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User:Dyinghouseplant/sandbox

Historical Prevalence
Environmental conservation aims to preserve and maintain various natural areas and resources, often during or after intensive human usage, though there is debate on whether conservation should focus on maintaining environments for their own sakes, or in conjunction with humanity’s usage of them. Various forms of conservation have been employed throughout human history, stemming from a need for efficient agricultural practices. Crop rotations were one popular technique used to maintain arability of land. Though some records date back further, Leviticus 25:4, written around the 6th century BC, references letting land lie fallow every seven years, which is a preliminary form of the modern-day strategies. Additionally, terracing of fields in hilly areas reduces soil erosion and has been practised for millenia, as shown in the 2,000-year-old World Heritage rice paddies of the Phillippine Cordilleras. In these cases, instances of environmental conservation were a response to population growth and therefore, a necessary means of survival.

Evolution to a Discipline
With the rise of European colonialism and need for building materials, deforestation became a concern for academics of the time. John Evelyn, an English diarist and tree-specialist, published Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions in 1664, with support from the prestigious Royal Society. This was an influential work in forestry academia, as conservation shifted from a survival technique to a concern of higher scholarly merit. In 1760, Reverend Jared Eliot published Essays Upon Field-Husbandry in New England, with conclusions pertaining to the ensuring of adequate soil maintenance, use of fertilizers, and the management of irrigation and water runoff, after several years of experimentation and study. Ultimately, he predicted problems that would occur as the population grew and land became less plentiful. One of the most recent markers of conservation’s promotion to a discipline was the creation of higher educational degrees in Environmental Studies or related fields. Syracuse University was one of the first in the early 1950’s, but it was followed by many other institutions. The Stanford Earth Systems program was established 40 years later, and today is one of the world's most prestigious degrees for the subject of Environmental Studies.

Emergence Into Mainstream Concern
Environmental conservation entered the eye of the public when the Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century led to unhealthy living conditions and environmental degradation, pressuring governments to impose restrictions. Preservationist and conservationist factions emerged, differing on sustainable resource usage versus minimal resource usage. There occurred a revival of environmental debate in the 1960s, as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring explained the world's bleak future given its reliance on excessive production and chemical usage. In the 1980s, oil companies Shell and Exxon also carried out environmental research suggesting an 2oC temperature rise within the next 50-80 years. The burial of these figures for decades highlights economic underpinnings that hinder effective environmental research. Environmental conservation as a discipline today has acquired another level of difficulty as governments across the world, such as the US and Brazil, refuse to take science-backed action.

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History of video games/XR

Foundations
As augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality applications proliferated it became clear that an umbrella term was needed for these related spacial interactive technologies. Though XR (eXtended Reality) began entering popular use among game developers as a catch all term for applications falling anywhere on this reality to virtuality continuum.

Developments
In 2019 Audi experimented with XR technology as both in car entertainment and as a motion sickness treatment.

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

title: History of video games/XR


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History of video games/Open games

Intro
Open Source games are interesting from a historical point of view, because they allow the examination of a codebase and development cycle over time.

0 A.D.
Read more about 0 A.D. in its Wikibook.

Minetest
In 2011 the first early release (0.2.20110731_3) of Minetest was posted to Github.

title: History of video games/Open games


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History of video games/Retro gaming

Official Retro Consoles
The early 2000's saw the first releases of consoles that emulated older systems with officially licensed games. The late 2010's and 2020 saw many more companies release all in one systems.

FPGA Consoles
FPGA based consoles use reprogrammable chips to mimic other hardware, potentially allowing for more efficient or accurate emulation than pure software emulation can.

RetroUSB AVS
An FPGA based NES compatible system.

Retro Bit Retro Duo Portable
A clone system that supports SNES games out of the box, and NES, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy through adapters.

Yobo FC Twin
Combination NES and SNES compatible console.

Hyperkin RetroN
NES compatible system.

Hyperkin RetroN 5
The RetroN 5 was shown off at E3 2013.

The Hyperkin RetroN 5 is a console launched on December 10th, 2013 that runs Linux and open source emulators to play cartridges for the Famicom, NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy Advance systems.

Hyperkin RetroN 77
Released by 2018, the RetroN 77 plays Atari 2600 at an upscaled 720p resolution over HDMI.

GB Boy Color
Game Boy Color clone.

Omega MVS
Rather different from other consoles listed here, in that it's simply a Neo Geo MVS placed in a console formfactor.

OSSC
The Open Source Scan Converter is an low latency upscaler to convert old signals to work on modern displays.

Framemeister
An early upscaler for retro gaming.

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History of video games/Microconsoles

History
The early 2010's saw a crowdfunding boom, and with that boom came a number of microconsoles. A potential factor in the failure of early microconsoles to garner significant indie support is the increasing openness of major consoles to indie developers around this time.

Notable Microconsoles

 * Nvidia Shield TV
 * Ouya
 * GameStick
 * M.O.J.O.
 * Razer Forge TV
 * Fuze Tomahawk F1
 * ZTE Fun Box
 * Fire TV
 * Nexus Player

title: History of video games/Microconsoles


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User:Unpoichiche/sandbox

'''

History of Discipline : Oenology and History
 Introduction: Oenology and its roots

'''

Oenology is the term used to refer to the study of wine and the process of winemaking, from the seed of the wine to the conservation of the bottle. Old paintings, sculptures and other form of art show that wine existed almost 8000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Winemaking already was a captivating discipline, you can see it by its frequent in ancient art. Wine fascinates also for its mystic connotation, take for example Dyonosos, the God of the vine and wine who also represent madness and excesses. This discipline indeed is as fascinating as dangerous, because of the effects alcool can have on one.

