt to enter the home console market again with the PC-FX.

Technology
The PC Engine / TurboGrafix-16 uses an 8-bit Hudson Soft HuC6280A processor clocked at 3.6 Megahertz.

The PC Engine has eight kilobytes of RAM.

1987

 * J.J. & Jeff

1988

 * Space Harrier


text:
History of video games/Platforms/NEO•GEO

Launch
The Neo Geo AES (Arcade Entertainment System) was launched in 1990, costing the equivalent of $650 at launch. In the United States of America, the Neo Geo was launched in 1991.

Legacy
Samurai Shodown V Special, the last official Neo Geo cartridge, was released on April 22nd, 2004.

Technology
Compared to most home consoles of the fourth generation, the Neo Geo AES was technically superior in many aspects.

Compute
The SNK Neo Geo AES is powered by a primary 16 bit Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 12 megahertz, and a secondary 8 bit Zilog Z80-A processor clocked at 4 megahertz.

The Neo Geo AES has 64 kilobytes of RAM, 2 kilobytes of sound RAM, and 68 kilobytes of Video RAM.

Hardware
The Neo Geo uses a custom graphics chipset which can draw 380 simultaneous sprites and three background planes simultaneously.

A Yamaha 2610 chip is used for audio, and is capable of 15 channels of audio.

The Neo Geo CDZ features a somewhat faster CD drive then a standard Neo Geo CD, though specific drive differences are not known.

1991

 * Fatal Fury: King of Fighters

1994

 * Windjammers

1996

 * Metal Slug

2010

 * Bang Bang Busters

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - SNK NEO Geo AES \ MVS Page with history, specs, and related media.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/CD-i

Pre-launch
As early as December 1987 the CD-i and the ambitious concept behind it was highly anticipated by some media outlets.

Launch
The CD-i was launched in 1991. The platform was not marketed well early on, though a 1991 partnership with Nintendo on developing a CD-based add-on for the Super Nintendo gave Phillips the right to produce several games based on existing Nintendo game series.

From October 25th, 1995 to sometime around 2000, the CD-i could access an online service known as CD-Online.

System
Phillips stopped active development of the CD-i in 1996 and the system was discontinued in 1998, with between 570,000 and one million CD-i consoles sold worldwide.

Games
I don't know that those really fit in the Zelda franchise. Mention of the CD-i Zelda games would often be omitted from official Nintendo retrospectives.

Computation
The CD-i was powered by a Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 15.5 MHz. This was a very common processor for this generation of consoles.

The CD-i had one megabyte of RAM. A digital video add-on cartridge added an additional 1.5 megabytes of RAM, as well as allowing the CD-i to decode MPEG-1 video. Finally the CD-i had eight kilobytes of persistent storage based on RAM, powered by a lithium battery, which is prone to failure from age.

At the time of release, the CD-i was seen as a low performance system with a design that was relatively easy to develop for.

Hardware
The CD-i could read CD-ROM Green Book disks at 170 kilobits per second.

The CD-i runs a custom version of Microware OS9, a real-time operating system called CD-RTOS. The CD-i supported the CD-Online service, which required the use of an adapter cable, software disk, and a 14.4K dial-up modem.

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
An early counterpart game to Link: The Faces of Evil with a female protagonist, departing from Zelda-series norms to feature the titular Princess Zelda as the protagonist.

Read more about Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon on Wikipedia.

Link: The Faces of Evil
A counterpart game to Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.

The game attracted widespread internet notoriety again in early 2021, when an artist redrew the character Morshu using hyper realistic 3D Graphic techniques.

Read more about Link: The Faces of Evil on Wikipedia.

Zelda's Adventure
The lesser known of the three Zelda games for the CD-i, it features live action cutscenes, perhaps the only Zelda-series game to do so. It also featured the titular princess as the protagonist, another departure from the typical Zelda-series formula at the time.

Read more about Zelda's Adventure on Wikipedia.

Hotel Mario
Read more about Hotel Mario on Wikipedia.

RAM Raid
A notable early online FPS.

Brain Dead 13
Read more about Brain Dead 13 on Wikipedia.

Burger King CD-i
Early game-based training software.

Nobelia
Commercial homebrew game and platform exclusive released long after the CD-i was discontinued from the market.

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds
A planned sequel to the SNES game Super Mario World. An incomplete version of the game eventually surfaced.

Read more about Super Mario's Wacky Worlds on Wikipedia.

Mario Takes America
Another canceled Mario game for the CD-i, with this title using a combination of real life photography and filming and overlaid 2D artwork.

title: History of video games/Platforms/CD-i


text:
User:SteRos7/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar 1/Evidence

Evidence in Decipherment
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decipherment#:~:text=In%20philology%2C%20decipherment%20is%20the,attempts%20to%20read%20poor%20handwriting. Decipherment] is a field that aims to discover the meaning of texts written in ancient or obscure languages. Decipherment can also refer to the decrypting of ciphers. The fields differ in that ciphers are intentionally unintelligible but generally the same decryption techniques are applicable. There is no single method to deciphering a language and often a gradual build-up of evidence, found using a variety of techniques is necessary before they can be understood.

Decipherment benefits greatly from an interdisciplinary approach which can sometimes lead to issues when conflicting evidence is found. A notable example is the Mayan Script. In 1952 it was deemed a primitive forerunner to language rather than an actual language by Ignace Gelb based on phonetic principles. He concluded that the characters were symbolic glyphs and the numbers on the inscriptions were astronomical data. However, in the early 1960s a historian, named Tatiana Proskouriakoff, found that the numbers coincided with the dates of accession of Mayan rulers. This new evidence renewed passion for research into Mayan civilisation and, with the additional historical context, the meaning of the inscriptions was worked out and the script was eventually deciphered.

Contextual evidence
Knowledge about the context within which ancient texts were written can often provide essential clues and direction and can affirm any existing attempts at translation. Jean-François Champollion did extensive study into Egyptian culture, such as its history and geography, before he began to look at hieroglyphics, eventually deciphering them in 1822. Proper nouns are often the easiest words to interpret, for example the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra on the Rosetta stone.

Bilingual evidence
Knowledge of other similar languages is often helpful. There are cases of translations being found such as the Rosetta stone, or texts of the Phoenician language written using the Greek and Latin alphabets which served as a gateway into deciphering the language in its own script. Similarities to other languages can give important information about the structure of the language. In the case of the Mycenaean language, similarities were found with the ancient Greek language and archaeological evidence showing signs of migration to mainland Greece backed this up.

Statistical evidence
When used in conjunction with linguistic principles, statistical information about the texts can be very useful. The number of unique characters can used to be determine whether languages are alphabetic, syllabic or logographic. Another technique is frequency analysis of character positions and combinations. Alice Kober, an American classicist, worked out that linear B must be an inflected syllabic language by the frequent use of the same characters in the stems of words and managed to construct a character grid with one dimension representing vowel components and the other representing consonant components to show character similarity. This meant that when one character was eventually worked out, the rest could easily be deduced. The reliability of statistical evidence grows significantly with an increase in textual data.

