text:
History of video games/Platforms/Xbox

Internal Affairs
Development of the original Xbox was started in February 1998 as the DirectX box by a four person team at Microsoft. The announcement that the PlayStation 2 would attempt to double as a personal computer which could run an optional Linux based operating system was a potentially galvanizing factor for Microsoft to pursue game console development. Though this stance would soften over the following decade, at the time Microsoft leadership considered Linux based operating systems a serious and significant threat to Microsoft's place in the market. Though ultimately relatively few users of the PlayStation 2 would attempt to do this, it would be a crucial factor that lead Microsoft to enter the market.

Development teams for the console were very competitive with one another, and some working on the console called the project the "Coffin Box" as they assumed it would fail. There was significant friction between other divisions of Microsoft and the Xbox team at the time, and the Xbox team would work outside the primary Microsoft Campus. Though internal politics nearly sunk the console, Steve Ballmer, the newly appointed CEO of Microsoft, would save the project from being shuttered. This would prove to be something of a trend, as Ballmer would spend significant political capital as CEO to save the next two following Xbox consoles from being shuttered or otherwise ruined by internal decisions.

Because other colors designers markers were commonly borrowed, the logo was sketched with a green marker, leading to the green color identity of the console.

Promotion and Partnerships
Launching a major new console successfully required significant investments and partnerships, which the software giant Microsoft was able to muster. A budget of $500 million dollars was set up to promote the Xbox. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000 for $30 million dollars, including projects in development such as Oni and future system seller Halo. Isao Okawa, the chairman of Sega, petitioned Bill Gates to add Dreamcast compatibility to the Xbox as Sega prepared to leave the hardware business, though this functionality was ultimately not added. Still, Sega and Microsoft became strong partners, with Sega agreeing to produce several games as Xbox exclusives. Microsoft also attempted to partner with Nintendo, who's American offices were also based in the Seattle metropolitan area, but these talks did not go far. Additional partnerships attempted included Midway and Square. An interesting partnership was attempted to acquire the Bleem! Emulator, which would have given the Xbox the ability to play PlayStation 1 games through software emulation, though this deal fell through.

Early publications speculated that AMD would likely supply the Xbox CPU, before Intel was announced as the supplier.

Prototype Development
The prototype Xbox hardware was vastly different from the production console, and is notable for its bold futuristic design which was unlike any console seen before it. The prototype demonstrated at GDC 2000 was actually shaped like an X with a silver colored metallic milled aluminum. Mainly due to the expense of the case, each of these functioning prototypes cost $18,000 USD to manufacture. Prototype Xbox controllers included a screen, similar to the Sega Dreamcast but distinct in its own way.

Not all the futuristic touches of the prototype Xbox units were discarded on production. The unique dashboard of the original Xbox used public domain sounds from the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon as background noise.

Launch
The Microsoft Xbox was released on November 15th, 2001 at a cost of $299. Over a million Xbox consoles sold in the first three weeks on the market in North America, though the system struggled in Japan and Europe. The Xbox Live online gaming service was launched nearly a year later in November of 2002.

By 2003 the Xbox was struggling so much in the Japanese market that it was being outsold by the previous generation PlayStation 1.

Legacy
The Xbox was followed by the Xbox 360, which was first released in late 2005. At launch the Xbox 360 supported limited backwards compatibility with original Xbox games via software emulation.

The Xbox was discontinued in 2009, having sold 24 million consoles. Shortly afterwards, on April 15, 2010 support for Xbox Live on the original Xbox ended. The last multiplayer game of Halo 2 on the original Xbox Live service actually ended some time later, as a group of players known as the Noble 14 continued to game on as one by one their connections were slowly severed. Nearly a month later, on May 10th, 2010 just before 11PM in the Pacific Time Zone, the final member of Noble 14 was removed from the game.

The Kodi Media Player was originally created as the unofficial Xbox Media Center (XBMC) for the Xbox in 2004. By the late 2010's Kodi was a significant media player in its own right, and its popularity attracted significant media attention. In 2018, Kodi would see an official release on the newer Xbox One console.

Technology
When looking at specifications alone the original Xbox is deceptively similar to a standard PC of the time. Yet in practice the Xbox has notable architectural differences from a standard PC, especially in regards to software.

The original Xbox uses a modified Intel Pentium III CPU clocked at 733 megahertz. An Xbox NVIDIA GeForce 3 derived GPU clocked at 250 megahertz is integrated into the northbridge. The Xbox has 64 mebibytes of shared RAM. As a result of it's compute resources, the original Xbox was quite powerful for its time and was capable of 20 gigaflops of performance.

The internal IDE hard drive of the original Xbox held 8 gigabytes of data. No major console before the Xbox had such a massive included storage drive, and following consoles would often follow by including large internal storage as standard. The Xbox also had an IDE interface DVD drive.

Xbox Controllers connect over USB 1.1 with a unique physical connector. The Xbox has a built in 100 megabit ethernet port for high speed networking. This was not a standard feature this generation, and gave the Xbox an edge when rolling out online services.

2001

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Fuzion Frenzy

Shrek
Shrek for the original Xbox is notable for it's use of deferred lighting, being among the first games to do so.

Read more about the video game Shrek on Wikipedia.

2002

 * Jet Set Radio Future
 * Blinx: The Time Sweeper
 * Panzer Dragoon Orta
 * MechAssault
 * Steel Battalion
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Nine

Whacked!
Party game.

Read more about Whacked! on Wikipedia.

ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
Read more about ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth on Wikipedia.

Gunvalkyrie
A game that had initially been planned to launch on the Dreamcast.

Read more about Gunvalkyrie on Wikipedia.

2003

 * Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
 * Grabbed by the Ghoulies

2004

 * Halo 2
 * Fable
 * Ninja Gaiden
 * Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space
 * MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf
 * Metal Wolf Chaos

2005

 * Conker: Live & Reloaded
 * Psychonauts
 * Forza Motorsport
 * Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse

2006

 * Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - Xbox page.

title: History of video games/Platforms/Xbox


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Xbox 360

Development
The Xbox 360 was preceded by the original Xbox. Development on the Xbox 360 started in 2003 as project Xenon. From 2003 to 2005 the dev kit for the Xbox 360 was based on an Apple PowerMac G5 desktop computer.

The Xbox 360 exterior was designed by three different studios.

Launch
The Xbox 360 was launched on November 22nd, 2005.

Prime
Early Xbox 360 consoles would often scratch disks or overheat to the point of bricking the console. In light of high failure rates, in 2007 Microsoft extended the Warranty of the Xbox 360 to three years, ultimately costing Microsoft $1.15 billion dollars. The sheer scale of the recall was so massive that a significant portion of that cost, $240 million dollars, was solely dedicated to paying for the logistics of shipping consoles. Legal action resulting from the high failure rates on the Xbox 360 would eventually lead to the US Supreme Court case Microsoft Corp. v. Baker.

The Xbox 360 S was released in 2010. The price of Xbox Live also increased in 2010.

The Xbox 360 E was released in 2013.

Legacy
The Xbox 360 was followed by the Xbox One.

Xbox 360 production ceased in 2016. 85 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold.

Compute
The Xbox 360 is powered by a custom three core IBM 64-bit PowerPC CPU named Xenon, clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. The CPU has 165 million transistors. The CPU also contains eFuses to prevent firmware rollbacks.

The Xbox 360 GPU is a custom ATI design clocked at 500 megahertz, with 10 megabytes of dedicated RAM.

The Xbox 360 has 512 megabytes of unified GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 megahertz. The Xbox 360 RAM is shared between the CPU and GPU.

Storage
Most Xbox 360 units have removable hard drives.

Xbox Live
In 2020 Xbox Live cloud saves were made available to free Xbox Live users on the Xbox 360.

Other system software
A software emulator was used for limited backwards compatibility with original Xbox games.

The Xbox 360 contained a version of Neon, a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter, who is also known for his work on the games Tempest 2000 and Tempest 3000.

Software development
Despite using a 64-bit CPU, ExtremeTech suggests that much of the code for the Xbox 360 was 32 bit.

2005

 * Perfect Dark Zero
 * Kameo
 * Project Gotham Racing 3
 * Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

2006

 * Gears of War
 * Viva Piñata
 * Blue Dragon - JRPG

2007

 * Halo 3
 * Lost Odyssey - JRPG
 * Mass Effect
 * Jetpac Refuelled
 * Forza Motorsport 2
 * Fuzion Frenzy 2

Shadowrun
One of the first games to have cross platform multiplayer between Xbox 360 and PC.

Read more about the 2007 Shadowrun video game on Wikipedia.

2008

 * Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
 * Fable II
 * Gears of War 2
 * Too Human
 * Go! Go! Break Steady

2009

 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Wars
 * Earth Defense Force 2017
 * Forza Motorsport 3

2010

 * Halo: Reach
 * Fable III
 * Alan Wake

2011

 * Gears of War 3
 * Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
 * Forza Motorsport 4

2012

 * Halo 4

Goldeneye 007 Remake
A nearly completed and highly anticipated, yet ultimately unreleased remasted version of Rare's innovative N64 title Goldeneye 007 was leaked in February 2021.

Preservation
There is a WikiBook on the Xbox 360, with notes on development, undocumented commands, and motherboard replacement.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - Xbox 360 page with technical info.

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


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History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 2

Development
Sony first announced a successor console to the original PlayStation on March 2nd, 1999. The announcement of the PlayStation 2 alone was enough to create a small boost to stock prices.

Development kits for the PlayStation 2 were said to cost around $20,000.

Launch
The PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4th, 2000. An highly anticipated launch with consumers sleeping outside in line to buy the console in spite of police orders to disperse, between 1 and 2 million PlayStation 2 consoles were sold in Japan on the first day of sales.

The PlayStation 2 saw release in the United States on October 26th, 2000.

The Slim PlayStation 2 was released in September of 2004.

In December 2010 a Sony Bravia KDL-22PX300 TV was shown, featuring an integrated PlayStation 2.

Legacy
The PlayStation 2 was followed by the PlayStation 3. Early models of the PlayStation 3 retained backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 2, with later models slowly reducing support and later drooping this system entirely. The immense library of the PlayStation 2 was a major selling point during the early days of PlayStation 3 sales, however the high price of the PlayStation 3 lead many gamers to stick to their PlayStation 2 for some time after the launch of the PlayStation 3. This, coupled with the major prior popularity of the system, lead publishers to continue to produce major PlayStation 2 games long after the launch of the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 2 had strong market performance into the seventh generation of consoles.