'''

 How History shaped Winemaking

'''

Oenology has indeed existed since very long, it’s a discipline that doesn’t require modernity since it all comes from nature and a natural process: vinification. The vinification includes destemming, pressing, maceration and fermentation. If wine already existed before, we can say that oenology really appeared when Roman producers started to choose and select wine and grapes, but also variety and lands. It’s also the romans centurions on their campagnes that participated to the expansion of wine, since drinking was a part of doing war.

With the fall of the Roman Empire on the 5th century and the rise of Christianity, monks slowly started to cultivate vines in order to make money and because wine represents the blood of Jesus in Christianism ( again we find the correlation between wine and religion). To this day, French monasteries and abbayes still make wine. At the time, having lands, and especially vines, meant having political influence and economic power. Wine becomes more and more a sign of wealth and power, you can find some of the best wines on the table of the the Pope or the French king. At this point, winemaking already is a considerable source of income for France, and knowing oenology is a sign of refinement and distinction, we think that the job of oenologist actually already existed.

After French Revolution, lands of vines are divided and redistributed among new producers. Indeed Winemaking, and thus, oenology, continues to evolve with the historical, cultural, social or economic context.

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 Oenology Today

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Today, oenologist is a full-fledged job since 1955, but the definition and credibility depends on the country. Many of the winemakers are also oenologists, and some even sell their services to clients. Oenology doesn’t concern exclusively the farming process, it Actually also requires a string knowledge in Biology or Chemistry and among others, a experienced sense

'''

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User:Expert345555

Simple Linear Regression The bets way to find out the relation between a single input variable and output variable, providing the continuous nature of both the variables. Where input being predictor, independent variable, input feature, input parameter and output variable being predicted, dependent variable, output feature, output parameter. To find out the correlation of how an input variable is related to the output variable and how it is shown with a single line.

Example of the concept let us have a look at scatter plots. This scatter illustration gives a graphic interpretation of the correlation of two continuous variables. Photo-1 This is what we see in the above picture. 1.	The direction 2.	The strength 3.	The linearity The above attributes are between factor Y and X. The dissipate plot gives us that Y and X have a solid positive linear relationship. Thus, we can extend a straight line which can define the data in the most accurate way possible. If the relationship between variable X and Y is strong and linear, then we conclude that independent variable X is the effective input variable to predict dependent variable Y. To check further collinearity between variable X and Y, we have correlation coefficient (r), With which we can find the numeric value of correlation between two variables. We can witness strong, moderate, or weak correlation between two. Higher the value of “r”, higher the preference given for particular input variable X for predicting output variable Y. Few properties of “r” are listed as follows: 1.	Range of r: -1 to +1 2.	Perfect positive relationship: +1 3.	Perfect negative relationship: -1 4.	No Linear relationship: 0 5.	Strong correlation: r > 0.85 (depends on business scenario) Command used for calculation “r” in RStudio is: > cor(X, Y) where, X: independent variable & Y: dependent variable Now, if the result of the above command is greater than 0.85 then choose simple linear regression. If r < 0.85 then use transformation of data to increase the value of “r” and then build a simple linear regression model on transformed data. How to Implement Simple Linear Regression: 1.	Analyze data. 2.	Get sample data for model building. 3.	Then design to explain information. 4.	And use the same developed model on the whole population to make predictions. The equation that represents how an independent variable X is related to a dependent variable Y. Photo-2&3 Example: Let see an example for a better understanding. Suppose we want to examine the weight gain based upon calorie intake only based upon given data. Photo-4 Presently, if we need to foresee weight gain when you devour 2500 calories. Right off the bat, we must envision information by drawing a scatter plot of the information. To conclude that calories intake is the best independent variable X to foresee dependent variable Y. We can also calculate “r” as follows:5 As, r = 0.9910422 which is greater than 0.85, we shall consider calories consumed as the best independent variable(X) and weight gain(Y) as the predict dependent variable. Now, try to envision a straight line draw a way that ought to be near each data point in the scatter outline.6 To predict the weight gain for consumption of 2500 calories, you can simply extend the straight line further to the y-axis at a value of 2,500 on x-axis. This projected value of y-axis gives you the rough weight gain. This straight line is a regression line. Similarly, if we substitute the x value in equation of regression model such as:7 y value will be predicted. Following is the command to build a linear regression model.8 We obtain the following values9 Substitute these values in the equation to get y as shown below.00 So, weight gain predicted by our simple linear regression model is 4.49Kgs after consumption of 2500 calories.

title: User:Expert345555


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User talk:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/History/History of Mathematics

I would suggest changing the start of quantum mechanics to the 20th century as it is generally accepted that it began in the 1920's with the whole Born, Heisenberg, Bohr etc group and the Copenhagen interpretation etc. Uclqdeb (discuss • contribs) 09:27, 21 October 2020 (UTC)


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User:TimRJordan/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/2020-21/Seminar group 3/Evidence

Qualitative evidence in Architecture -- a case study of the "Walkie Scorchie" skyscraper
Melted cars, burnt carpets, fried eggs on the asphalt. Those were the consequences of a design flaw in the commercial skyscraper “20 Fenchurch Street”. Located in London’s financial district, the building takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street. Because of its distinctive shape, it was nicknamed the “Walkie-Talkie", but a series of unfortunate events led to the emergence of a new nickname: the “Walkie Scorchie”.