Evidence in Sociology
As part of the human sciences, sociology draws from empirical data to justify and support its theories within the discipline; one of which is socialisation—the process of adhering to a particular society’s behaviours, norms and values.

Though seemingly apparent due to its initial existence and intimacy, sociological literature suggests that apart from schools and friendship groups, family plays an integral if not the most integral role in the socialisation of a child. Parents teach a child how the world works, “how to relate to others” and “how to use objects such as clothes, computers, eating utensils, books, or bikes ." However, the extent to which the influence of the family as an ‘agent of socialisation’ affects a child’s internalisation of their society’s social norms can be disputed. As a result, various investigations have been conducted to study the multiplicity of aspects that a family can socialise a child, to gauge its importance as an agent of socialisation.

A study by Howard E. Freeman and Morris Showel, “The Role Of The Family In The Socialisation Process”, attempted to look at the relationship between the number of siblings a person has against the desired number of children later in life. The pair postulated that the number of children desired in one’s conjugal family was a direct result of socialisation from their consanguine family, hence hypothesising a direct relationship between the two variables. Their conclusion from observing the data gathered is that “there is......doubt as to the relative importance of the family” seeing that there is a “lack of correlation” between the two variables. Hence, the sociologists used it as a basis to assert a “possibility that the family has been overemphasized as an agent of socialization ."

The issue with their conclusion is the unreasonable extrapolation from the data. The lack of correlation between the variables could be affected by various other factors including, the wealth of the individual and their spouse, change in familial culture over time, occupation, etc. Despite being ostensibly objective facts gathered from surveys, the evidence was used to represent the family socialisation process in a gross oversimplification, directly as a result of their postulation made early in the investigation. Consequently, it appears Freeman and Showel’s findings does not encompass and as a result adequately support their conclusion. They even go as far as to state that “more precise and adequate studies……must be designed to study the complex process of socialization ."

However, it is understood that unlike the natural sciences, the social sciences has a harder time controlling other variables in an investigation as human behaviour is often multi-faceted, with many interrelated factors, both external and internal affecting those being studied on. As a result, social scientists must make postulations to focus their investigation, whether they be actual or not, much like the use of ceteris paribus in economics.

Evidence in Theology
Theology starts with ‘testimonial evidence’ – a scripture or dictate stemming from some divine origin. Testimonial evidence can be used in faith-based evidence that uses faith to validate faith. This can’t be proved decisively through an empirical approach. For example, if the scripture says that God only speaks truth and that the scripture is the word of God, then this is the evidence for believing the scripture to be true. Extrabiblical evidence can complement this approach, where theological presuppositions are the basis and worked out from towards historical/archaeological evidence and these are used to justify further that, for example, God speaks only truth. Evidence for the scripture itself is material evidence, and historical evidence is used to cross reference with events/figures in a scripture to determine what occurred.

Inference to the best explanation is employed across theological subdisciplines where validated evidence is used as a foundation – traditions, scriptures – and then theories are built on top to complete the picture in the most natural way e.g. interpretations in biblical theology are presented so they seem the most natural extension to the existing evidence. This is a method used in natural science extensively, e.g. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – logically he thought, how could his theory could be wrong when it fit with the existing facts, even though he couldn’t prove it yet. Often seen as a ‘working hypothesis as W. James describes it.

Anecdotal evidence is the basis of many theological beliefs. This is evidence that can be hard to validate, and it often has little repeatability, meaning it is considered unreliable. In the context of personal belief in theology, we might question the need for evidence beyond a person’s experience or someone else’s experience (hearsay evidence) if that evidence is satisfactory for them – why do we need to justify a belief with conclusive evidence? Maybe theories and beliefs shouldn’t be judged by evidence but, as G. K. Chesterton put it, ‘by the amount of illumination it offers and its capacity to accommodate what we see in the world around us and experience within us.’

Evidence in Evolutionary Psychology: Controversies in Understanding Human Cognition and Behaviour
Evolutionary psychology became a popular field of research during the 1970s as a descendent of Sociobiology. As in sociobiology, evolutionary psychology seeks to describe human behaviour through an understanding of evolutionary principles. The field itself has, however, been subject to significant criticism from related disciplines, such as human behavioural ecology, evolutionary genetics, paleoanthropology and neuroscience. Many of the criticisms from evolutionary biology are rooted in Gould and Lewontin's infamous 'Spandrels' paper, primarily a criticism of sociobiological theories which have not accounted for the role of non-selective pressures (i.e. random processes such as genetic drift) and constraints in determining the evolution of phenotypic traits. The paper has had a significant and influential effect on how research on evolution and adaptation has been conducted since. Criticisms have also asserted that without strong neuroscientific evidence, evolutionary psychology simply cannot determine whether its theories reflect biological realities at all.

Evolutionary psychologists claim that all present-day psychological capacities are adaptations, and thus claim to be able to uncover underlying psychological mechanisms which govern human behaviour, and to be able to explain the evolutionary forces which shaped them. Evolutionary psychology is based on the theory that human minds are made up of a range of individual, specialised and domain-specific 'modules' which have evolved over time under natural selection, in order to solve particular problems and optimise individual fitness. These modules range from mate selection to jealousy, cheater detection and others. The human mind is thus often likened to a computer, whose modules are proposed to have been selected for during the Pleistocene era, which is termed the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation(EEA). The concept of adaptive lag between the 'EEA' and current environments is supposed to explain why adapted traits might consequently be maladaptive in modern environments, however, this understanding is heavily critiqued, with critics emphasising that whilst many aspects of human behaviour are constrained by ancient evolutionary history, many others have been altered since the supposed 'EEA' in response to environmental changes and thus continue to be under the influence of evolutionary pressures.

Many of the experiments put forward by proponents of evolutionary psychology mostly utilise lab experiments. Most famous are those of Cosmides and Tooby, which have been heavily scrutinised and subject to criticism, both for their metholodologies and unfounded claims based on faulty interpretations of results. Evidence has been said to be in violation of the standards of evolutionary biology, with none of the evidential requirements for hypotheses surrounding evolution being utilised or attempted. Associated claims have been termed ‘just-so stories’ criticised for being based on faulty a-priori reasoning in order to dismiss competing hypotheses. Theories which claim that psychological and behavioural traits have been selected for directly in our evolutionary history are premised on the assumption that they are directly determined by specific genes (or networks of genes), but this is not the case - nor do they take into account the role of epigenetics, or the plasticity and flexibility of underlying mechanisms which play a role in brain development. Neurobiologists have argued that developmental plasticity is the adaptation that has been selected for, and that it is this which allows the development of domain-specific functions - the modules themselves are not the adaptation, nor are they determined solely by genes which have been selected for at some distant point in our evolutionary history.