Manufacturing for the PlayStation 2 stopped in 2013, having sold 150 million consoles. The console maintained enduring popularity past that point however. New unofficial hardware mods were being developed for the PlayStation 2 late as 2021.

Unorthodox uses
A PlayStation 2 based rendering computer, the GScube, was made by Sony for production of movie CGI.

Compute
The PlayStation 2 uses the 128 bit Emotion Engine processor clocked at 300 MHz. The Emotion Engine includes the MIPS III architecutre CPU, two vector units, as well as DSP functions. The Emotion Engine has ten floating point multiply accumulators that help it send approprite data to the graphics processor quickly. The console's floating point unit co processor is capable of 6.2GFLOPS.

The PlayStation 2 has 32 megabytes of RDRAM and 4 megabytes of VRAM.

The PlayStation 2 had a dedicated IO processor in a MIPS R3000A processor, which was replaced by a PowerPC 405GP emulating the former on late release (~2007 and later) slim models.

Hardware
The logo on the disk drive of the PlayStation 2 can be manually rotated for either a horizontal or vertical console orientation.

Early models of the system lacked a remote control sensor.

Early "Fat" PS2's had an expansion bay, using either IDE or PC Card format devices.

Some smaller PS2 games were printed on CD-ROMs, rather then on DVD.

Ring of Red
A turn strategy game set in a unique alternate history setting where Japan is divided after World War II following Operation Downfall, instead of remaining a united country as it had in real life.

Read more about Ring of Red on Wikipedia.

2001

 * Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
 * Final Fantasy X
 * Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
 * Mister Mosquito

Metal Gear Solid 2
This game is noted for it's deep postmodern themes, especially in relation to memetics and informatics in general.

Read more about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty on Wikipedia.

2002

 * Kingdom Hearts
 * Silent Hill 2
 * Xenosaga Episode I
 * Final Fantasy XI - MMORPG with cross platform play to Windows.

2003

 * Drakengard - Action RPG
 * Beyond Good & Evil - Action Adventure
 * Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Tactical RPG
 * Final Fantasy X-2 - JRPG
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 - Action RPG

2004

 * Spider-Man 2
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Katamari Damacy
 * Xenosaga Episode II
 * Killzone
 * Phantom Brave

Michigan: Report from Hell
A unique survival horror game made by the Japanese studio Grasshopper Manufacture. The player takes the role of a cameraman on a news team as a mysterious invasion of monsters overtakes Chicagoland.

Read more about Michigan: Report from Hell on Wikipedia.

2005

 * God of War
 * Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
 * Shadow of the Colossus
 * Radiata Stories

Guitar Hero
The first Guitar Hero was a PS2 exclusive.

Read more about Guitar Hero on Wikipedia.

2006

 * Ōkami
 * Xenosaga Episode III
 * Final Fantasy XII

God Hand
A cult classic in the beat em' up genre and the final game released by Clover Studio.

Read more about God Hand on Wikipedia.

Persona 3
Persona 3 notably revamped the formula for the Persona series.

The game is known for it's artwork made by the Japanese artist Shigenori Soejima.

Read more about Persona 3 on Wikipedia.

Persona 4
Released late in the console's time on the market for a major title, Persona 4 proved to be an enduring Jungian JRPG. Set in the sleepy rural town of Inaba in Japan, this game is noted for its unorthodox plot revolving around investigating a series crimes which are connected to a rumored supernatural "Midnight Channel". Persona 4 featured a notably happier tone compared to it's predecessor.

Two major characters in the game sparked much interest and debate in the LGBTQ gamer community.

Read more about Persona 4 on Wikipedia.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 / PES2014
This late cross platform release was the last title officially developed for the PlayStation 2. This Konami made game is a landmark release due to this fact.

Read more about Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 on Wikipedia.

Updated Slim PS2
An updated slim PS2 with integrated power supply.

PS2 Linux Kit
The PS2 Linux kit was an official kit that cost $200.00, including a 40 gigabyte hard drive, ethernet adapter, and keyboard.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - PlayStation 2 page.


text:
User:Api20/sandbox

History of Law as a discipline
The Cambridge dictionary defines the Law as the system of rules of a particular country, group, or area of activity. It is a highly interdisciplinary discipline as it sets the rules of our societies and therefore has always existed. However, the first origins of law as an academic discipline may go back to the 5th century BC in Athens where citizens could be taught about related subjects like philosophy of law or argumentation. Around 161, Gaius, a Roman jurist, wrote the Institutes, a teaching book inspired by Roman law and Greek philosophy intended for future lawyers. There are different roots to law, for instance in England. The famous universities of Oxford and Cambridge followed the new system of adjudication made during the Norman Invasion, which became Common Law. It can be stated that law as an academic discipline exists since the creation of the concept itself of university. It was indeed taught in the University of Constantinople (founded in 425) considered the first university of the world. By the 16th century, European countries started to realize that law had to change alongside with History and every European country wrote its own version including Grotius's Introduction to Dutch Law (1619-1621) and later Napoleon's Civil Code (1804). Around the 18th century, when a wave of criticism was born against the legal education as law-based schools were created, some new ideas emerged. Some like Sir William Blackstone tried to make things evolute but not significant change was noticed before the 19th century. Law is now mostly taught following the US model providing an instruction as a profession and an academic discipline.

title: User:Api20/sandbox


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Wii

Development
The preceding console to the Wii was the Nintendo GameCube. Wii development began almost immediately after the launch of the GameCube.

Prototype Wiimotes for the Revolution were wired controllers that reused GameCube controller plugs and GameBoy Advance SP buttons, as well as back and pause buttons instead of + and -.

On April 27th, 2006 the Nintendo Revolution had its name revealed as the Nintendo Wii.

Launch
The Nintendo Wii saw a North American launch in November of 2006. For over a year after launch, the Wii was regularly sold out. The Wii was advertised using music composed by the Yoshida Brothers.

Revisions
In October 2011 a hardware revision of the Wii was released that removed GameCube support.

The Wii Mini was released in Canada in December 2012. The Wii Mini also lacks GameCube support.

Legacy
101.63 million Wii consoles and 921.85 million Wii games were sold over the course of Wii production.

The Wii was succeeded by the Wii U.

On January 30th, 2019 the Wii shop channel shut down.

Releases for the Wii continued long after the system was discontinued, with the multi platform Shakedown Hawaii receiving a limited 3000 copy physical release in 2020.

Nintendo stopped repairing Wii consoles in March 2020 due to an inability to find parts needed for repairs.

Technical strategy
"Please understand, I am not saying that technology is unimportant. I understand that technology is important. But if we are just focusing on technology and investing in an IT manufacturing plant to come up with higher performance processing [chips], we will not succeed."

The Wii represented a technological departure from previous home console strategies from Nintendo, focusing on features over raw compute performance. The system was effectively an evolution of the previous GameCube architecture, leading to the common developer idiom that the Wii is "two Gamecubes duct-taped together". This idiom was famously used by Maxis developer Chris Heckler at a speech given at GDC (Game Developer Conference) in 2007. While not literally true, as could be effectively be said for some console designs from the 1990's, the idiom is mostly accurate when referring to the general performance of the system, where most specifications are roughly double what the Gamecube offered.

Console
The Wii is powered by a 32-bit PowerPC architecture IBM 750CL Broadway CPU clocked at 729 megahertz. The Wii has 64 megabytes of GDDR3 RAM for general use, and 24MB of 1T-SRAM located close to the GPU. The Wii uses an ATI GPU named Hollywood, clocked at 243 megahertz. The GPU also includes an undocumented independent computer based on an NEC ARM926EJ-S processor, unofficially known as Starlet, and clocked at 243 megahertz and has independent ROM and RAM, which handles security tasks.

The Wii has 512 megabytes of NAND flash storage. The Wii's SD & SD-HC card reader supports cards with up to 32 gigabytes. Initially the system software supported SD cards with a capacity of up to 2 gigabytes. However the Wii Menu 4.0 update increased the card size support to 32 gigabytes. The Wii uses a slightly modified full size DVD disks with special burst cuttings for game media, which are capable of holding either 4.7 or 8.45 gigabytes for one layer disks and two layer disks respectively. Due to using it's own proprietary media, the Wii is unable to play standard DVD or CD disks.

The Wii supports 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi b/g.

The Wii Shop channel played synth Bossa Nova music while shopping.

Wiimote
The Wii became one of the first major consoles to use micromachine technology, with its integration of the MEMS Analog Devices ADXL330 three axis linear accelerometer in the Wiimote.

Development Kit
The Wii Development kit is internally similar to a Wii, but has 128 megabytes of RAM, double the amount used in the consumer model. This was a common feature of development kits, as developers often required the additional overhead for tooling and technical reasons.

Wii Sports
There was debate between Reggie Fils-Aimé and Shigeru Miyamoto as to whether Wii Sports should be a pack in title or not. The ultimate decision to pack in this high quality casual game as a showcase of the system capabilities helped contribute to the massive success of the Wii.

Read more about Wii Sports on Wikipedia.

Pokémon Battle Revolution
Read more about Pokémon Battle Revolution on Wikipedia.

2007

 * Super Mario Galaxy
 * No More Heroes
 * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
 * Super Paper Mario
 * Wii Fit

Mario Party 8
In the United Kingdom initial copies of this game were pulled after it was discovered there was an offensive word used in game.

Read more about Mario Party 8 on Wikipedia.

2008

 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
 * 428: Shibuya Scramble
 * Captain Rainbow
 * Klonoa - 2.5D platformer. Critical success, commercial failure.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
Read more about The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces on Wikipedia.

2009

 * Wii Sports Resort
 * MadWorld
 * Just Dance - First entry in the Just Dance Series. Wii exclusive.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii
 * Monster Hunter Tri
 * Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
 * A Boy and His Blob

2010

 * Super Mario Galaxy 2
 * Epic Mickey
 * Xenoblade Chronicles
 * Sonic colors/sonic colours

2011

 * The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
 * The Last Story
 * Pandora's Tower
 * Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Fortune Street
In 2019 Fortune Street gained internet notoriety after a reference to the character Yoshi dodging taxes was found in the game, predating the meme "Yoshi commits tax fraud" by several years.