The flaw in the skyscraper's design
An architect's job is to use their construction knowledge and drawing skills to create designs for construction projects. The design of a building should be functional, safe, sustainable, and aesthetically pleasing. However, that was not exactly the case with the “Walkie-Talkie" skyscraper. Soon after the construction’s completion in the spring of 2014, an incident occurred, which signaled the colossal flaw in the skyscraper’s design. A London resident named Martin Lindsey had parked his Jaguar car on Eastcheap (a street in proximity to the skyscraper) in the afternoon and when he returned to his car two hours later, he found out that some of its parts (namely, the wing mirror and the badge) had melted. Because of the skyscraper’s curved shape, the light and heat from the sun, concentrated on the building’s surface, was reflected directly on Eastcheap street, causing a surge in temperature which had melted the car’s parts. The concentrated light, reflected from the skyscraper, had also scorched the carpet of a beauty salon. Office workers complained about the rising overall temperature on Eastcheap street, especially during lunchtime when they left their offices to grab lunch on the street. Some enthusiasts even managed to successfully fry eggs on the asphalt.

Qualitative evidence in Architecture
The precise reason for the mistake in the skyscraper’s design was never publicly confirmed by the architect, Rafael Vinoly. However, a possible reason could be an insufficient amount of qualitative evidence collected about the surrounding area. While architects are primarily concerned with mathematically accurate drawings of the building’s design, they may sometimes overlook the importance of thorough examination of the area’s qualities, such as the weather patterns, the local landscape (including other buildings and their designs, the presence or lack of vegetation), the social activities undertaken at different times of the day by the residents and workers, the number of parked vehicles, etc. All of those are examples of qualitative evidence that can provide an architect with a better understanding of the local environment (and in the case of “20 Fenchurch Street”, of the temperature and its potential control in the area). Overall, qualitative evidence proves to be crucial for the safety of a building.

Evidence in Cosmetic Science
Cosmetic science is an interdisciplinary field that combines a wide range of disciplines like biochemistry, pharmacology, and marketing together to research on cosmetic products. One of the central goals of this field of study is to develop products successfully in the commercial world. Thus, evidence in cosmetic science mainly focuses on the development of cosmetic products.

As a science discipline, the design of cosmetic products is related to scientific approaches targeting to select the correct ingredients in the formula. However, to meet the needs of customers, the conceptualization of the product is based on market surveys. Some companies choose to post questionnaires to research on the interests of customers, while others rely on product reviews posted on their own or third-party websites. Customer reviews are important for identifying the key features of the planned product as they are personalized, honest, and comprehensive. Companies like Glossier and The Ordinary have also launched short quizzes to help customers personalise their needs for cosmetics products when making purchases. Because most of the reviews are unstructured and are written in different styles, natural language processing applications are also used to classify and summarise the needs of customers, forming secondary evidence. Based on the market survey, cosmetic companies can gain useful information on the functions of the product, price range, and selling points.

In the product design process, active ingredients are chosen to match the needs of customers. Some ingredients are chosen from previous research on similar products. But when there is an incompatibility between different components or when ingredients with new properties are needed, computer-aided design can be used to find new molecules. Screening experiments are needed to select the designed molecules and to identify the concentration of each ingredient in the mixture. Characterizations of the prototype product are based on quantitative data like pH value and viscosity. Animal tests are sometimes used to evaluate the function (e.g. antioxidant activity) and safety of the product, though the usage of animals is banned in many countries. Alternatively, artificial skin and other lab-grown tissues are used as the replacement of animals in product testings.

Other economical and social factors can also act as evidence to influence the development of cosmetic products. Financial analysis needs to be done on the operational feasibility during the manufacturing process. Prices of raw materials, especially the active ingredients, are therefore important evidence for determining the formulation of the final product as companies intend to search for a balance between the investment return and the selling price. Governmental regulations also provide guidance on the prohibited ingredients in cosmetic products, thus affecting the formula.

Evidence in Mathematics
Mathematics is an scientific discipline based on the study of numbers and shapes regrouping many branches including Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. Mathematicians use logic while reasoning in demonstrations: every statement is the result of deductive logical thinking that follows theorems that can't be discussed. They seek to find universal patterns that are always true. "1+2=3" is a simple example that everybody knows and would agree with and yet it is an evidence strong enough to be at the base of the discipline.

The mathematical thinking follows a strict objective scientific logic. As soon as a "model" has been proven true, it becomes a "theorem" that can be therefore used for other works. Some materials are sometimes just assumptions, whether it is a new idea or just something that we are currently unable to prove; they are called "conjectures". Some of them are proven right, like the Four Colour Theorem, and some are proven wrong like the Twin prime conjecture. In the case they are found to be nor true neither false, the conjectures enter the so-called mathematical 'axioms' (mathematical statements that are taken to be true but unprovable at the foundation of mathematical theory).

There are many different approaches to the evidence in Mathematics. Some of the methods include: by Direct proof, by Contradiction, by Contraposition, by Construction, by Probabilities and Statistics or even by Computer-assisted proof and many others.

It is therefore logical to assume that Mathematics uses and prefers quantitative evidence. It mainly uses primary evidence but sometimes when referred to a theorem demonstrated by others, for example, it can relate to secondary evidence. This is why Mathematics is so trustable, numbers don't lie.

Mathematical evidence in other disciplines
As said before, mathematics is a subject that can be trusted as a result is or true or false. Since the beginning of human life, we have pursued the understanding of our world and its functioning. Mathematics can be a tool to help many disciplines to find the truth. In fact, every other scientific discipline uses mathematics such as physics, chemistry, biology, geology, computer sciences... Mathematics provides enough material for scientists to use them alongside with their own discipline to provide trustable evidence to prove theories. This is the fundamental evidence. Moreover, it doesn't stop to Sciences, mathematical results, such as statistics, can be used as evidence in many other disciplines such as law, journalism, geography, history and art. Numbers are undeniable evidence.