Evidence in Astronomy
Astronomy is the study of celestial objects and events. It is one of the first natural sciences and is split into two branches, observational and theoretical with further subfields in both. Observational is concerned with direct observations of celestial objects whilst theoretical, in contrast, is concerned with models of objects that cannot be observed. The discipline heavily relies on observational study. Historically it began with simple eyewitness methodical observations of planets and stars but has evolved as technology has allowed with telescopes and other new technological tools. Anybody who owns a telescope can find new discoveries and evidence of celestial objects.

Astronomy is disadvantaged heavily as a science because experimental evidence of the distant universe is often times not possible to obtain. In very few instances astronomers are able to obtain primary evidence in the form of physical objects such as rocks from meteorites or planets that they can use and research.

However, astronomers have such a vast number of visible phenomena that can be examined which allows for the data to be collected and analysed in order to get a better understanding of them. Observational astronomy collect evidence in a variety of ways, not just phenomena visible to the naked eye. Using specific tools, astronomers detect radiation from celestial objects such as radio waves, X-Rays, and gamma rays which can be converted into an intensity map. In addition to the electromagnetic spectrum, astronomers can make observations using neutrinos, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves.

Theoretical astronomy uses analytical models and computational numerical simulations to understand stellar phenomena whether that be to explain it or reveal the existence of it. They predict observational consequences of the models. If results are inconsistent with the model this may lead to the abandonment of the model. Einstein’s general theory of relativity is an example of a theory that for a large period of time most instruments were unable to prove as they couldn’t detect evidence of gravitational waves. In 2015, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detected a gravitational wave rippling through Earth providing evidence that affirmed the theory. It is a falsifiable theory that, to this day, remains highly researched and studied.

Evidence in Science
Science is inductive and empirical and is hence problematic by nature due to the problems of induction and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism#:~:text=In%20philosophy%2C%20empiricism%20is%20a,than%20innate%20ideas%20or%20traditions. empiricism]. The scientific community hence adopts a scientific method in order to minimize these problems and ensure that science is as objective and as close to the truth as possible. If successful, this scientific method then serves as evidence of the accuracy, reliability and objectivity of the scientific knowledge.

The scientific method has been broken down into a widely accepted step-by-step process as follows:

1.	Define a question 2.	Gather information and resources (observe) 3.	Form an explanatory hypothesis 4.	Test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner 5.	Analyze the data 6.	Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis 7.	Publish results 8.	Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

There is an iterative process from steps 3 to 6 until the hypothesis is either accepted or rejected.

Despite how watertight the scientific method sounds, there are still inherent issues within the scientific method, especially with implicit biases.

Scientists only study and experiment on what they care about, hence they bring in their own bias into observation and testing. Due to personal agendas or biases, there is also a preference for new or surprising statements different from the status quo. Hence, this can lead to searching for evidence to prove that something new is true. There is also confirmation bias which will affect the interpretation of results as scientists hold pre-conceived beliefs and would want their hypothesis to be proven correct. In general, scientists also tend to look for “beautiful” or “elegant” theories. However, these theories, despite being the most “beautiful” or “elegant” may not actually be right. Furthermore, scientists have pre-existing beliefs of various scientific theories. Hence, they interpret observations and data through their prior understanding of other theories and concepts (theory-laden observation). Hence, conclusions drawn from such scientific processes presupposes existing scientific theories and assumes their truth and hence affects the objectivity and reliability of the conclusion.

Despite the existence of the scientific method, the scientific community does not actually observe this process (such as reproducible results). Furthermore, the philosopher Karl Popper held a widely accepted belief that what differentiates Science and pseudo-science/non-science is that scientific theories must be able to be falsified. Falsifiability as a criterion preserves the objectivity of science and scientists should seek to disprove theories rather than continuously try to prove them. However, scientists, who have implicit biases, tend to be reluctant to give up theories even if they have been falsified. Science is also heavily dependent on statistics, which poses its own set of problems as well (e.g. flawed/biased experimental design, misleading statistics, etc). Statistical evidence is often “misused, misinterpreted, or misunderstood” in Science.

These show the problems of evidence within the scientific world. Despite the impression that scientific knowledge is the most reliable and objective, there are many issues with scientific evidence that must be improved upon.

Evidence in Economics
Evidence in economics pursues a specific process; first of all, they create theories relying on real-life observations that lead to predictions that they confirm or not through experiments.

Indeed, economics is a discipline that relies heavily on models to explain the social phenomenons and elucidate the workings of a complicated system. These models allows a comparative and complementary approach that helps to see how those theories develop in natural sciences. A model is a simplified representation of reality. However, there is no guarantee that those models reflect perfectly the reality. The economy generates predictions that can be tested empirically. However, it does not have an empirical foundation; it is based on universal human nature. They develop forecasts on a wide variety of issues, including energy costs, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, business cycles, taxes, and employment levels, among others. Evidence in economics relies on theory similarly to biology where theory is taken to be a model, a collection of models, or a modelling approach. However, the main problem of those models is that as it is derived from assumptions and axioms rather than real-life observations, it does not systematically reflect reality.

Furthermore, evidence in economics can also be found in empirical tests, including historic experimentation, on-site experimentation and laboratory experimentation. The first one consists of quantification by analyzing data in the past. The on-site experimentation entails collecting evidence on-site by analyzing the interactions in a specific real situation. Then, the last one known as controlled experiments involves setting up an economic environment under laboratory conditions and testing the individual's choices in this specific situation to analyze if the predictions are confirmed.

Finally, econometrics is greatly used in this discipline to get evidence. This method relies on data collection and analysis. Few methods to collect data exist. For example, sampling techniques may be used to conduct a survey and also mathematical modelling techniques. Once they collected the data they needed, they prepare reports including tables and charts to put on display evidence on economic phenomena. This method relies on statistical data to improve the analysis and allow to bring out economic laws or constant relations from those results. Economics is a discipline relying on a different source of evidence to understand and predicts as well as possible those complicated economic mechanisms.

Evidence in History
There is one peculiarity of the role of evidence in the study of history that must be understood, owing to its nature as the study of the past – once a piece of evidence is forgotten and destroyed, it is gone forever, as it is not replicable. If all knowledge and evidence in the field of chemistry suddenly ceased to exist tomorrow, our knowledge of chemistry would eventually be able to reconstruct itself in a recognisable form. This is because chemists in the 17th century and in this hypothetical 2020 conducting the same experiments would produce the same findings – science is meant to be replicable. If the same were to happen to the field of history, historians would never be able to recover our knowledge of the past.

There are many examples of such lost evidence that can never be replicated. For instance, we know very little of the Kalabhra period of India, as little evidence from the time period has survived. Most of what we do know is from secondary sources writing long after the Kalabhra dynasty had fallen. We know so little that even when the dynasty fell is not unanimously agreed upon, with some placing it in the 5th century and others in the 4th century.