Read more about Fortune Street on Wikipedia.

2012

 * Mario Party 9

Special Editions
Special editions and versions of the console.
 * Starlight Gaming Station - Kiosk for hospital use.
 * Gold plated Wii - One off THQ modified Wii intended as a 2009 gift for Queen Elizabeth II.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - Nintendo Wii page.

title: History of video games/Platforms/Wii


text:
History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 3

Development

The PlayStation 2 preceded the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3 reused the font from the Sony produced Spider Man movies, at the direction of Ken Kutaragi who liked the font.

The promotion of the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005 and E3 2006 created a number of memes mocking Sony's decisions and marketing.

Launch
"The next generation doesn't start until we say it does"

The PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006. A launch price of $599 surprised industry competitors, who assumed Sony would subsidize more of the cost of the system. Third party analysis of system hardware costs indicated that Sony did substantially subsidize each early revision console sold, with some estimates of per console costs reaching over $800 USD. This high initial price was a huge advantage for competitors looking to gain market share.

A sideshow in a long and costly patent battle, Sony initially refused to add rumble feedback to the Playstation 3 on release with the SIXAXIS controller, later relenting and adding it into the 2007 DualShock 3 controller.

By the end of 2007 the PlayStation 3 had cost Sony greatly, as the company had spent 2.16 billion dollars on the system in that year alone.

Refresh & Removals
In 2009 the PlayStation 3 Slim was launched. This system was significantly more economical to produce, and sold was sold almost at cost. The system removed support for the OtherOS feature, which was also removed in earlier models via a software update.

The removal of OtherOS galvanized fans of the feature to bring it back. By January 2010 Geohot was the first to publicly breach the security of the PlayStation 3, and later publishes his work with protections built in to stop it from being used for piracy. In response, Sony convinces Geohot to settle out of court after announcing a lawsuit. This response by Sony immediately lead to a massive backlash by users, some cybersecurity academics, and the internet at large.

By 2011 Sony faced massive cyberattacks which were likely motivated by their handling of Geohot and resulted in large amounts of customer information being leaked. Furthermore in late 2011 the official twitter account of the fictional PlayStation spokesman Kevin Butler was tricked into retreating the PS3 master key which could be used to defeat PlayStation 3 security.

In October of 2016 a settlement was reached in a class action lawsuit against Sony for the removal of OtherOS, resulting in Sony paying out a $3.75 million dollar settlement of around $65 to any affected user who made a claim before 2018. The removal of OtherOS created other issues in the European Union, as the inclusion of the ability to run a full operating system allowed for a tax write off.

In 2012 the PlayStation 3 Super Slim was launched.

Legacy
The PlayStation 3 was followed by the PlayStation 4.

Manufacturing of the PlayStation 3 ended in 2017, with 86 million consoles sold. In March 2021, rumors of PlayStation Network servers for the PS3 being decommissioned caused many owners of PS3 consoles to investigate ways to retain access to digital content they had purchased through the service. Backlash against this decision caused Sony to postpone the decomissioning.

The legacy of the system is as complex as the technology that powered it. Hamstrung by frequent corporate missteps and esoteric technology, the console still saw some of the most innovative and impressive games of the generation.

Compute
"Your games could really go the extra mile - If you could actually crack how to use that Cell architecture."

One of the most infamous features of the PlayStation 3 is its powerful yet unwieldily computer architecture. This system was highly parallel for it's time, and even as late as December of 2019, some developers would compare the power of the PlayStation 3 CPU to that of some contemporary CPU designs, which is high praise for any processor of this era well over a decade after release. It should be noted that the system was far more conservative in it's GPU design, and here the system showed it's age much quicker.

The PlayStation 3 has a primary Power Processor Element (PPE) single core PowerPC processor clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. The system has eight Synergetic Processing Elements clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. An NVIDIA RSX clocked at 550 megahertz serves as the GPU of the PS3. The GPU is capable of 1.8 teraflops.

The PlayStation 3 has 256 megabytes of XDR RAM clocked at 3.2 gigahertz, and 256 megabytes of dedicated GDDR3 video RAM clocked at 700 megahertz.

Clusters of PS3 consoles were commonly used as a cheap compute platform, and for a time were even used (In massive clusters) as the basis for supercomputers. The Namco System 357 arcade board is also based on the PlayStation 3.

Hardware
The PS3 has radios for Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The PS3 also has 1000 megabit (1 gigabit) ethernet.

The logo on the PlayStation 3 console can be rotated for use in horizontal or vertical orientations.

The PS3 uses standard 2.5 inch Serial ATA (SATA) interface hard disk drives. Though aftermarket solid state disks can be used in a PS3 for some major performance boosts in some games, though not all titles benefit much from this upgrade.

Software
The PlayStation 3 includes a web browser.

PlayStation 2
Early PS3 consoles included the Emotion Engine, allowing for hardware based backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 2, with some later models eliminating the chip to use software emulation instead as a cost cutting measure. The Software Emulation used by these PlayStation 3 models was panned for being less compatible.

By the time of the PlayStation 3 Slim launch, PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility was dropped entirely. Instead, a select number of PlayStation 2 games were later re-released on the digital PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3, requiring a new purchase regardless of prior ownership.

PlayStation 1
All PlayStation 3 consoles are backwards compatible with original PlayStation games.

Resistance: Fall of Man
A science fiction and dieselpunk alternate history first person shooter and the first major entry in the Resistance series. The Church of England objected to the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in the game.

Read more about Resistance: Fall of Man and Controversy over the use of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man on Wikipedia.

2007

 * Lair
 * Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2008

 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Resistance 2
 * LittleBigPlanet

Afrika / Hakuna Matata
A photography and safari simulation game.

Read more about Afrika on Wikipedia.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Read more about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on Wikipedia.

Killzone 2
Read more about Killzone 2 on Wikipedia.

Infamous
A third person open world action adventure game based on navigating a city with newfound electricity superpowers. The game prominently featured a reputation system for player actions in game.

Read more about Infamous on Wikipedia.

Demon's Souls
The first game in the Souls series.

Read more about Demon's Souls on Wikipedia.

Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
An enhanced port of the innovative PC game.

Read more about Rag Doll Kung Fu on Wikipedia.

3D Dot Game Heroes
Read more about 3D Dot Game Heroes on Wikipedia.

2010

 * Gran Turismo 5
 * God of War III
 * Heavy Rain

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
An adventure game focused on locating the Atlantis of the sands.

Read more about Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Iram of the Pillars on Wikipedia.

Resistance 3
A Sci-Fi first person shooter. This entry in the Resistance series transitioned to a post apocalyptic theming.

Read more about Resistance 3 on Wikipedia.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
A JRPG with animated cutscenes made by Studio Ghibli, who also influenced the overall visual aesthetic.

Read more about Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on Wikipedia.

Journey
An artful adventure game with unique minimalistic two player cooperation mechanics that operated through simple chimes rather then text or voice chat.

Read more about Journey on Wikipedia.

2013

 * The Last of Us
 * Gran Turismo 6
 * The Guided Fate Paradox

Beyond: Two Souls
A cinematic action adventure game which was shown at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Read more about Beyond: Two Souls on Wikipedia.

2014

 * Magus

Persona 5
Released in 2016 in Japan and 2017 internationally, Persona 5 was among the few major JRPG titles released for the PlayStation 3 this late into the marketing of the console.

Read more about Persona 5 on Wikipedia.

Read More
There is a page about the PlayStation 3 in the Wikibook Strategy for Information Markets.

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - PlayStation 3 page.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Game Boy Advance

Development
Game Boy Advance, then known as the Advanced Game Boy (AGP) development started after the launch of the Game Boy Color in 1998, taking just two years.

The Game Boy Advance development kit was spartan, consisting of a caseless circuit board with attached components and little more.

During the development of the Game Boy Advance SP, a glasses free 3D screen was considered, but was not pursued due to the limited resolution possible on the Game Boy Advance making the stereoscopic effects poor. Such a screen would later be implemented once technology improved on the Nintendo 3DS line of consoles.

Misinformation about the Game Boy Advance prior to launch was not uncommon, with at least one major news outlet incorrectly saying in May 2000 that the system would have wireless networking and be internet capable. Demonstration Game Boy Advance consoles were playable at Spaceworld 2000 in August 2000.

Launch
The original Game Boy Advance was released in March of 2001.

Revisions and the Three Pillar Strategy
"Who are you?"

The Game Boy Advance SP was released in 2003. Nintendo also launches the "Who are you?" marketing campaign in 2003.

For a short period of time after 2004, Nintendo marketed both the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS at the same time. This was known as the three pillar strategy, referencing Nintendo's home console (Initially the GameCube), the Game Boy Advance, and the Nintendo DS being targeting at different market segments. Early Nintendo DS consoles were backwards compatible with the Game Boy Advance, helping gamers make the transition and allowing the Game Boy Advance library to be used on a newer system.

The Game Boy Micro was released in September 2005 for $99.99.

In 2006 the Visteon Dockable Entertainment was released, which was a portable DVD player with an officially licensed Game Boy Advance built in.

Legacy
The GBA was discontinued in Japan in 2006, North America in 2008 and finally in a few other regions in 2010. This marked the end of the Three Pillar strategy, and the Nintendo DS line would supplanting the Game Boy line with the DS line entirely, in addition to shedding Game Boy Advance backwards compatibility with later models.

81.51 million Game Boy Advance consoles were sold.

The low spec full length movies distributed on Game Boy Advance cartridges inspired some to unofficially continue the format, with new unofficial releases as recently as 2021.

Compute
A 32 bit ARM7TDMI based CPU clocked at 16.78 MHz powers the GBA. On the same package a Sharp LR35902 CPU is used for backwards compatibility clocked at either 4.2 MHz for GameBoy games or 8.4 MHz for GameBoy color games.

The Game Boy Advance has 256 kilobytes of RAM and 32 kilobytes of WRAM. The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) has access to 64KB of VRAM for Backgrounds, 32KB of VRAM for sprites, 1 KB of PAL RAM for Palette information, and 1 KB of OAM for sprite attributes.

The Game Boy Advance lacked dedicated 3D acceleration hardware, but was speedy enough to render very simple 3D graphics in software, which done by some games.