Mathematical evidence in law
While numbers are undeniable evidence, the context in which they are applied do not always guarantee their usefulness as evidence and can be misleading. In the 1968 American robbery case People v. Collins, mathematical probability was used as evidence to prosecute a couple for robbery. The case goes as such: a witness of a robbery described a pair of robbers as a black male with a beard and mustache and a Caucasian female with a blond ponytail, both of whom were fleeing in a yellow car. A few days later, a couple matching those almost all of these descriptions were arrested and trialed in court. A mathematician testified using the multiplication rule of probability, which states that the probability of independent events happening at the same time is equal to the product of the individual probabilities of each event occurring. By multiplying the individual probabilities of a couple possessing those traits (the probability of black man with beard is 1 in 10, man with mustache is 1 in 4, white woman with pony tail is 1 in 10, white woman with blond hair 1 in 3, yellow motor car is 1 in 10 and interracial couple in car is 1 in 1,000), the mathematician claimed that the probability of any couple possessing the characteristics as described by the witness was 1 in 12 million, so it was highly unlikely the couple arrested were innocent. While the jury found this enough to give a guilty verdict, the court overturned the case due to the flaws in the argument. Firstly, this was a textbook example of prosecutor's fallacy, which incorrectly assumes that the probability that a defendant is guilty is equal to the probability that a random defendant has certain characteristics. In addition, the multiplication law of probability only holds for events that are independent. In this case, they were not as men with beards are more likely to have a mustache.

Evidence in biology
In science in general, evidence is key to backing up all the scientific theories that surround us and try to make sense of all the phenomenons happening everywhere, all the time. But as these theories are only suggested by researchers, they need to be tested to collect evidence. The more evidence collected, by the more different people, the better.

Scientific evidence is used in three main different ways. It can be a link -strongest link being a “cause/consequence” link, allowing for instance to predict the behaviour of a similar event-, a difference -data used as evidence that something isn’t the same as something else (different characteristics/reactions/etc.)- or a change -establishes something’s change within time.

With these results and these different uses of evidence/data, one can solidify a scientific theory or, on the contrary prove it is wrong, generating what is called a paradigm change.

Darwinism
One major example of a paradigm change in the history of biology is the Darwinian paradigm. Darwin’s evolutionary theory justifies the diversity of life by the process of natural selection. At the time, it caused a real disruption in the way people saw evolution, therefore impacting their way of thinking about the evolution of humans which was very controversial as opposed to the Bible's explanation of the apparition of humans, thus perceived by some as “an attack of traditional values”. Charles Darwin presented his theory in 1859 in On the origin of species.To back up his theory he used multiple different experimentations and observations - such as the notorious finches of the Galapagos islands possessing a large variety of shapes and sizes of beaks, accomplishing multiple functions that Darwin saw as a proof of the effect of natural selection on these different species according to the island they were one and its environment, requiring different beak qualities -all these observations forming solid scientific evidence to back up his evolutionary theory; a theory adopted in most parts of the world today.

The Origin of Life
Stanley Miller’s experiment in 1953 was also an important event in the history of biology's paradigm changes, as it offered an explanation of the origin of life on earth, triggering the growth of research in this field. “Life” is not easy to define; Christopher Chyba and Carol Cleland (two astrobiologists) even said in the Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere that trying to define it would be a mistake, as the knowledge about life is too small to impose an actual definition on it. However, although the lack of evidence of its origin makes it hard to define, a list of common characteristics of life on Earth can still be established; life’s essence is chemical, information is transmitted from one generation to the next by molecules, life exploits thermodynamic disequilibrium, biomolecules interact with water, and living systems have emerged as the result of random variations and natural selection.

In 1953, Stanley Miller’s experiment concluded that the environment most likely to have hosted the development of life was a “primordial soup”. Since then however, more evidence collected in different experiments have suggested that life wasn’t developed in such an environment but rather in black smokers or, as suggested more recently, alkaline vents.

The need for more evidence is therefore always needed in this scientific domain, always backing up certain theories or proving that others are wrong, contributing to the ever-evolution of the theories of the origin of life for instance, but also in all biological domains in general.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Chlorofluorocarbons
Atmospheric chemistry is an interdisciplinary field which considers the atmospheric chemical processes and their impacts on issues such as air pollution and climate change.

One key branch of atmospheric chemistry is the impact of man-made chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs). Thomas Midgley first developed CFCs in 1928 for use in chemical refrigeration. During the 1950s and 1960s, CFCs were used in both large scale and domestic air conditioning systems as well as a wide range of products such as aerosol sprays. In addition, they were used in the manufacture of polymers. It would take irrefutable scientific evidence proving their detrimental effect on the ozone layer to limit and eventually ban the commonplace use of CFCs in domestic and commercial settings.

British scientist James Lovelock invented the Electron Capture Detector (ECD) which could determine trace atoms and molecules in a gas sample. The levels of CFCs Lovelock detected were almost identical to the levels of CFCs produced. The presence of CFCs was even observed in remote areas of the world, notably on Lovelock's expedition to Antarctica.

Lovelock’s findings were presented in a 1972 lecture which ignited the interest of Professer F.S. Sherwood Rowland. Rowland went on to investigate what happens to the CFCs in the atmosphere and, alongside Dr Mario Molina, Rowland began to understand the dangerous effect CFCs had on the ozone layer. They discovered that CFC molecules rise to the stratosphere, break down upon reaction with UV light and the released chlorine atoms subsequently react with ozone molecules, thereby depleting the ozone layer. Their findings were published in the science journal Nature in 1974.

These findings were not immediately accepted by the chemical industry. In 1975, the chairman of Du Pont dismissed this newfound scientific evidence. However, validation of Rowland and Molina’s findings came from scientists from the British Atlantic Survey who observed a decrease in stratospheric ozone since the mid-1970s above the Halley and Faraday research centres in Antarctica. Further confirmation came from NASA scientists who, through satellite observations, found that ozone levels were depleted across the whole Antarctic continent.