Another interesting question this example raises is about the role of secondary, noncontemporary written sources as evidence. Such written sources contribute in large part to our historical knowledge. Almost no contemporary writings on Alexander the Great have survived, so almost all our knowledge on him comes from historians writing on him centuries after his death, such as Arrian of Nicomedia. Many of these sources document their own sources and are thus considered reliable, though the original sources are now lost. In this sense, our body of historical knowledge in many areas is comprised of evidence upon evidence. It is impossible to know for certain if there were inaccuracies in the original sources that have been passed on to the present day, as in a game of Chinese whispers. In such cases, historians can only compare the written evidence to any available material evidence and make the best reasonable guess.

Of course, this does not mean that history is somehow a less valid, reliable or rigorous discipline than others. Different disciplines necessarily demand different standards of evidence based on what evidence is possible and reasonable to obtain. While evidence in history is generally not as airtight as evidence in, say, physics, we should compare apples to apples. There are still stringent standards for evidence within history that ensure the quality of the discipline.

Evidence in Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary biology is the study of the Evolution of live species through time. How did all the species present in the moment on Earth came to exist? How do we, humans, exist? It is a complicated subject that has been debated a lot over the centuries. In 1859, Charles Darwin was the first to propose a model to explain Evolution, natural selection. ‘It is the process that results in the continued existence of only types of animals and plants that are best able to produce young or new plants in the conditions in which they live.’ For example, cactuses survive in a dry and arid environment especially the desert where other plants like roses that need more water could not. Through the years, a lot of evidence was found:

Direct Evidence: We see today that some species are evolving to counteract adversities that threaten their existence: for example, some insects can now resist insecticides because only the resistant ones made it through and then procreated to build a new generation of insects that could entirely resist.

Forensic Evidence: The DNA analysis on skeletons that were found by archeologs through the centuries show that a lot of DNA present millions of years ago in some species still exists in actual species. For example, Ardi is the the most ancient human structured body characteristics found and was dated 4.4 millions years ago.

Presumptive Evidence: In Anatomy, some species share the same body structure, with the same bones and articulations: for example, humans’ and gorillas’ bodies are quite similar, suggesting that they have a common ancestor.

Evidence in Law
Evidence is the branch of the law which stipulates how issues can be proved in court. . In law, there is the law of evidence to regulates what evidence can be legitimately put before a court and taken into consideration, which is often seen as one of the most complicated subjects in undergraduate law courses. .

If evidence is to be admissible, two things are required. First, it must be relevant. It is not easy to define relevance. The leading textbook suggests that in "very general terms relevant evidence may be said to be evidence which is logically connected with those matters in dispute between the parties". . It can be distinguished between two types of relevance, namely direct and indirect. Direct evidence is "evidence of the fact in issue itself", ., and the indirect evidence is the evidence that "might lead or help lean us to the conclusion that the fact has or has not been proven". . The second thing for evidence to be admissible is the evidence must not be prohibited by any exclusionary rule. . The evidence can also be classified into three types, namely oral evidence, which is oral statements of a witness in court, real evidence, which is a thing or item and documentary evidence, which are lodged in court as productions. ..

It is worth noticing that the law of evidence is not the same among civil and criminal cases, with stricter standards applied in the criminal cases, which is due to the public attention to protecting the accused from wrong conviction. .

It is also worth noticing that the concept of evidence and the law of evidence are not static or universal. For example, no approach to evidence is shared by all legal systems at all times. .While criminal cases require enough evidence to exclude all the reasonable doubts in common-law countries, there was seldom distinctions between civil and criminal cases in ancient times. . The appeal to supernatural power is not accepted as evidence in modern law, but it was accepted in some areas in medieval times. .


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Atari Jaguar

Development
The Atari Jaguar was the first major system to be marketed by Atari since the Atari 7800.

The number pad at the bottom of the controller was designed to offer extra control, and also to accept paper overlays per game.

The Atari Jaguar was manufactured in Charlotte, North Carolina and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Pre-Launch
The touted performance of the machine lead some to speculate it would overtake offerings from rival companies Nintendo and Sega.

Launch
"Do The Math"

The Atari Jaguar launched in 1993 for $250.

Atari did not overly focus on internal software development, instead focusing on their core competency of hardware and leaving software mostly to third parties. This was a critical issue for Atari because they had trouble attracting third-party developers to the Jaguar.

The Do the Math Slogan was part of a marketing effort to get consumers to recognize the Jaguar as a superior 64 bit system. The slogan was not used in British English markets.

Legacy
The Atari Jaguar was discontinued in 1996 and rights to the system were released to the public by Hasbro at E3 in 1999. The Atari Jaguar sold 250,000 consoles at most, a quite small number for a major console.

While the Jaguar game console had a relatively short production, its case mold was used for around a decade longer in other applications. The machines used to make Atari Jaguar cases were repurposed for making dental equipment cases. The Jaguar molds are said to have been reused for the canceled Coleco Chameleon console. The case design itself is a major divisive part of the legacy of the console with some comparing the Jaguar CD equipped systems to a toilet, and others praising the design as possessing a functional layout.

Compute
The Jaguar contains five processors, with the primary two 32 bit processors being named Tom and Jerry being clocked at clocked at 26 megahertz. The Jaguar was capable of 55 Million Instructions Per Second(MIPS). The Jaguar contains two megabytes of RAM.

Development Kits
The Jaguar development kit was considered to be well made. The Alpine Development Kit was simply designed as an cartridge with an extended PCB which would be inserted into regular Jaguar consoles.

1993

 * Cybermorph - Flight

1994

 * Tempest 2000
 * Alien vs Predator - FPS
 * Kasumi Ninja - Fighting game

1995

 * Missile Command 3D - Shooter

Canceled

 * Black ICE\White Noise
 * Thea Realm Fighters


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Casio Loopy

Development
The Loopy followed the ill-fated PV-1000 as Casio's second major attempt to enter the home video game console market.

While in development, the Loopy was not initially intended to appeal to a specific demographic, with the progression to be a female oriented console being somewhat a matter of happenstance.

Launch
The Casio Loopy was released in Japan in October 1995 at a cost of cost 25,000 yen, and was marketed to women. First year production was expected to be 200,000 units, though little is known of actual production or sales numbers.

Legacy
Software development ended in November 1996, the final software released in 1997, and console production ended in December 1998.

Though the Loopy was not a big success, it was a much greater success than Casio's previous console, the PV-1000. However the main legacy of the Loopy is more concerned with its reception rather than with its performance on the market. Not only was the Casio Loopy was among the most atypical consoles of the fifth generation, it is one of a select few consoles marketed to appeal to women as a specific demographic. A similar tactic of appealing to non-traditional gamers by forgoing the latest technology, and focusing on a fun and appealing hardware differentiator would later find much greater success with other consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii.

Contentious discussion of the Loopy at the intersection of gaming and feminism emerged during and after the 2010's, with some finding the marketing of the Loopy as quite patronizing, and others hailing the console as a subversion of common narratives of gaming in the 1990's.

Technology

In general, technology in the Casio Loopy was selected to be similar to the Super Famicom, then a market leader. This made the Loopy competitive with fourth generation consoles, but underpowered compared to other fifth generation consoles. As a result, Casio compensated for this by relying heavily on leveraging features of the console not found on competing devices.