Though there are great architectural differences, the Game Boy Advance is often called a portable Super Nintendo Entertainment System due to their similar capabilities. While this is not accurate in terms of technology, it is a fairly useful generalization.

Output
The original GameBoy advance has a 40.8 millimeters by 61.2 millimeters Thin Film Transistor display that can display 32,768 colors simultaneously in bitmap mode, or 511 colors simultaneously in character mode. The display has a resolution of 240 x 160 pixels.

The Game Boy Advance can generate PCM sounds.

Power
The original GameBoy Advance takes 2 AA batteries, lasting about 15 hours.

The GameBoy Advance SP instead used a rechargeable lithium ion chemistry battery, and could power the system for about 7 to 10 hours while using screen lighting.

Accessories
In 2004 an accessory was released in Japan allowing for the Game Boy Advance to be used as a mobile video phone.

2001

 * Mario Kart: Super Circuit
 * Golden Sun
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Advance Wars
A turned based strategy game and an iconic entry in the Wars series. This game notably focused on the effect a commanding officer (CO) would have on their troops.

Read more about Advance Wars on Wikipedia.

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
Game director, designer, and composer Junichi Masuda stated that Ruby and Sapphire were the most challenging games to make, mostly for social reasons rather then technical ones.

The region of Ruby and Sapphire is actually based on a map of Kyushu, rotated for gameplay reasons.

The OST of Ruby and Sapphire is well known for it's heavy usage of trumpets.

Read more about Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire on Wikipedia.

Metroid Fusion
Widely considered to be among the best 2D Metroid games.

Read more about Metroid Fusion on Wikipedia.

Mega Man Battle Network 3
The plot of this game included an arc focusing on the serious theme of hospitalization, and notably included a subplot about a hospital being unable to continue normal operations due to a cyberattack. While the cyberattack presented in the game is quite fanciful, this bit of speculative fiction is still striking, because by 2003 such an idea was essentially a what-if scenario. Eventually such fears would become reality, when the WannaCry ransomware attack battered hospital operational capacity internationally in 2017.

Read more about Mega Man Battle Network 3 on Wikipedia.

2003

 * Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town

Boktai: The Sun is in your Hand
Boktai is designed by Hideo Kojima, and uses a cartridge with a light sensor to have real world conditions affect gameplay.

Read more about Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand on Wikipedia.

Mega Man Battle Network 4
This game introduced an updated art style to the series, though opinions on this decision are mixed.

Read more about Mega Man Battle Network 4 on Wikipedia.

2004

 * WarioWare: Twisted!
 * Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
 * Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
A top down 2D Zelda series game developed by Capcom and Flagship. The game was published by Nintendo, which managed production.

The defining feature of The Minish Cap was for the player to shrink down to small sizes to explore hidden aspects to the everyday world and dungeons. The sprite art of the game managed to evoke the cell shaded style of the contemporary home console game, The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker despite being in a different medium. In it's time the Minish Cap was very well received.

Read more about The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on Wikipedia.

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
Enhanced remakes of Pokémon Red and Green. These games introduced a new subregion for players to explore called the Sevii Islands.

Read more about Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on Wikipedia.

Pokémon Emerald
An enhanced version of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. It is considered by many to be the definitive version of the game due to a number of improvements made, including the Battle Frontier in game area and the addition of in-battle Pokémon animations.

Read more about Pokémon Emerald on Wikipedia.

Asterix & Obelix XX
A 3D platformer on the GBA praised for it's graphics which were similar to those found on the original PlayStation.

Read more about Asterix & Obelix XXL on Wikipedia

2005

 * Drill Dozer
 * Mario Party Advance

Mother 3
The final game in the Mother series. It was infamously never saw an official English release, with a number of reasons speculated as to why.

In 2021 a number of notable public figures in the gaming industry made note of the game.

Read more about Mother 3 on Wikipedia.

OpenLara port of Tomb Raider
A reverse engineered port of the 3D game Tomb Raider attracted widespread media attention in 2022.

Original Design

 * Space World 2000 Silver and Teal - Produced but not sold.

Game Boy Advance SP

 * Char edition - Late 2003 Game Boy Advance SP with red color and decal themed around the character Char Aznable, nicknamed "The Red Comet", from Mobile Suit Gundam.
 * Pikachu Gameboy Advance SP

Trivia

At least one piece of medical equipment reused a Game Boy Advance display.

The Game Boy Advance itself could be used as a glucose tester after the GlucoBoy cartridge was released in 2007 after being in development since at least 2004.

Development
There is a Wikibook on GBA Development.


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History of video games/Indie games

"Indie games" (short for "independent games") are independently-produced games that are created by a single person or very small team.

1999
In 1999 the first version of the GameMaker engine is released, and later gains popularity among indie game developers.

2000
A pirated English translation of RPG Maker is released by Don Miguel, introducing many to game development.

2002
RPG maker 2003 was a continuation of the RPG maker engine, and had surprising longevity, with commercial indie games still being released that were made the engine as of 2018.

2004
2004 was a seminal year in Indie gaming history, with several high profile releases attracting attention.

N was released as a freeware browser game, and would see a number of notable followup games. Alien Hominid was a browser game that was ported to PlayStation 2 and Gamecube in 2004, making it an early indie game to see a port from web to console.

2004 also saw the release of one notable game engines used by a number of games, including N and Alien Hominid.

Yume Nikki
A Japanese horror surreal 2D RPG.

Cave Story
A Japanese 2D platformer and shooter popular on PC at the time.

2005

 * First release of the Unity game engine.

Line Rider
A unique flash platformer game of sorts that allowed players to draw lines which would then be traversed by a character using a physics engine. Players would often leverage Line Rider to create their own artwork, some of which was enormously complex.

DEFCON
A real time simulation of Nuclear War. This game is known for it's simple yet deep mechanics, as well as it's retro vector graphics reminiscent of depictions of nuclear commands in Cold War era popular culture.

Dwarf Fortress
"Loosing is Fun!"

A text based open world game known for it's extensive systems which lead to emergent gameplay.

I Wanna Be the Guy
A freeware 2D Retro-styled Platformer known for it's notorious difficulty. This game artfully used level design to both increase the difficulty of the game, as well as to parody techniques commonly used by 2D platformer games in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Jazzuo & B-Games
In 2007 Polish developer "Jazzuo" creates several so called "B-Games", influencing a number of notable indie developers.

2008

 * Spelunky
 * Meat Boy
 * OFF
 * Braid
 * Mighty Jill-Off
 * Audiosurf
 * Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
 * Castle Crashers
 * World of Goo
 * N+

You Have to Burn the Rope
A flash 2D platformer known for it's exceptional simplicity and briefness.

2009

 * Machinarium

AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
A base jumping game between high rise buildings.

Canabalt
Among the first popular endless runner games. It's aesthetic qualities were well received, leading to the game being featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Angry Birds
An touchscreen physics puzzler hit on early iOS and Android mobile devices, which lead to an extended franchise.

Bit.Trip Beat
A Wii-ware arcade style music game that found widespread popularity, launching ports to other platforms and a series of successor games.

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1
An action shooter that proved to be among the most popular indie games available on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Unity Asset Store
In 2010 Unity launches their asset store, making it easier for indie developers to find assets for use in their games. As the decade progresses, other engines follow suit, such as the release of the Unreal Engine Marketplace in 2018.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent
A popular melding of adventure and survival horror game genres, and commonly considered among the best horror games of the era.

Fruit Ninja
A mobile game focused on using a touch screen to cut fruit and build combos, while avoiding slicing bombs.

Octodad
A freeware physics game focused on maneuvering an octopus man character through a 3D environment with unconventional controls.

Super Meat Boy
A 2D platformer known for both its difficulty, and its ability to quickly retry levels.

VVVVVV
A 2D platformer hallmarked by replacing jumping with inverting gravity and it's Atari 2600 style aesthetics.

Cart Life
A simulation game focused on the challenges of being a street vendor.

2011

 * Terraria
 * Bastion
 * The Binding of Isaac
 * Dungeons of Dredmor
 * The Stanley Parable
 * Hatoful Boyfriend
 * Jetpack Joyride
 * Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Kerbal Space Program
A 3D space action game featuring the green aliens.

To the Moon
A 2D RPG without battle mechanics known for it's plot revolving around the concept of memory.

2012

 * GameMaker Studio
 * Dust: An Elysian Tail
 * Frog Fractions
 * Fez
 * FTL: Faster Than Light
 * Hotline Miami
 * Mark of the Ninja
 * Plague Inc.
 * Slender: The Eight Pages
 * Skullgirls
 * Thomas Was Alone

Mari0
A notable fanmade mashup of Super Mario Bros and Portal.

2013

 * Antichamber
 * BattleBlock Theater
 * Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
 * Don't Starve
 * Cookie Clicker
 * Gone Home
 * Papers, Please
 * Risk of Rain

Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective
An unofficial fangame of Bubsy 3D, posted online when the domain name for the original game expired.

The game was set in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art during an exhibition of the postmodern work of James Turrell. The game itself delves into strange scenes, perhaps in a postmodern exploration of its own.

2014

 * Five Nights at Freddy's
 * Shovel Knight
 * 2048
 * Lisa: The Painful

Lethal League
A 2D fighting game centered around successfully passing a ball back and forth between players.

Freedom Planet
A 2D platformer made in the style of 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Nidhogg
A 2D sword fighting game known for it's balance and 1980's inspired visuals.

Transistor
Released in 2014, the game Transistor is known for many of its qualities, particularly its unique art direction. While working on Transistor, game artist Jen Zee took inspiration from the Art Nouveau style, as well as the work of 19th century Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. The game is also well known for its less direct storytelling methods, as well as it's unique hybrid real time and turn based action system which leads to interesting strategic choices for the player.

Game Engines
Unreal Engine 4 is released in 2014, offering a number of improvements.

The Godot and Xenko (now Stride) game engines are open sourced.

Unreal Engine 4 goes gratis

 * Unreal Engine 4 eliminates subscription fees, making it more accessible to indie developers.

Games

 * Undertale
 * Axiom Verge
 * 2064: Read Only Memories
 * Crypt of the NecroDancer
 * Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
 * Ori and the Blind Forest
 * Soma

Nuclear Throne
A top down 2D shooter known for it's difficult bullet-hell style gameplay.