In 1987, 56 countries agreed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the ozone layer, which aims to reduce CFC production and usage. Recent satellite observations by NASA have provided proof that the ozone layer above Antartica is recovering.

Evidence in the Anthropology of Religion
Anthropology of religion is a sub discipline of anthropology concerned with the social and cultural implications of religion on human societies, including comparative study of different religious systems. It is helpful to note the distinction between anthropology of religion, which focuses religion in a social context, and theology, which focuses on the nature of religious belief and the divine itself. The reliance of anthropological research on fieldwork makes it a highly empirical discipline - its evidence is largely based on observable phenomena. Such evidence can be split boradly into two categories: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative evidence
Qualitative evidence may consist of case studies, oral histories, interviews, field observations and other forms of non-numerical data that approximate and characterise the object of study. Qualitative evidence generally lends itself to a more phenomenological research approach, as it allows for a detailed picture complete with the meanings and values that humans associate with religion, and therefore helps provide understanding of the subjects' perspective that broadens our description. The phenomenological epistemological framework, supported by qualitative evidence, is particularly useful given the complexity of religion and the diversity of the human populations involved. Ingrid Storm emphasises the value of qualitative evidence in facilitating "empathic evocativeness which allows the reader to participate vivaciously in the subject's experience". Religion is a deeply personal experience which can benefit from qualitative methods to capture its richness and nuances.

Qualitative evidence does have its drawbacks to research within the Anthropology of Religion, particularly when considering the issue of subjectivity. The researcher inevitably influences the data collected through the personal decisions they make during the research process (ie. what questions they choose to ask, what they choose to emphasise etc). Confirmation bias plays a significant role in this, as the researcher may be inclined towards overemphasising data that support their hypotheses and being overly dismissive of data that does not.

Quantitative evidence
Quantitative evidence refers to numerical and statistical data which, in the context of Anthropology of Religion, may take the form of surveys, administrative records and commercial statistics.

Quantative evidence has an advantage over qualitative evidence in that the methodology used to obtain the data offers a greater level of precision. Quantitative methodologies prioritise reliability and validity through techniques that attempt to ensure a disciplined research process that minimises the risk of error. However, the precision of quantitative evidence compromises the complexity of qualitative data; statistics such as the number of people attending church or the amount of money donated to a charity provide useful insight into religiosity, but they fails to capture certain nuances which may affect meaning (eg. contextual factors).

The mixed method approach
Anthropologists have expressed the view that forcing a choice between qualitative evidence and quantitative evidence is often unhelpful given the need for both complexity (offered by qualitative methods) and precision (offered by quantitative methods) in the Anthropology of Religion. Although a mixed method approach that incorporates qualitative and quantitative evidence does entail complications with regards to the direct comparibility of different collections of evidence, it can be invaluable in "acheiving complimentarity, contextualisation and elaboration rather than corroboration of results".

What are the evidences in History?
History is a very broad field of study. Interdisciplinary in nature it englobes economics, international relations, gender studies, among many other disciplines. As a result historians get to use a more diverse set of evidences compared to other disiciplines. These evidences can be from primary sources or secondary sources. Primary sources give first hand accounts of certain historical events and are very concrete things. Like when archeologists find reliques (jars, coins, corpses) inside a tomb for example. Secondary evidences are made from the analysis of historians and represent our interpretation of how things could have been in the past. They are far more common than primary sources.

Primary versus Secondary Evidence
Because primary sources have so much more value than secondary sources, historians continuously try to fund new excavation projects. Most recently, since 2018 archeologists have searched new quarters of the roman city of Pompeii. City which was destroyed at the beginning of the first millennia by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. These last two years have provided an unprecedented amount of artifacts which help us deepen our understanding of how the city was organized, both politically and in terms of architecture, arts etc. Writings on walls and clay tablets found very recently have even provided evidence that the date of the actual disaster was not the one we originally thought of. Moving from August 24 79 to October 17 79. As we see, theses primary evidences give very precise information but are very limited in their quantity and therefore cannot be the only source of information. That is why secondary sources are essential. Secondary sources results from the collection, analysis, and interpretation of results by historians in order to recreate and share their knowledge with the average person as precisely as possible. While secondary evidences are usually more comprehensible they are often tainted by the lens through which the historian looks at the world. It is very difficult to always be completely objective and as a result people should always be cautious while looking at secondary sources.

How bias can influence evidences in History
Because History relies a lot on the personal feelings or ideas of the historian or even the person who made the historic artifact, bias and interpretation are common and can completely change the way an historical event is regarded. While we said that primary evidences were concrete in nature and therefore left little room for interpretation that does not mean that we should completely believe every primary sources we get. A famous adage says "History is written by the winners" and while the origin of the quote is blurry (maybe Chruchill, maybe Goring, maybe even before) it illustrates very well that throughout history most of the evidence left by the vanquished was destroyed while victors left their mark and influence. An example of that is the knowledge we have on pre-colonial cultures in America and especially Latin-America. Since very recently most of the information we had on the Incas, Aztecs or Mayas was from texts or objects left by the conquistadors and depicted these civilizations as illiterate precarious and anarchic savages. But because of new evidences we know for a fact these empires were a lot more developed than we thought. With political structures, advanced medicine and scientific knowledge, and a writing system, sometimes even more complex than the European invader, they were not savage canibals. This Bias in history can be even more pronounced when looking at secondary sources. In this case the personal ideology of the writer can modify even more the past and have dangerous effects on our society. An American historian might undermine the USSR's importance in world war 2 or a French historian might over estimate France's role in helping the American colonies achieve independence. In any case, this can spread mis-information which may influence people or our society as a whole today in some negative way.

Evidence in Public Policy
The study of public policy is interdisciplinary, combining fields such as political science, economics, law and public management to understand the relevant concepts and methods involved in policymaking. In UCL, the Social Policy and Social Research MSc also focuses on the links between research and policy.