The Casio Loopy is powered by a 32 bit RISC SH-1 CPU clocked at 16MHz. The front of the box proudly advertises 32-bit RISC CPU, suggesting that Casio thought that marketing the Loopy as an advanced 32-bit system was a key marketing point. The Loopy has 512 kilobytes of system RAM and 192 kilobytes of video RAM, and supports up to 4 megabytes of game cartridge ROM. Most games used only 2 megabytes of ROM, with some larger titles using 3 megabytes. Games also support battery-backed RAM for save data.

The console outputs graphics in 15-bit color with a maximum palette of 256 colors on screen. The graphics output is handled in part by a Sony CXA1645M RGB encoder chip. The Loopy outputs 4 channel 12 bit PCM audio.

The Loopy has a built in color thermal printer, with setting dial to adjust contrast. While the printer may seem like a strange choice, the ability to print custom art on stickers (Called "Seals" in the context of the Loopy ) proved to be a fun and creative tool for play beyond video games. Output from the printer is 180 DPI resolution and is generally considered to be of good quality, and while a few game consoles of the 1990's would see optional printers released, none would match the quality of the colorful prints of the Loopy.

The Loopy was about one foot long, four inches high, and weighed 3.5 pounds. The console is powered by a 24 volt external power supply.

Optional hardware
The Magical Shop is an add on for the Loopy that allows for screen capture from video streams. The Magical Shop add on cost 14,800 yen, a significant cost at the time.

The Loopy two button mouse used a trackball mechanism.

Games / Software
Eleven titles were released for the system.

1995

 * Dream Change: Kokin-chan's Fashion Party
 * Anime Land - Character and scene creation software.
 * Magical Shop - Video capture to image manipulator to sticker software.
 * PC Collection - Suite containing 10 creative, supernatural, or productivity applications supporting the mouse.
 * Lupiton no Wonder Palette - Art application.
 * Wanwan Aijou Monogatari - Game featuring a dog named Peach. Worked on by Kenji Terada.
 * HARIHARI Seal Paradise - Sticker printing game.
 * Nigaoe Artist - Caricature art application

1996

 * Loopy Town no Oheya ga Hoshii! - Life simulation game with room decoration, jobs, and a pet. The game was worked on by Kenji Terada, a writer on the first three Final Fantasy games.
 * Little Romance - Dating simulator.

1997

 * Chakurakun no Omajinai Paradise - Charm and spell making program.

Preservation
As of October 2020 an incomplete skeleton Loopy driver exists for MAME.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Game Gear

Development
While in development the Game Gear was known as Project Mercury.

The Game Gear was made domestically in Japan.

Launch
The Game Gear was launched in October of 1990 costing 19,800 yen.

Discontinuation
Sega discontinued the Game Gear in 1997, with 11 million consoles sold. During the 30th anniversary of the system in 2020, Sega produced the Game Gear Micro a miniature reproduction of the Game Gear.

Technology
The internal architecture of the Game Gear is very similar to Sega's earlier home console, the Master System.

Compute
The Game Gear uses an 8-bit Zilog Z80 based processor clocked at 3.58 megahertz.

The Game Gear has eight kilobytes of RAM, and 16 kilobytes of video RAM.

Hardware
The Game Gear has a 3.2 inch color screen with a resolution of 160 pixels by 144 pixels.

The Game Gear uses a Texas Instruments SN76489 chip for sound.

The Game Gear required the use of 6 AA batteries.

1991

 * Eternal Legend
 * Factory Panic
 * Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe
 * House of Tarot
 * Ninja Gaiden
 * Head Buster
 * Popils

1992

 * The Majors: Pro Baseball
 * The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury
 * Sega Game Pack 4 in 1

1993

 * Power Strike II

1994

 * Fred Couples Golf
 * Coca-Cola Kid
 * Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible
 * Poker Face Paul
 * Popeye: Beach Volleyball
 * X-Men
 * X-Men: Gamesmaster's Legacy

1995

 * Mega Man
 * Chicago Syndicate
 * Godzilla: Kaijuu no Daishingeki
 * Ristar
 * Super Columns
 * Sylvan Tale

1996

 * Arena: Maze of Death
 * Pet Club: Inu Daisuki!
 * Pet Club: Neko Daisuki!

Special Edition Game Gear Consoles

 * Enjoy Coca-Cola Game Gear


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Atari Lynx

Development
The Lynx was originally developed by a company called Epyx in August 1987 as the Handy Project, with some members of the design team having previously worked on the Amiga series of computers. The system later piqued the interest of Atari, which acquired it and applied it's big cat naming scheme to the device.

Launch
The Atari Lynx was launched in fall of 1989. The launch price of the Lynx was $179.99 US Dollars. The Lynx received a positive reception, but struggled on the market due to issues Atari faced getting retailers to carry the console. A redesigned Lynx was launched in 1991 with a reduced price of $99, which made it much more price competitive with the Game Boy.

Legacy
Two to three million Lynx consoles were sold. The discontinuation date of the Lynx is disputed, with discontinuation years given of 1992, 1994, or 1995.

The Atari Lynx gained a dedicated fanbase, and saw multiple homebrew titles released as recently as 2019.

Technology
Compared to its rivals, the Lynx had a powerful mobile computer. The handheld is powered by the Mikey CPU, a version of the 8-bit WDC 65SC02 CPU clocked at 4 megahertz and the Suzy GPU clocked at 16 megahertz. Games for the Lynx could leverage a powerful graphics system, supporting hundreds of sprites, and a software defined framerate. The Lynx has 64 kilobytes of RAM. Lynx game cartridges could store as much as 2 megabytes of ROM.

The Lynx had a color display, which was backlit, permitting handheld gaming in the dark. The screen can display 4,096 colors and has a resolution of 160 pixels by 102 pixels. Both a color screen and night time visibility were not universal at the time, which was a significant advantage for the Lynx.

The superior features of the Lynx required a very high power draw, and so the handheld used 6 AA batteries, a significant disadvantage compared to more efficient competitors such as the Game Boy. Battery life typically lasted under 4 hours, though the system could be powered by an AC adapter when near an outlet. At the time, most AA batteries were non rechargeable, making operating the console a significant expense. In contrast to other handhelds of the time which were typically constrained by processor power or their display, the power consumption of the Lynx its biggest technological Achilles' Heel.

The Atari Lynx has an ambidextrous design, a fairly unique choice among handheld game consoles. This made the system equally suitable for left handed or right handed gamers, though labeling does appear designed for right hand use.

Retail games for the system were packaged in cardboard boxes.

Notable games
Wikipedia has a list of Atari Lynx games.

External Resources

 * iFixit - Atari Lynx page.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/TurboExpress

Launch
Launched in 1990, the TurboExpress cost $250.

In 1992 the price of the Turbo Express was dropped to $199 and players were given four free games with a purchase of the system.