2016

 * Furi
 * Tattletail
 * Job Simulator
 * No Man's Sky
 * Owlboy
 * Salt and Sanctuary
 * The Witness
 * Rec Room
 * Stardew Valley
 * Starbound
 * Superhot

VA-11 Hall-A
A mix of bartender simulation and visual novel created by a team in Venezuela.

2017

 * Cuphead
 * Bendy and the Ink Machine
 * Hollow Knight
 * Doki Doki Literature Club!
 * A Hat in Time
 * Hello Neighbor
 * Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
 * Night in the Woods
 * Yooka-Laylee
 * Pyre

2018

 * Celeste
 * Baldi's Basics
 * CrossCode
 * Dead Cells
 * Donut County
 * Gris
 * Into the Breach
 * Hades

2019

 * Baba Is You
 * Beat Saber
 * Outer Wilds
 * Untitled Goose Game
 * Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

2020

 * Omori

Friday Night Funkin'
Friday Night Funkin '  was developed for the Ludum Dare game jam. Some news outlets noted the similarities of Friday Night Funkin '  to the sorts of games which were based on Adobe Flash. It's important to note that there was an increased interest in Adobe Flash games, as the time of this game's launch corresponded with the discontinuation of Flash. Notably the game was open source which attracted modders to the game. At the time of release, it was somewhat unusual for original indie titles to launch under an open source license.

Poppy Playtime
is a horror game developed and published by american independent developer MOB Games. The player takes the role of a former employee of toy-making company Playtime Co., who revisits its abandoned toy factory 10 years after its staff's disappearance. The player navigates through a first-person perspective and must solve puzzles, some requiring a gadget named the GrabPack, to progress while avoiding various enemies. first game chapter is released on October 13, 2021, The second chapter is released on May 5, 2022 and the third chapter is released on January 30, 2024.

Cult of the Lamb
is a single-player construction and management simulation, rogue-like action-adventure game developed by indie developer Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital. The game was released on 11 August 2022 for macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game follows a possessed lamb who is saved from death by a god-like stranger named "The One Who Waits", and must repay their debt by creating a loyal following in its name.

Pizza Tower
Pizza Tower is a 2023 platform game created by the indie developer Tour De Pizza. It follows a pizza chef, Peppino Spaghetti, who must scale a tower to prevent the destruction of his pizzeria. Across 20 side-scrolling levels, the player increases their score by gathering collectibles and defeating enemies to build combos. At the end of each level, they activate an escape sequence and must return to the beginning within a time limit. Pizza Tower does not feature health or lives, and its difficulty depends on what the player chooses to achieve.

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History of Artificial Intelligence within Computer Science
Oxford Languages defines artificial intelligence (AI) as 'the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence'

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (DSRPAI), held in 1956, saw the emergence of AI as a discipline. It was here where John McCarthy, who first coined the term 'artificial intelligence', met with other academics such as Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon to research and discuss AI.

Before its establishment as a discipline, AI was a popular subject amongst researchers. Perhaps the most notable work being the Logic Theorist, a computer program created by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and Cliff Shaw in 1955, which was later presented at the DSRPAI.

Significant Work
Alan Turing was a British mathematician and computer scientist who famously cracked the enigma code during WW2, reaching feats in the field of AI before its debut. In his 1950 paper, 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence', he details the Turing test which sought to answer the question "Can Machines Think?". Turing describes 'The Imitation Game' in which an examiner questions a computer and a human to identify one from the other. Based on Turing's work, the CAPTCHA is now more widely used to determine whether a user is a computer or a human.

At the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Joseph Weizenbaum developed ELIZA - a natural language processing computer program - released in 1966. Many users thought ELIZA could conceptualise but she was simply "pattern matching". Despite this, ELIZA was one of the first programs with the capability to attempt the Turing test.

In 1997, the reigning chess champion Garry Kasparov was defeated in multiple chess matches by IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue. Of the six games, three were a draw, one a win for Kasparov, and two were won by Deep Blue.

Education and the Future of AI
At higher education, artificial intelligence is primarily taught as part of a computer science degree but is now increasingly being offered as a standalone course. AI has roots in many subject areas including philosophy, mathematics, psychology, and biology. Within psychology, for example, to build artificially intelligent machines requires an understanding of how human brains function. Its versatility as a discipline is reflected in the multiple sub-fields of AI - neural networks, robotics, speech processing, machine learning, etc.

With AI expanding as a discipline, the AI worldwide software market grows year-on-year (approximately 54% from 2019-20). However, there are concerns about AI and what it means for our future. Often these are centred around unemployment, security, inequality, and singularity. These concerns point to a different direction for AI; one which interests the public sector.

Evidence in Aggression
The most widely used definition of aggression is 'any act that harms another individual who is motivated to avoid such harm'. Importantly, aggression refers to behaviour that is intended to hurt another living being, physically or verbally, and this can be direct or indirect. Evidence in aggression consists mostly of correlational studies and laboratory studies.

Genetic Factors
MAOA-L is a variant of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene which causes low MAOA activity and has been linked to increased levels of aggression. The MAOA gene governs the production of the MAOA enzyme which deconstructs neurotransmitters to be reused. Evidence of this correlation includes a study of an extremely violent Dutch family, convicted of rape and attempted murder, which found unusually low MAOA activity in their brains.

Isolating genetic factors has been a challenge for researchers. The difficulty lies within separating genetic and environmental factors. Frazzetto et al. provide evidence for the interaction between these factors - within his sample, only participants who had experienced significant trauma in early life demonstrated a correlation between MAOA-L activity and high levels of aggression. This gene-environment (GxE) interaction is often referred to as diathesis-stress.

As there is no standardisation when measuring aggression, researchers use a range of methods including self-reports, teacher and parent reports, and direct observations. This can prove problematic when results differ based on the method used. In a meta-analysis of 51 twin and adoption studies by Rhee and Waldman, genetic factors were found to have a greater effect on aggression in studies that used self-reports rather than teacher or parent reports.

The social learning theory
Bandura observed that aggression can be learnt directly, through operant conditioning, and indirectly, through observational learning. He describes vicarious reinforcement - a child is reinforced to behave aggressively if they see it work effectively for their models i.e. aggressive behaviour results in desirable consequences. Bandura's famous Bobo doll study supports this hypothesis. In his study, children individually watched an adult model behaving aggressively towards a 'Bobo doll'. To create frustration, the participants weren't allowed to play with other toys between their observation time and their time with the 'Bobo doll'. Results show the children mirrored the aggressive behaviour they had seen earlier, without being provoked. In another group, of children observing a non-aggressive model, hardly any aggressive behaviour was shown towards the 'Bobo doll'.

Cultural differences mean that in certain cultures, like !Kung San in the Kalahari desert, social norms don't permit aggression so aggressive behaviour isn't reinforced directly or indirectly. Without the presence of a model, children still displayed aggressive behaviour. This perhaps suggests there is an instinctive element to aggression that a biological approach might better explain or that the social learning theory can only be applied to western cultures as the theory would struggle to interpret this specific finding.

The effects of computer games
Evidence for the effects of computer games on aggression includes laboratory experiments, correlational studies and longitudinal studies. Anderson et al. completed a meta-analysis of this evidence and found a correlation between exposure to violent computer games and aggressive behaviour. These results were present in both sexes and across individualist and collectivist cultures.

A correlation, however, is not causation i.e. exposure to violent computer games and aggressive behaviour can be closely associated but this doesn't mean that one causes the other, nor does it indicate the direction of causality. It is also possible that a third variable, a confounder, is responsible for aggressive behaviour which a correlation doesn't consider as it only studies two variables.

Truth in Cartography
Cartography is the 'discipline dealing with the art, science and technology of making and using maps'. Cartographers start by collecting data from the featured area so they can detect patterns to present. They try to depict this data accurately on a map which is then given to a map user to interpret. Users change the map accordingly and create a final projection. The cartographic process is lengthy and one which involves many components from different disciplines.

Persuasive Cartography
Persuasive cartography describes maps intended to influence opinions rather than display impartial geographic information. There are many factors which affect how a map is perceived, including text, colours, projections, shading, and images. As cartographers make decisions about these factors, few maps display a completely objective view of reality. They can have this influence on opinions and beliefs because most people assume maps are objective and true, made by professionals who would never purposely misinform.

A common example of distortion is the Mercator projection. While this projection is useful for navigation, it has often been criticised for misrepresenting sizes - specifically diminishing areas close to the equator and enlarging world powers. Canada and Russia, for instance, seem to make up about 25% of the Earth's landmass when actually they only hold 5%. Another discrepancy, brought to the world's attention by the computer-graphics designer Kai Krause, is 'The True Size of Africa'. The map aims to 'fight against rampant Immapancy' by showing several countries packed into Africa's outline. The term 'Mercator Effect' has since been coined, which refers to the alleged effect this projection has on our cognitive map of people. A more accurate depiction of landmasses, the Gall-Peters projection, is now increasingly being used.

This phenomenon also applies to political maps, namely the political map of India. Published in 2015 by the country's official survey office, the map includes the disputed regions of Jammu and Kashmir within its territory. While Pakistan does label this region as 'disputed territory' on their map, the colour-coding implies it is under singular control. These maps can significantly affect the beliefs of these countries' citizens, especially as they are endorsed by their governments.

Power in Contemporary International Relations
In international relations, power refers to the capacity to convince another entity to behave in a way they would not have otherwise behaved. Hard power is defined as the ability to influence states via coercion, through military status and economic sanctions. The term 'soft power', first introduced by American political scientist Joseph Nye, describes a state's ability to influence others through persuasion, not coercion. This is possible through the attractiveness of a nation's culture and foreign policy, rather than their economic and military power.

Hard and Soft Power
Hard power is embodied by realism; states can achieve sovereignty through military power within our anarchic international system. It takes a shorter amount of time to acquire hard power, rather than soft power, as its resources are tangible e.g. trade embargos. Its effect, however, is only short-lived as it relies on the pressure states feel to act in a certain way, different from its regular practices. Historically, world powers have been the product of hard power. The US, for example, has acquired much of its status through military action. In 1898, when the Spanish-American War took place, the US acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines through military means. Since then, the US has continued to expand, with heavy involvement in global affairs. Currently, they have around 800 military bases across the world, a threat many countries cannot ignore.