Evidence-Based Policymaking
Evidence-based policymaking is a concept that advocates for the use of qualitative and quantitative evidence to inform policy decisions. It proposes that when scientific evidence and scientific methods are used comprehensively to understand ‘what works’, policy makers can better craft policies that achieve their goals to improve public well-being. Proponents of evidence-based policymaking establish that ideally there is a wide breadth of evidence used to inform policy. Quantitative data, data that is in numerical form such as statistics and percentages, is unbiased and can enable policymakers to have a better understanding of the facts surrounding an issue. Qualitative evidence is evidence collected through interviews with the public, focus groups, surveys etc. While policies shaped by evidence mainly rely on quantitative evidence, qualitative research adds a human perspective to the numbers. Currently, evidence-based policymaking is most common when it comes to public health, an example being the Government of Tanzania basing their health service reforms on the results of household disease surveys.

The modern debate about using evidence to shape public policy was popularized by the UK Labour government in the 1990s, with their party manifesto in 1997 being "what counts is what works". The Modernising Government white paper published in 1999 noted that the government "must produce policies that really deal with problems, that are forward-looking and shaped by evidence rather than a response to short-term pressures; that tackle causes not symptoms”. Though the idea of using evidence to inform policy seems to be common sense for the general public, the concept of evidence-based policymaking can be controversial.

Limitations of Evidence-Based Policymaking
Some political theorists are of the opinion that policymaking is fundamentally the discussion of an ideal society, something science and evidence alone cannot answer. Some have even taken the extreme stand to dismiss the entire idea of evidence-based policymaking as a concept that will never be fully applied in reality, with political scientist Jenny Lewis claiming that it is nothing more than a "technocratic wish in a political world". She argues that basing policy on science and evidence simplifies the complex nature of policymaking, as the process is inherently political.

However, even from this perspective, evidence is not irrelevant. Proponents of evidence-based policymaking argue that evidence is a tool that serves to identify the possible outcomes of a policy. It informs the policy, altering the minor details to improve its effectiveness, instead of aiming to directly influence the goal of the policy. They recognize that in a democracy, transparency and debate about social concerns are necessary, as well as how different social outcomes are valued compared with one another. This is something evidence cannot answer, as these discussions have to consider social values. An example of this is the debate about abortion in the United States. The debate is not solely about creating an abortion policy that is best for women’s health, something evidence can heavily inform. Instead, the debate is primarily discussed in terms of rights, whether the rights of an unborn outweighs the rights of women over their bodies. This is something based on the fundamentals of human rights, something science and evidence cannot answer.

Evidence in modern climate change
Climate change corresponds to the alterations, over a long period of time, of temperature and weather patterns on Earth or in a particular location. Its field of study encompasses the natural sciences. Climate change can be a natural process. Today, often called “modern climate change”, it refers to the global warming and severe weather changes the Earth has undergone since the Industrial Revolution due to human activity.

According to the NASA, the probability of human activity being responsible for climate change today is superior to 95%. However, many climate “sceptics” believe that climate change is not caused by humans and is part of a natural cycle of the Earth.

Evidence for climate change since the Industrial Revolution
First of all, scientists have to support evidence for climate change in itself. They collect multiple sources of quantitative data, to prove the global warming of the Earth. They have many indicators: the rise of global temperatures and of the sea level, the retreat of glaciers, the shrinking of artic ice, the warming of oceans, the loss of the wildlife. . Since pre-industrial times, the average temperature rise is of 1,5°C. .

They will also use forms of qualitative evidence such as extreme weather events (hurricanes, wildfires…), or changes in the patterns of bird migrations, to prove that the climate is changing.

Evidence for the cause behind modern climate change
Secondly, scientists try to find the cause behind this climate change. By using their knowledge, such as on the greenhouse effect, they can orientate their research.

Once again, they use quantitative data, to measure for example the rise of fossil fuels in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are an important indicator because they come from human activity. They have damaging effects: they contribute to the greenhouse effect by staying in the atmosphere and warming up the Earth. Scientists have found out that there was a 45% increase of CO2 levels since the Industrial Revolution. And to prove that this increase results from human activity, they distinguish natural CO2 molecules and the ones that are a product of human activity.

This is one example of evidence among many others. Climate change is an interdisciplinary field, and scientists will not only use statistics, but their knowledge in many different disciplines, such as palaeontology and chemistry. Paleoclimate data, which gives information on the climate in a particular region in the past, allows scientists to deepen their knowledge of the Earth’s natural geological cycles and what should be “acceptable” C02 levels.

Overall, the main struggle in evidence for modern climate change is not proving the climate change, but the evidence for the cause behind this. Scientists achieve this by making links between their knowledge, quantitative and qualitative data.

The importance of this evidence linking human actions to climate change can be seen through its role in shaping the 21st century's politics as today some politicians including presidents, like Donald Trump, still question the existence of climate change and humanity's impact on it, justifying the lack of action taken to fight the climate crisis by their organisations/governments.

Limitations of Quantitative Research in Criminology: A Case Study
Quantitative research is a widely-used method for gathering data in criminology. When it comes to the analyses of individuals’ criminal behaviours, the strongly scientific approach of quantitative research has great limitations, as it fails to take into account aspects like social and economic factors. The conclusions from this style of data can be interpreted in many different ways, having a potentially significant impact on society.