Legacy
In 1994 TurboGrafx products were discontinued in North America.

1.5 million TurboExpress consoles were sold.

Technology
The TurboExpress was essentially a portable TurboGrafx-16.

Compute
The TurboExpress uses a customized NEC 6820 clocked at 7.6 megahertz.

The TurboExpress has eight kilobytes of RAM.

Hardware
The resolution of the TurboExpress color LCD Active Matrix screen is 400 by 270 pixels.

The system is either powered by six AA batteries or an optional AC adapter.

Notable games
The TurboExpress ran existing TurboGrafx-16 games released on Hu-Card.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Pippin

Development
The console was primarily developed as a joint effort between Apple and Bandai. Apple was in dire straits and unable to dedicate many resources to producing a console, leading Bandai and other partners to handle most aspects of the console not related to it's core Mac architecture.

A prototype console was referred to as the "Power Player".

Launch
The Pippin was announced in late 1994. Marketing for the device was mainly handled by Bandai.

The Japanese and American launches occurred in 1995. The Apple Pippin cost $599.

Discontinuation
42,000 Apple Pippins were sold. The possibility of Pippin discontinuation had been speculated on since at least February 6th, 1997 as a result of restructuring brought on by the return of Stve Jobs. Such speculation that Jobs would eliminate the product line proved correct, and the Apple Pippin was discontinued later on in 1997. In Japan the system was discontinued much later, in 2002.

Compute
The Pippin used a 66MHz PowerPC Processor.

Video and System Memory was a combined 6MB.

Storage
128 Kilobytes of SRAM resided on the system for saving games and settings, with a modified Mac OS 7 operating system residing on each game disk to avoid compatibility and optimization issues.

The Pippin had a 4x speed CD-ROM drive.

Notable games

 * Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure
 * Gundam Tactics: Mobility Fleet 0079
 * Super Marathon

Read more
There is a Wikibook on the History of Apple Inc.

title: History of video games/Platforms/Pippin


text:
History of video games/Platforms/PC-FX

Development
NEC had previously attempted to enter the home console market with the TurboGrafx-16 line of consoles.

Launch
The PC-FX was launched on the 23rd of December, 1994.

The PC-FX GA expansion card was made to allow the PC-FX games to be played on personal computers running the DOS/V operating system and a free ISA expansion slot.

The final game for the PC-FX was released in 1998.

Legacy
The PC-FX is primarily remembered as a console that excelled in 2D and FMV performance, in an era dominated by demand for 3D gaming. Compared to other consoles of the era, the Japan focused library of games stands out. While many games for the system have aged poorly, they represent design trends that would shortly thereafter fall out of favor, making them an important window into 1990's game design trends. The system is also remembered for it's highly unusual industrial design.

Compute
The PC-FX uses a 32-bit RISC NEC V810 CPU clocked at 21.5 megahertz. The PC-FX had a performance of 20 million instructions per second (MIPS).

The PC-FX has 3.25 megabytes (26 megabits) of RAM, split between 2 megabytes of system RAM, and 1.25 megabytes of Video RAM.

Co-Processors
The PC-FX had a number of subsystems designed to show video streams and other features without taxing the CPU.

The most unusual chip, was the Huc6273 3D Accelerator chip, which was found only on the PC-FX GA and not on the PC-FX. Though underutilized, this chip allowed computers with a PC-FX GA to run some real time 3D software that would not be easily possible on a standard PC-FX console.

Hardware
The PC-FX CD-ROM drive is a 2x speed drive. The console could be linked with a PC-9800 computer via a special SCSI adapter to allow it to use the CD-ROM drive of the PC-FX, a useful feature in an time where such drives were quite expensive.

The system contained 32 kilobytes of battery backed RAM for long term save game storage and could also accept a memory card in the form of the 128 kilobyte FX-BMP. The PC-FX GA emulated this hardware and stored save game data standard floppy disks, hard disks, or other DOS/V accessible storage instead.

The system is noted for being hard to assemble.

Team Innocent: The Point of No Return
Team Innocent was a launch title for the PC-FX that used an animated intro screen and sprites on predrawn backgrounds.

Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight
A beat em up well know for its artful 2D presentation. The game made good use of environmental storytelling in background details as well. The gameplay is well regarded, but the game is notably short, especially for the era in which it was released.

Read more about Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight on Wikipedia.

External Resources

 * Video Game Kraken - PC-FX page about the history of the console.
 * Old Computers Museum - PC-FX Page with console history.
 * LGR Oddware episode - On the PC-FX GA.

title: History of video games/Platforms/PC-FX


text:
History of video games/Platforms/3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Development
Development of the 3DO started in September 1989, when noted computer and game console designers Dave Needle and Robert J. Mical met with David Morse at a restaurant and noted initial 3DO on a paper napkin at a restaurant.

Launch
The 3DO was launched in North America on October 4th, 1993 at a cost of $699. Unlike many also rans of the era, the 3DO was widely publicized, and Time Magazine named the 3DO it's product of the year in 1993.

On March 20th, 1994 the 3DO was launched in Japan.

Legacy
Discontinued in 1996, about two million 3DO consoles were sold. Despite it's relatively small market share, the 3DO is known for the talent behind it, namely Trip Hawkins and third party supporting studios such as Naughty Dog, Crystal Dynamics, and Toys for Bob.

The 3DO was intended to be succeeded by the M2, though that system was never released.

Technology
The Panasonic FZ-1 3DO has a 32 bit ARM architecture CPU clocked at 12.5 megahertz. This was quite substantial at launch, though lower end competitors quickly caught up and surpassed this spec within a few years. The system has 2 megabytes of DRAM, and 1 megabyte of Video RAM, which was quite also quite a substantial amount of memory for a game console at the time of the 3DO launch.

The 3DO uses a custom Clio chip and a custom Madam chip to accelerate certain tasks. The 3DO supported texture mapping and anti-aliasing.

3DO Game Aesthetics
Many games for the 3DO were hallmarked by FMV (Full Motion Video) graphics, typically featuring real actors and often featuring early computer generated imagery. FMV was sometimes used nearly exclusively for FMV games. Some other games simply relied on FMV for story cutscenes or environment flair.

Gameplay graphics were often entirely FMV. More interactive games often used simple real time 3D graphics, prerendered 3D graphics, advanced 2D graphics, or some mix of the aforementioned techniques.

Crash 'n Burn
A launch title and pack in game.

Read more about Crash 'n Burn on Wikipedia.

Escape from Monster Manor
An exclusive 3D survival horror first person shooter.

Read more about Escape from Monster Manor on Wikipedia.

Jurassic Park Interactive
A 3DO exclusive action game developed as a tie in to the prior year's hit movie Jurassic Park.

Read more about Jurassic Park Interactive on Wikipedia.

The Life Stage: Virtual House
A 3DO exclusive construction simulator, and a launch title for the Japanese release of 3DO.

Read more about The Life Stage: Virtual House on Wikipedia.