Contrastingly, soft power relies on culture, political values, institutions, and legitimate practices. Legitimacy is central to soft power - to exercise soft power, a state's activities need to be recognised as legitimate. Time is also integral to soft power. As its resources are intangible, it takes a longer amount of time to build soft power, rather than hard power, but its effect is longer-lasting. Now the spotlight is on soft power. Firstly, hard power can be ineffective - when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, they ignored how their actions would be perceived by their allies and the illegitimacy of the attack, which jeopardised global confidence in US leadership. Secondly, in our increasingly digitalized world where the public plays a more active role in international politics, soft power practices are essential.

Looking to the Future: Smart Power
With the ineffectiveness of hard power and the limitations of soft power now recognised, world leaders look to smart power. Smart power is the capacity of a state to integrate aspects of hard power and soft power to advance a state’s goals effectively and efficiently. It involves a balance between strong military and economic tools and secure alliances and institutions. The EU is perhaps one of the best examples of this. The EU possesses military and economic power but ultimately, decide the norms for international relations. Actors are encouraged to comply with these norms to receive its benefits i.e. decades of peace between 27 nations.

Smart power requires smart strategies; those which respond promptly to our ever-changing world. Currently, these strategies should look to address our increased global interconnectedness and the increased development of target populations. With more access to formal education and the availability of social media, countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have grown more sophisticated and aware of their own society and less susceptible to the influence of others. These newly educated populations, therefore, require a different approach, smart power.

The Fluctuating Power of Theories
We live in a world which is constantly changing - the explanatory power of a theory in IR will fluctuate according to context. Before the world wars, for example, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism#:~:text=Liberalism%20is%20a%20political%20and,and%20equality%20before%20the%20law. liberalism] had strong explanatory power, namely for its [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory#:~:text=The%20democratic%20peace%20theory%20posits,conflict%20with%20other%20identified%20democracies.&text=Democracies%20tend%20to%20possess%20greater,to%20preserve%20infrastructure%20and%20resources. democratic peace theory]. The theory states that liberal democracies are less likely to go to war with each other than non-democratic states. Bremer's statistical analysis provides compelling evidence, ‘even after controlling for a large number of factors...democracy’s conflict-reducing effect remains strong’. The commencing of the Cold War, however, triggered disillusionment with this previously dominant theory. The state-centric nature of realism was able to more accurately interpret the actions led by the US and the Soviet Union e.g. the constant replacement of communist-led governments for capitalistic authority. More recently, we have witnessed a rise in power for constructivism, a theory able to explain change in the international system through norms, diffusion, and socialisation. In contrast to realism, leading constructivist Wendt believes, 'Anarchy is what states make of it'. It follows that self-help and sovereignty are norms which have changed our interests and led us to believe we need to defend territorial boundaries.

Human Monogamy in Evolutionary Biology
As only 3-5% of the mammalian species are socially monogamous, evolutionary biologists deem the prevalence of human monogamy an anomaly. In seeking an explanation, academics have extrapolated ethological work to humans.

Research suggests that ecologically imposed monogamy may originate in early monogamous couples when population levels were low and scarce resources could only provide well for a couple and their offspring. Male and female partnerships thus emerged as the most effective way to utilise resources. This explanation is well-documented amongst biologists; Benshoof and Thornhill indicate that monogamy is mutually beneficial, citing the example of marmoset Callimico goeldii. The female’s reproductive success heavily depends on ‘the food and protection provided by the hunting male’, while the male invests in his relationship to ensure ‘the survival of his young and thus his own reproductive success’.

Whilst this explanation has been contested, the general consensus is that a monogamous mating system is more likely to survive within a population. Cooperative breeding details the differences in kin-based benefits between non-monogamous and monogamous mating systems. As kin-based benefits are diminished under female multiple mating, biologists predict that monogamy is key to increase relatedness within a system and receive the subsequent evolutionary advantages.

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History of video games/Platforms/Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Development
Proceeded by the highly successful NES and Famicom, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Famicom were highly anticipated followup systems. Technical design of the system was lead by engineer Masayuki Uemura, who began working on the system by 1988.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Famicom both featured much improved hardware over their proceeding systems. Ken Kutaragi, a talented engineer at Sony, was responsable for the design of the SNES sound chip.

Initially featuring radically different designs for both systems, the system design was greatly simplified to more conventional form factors as development progressed. Lance Barr, the designer of the previous NES, was brought back to work on the SNES. Designer Lance Barr added curved surfaces to the top of the SNES to stop gamers from placing drinks on top of the console, a relatively common risk people had taken with the original NES and a common reason for destroyed consoles when some drinks were inevitably spilled.

The controller design was also significantly different from the NES. Shoulder buttons were added to the controller accommodate fighting games while keeping face buttons minimal for simplicity. This allowed for improved control schemes for games to be developed.

Launch
The Super Famicom was launched on November 21st, 1990 in Japan. To prevent robberies before launch, Nintendo shipped the Super Famicom to Japanese retailers during the night. The much anticipated of the Super Famicom was still chaotic enough for the Japanese Government to recommend console launches be restricted to weekends. The SNES was released in North America almost a year later, in August 1991.

System life
In 1992 Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi purchased the Seattle Mariners, stopping them from moving to Florida as a sign of appreciation to the city of Seattle where Nintendo of America is based. Nintendo would later use the Mariners for an easter egg in their game Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run.

Legacy
Production of the SNES ended in 1999 and production of the Super Famicom ended in 2003. 49.1 million SNES consoles were sold.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was directly succeeded by the Nintendo 64. Nintendo partnerships with Phillips and Sony to attempt to develop an CD ROM add on for the SNES would indirectly result in competing systems including the original PlayStation and Nintendo IP for the Phillips CD-i.

Notably the designer of the SNES sound chip, Ken Kutaragi, was instrumental in the development of the Sony Playstation. Despite developing a competing system, Ken Kutaragi would remain gregarious with his old partners.

The ARC processor architecture got its start in the SuperFX enhancement chip used by some SNES games. .

In 2020 the prototype for the Nintendo PlayStation sold for $300,000 at auction.

Compute
A 16 bit Rioch 5A22 CPU powers the SNES and is variably clocked from 1.79 megahertz to 3.58 megahertz depending on the operation being performed. The CPU is capable of executing about 1.7 million instructions per second.

The console has 128 kilobytes of RAM, a fairly sizable amount for a console at the time of launch.

While compared to it's primary competitor in the Sega Genesis or MegaDrive, the SNES CPU is clocked significantly slower, but makes up for this in efficiency of what is accomplished in a clock cycle, being able to accomplish many more instructions per second. Still, other factors could give still give the Genesis or Megadrive the edge over the SNES, and comparing the two competing consoles is not easy.

Hardware
The SNES has two different Picture Processing Units with access to 64 kilobytes of dedicated video RAM. This allowed the SNES to display up to 128 sprites and 256 simultaneous colors from 32,768 total colors.

The SNES has an Sony S-SMP Audio CPU, DSP, and 64 kilobytes of dedicated audio RAM. The SNES has eight audio channels.

Storage
SNES cartridges typically ranged from 0.23MB to 4.0MB, maxing out at 6.0MB. This allowed the SNES to hold large amounts of 2D graphical content, and significant amounts of music instructions.

While most consoles this generation still used cartridges as the SNES and Super Famicom did, some emerging competitors used CD-ROM technology, which gave them vastly more storage, allowing orchestral soundtracks and full motion video to be used. Furthermore, an individual CD was much cheaper to press than it was to make a high capacity cartridge.

Nintendo would try and fail to bring a CD-ROM add on for the SNES and Super Famicom to market. However the inability of developers to really capitalize on the advantages of the CD-ROM format this generation allowed the SNES and Super Famicom to still perform well against CD-ROM equipped systems, while avoiding the slow access times and high upfront drive cost of the format at the time.

Co-processors
The SNES cold make use of co-processors included on game cartridges, and this was often used to add 3D effects. Inspired by SuperFX chips, in December of 2020 an unofficial expansion cartridge containing a SuperRT system with three execution cores clocked at 50 megahertz was made to allow raytracing on the SNES. This shows that the cartridge based co-processor model could be taken quite far, had it been needed.

Accessories
The Japanese Satellaview satellite download service allowed gamers to receive content over the air temporarily.

The third party X-Band service allowed some games to be played online.

The LifeCycle Exertainment Bike was an exercise bicycle for the SNES, a version of the LifeCycle exercise bicycle which received an endorsement from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Qualities

 * Platformers, especially mascot platformers, were quite popular for the system.
 * Major JRPGs released on the system, and so the system was quite notable for the development of the genre.
 * Many games incorporated elements to demonstrate the cutting technological capabilities of the system. In particular use of "Mode-7", enhancement chips, and pre-rendered CGI were highly regarded as a mark of technical superiority at the time.

Super Mario World
Read more about Super Mario World on Wikipedia.

F-Zero
The first game in a series of high speed futuristic racing games. This game used mode 7 pseudo 3D environments to great effect.

Read more about F-Zero on Wikipedia.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Read more about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on Wikipedia.

Final Fantasy IV
Released as Final Fantasy II in America, as previous entries in the series had not been released there.

Read more about Final Fantasy IV on Wikipedia.

Super Mario Kart
Early in development Super Mario Kart was originally intended to be a two player version of F-Zero. The first Mario Kart game. At the time of release Super Mario Kart was critically acclaimed for it's two player multiplayer and tight gameplay. Decades later, the game continued to receive high marks by reviewers. Mario Kart would also have influences on individuals who would later join the industry. A major example of this is Shuntaro Furukawa, who's interaction with the game inspired him to get involved with the family company, and as a result would lead him to later become the 6th president of Nintendo.
 * Development
 * Launch
 * Legacy

Read more about Super Mario Kart on Wikipedia.

Mario Paint
Mario Paint would influence a number of creatives, including future game developers.

Read more about Mario Paint on Wikipedia.

Dragon Quest V
Widely considered to be among the best games in the Dragon Quest series, and highly ranked among Japanese role playing games in general.

Read more about Dragon Quest V on Wikipedia.

Final Fantasy V
Read more about Final Fantasy V on Wikipedia.

Romancing SaGa
Read more about Romancing SaGa on Wikipedia.

Super Mario All-Stars
An enhanced remake compilation of the NES Mario games. Among the first major series to receive such an enhanced remake compilation.