For example, the MET police regularly update and publish a Crime Data Dashboard. This dashboard tells us that from January 2013 to January 2014, 32,214 accounts of robbery - defined as stealing with the use or threatened use of force - occurred. The dashboard also conveys the crime rate (per 1000 population) for robbery in each borough. The borough with the highest crime rate for robbery was Westminster with a rate of 9.936, then Lambeth (7.858), Southwark (7.728) and then Newham (6.688). There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from this data. All of these boroughs are mainly in Zones 1 and 2. From this it can be said that robbery mostly occurs nearer central London, which can then be manipulated to say that there are more robbers nearer central London. You could similarly state that there is more to be stolen in central London, or that robbers are more likely to use force nearer central London, making the distinction between robbery and theft. All these interpretations could be true, but in order to prove them, or find anything specific that is useful for working in criminology in attempting to understand criminal behaviour, more research is necessary.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that all the boroughs mentioned above are found in the poorest 11 boroughs for poverty, shown through a survey carried out by Trust For London in 2013-2014 that lists the London boroughs in order of percentage of individual residents in poverty. Without this data it is impossible to place the quantitative research on criminal statistics in social context. If poverty is a significant factor in crime rates for robbery, then action can be made towards redirecting funding and providing a greater welfare state to improve quality of life and then, in turn, improve the safety of various areas. However, as robbery is a crime that in its definition includes the use of force, it is also very easy to manipulate that data to further prejudices in terms of classism and prejudice surrounding systemic inequality. Therefore, this form of evidence can have large impacts of society depending greatly on who interprets it and has the power to create change based on it.

Definition
Digital evidence is a legally admissible element that can be used in judicial affairs. It covers any digital document from emails to digital signatures or even videos, photos, pdfs, texts, calendars... The court can order a Digital Forensic which is the process where experts or a specialized laboratory would produce a copy of this information in any format requested. Usually, smartphones are the first in line as they provide information on communications between individuals.

Digital evidence can be used and made relevant in any type of cases (hacking, extortion, terrorism, pedophilia, counterfeiting, labor law...) even if the infraction isn't exclusively linked to the digital world. Furthermore, it can also be used in litigations between companies, if there are mediations or conciliations.

Manipulation of digital evidence
In order for digital evidence to be admissible, there are several legal proceedings in order to ensure the authenticity of the taken information. It should be ensured that the information taken should not have been altered and that the experts are able to respect the chain of custody relating to the evidence. There are three main rules in the manipulation of digital evidence. Firstly, the actions taken in order to recover that evidence should not have put into question the integrity and reliability of the evidence. Secondly, the people conduction the analysis should be certified, trained in that sector, and be able to describe and explain their findings. Lastly, Any movement or actions taken on the evidence should be documented and in accordance of the 'chain of custody'. These rules make this evidence more reliable but also opens it to a bigger risk of being inadmissible.

Evidence in Theology
According to the University of Oxford website, Theology is a discipline which allows a better « understanding of the intellectual underpinning of religious traditions, and the social and cultural contexts for religious beliefs and practice ». In theology, a range of disciplines may be encountered, such as philosophy, literature, languages, and history.

This interdisciplinary approach is essential as it puts emphasis on the different kinds of evidence used in Theology. The nature of this evidence can be qualitative as well as quantitative, although the former is the most used, as shown by the use of literature and philosophy when understanding texts, or analyzing religious behaviors throughout the centuries.

The debate on the legitimacy of Theology as a science remains topical. First pointed out by Saint Thomas in his Summa Theologica, it discusses wether the conclusions deduced in Theology can be valid, as the premisses used aren’t always certain, or considered as rational knowledge. This brings us to the question of the nature of evidence: evidence should bring us to truth, but can truth be based on something unfounded? Can the Bible be considered evidence?

Furthermore, the issue of academic neutrality might come in question when using religious texts as evidence. Indeed, a person’s religion might influence the way this « evidence » is considered, analyzed or taken into account. Thus the ability to think critically is required to engage with religious truths, taken by believers for certain, final truths. Epistemology plays an important part in Theology, « but its role is that of servant, not master », as the aim of Theology as a discipline is not to find truth or proofs but to gain a better understanding of religions.

Intuition as Evidence
Evidence in Philosophy is typically argued to be based on intuition, although this idea is contested by some philosophers such as Timothy Williamson or Max Deutsch, the term “intuition” in itself being interpreted differently in some cases. It is defined by Oxford Dictionary as 1.“the ability to know something by using your feelings rather than considering the facts” or 2.“an idea or a strong feeling that something is true although you cannot explain why”, the latter definition being associated with intuition in philosophy.

Nevin Clemenhaga, a Research Fellow in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University, argues that for most philosophers belief and intuition correlate, and that intuition is indeed used as evidence within this discipline. In “Mind” (2017), Clemenhaga justifies this by explaining that philosophers most often use intuition as evidence when they are aware that their beliefs are based on their intuition or that both are products of a common source. Indeed, if one is aware of and reflects on either of these causal relationships which link philosophical belief and intuition without this leading to one’s rejection of the intuition, it would seem that the intuition holds some truth and was not a product of irrationality.

Experimental Philosophy and Qualitative Methods
A fairly recent sub-discipline of philosophy, known as experimental philosophy, emerged at the beginning of the 21st century. It essentially uses interdisciplinarity in order to approach philosophical matters differently, combining experimental procedures usually used in psychology or social sciences with traditional philosophical questions or theories in order to explore the latter. Experimental research can either further explore intuitions in philosophy or be used to argue against this aspect of traditional philosophy, seeing intuitions as unreliable and subjective.

James Andow, a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at University of Reading, explains experimental philosophy as using empirical tools and argues that this sub-discipline would benefit from an increased use of qualitative methods, for example open-answer surveys or interviews, or focus groups which encourage informal conversation. This could be used to obtain a deeper understanding of an individual’s thoughts and views regarding philosophical matters, simple quantitative surveys often being reductive in experimental philosophy, for instance.

Evidence in Paleontology
Paleontology is a discipline concerned with finding evidence for organisms which existed prior to the Holocene Epoch in order to classify them. There are three types of evidence that can point to the existence of an organism at a point in time, body fossil evidence, trace fossil evidence, and geochemical evidence.