Twisted: The Game Show
A 3DO exclusive party game.

Read more about Twisted: The Game Show on Wikipedia.

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties
An adult FMV game.

Read more about Plumbers Don't Wear Ties on Wikipedia.

Doctor Hauzer
Read more about Doctor Hauzer on Wikipedia.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Slayer
Read more about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Slayer on Wikipedia.

Station Invasion
Read more about Station Invasion on Wikipedia.

Demolition Man
Read more about Demolition Man on Wikipedia.

Guardian War
Read more about Guardian War on Wikipedia.

Iron Angel of the Apocalypse
Read more about Iron Angel of the Apocalypse on Wikipedia.

John Madden Football
Read more about John Madden Football on Wikipedia.

PaTaank
Read more about PaTaank on Wikipedia.

Kurokishi no Kamen
A Japan only, 3DO only, game.

Read more about Kurokishi no Kamen on Wikipedia.

Way of the Warrior
Read more about Way of the Warrior on Wikipedia.

Blade Force
A third person 3D shooter set in a dystopian future crime ridden city.

Read more about Blade Force on Wikipedia.

Foes of Ali
Read more about Foes of Ali on Wikipedia.

Guardian War
Read more about Guardian War on Wikipedia.

Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return
Read more about Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return on Wikipedia.

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S
A 3DO exclusive 2D fighting game based on the Japanese Sailor Moon media franchise. It was released the same month as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, a 2D beat em' up arcade machine with similar graphics.

Read more about Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon S on Wikipedia.

Slam 'N Jam '95
A 3DO exclusive basketball game well regarded for its solid two player mode.

Read more about Slam 'N Jam '95 on Wikipedia.

Zhadnost: The People's Party
3DO exclusive party game with a dystopian theme and extensive FMV use. The intro cutscene appears to take clear inspiration from the collapse of the Soviet Union, a then recent event.

Read more about Zhadnost: The People's Party on Wikipedia.

Doom
The 3DO port of Doom was notoriously poor as most development was delegated to a single person with only 10 weeks to perform most of the port.

In December 2014 the source code for this port of the game was released.

In January 2022 the example of Doom for the 3D0 became a common talking point in the NFT gaming community.

Read more about Doom on Wikipedia.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Playdia

Development
At the June 1994 Tokyo Game Show Bandai announces the BA-X, showcasing a Dragon Ball Z game.

Launch
The Playdia was released by Bandai in 1994 only in the Japanese market.

Legacy
The Playdia was discontinued in 1996, with remaining units being repurposed for use in arcades.

Compute
The Playdia is powered by an 8-bit Toshiba TMP87C800F clocked at eight megahertz, and another 8-bit NEC μPD78214GC processor.

The Playdia has 256 kilobytes of RAM, and 512 kilobytes of VRAM.

The Playdia uses a Asahi Kasei AK8000 processor for audio and visual processing.

Hardware
The Bandai Playdia has a CD Drive.

The Bandai Playdia uses a wireless controller.

1994

 * Dragon Ball Z - Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku Chikyū Hen
 * Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S - Quiz Taiketsu! Sailor Power Kesshū!!
 * SD Gundam Daizukan

1995

 * Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS

1996

 * Gekisou Sentai Carranger


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Neo Geo Pocket

Launch
The monochrome Neo Geo Pocket was released in 1998. Few third parties developed for the Neo Geo Pocket, though the company Dimps worked on many Neo Geo Pocket games. It's most major third party IP to see a release on the system was Sonic, when Sega partnered with SNK to make a portable version of Sonic 2 for the system.

SNK competed hard against the Game Boy line in the United States. This is especially true with the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which offered a console with superior technology compared to the Game Boy Color as wile also undercutting Nintendo, with the system costing only $69.95 at launch. By the year 2000, the Neo Geo Pocket was slightly profitable in the United States, and held a two percent marketshare of handhelds. For a new entrant to the market going against an entrenched company, those are quite good numbers given the small timeframe the system was available for sale. Unlike many consoles, internal problems with SNK in Japan rather then the console's market performance would lead to the withdraw of the console in American markets.

Legacy
Due to financial difficulties and new ownership of SNK by Aruze, including a rocky stint in the Pachinko business, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was discontinued in Canada and the United States on June 13th, 2000.

After resuming operations in March, 2001 in October of 2001, SNK was again defunct.

The Neo Geo Pocket sold two million consoles. The Neo Geo Pocket Color sold under 200,000 systems.

In 2020 SNK began rereleasing certain Neo Geo Pocket games on the Nintendo Switch.

Neo Geo Pocket
The specs of the Neo Geo Pocket are close enough to the Neo Geo Pocket Color that most Neo Geo Pocket Color games will run on it.

Compute
The Neo Geo Pocket Color is powered by a primary 16-bit Toshiba TLCS900H processor clocked at 6.144 megahertz and 12 kilobytes of dedicated RAM. A secondary 8-bit Z80 processor used for sound clocked at 3.072 megahertz with four kilobytes of dedicated RAM..

The Neo Geo Pocket Color has 12 kilobytes of RAM, and four kilobytes of sound RAM.

Hardware
The system has a built in clock.

A wireless link accessory for the Neo Geo Pocket Color was planned.

1998

 * Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus Color
 * Baseball Stars
 * King of Fighters R-1

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
A portable version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 released for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The game was well received at the time and was seen as a major title for the system in a market dominated by the Nintendo GameBoy.

Read more about Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure on Wikipedia.

2000

 * Metal Slug 2nd Mission
 * Cool Boarders Pocket
 * Delta Warp
 * Infinity Cure - Visual novel

2001

 * SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash 2 Expand Edition

External Resources

 * Old Computers Museum - Neo Geo Pocket page with specs and history.
 * Old Computers Museum - Neo Geo Pocket Color page with specs and history.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Genesis Nomad

Development
The Genesis Nomad was originally the Sega Venus, which kept the naming scheme Sega had been using at the time.

Launch
The Genesis Nomad was released in October of 1995 in North America, a development on the previous Japanese Mega Jet which was a portable Mega Drive without a built in screen.

Legacy
The Genesis Nomad sold about one million units in North America, the only area where it was released. Around the end of 1996 the Genesis Nomad was discontinued.

The Genesis Nomad is typically either classified as a fourth generation console, or a fifth generation console. The classification of fourth generation console is typically used when viewing the system as a Sega Genesis that happens to be portable, and thus should be in the same generation. The classification of fifth generation console is used when observing its capabilities as a handheld in relation to other handheld systems of the era, which more closely match with fifth generation systems. Chronologically the console was either launched very late in the fourth generation, or rather early in the fifth generation. As a result of these factors, this console tends to be categorized differently under different points of view.

Technology
The Genesis Nomad has a 3.25" passive matrix LCD which uses composite video internally and tends to ghost.

The Genesis Nomad takes six AA batteries, which can power the Genesis Nomad for about two to three hours.

The Nomad audio is powered by a YM3438 chip and has a single speaker for mono audio, though it has a headphone jack.