Read more about Super Mario All-Stars on Wikipedia.

Star Fox
An on rails shooter, which leveraged the power of the SuperFX chip for polygonal 3D graphics.

Read more about Star Fox on Wikipedia.

Mega Man X
A new Mega Man series that leveraged improved system capabilities over the NES to improve gameplay, graphics, and sound as well as a deeper story.

Read more about Mega Man X on Wikipedia.

1994

 * Donkey Kong Country - Used pre rendered 3D graphics to great effect.
 * Final Fantasy VI - Marketed as Final Fantasy III in North America.
 * Killer Instinct
 * Kirby's Dream Course

Super Metroid
Super Metroid influenced a number of gamers and developers with it's unique and complex gameplay, level design, and environmental storytelling.

Read more about Super Metroid on Wikipedia.

EarthBound
EarthBound influenced a number of creative works from different creators following it, such as the television series South Park and the video game Undertale.

Read about EarthBound on Wikipedia.

1995

 * Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
 * Yoshi's Island
 * Dragon Quest VI
 * Chrono Trigger
 * Kirby's Avalanche
 * Tetris Attack / Panel De Pon
 * Front Mission

Clock Tower
A cult horror game about surviving the Scissorman in a mansion.

Read more about Clock Tower on Wikipedia.

1996

 * Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
 * Super Mario RPG
 * Harvest Moon
 * Kirby Super Star
 * Bahamut Lagoon

1997

 * Kirby's Dream Land 3

2000

 * Metal Slader Glory: Directors Cut

Star Fox 2
After being shelved for over two decades, Star Fox 2 was officially released in 2017 on the SNES classic.

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill
The game featured a protagonist based on President Bill Clinton's real life cat.

In fall 2016 a campaign was started to release the game fully after a prototype cartridge was discovered. The game was released in early 2018.

Read more about Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill on Wikipedia.

Special Editions
Special editions and versions of the console.
 * Starlight Gaming Station - Super Nintendo Entertainment System kiosk for hospital use.
 * Nintendo Gateway System - In flight entertainment version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
 * Bandai HET - Unreleased portable SNES with additional functions demoed at E3 1993.

Homebrew
There is a WikiBook on SNES programming.

Archived websites

 * SNES website
 * SNES hardware website


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Sega Genesis

Development
The system was preceded by the Sega Master System.

Sega approached Atari about bringing the MegaDrive to the American market. After negotiations broke down Sega decided to launch the console in the United States on their own.

Following development of the base console a number of add on devices were developed. Development of the Sega CD was particularly problematic, with drive motors occasionally catching on fire in pre production units.

Japan
In October of 1988 the Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan at a cost of 21,000 yen.

On May 31st, 1991 the TerraDrive computer and Mega Drive hybrid system was released in Japan.

North America
The Sega Genesis was launched in North America in 1989. Notably, future president of the United States Donald Trump attended the 1989 Genesis launch in Manhattan.

The Genesis did very well in North American gaming market. This is especially impressive, as at launch time rival Nintendo held over 80% of the market for home video games in the United States of America, and by 1990 would control over 90% of the American game market. By launching quality first party exclusive games, courting unique third party developers with fewer artistic restrictions, listening to consumer feedback, and launching aggressive marketing campaigns, Sega was able to take on an entrenched industry titan and become one itself by briefly taking over half of the market for itself, An event widely considered to be one of the gaming industry's most important upsets.

Worldwide
The Mega Drive saw a European release in 1990.

Refresh
To make the platform more competitive, Sega would release two major add ons to expand the system's capabilities. The Sega CD was released in 1992, and gave the system a CD drive with massively improved storage capacity as a result. The Sega 32x was released in November 1994 for $160, and massively increased the system's raw power, though not nearly enough to be competitive with the new consoles it was meant to fend off. Both add ons would have exclusive games that could not be played on a standard Genesis or Mega Drive.

Legacy
The Genesis influenced a number of contemporary systems. The Sega Genesis was directly followed by the ill fated Sega Saturn. A portable Genesis was also made as the Nomad. A Mega Drive module was also produced for the Pioneer LaserActive.

The Sega Genesis was discontinued in 1997 outside of Brazil. However the console continued to be a popular choice in certain markets after this date. Sega partner Tectoy was still selling 150,000 consoles annually as of 2016. In 2016 Tectoy began taking preorders for a 2017 revision of the console for the Brazilian market at a cost of 399 Brazilian real. In 2010 Mega Drive gaming was still popular in Egypt. 29 million Sega Genesis consoles were sold.

Compute
The Genesis is powered by a primary 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 7.6 megahertz. A secondary 8-bit Z80 coprocessor was clocked at 3.5 megahertz.

The Genesis has 64 kilobytes of RAM dedicated to the primary processor, and 8 kilobytes dedicated to the Z80 coprocessor.

Some games used cartridge based chips to allow for 3D graphics.

The Sega Genesis was initially considered easier for developers to use then the competing SNES due to it's straightforward design instead of reliance on support hardware.

Graphics
The Genesis uses a custom chip called the Video Display Processor (VDP) clocked at 13 megahertz for rendering graphics. The VDP has 64 kilobytes of RAM, 128 bytes of color RAM, and 80 bytes of vertical scroll RAM. The Genesis could render 80 sprites and 64 simultaneous colors from 512 total colors.

Blast Processing was technically a feature supported by the Genesis VDP, though it was simply a technique used to generate images with more colors and was never widely used on official Genesis games.

Storage
Genesis cartridges typically maxed out at 4 megabytes, though a few 5 megabyte cartridges exist.

Cartridges were region locked through a combination of software and hardware methods, with mixed results and variations on usage while the console was on the market.

Networking
The Sega Channel was an expensive service that allowed games to be temporarily downloaded over a cable connection.

The third party X-Band service allowed some games to be played online.

Sonic the Hedgehog
The flagship fast paced mascot platformer and system seller for the console.

Read more about Sonic the Hedgehog on Wikipedia.

Zero Wing
Originally released as an arcade game in 1989.

The Japanese version of Zero Wing had 35 different endings, a notable feat for the time.

The poor English translation of Zero Wing sparked the early 2000's internet meme "All your base are belong to us".

Read more about Zero Wing and All your base are belong to us on Wikipedia.

Art Alive!
An early art program for the console.

Read more about Art Alive! on Wikipedia.

1992

 * Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Ecco the Dolphin
Game creator Ed Annunziata was a prolific reader of the works of scientist John C. Lilly, who closely studied dolphins. Annunziata is also said to have been influenced by the work of musician Pink Floyd.

Read more about the original Ecco the Dolphin game on Wikipedia.

1993

 * Disney's Aladdin
 * NBA Jam
 * Mortal Kombat II - Retained the gore effects from the Arcade version.

Sonic CD
The intro movie to Sonic CD is considered by many to be iconic.

Read more about Sonic CD on Wikipedia.

1994

 * Sonic the Hedgehog 3
 * Sonic & Knuckles

Wacky Worlds
An indirect successor to Art Alive!. It featured Sonic the Hedgehog and competed against Nintendo's Mario Paint.

CrazyBus
An infamous homebrew title.

Special edition consoles

 * HeartBeat Personal Trainer- A rare North America variant of the Sega Genesis equipped with motion sensors. Just 1,000 versions of this were produced, with a small number of accompanying exclusive games reliant on motion controls.
 * CSD-GM1 - CD Player with integrated Mega Drive.

Development
There is a WikiBook on Genesis Programming.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation

Nintendo Partnership
The Play Station was initially a partnership between Nintendo and Sony to develop a disk based add on for the SNES. The partnership fell through when Nintendo made a surprise announcement in 1991 that they were partnering with Phillips for their CD-i system instead, as they did not want to yield control over the SNES CD format to Sony.

Development
Despite litigation from Nintendo, Sony continued to develop their game console independently.

Ken Kutaragi was able to keep costs low by leveraging Sony's existing semiconductor and CD-ROM factories. This vertical integration gave Sony a huge cost advantage over competing hardware, which had to buy from external firms instead of an internal supply chain.

The entry of Sony into the console market was initially not taken seriously by the industry. However by building a solid support infrastructure for their console prior to release, Sony was able to sign a number of developers, and even get a few developers to switch their franchises entirely to their platform. The PlayStation was also considered relatively easy to develop for, which was a huge advantage in a market featuring a number of consoles with hard to master architectures.

Japan
The PlayStation launched in Japan on December 3rd, 1994.

North America
Sony employee Steve Race announced the cost of the PlayStation in North America at E3 1995, shortly after Sega announced the release of it's Sega Saturn at a cost of $399.

"$299"

This short speech launched the room into applause, as the PlayStation was significantly less expensive then competing systems.

Europe
The PlayStation was quite popular after launching in France, with a March 4th, 1997 article in Le Monde claiming 600,000 consoles were sold over the prior 18 months.

Revisions
A number of revisions were made during the production of the PlayStation, resulting in the removal of RCA ports and later on the parallel port.

Net Yaroze
The Net Yaroze was launched in March of 1997 for $750 to promote independent development for the PlayStation. While not comparable to the full development kit with features like a debugger missing, the system gave Indie developers the opportunity to have demos of their games included in official Demo CDs.

Legacy
The original PlayStation was followed by the PlayStation 2.

Manufacturing of the original PlayStation stopped in 2006. The PlayStation was a massively popular console, ultimately selling over 102 million units.

The original PlayStation had a popularity long surpassing its launch. Due to its status in the modding community as a cheap and beginner friendly console, unofficial mods for the system continued to be released as recently as 2021.

Technology
"PS1 was the best design of its generation."

Compute
The PlayStation CPU uses a 32 bit RISCI processor derived from an LSI CoreWare CW33300 design, and is clocked at 33.87 megahertz.

The PlayStation has 2 megabytes of RAM and 1 megabyte of VRAM.

The PlayStation did not generate enough heat to need a fan.

The PlayStation Aesthetic
The unique technical attributes of the PlayStation lead to games developed for the system possessing a unique aesthetic. A defining aspect of this are visually sharp polygons which "wobble".

Because of the relatively large storage space available on CD, many games used relatively high resolution textures. However a lack of compute resources meant that these textures were generally not very filtered or smoothed.