Game Library
The Nomad is essentially a portable Sega Genesis, and plays standard North American region Genesis games. Add on devices like the 32X do not work with the Genesis Nomad.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Game.com

Development
The Game.com was preceded by the R-Zone.

Launch
The Game.com was launched in the United States in September of 1997 at a cost of about $69.95. The game console launch was marred by a commercial which backfired.

Legacy
The Game.com was discontinued in 2000, and sold under 300,000 consoles.

Compute
The Game.com uses an 8-bit Sharp SM8521 CPU clocked at 4.9152 megahertz.

Hardware
The Game.com could use an external modem with a speed of 14.4 kbit/s to connect to the internet.

Notable games

 * Sonic Jam
 * Resident Evil 2
 * Duke Nukem 3D

External Resources

 * Video Game Kraken - Game.com page.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/R-Zone

History
The R-Zone HeadGear was launched in 1995 at a cost of $30. This system was not successful for a number of reasons, notably including giving players headaches.

The R-Zone SuperScreen was launched in 1996. The R-Zone X.P.G. and R-Zone DataZone were released in 1997.

After selling poorly production of the R-Zone ceased in 1997.

The R-Zone was succeeded by the Game.com.

Technology
The R-Zone uses 4-bit Sharp SM5xx series processors.

Notable games

 * Batman & Robin

External Resources

 * Video Game Kraken - R-Zone page with additional history and gallery of game cartridges.

title: History of video games/Platforms/R-Zone


text:
User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/Evidence/Evidence in medicine

Role of evidence in medicine: evidence-based medicine
Evidence constitutes an integral aspect of medicine: Indeed, a key proponent of the discipline's current paradigm is evidence-based medicine (EBM), defined by Sackett et al. as 'the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.' By using said 'current best evidence', EBM aims to eliminate (if not, minimise) any biases that may have arisen due to conflicts of interest. In medicine, external evidence from research is not the sole operative factor behind clinical decisions, but rather is used alongside individual patients' wishes, in conjunction with the clinical expertise and experience developed by practitioners over time (internal evidence), in order to optimise healthcare outcomes.

How external research evidence is obtained & studied
As asserted by Webb and Masic et al. respectively, the type of external evidence utilised in medicine is empirical (typically obtained from observations and experimentation), and acquired through clinical research. This research follows the scientific method, whereby results from experiments undergo statistical analysis, in order to determine their significance. If results are determined non-significant, it is implied that there was insufficient evidence to make inferences. On the contrary, if the results of a study are deemed to be significant, they are used to either accept or reject a null hypothesis, allowing researchers to draw conclusions : This is regarded the scientific evidence required by clinicians to make decisions regarding treatments.

However, a crucial feature of evidence-based medicine is that, the 'best evidence' is used. Thus, before external evidence can be applied and implemented into practice, the scientific literature (usually retrieved from electronic databases) must be critically evaluated and assessed for its validity and utility or relevance - a process termed critical appraisal. Critical appraisal scrutinises the research methodologies used in each experiment to determine the quality of evidence, by studying the consistency of conclusions made against available results, the repeatability of results, and the selection of statistical analysis used.

Methods to gather external research evidence
There are many different types of research methods and studies used in medicine to gather external evidence (which could be either filtered or unfiltered), each with its own strengths and limitations. Some of the principal ones are described below.

Randomised control trials
Randomised control trials (RCT) are used in medicine to determine the efficacy of new treatments being developed. A method of primary data collection, RCTs are often regarded the 'gold standard' of clinical research, considering they help reduce selection biases by the researchers, given that the sample population is allocated randomly - often using a number generator. The new intervention that is to be tested is given to one group (the experiment group), whilst a second control group in the trial is given either a placebo treatment, or a pre-existing one. This is done double-blindly - neither the researchers nor the participants are aware of which group has the newer intervention - in order to reduce the chance of participants experiencing a placebo effect, or clinicians unintentionally prioritising the experimental group (known as a confounding bias). However, despite such strengths, the use of RCTs to gather evidence for certain sub-disciplines of medicine may be limited. This is the case for surgical interventions, where blinding is not possible. Moreover, blinding in RCTs may also not be achieved if an intervention has distinguishable side effects. These factors limit the extent to which RCTs may be used to gather evidence in medicine.

Systematic review
A systematic literature review focuses on a research question, for which it collates and appraises a range of studies. Results may be presented in either a qualitative or a quantitative approach. Systematic reviews may be used to collect secondary evidence in medicine as they are 'methodical, comprehensive, transparent, and replicable'. Due to this incorporation of multiple sources, which are all critically assessed, with their inclusion in the review justified, systematic reviews tend to present evidence in a more objective and neutral manner. A notable example of the use of systematic reviews in the discipline of medicine is Cochrane, an organisation which publishes such reviews on emerging healthcare interventions.

Meta-analysis
Meta-analyses are statistical means of collating data for a particular research question from a range of different studies (these are secondary sources), to form a weighted average. Whilst meta-analyses may be carried out for any grouping of multiple studies (so long as they have the same research focus), they are often a constituent of systematic reviews, however not necessarily always, as the latter may also be qualitative, whilst meta-analyses are purely quantitative.

Other
Other research-based methods of generating evidence in medicine include: cohort studies, case control studies and case reports and series, all four of which are observational techniques.

Internal evidence
Clinical expertise, or expert opinion, is considered to be a form of qualitative, internal evidence used in medicine to help practitioners develop treatment plans. It is subject to each clinician's own experience in the field, accumulated over the length of their individual career. Unlike external evidence from research, internal evidence is not validated, and hence is more unreliable and fallible.

Levels of evidence
A vital component of EBM is that all evidence is ranked in a hierarchy, also known as levels of evidence, which classifies evidence on its perceived extent of bias. Multiple hierarchies of evidence have been developed by key contributors in medicine.

One approach is the University of Oxford's CEBM's 'Level of Evidences'. Whilst there are variations in rankings depending on the objective of the study, systematic reviews with homogeneity (when studies used have congruous results) are consistently placed at the top (Level 1A), and are thus considered to be the most reliable source of evidence in medicine. On the other hand, unverified clinical expertise consistently ranks at the bottom (Level 5). More detailed information on these levels may found on CEBM's website, mentioned in the further reading section.


text:
Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/July 6

Today in 2003 the Internet celebrated the victory in the campaign for the release of the firmware source code of Cisco’s Linksys WRT54G Wi-Fi routers, which was withheld in violation of the terms of the GNU General Public License. People immediately started hacking it, and within months of the release the successful OpenWRT distribution had formed and started releasing aftermarket firmware images forked from this code.

title: Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/July 6


text:
Visual Basic for Applications/Read Aloud Strings and Text

Summary
This page contains Excel VBA code to read out the contents of strings; that is, text held in a string variable.  It can be adapted for use elsewhere in MS Office.

Code Notes
Place the entire code listing into a Standard Module and save the file with an xlsm suffix. Run the various subs to see how the code works.