It's important to note the context of which the PlayStation would have been used to understand how its graphics would have actually looked to a gamer of the day. Generally game consoles of that period were played on cheap or modest consumer grade CRT televisions, which naturally had a fuzzy sort of quality and distortion to them. These imperfections and flaws thus somewhat worked to obscure console limitations. When playing original PlayStation games on superior displays, it should be noted that the result one sees is different from what would have been generally seen at the time.

CD Drive
The PlayStation has a 2x speed CD Drive. Though the console is not the first to leverage CD-ROMs, the original PlayStation is perhaps the most iconic console to use CD-ROMs, and is often seen as the archetype of a CD-ROM Console.

Advantages
Sony was a major player in the CD-ROM industry, and the PlayStation exists precisely because of this given its origin as an SNES and Super Famicom CD-Add On. However the CD-ROM was important for more than design inertia. The use of CD technology was a major selling point of the system, for both consumers and manufacturers. This is because CD-ROMs were capable of much more storage then consumer grade cartridges of the time, allowing for more expansive games. CDs could be pressed at a lower cost for the manufacturer then the manufacture of cartridges.

Disadvantages
While the PlayStation was not the first console to use optical disks, the technology still had a long way to go. The most notable downside was speed, with many games requiring significant loading times. Despite the massive increase of capacity over cartridges, some ambitious developers required even more space than what could be offered by a CD-ROM, requiring some games to be shipped on multiple disks. Additionally, as the 1990s progressed, the proliferation of consumer CD-Burners made piracy for the system extraordinarily easy compared to cartridges.

Memory Cards
Since the PlayStation could not burn save data to CD-ROMS and game saves had become a somewhat standard feature among games, a way for users to save games was needed. This was accomplished with memory cards.

PocketStation
In Japan, the Pocketstation was released as a basic handheld console and memory card combo that could sync mobile minigames with PlayStation games.

Qualities

 * The original PlayStation is seen as an usurper in the JRPG field, with major publishers taking advantage of the system's enhanced storage capabilities, as well as a much lesser degree of publisher restrictions on game content to create new and innovative experiences. Many JRPGs for the original PlayStation are seen as "Killer Apps" for the system.
 * Racing and sports games all did well on the original PlayStation.
 * Platformers on the original PlayStation have a mixed legacy. While some of the most acclaimed platforms released on the original PlayStation, the system would also see the release of some of the most notorious platformed blunders of the genre.
 * Thanks in part due to it's native CD audio capabilities, rhythm and music games did well on the system.

Tekken
Read more about Tekken on Wikipedia.

Twisted Metal
Read more about Twisted Metal on Wikipedia.

Air Combat / Ace Combat
Read more about Air Combat on Wikipedia.

Crash Bandicoot
The first Crash Bandicoot game.

Read more about Crash Bandicoot on Wikipedia.

Tomb Raider
Read more about Tomb Raider on Wikipedia.

Tekken 2
Read more about Tekken 2 on Wikipedia.

PaRappa the Rapper
Read more about PaRappa the Rapper on Wikipedia.

Revelations: Persona
The first of a series of games noted for loosely drawing concepts from Jungian psychology.

Read more about Revelations: Persona on Wikipedia.

Resident Evil
The first Resident Evil game.

The game included some Live Action cutscenes, and despite using some cutting edge filmmaking techniques for the time, credits for the actors involved were not properly recorded, leaving only the actor's first names in the credits.

The 1998 Resident Evil Director's Cut had music said to be composed by the then famous deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi, only for it to later be revealed in 2014 that a Samuragochi used a ghostwriter, and that Samuragochi was not fully deaf. Samuragochi would later claim he actually had written the music for the Basement section of the game, and backed this up with a recorded VHS performance of him playing it on keyboard in the 1990's. The music of the Directors Cut is often seen as hit or miss, depending on the individual track.

Read more about Resident Evil on Wikipedia.

1997

 * Gran Turismo - Best selling game on the system
 * Final Fantasy VII - First 3D Final Fantasy game
 * Tomb Raider II
 * Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
 * Final Fantasy Tactics
 * Tomba! - 2.5D platformer adventure
 * Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
 * Mega Man Legends

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
2.5D mascot platformer Read more about Klonoa: Door to Phantomile on Wikipedia.

Ace Combat 2
Read more about Ace Combat 2 on Wikipedia.

1998

 * Tekken 3
 * Tomb Raider III
 * Resident Evil 2
 * Crash Bandicoot: Warped
 * LSD: Dream Emulator
 * MediEvil

Xenogears
Xenogears was originally supposed to be Final Fantasy 7.

Read more about Xenogears on Wikipedia.

Metal Gear Solid
The first 3D game in the Metal Gear series. This game was originally a 3DO title before development shifted to the PlayStation.

The game featured an advanced stealth system, accounting for events such as enemy guards tracking footprints the player left in the snow, using wolf urine to mask the player scent, and other innovative mechanics.

The acclaimed main theme of the game is notably similar to the earlier composition of Winter Road by the famed Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.

Read more about Metal Gear Solid on Wikipedia, or read the WikiBook on the general Metal Gear Series.

Spyro the Dragon
The first game in the Spyro the Dragon series. This innovative 3D platformer and collectathon allowed more open movement then most other games in the genre at the time.

Read more about Spyro the Dragon on Wikipedia.

1999

 * Gran Turismo 2
 * Final Fantasy VIII
 * Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
 * Silent Hill
 * Chrono Cross
 * Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return
 * Ape Escape
 * Pepsiman
 * The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
 * 40 Winks
 * Harvest Moon: Back to Nature
 * Crash Team Racing

Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Despite being the older release, Innocent Sin was released in North America years after Eternal Punishment due to localization issues arising from including Adolf Hitler as a character.

Read more about Persona 2: Innocent Sin on Wikipedia.

Um Jammer Lammy
The sequel to PaRappa the Rapper. The game is noted for it's guitar focused spin on the mechanics of PaRappa the Rapper.

Read more about Um Jammer Lammy on Wikipedia.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
The sequel to Spyro was released just a year later, and featured greater movement options, as well as more side quests.

Read more about Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! on Wikipedia.

Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere
Read more about Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere on Wikipedia.

2000

 * Final Fantasy IX
 * Spyro: Year of the Dragon
 * Crash Bash
 * Dragon Quest VII
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
 * Mega Man Legends 2

Vagrant Story
Vagrant Story is known for its system defying artwork, which used subtle application of pixel art and 3D tricks to create an incredibly detailed environment, especially given the limitations of the hardware.

Read more about Vagrant Story on Wikipedia.

Tear Ring Saga
A tactical role playing game developed by Shouzou Kaga, the creator of the Fire Emblem series. Nintendo would later take legal action over the close similarities between this game and Fire Emblem.

Read more about Tear Ring Saga on Wikipedia.

Nintendo Play Station
The prototype Nintendo Play Station.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Sega Saturn

Development
Sega approached both Sony and Silicon Graphics about collaborating on console hardware, but these deals fell through. Both companies would market consoles that would prove to be significant competitors to the Saturn. Sony would launch the original Playstation and Silicon Graphics became a key technology partner with Nintendo during the development of the Nintendo 64.

The Sega Saturn was initially focused on 2D games, but fearing competition from Sony's Playstation, Sega engineer Hideki Sato decided to add another CPU to give the Saturn extra power this without consulting the company's main experts in 3D Graphics, who were busy in the Arcade division. This lead to a strange and unique technical architecture for the Saturn, which somewhat increased it's capabilities at the great expenses of additional production costs and development complexity.

Launch
The Sega Saturn was launched in Japan in November of 1994 at a cost of 44,800 yen.

The Sega Saturn was launched in the USA four months earlier then initially planned when a surprise E3 1995 announcement was made that the Saturn would be released that weekend at a price of $399, which caused Sega to take a $100 loss on each Saturn sold. The surprise launch damaged relations with 3rd party developers and retailers.

Sega had a hard time attracting 3rd party developers in part because the Saturn very difficult to develop for on its own, and this was made worse by the Saturn initially lacking a compiler - requiring programmers to use platform specific assembly for Saturn games.

In December 1995 the Hi-Saturn was released in Japan at a cost of 150,000 yen. The Hi-Saturn is an automotive version of the Saturn that was a GPS navigation system and entertainment system.

Legacy
The Sega Saturn was discontinued in 1998. The system sold less than 10 million units, but has a cult following. The Saturn was followed by the Dreamcast.

Following the failure of the Saturn, Ken Kutaragi of Sony would boast to Saturn designer Hideki Sato of the vertical integration advantage Sony had over Sega, and urged them to become a software focused developer, which Sega eventually did following the inability of the Dreamcast to gain marketshare.

By 2020 the Sega Saturn was known as a difficult console to collect for.

Technology
"Saturn was nuts"

Compute
The Sega Saturn has two Hitachi 32-bit SH-2 processors clocked at 28.63 megahertz with 4 kilobytes of cache memory.

The Sega Saturn has 2MB of RAM, split into one megabyte of SDRAM, and one megabyte of slower DRAM. The Saturn also has 1.5 megabytes of VRAM.

The Saturn uses two custom GPUs, the VDP1 and the VDP2.

Hardware
Audio was handled by the Saturn Custom Sound Processor, the Yamaha YMF292.

Development Hardware
A special development model, Sega Saturn Address Checker, was used by developers to verify memory usage compliance. Early revisions of this hardware is notable for it's length, at approximately 3 ft long.

Panzer Dragoon
A cult classic rail shooter.

Read more about Panzer Dragoon on Wikipedia.

1996

 * Nights into Dreams
 * Panzer Dragoon II Zwei
 * Sakura Wars

Shining Force III
Read more about Shining Force III on Wikipedia.

Last Bronx
Read more about Last Bronx on Wikipedia.

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
An entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Read more about Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers on Wikipedia.

Sonic R
A racing game in the Sonic series, and the poster Sonic game for the Sega Saturn. Well known for the song "Super Sonic Racing".

Read more about Sonic R on Wikipedia.

Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru
A sidescroller action game noted for its extremely limited production run.

Read more about Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru on Wikipedia.

Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams
A port of the arcade side scrolling shooter game.

Read more about Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams on Wikipedia.

Bulk Slash
Open 3D environment mech game.

Read more about Bulk Slash on Wikipedia.

The House of the Dead
Read more about The House of the Dead on Wikipedia.

Radiant Silvergun
Read more about Radiant Silvergun on Wikipedia.