Body Fossils
Fossil evidence of whole or parts of organisms are often the most useful type of evidence in paleontology. However, the conditions required to produce a fossil are rare and in many cases a fossil is destroyed by erosion or metamorphism before it can be found and catalogued. As such, the fossil record is incomplete, especially further back in time, and cannot be used as the sole provider of evidence for the existence and evolution of organisms. Additionally, the parts of organisms which are fossilised are typically hard shells of molluscs or bones, and so certain organisms are never fossilised. As such, fossil records can paint a broad picture of the evolution of life as we know it, but this picture will always remain incomplete.

Trace Fossils
Trace fossils are typically the tracks, burrows or droppings of organisms. These are important in filling in gaps in evidence, as they are not limited to those organisms with hard body parts, and have been found some time before the organisms that made them were thought to have existed. They also help us to learn about the behaviour of an organism which can help with classification as we can use this evidence to determine the purpose of body parts.

Geochemical Evidence
By studying the chemical composition of rocks of a certain period we can attempt to deduce the level of biological activity at that point, as well as the reasons why certain fossils have been preserved. For example, geochemical markers have been used to attempt to explain major events such as the Permian extinction (through analysis of carbon isotopes which appears to indicate widespread oceanic anoxia).


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User talk:ATKuser035

Welcome, ATKuser035!

If you have any questions, you can ask in the assistance reading room or possibly contact me personally. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 14:14, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:ATKuser035


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User talk:Dyinghouseplant

Welcome, Dyinghouseplant!

If you have any questions, you can ask in the assistance reading room or possibly contact me personally. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 14:16, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dyinghouseplant


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User talk:Jigamaree

Welcome, Jigamaree!

If you have any questions, you can ask in the assistance reading room or possibly contact me personally. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 14:18, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jigamaree


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History of video games/Platforms/N-Gage

Development
Prototype N-Gage units were styled differently from production models. Prior to launch there was a degree of skepticism about the N-Gage.

Launch
The N-Gage launched on October 7th, 2003 as a game console and mobile phone combination. The N-Gage cost $400 USD.

Reception to the N-Gage was lukewarm. At launch it was panned by the press. The form factor of the N-Gage lead it to being nicknamed the "Taco Phone" by the public.

The improved N-Gage QD was launched in 2004.

Legacy
Unable to find success as either a phone or console, the N-Gage was discontinued in 2005. The N-Gage was fully discontinued in 2009.

The N-Gage ultimately sold 3 million units and 3 million games.

Later on, the N-Gage would become a symbol of an unusual era in mobile gaming. In contemporary media, the N-Gage is typically referenced either wistfully, or satirically, depending on the tone of the work.

Compute
The N-Gage and the N-Gage QD used an ARM architecture 920T processor clocked at 104 megahertz.

The N-Gage and N-Gage QD both ran Symbian 6.1 as their operating system.

The N-Gage and N-Gage QD both supported Bluetooth 1.1.

Technical Flaws
Like other Symbian devices, the N-Gage would become unbootable when the user partition was filled, resulting in the White Screen of Death.

Notable games

 * The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey
 * SonicN

title: History of video games/Platforms/N-Gage


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History of video games/Web

Origin of Standards
The first version of the programming language JavaScript is developed in just 10 days, eventually becoming the de facto locally run scripting language on the web.

While not a true web standard, the first form of Flash is developed in 1996, enabling web animations through use of a plug in. The high demand for such content quickly turns Flash into a de facto standard of sorts, though not an open one.

CSS level 1 is recommended by W3C on December 17, 1996.

Rise of Web 2.0
The emergence of Web 2.0 and user generated content lead to the proliferation of game modding and machinima among gamers.

Browser Monoculture under IE6
The end of the first browser war between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator ends with Netscape failing and web technologies stagnating hard for five years, and being stifled long afterwards. After being in development since 1998, the first version of Firefox (Then the Phoenix Web Browser of the Mozilla Application Suite version 1.0) released in 2002, built from the open sourced remains of Netscape. At the time Internet Explorer had over a 90% market share.

The stagnation of web browsers lead to developers take advantage of browser plugins like Flash and Java to make their games, neither of which were ideal. Flash had poor 3D and networking support, and had serious performance issues.

Peak Flash
During the 2000's Flash games enter their peak, with many becoming widely popular. In 2005 Adobe purchases Macromedia, the company that owns Flash Player, for 3.4 billion dollars.

When the iPhone launches, Steve Jobs refuses to allow Flash on Apple's mobile platforms, instead preferring more efficient and open technologies to handle tasks Flash is used for.

Web Standards Evolve
In 2014 HTML5 is finalized.

Web Assembly entered widespread adoption in 2017, enabling faster web applications, including games running on web browsers.

In 2016 Mozilla and the Google Chrome team collaboratively launched a WebVR API proposal to enable virtual reality support on the web. WebVR was superseded by WebXR in 2018 to include augmented reality and mixed reality support for web browsers.

Engines of Development
The engine Twine began commonly being used to bring interactive fiction to the web.

Browser Monoculture under Chrome & Blink
By the late 2010's many sites began requiring the use of Google Chrome, leading to fears that browser technology may once again turn stagent

End of Flash
Adobe has planned to end support for Flash Player on December 31st, 2020. Also in 2020, the Internet Archive launches an in browser flash emulator to preserve old flash content.

Other Developments
Notably on February 12th, 2021 Microsoft briefly promoted an unauthorized emulator for Mario Kart 64 on their Edge browser, before pulling the announcement.

Notable Web Based Games

 * Runescape
 * Urban Dead
 * Fallen London
 * Agar.io
 * Blaseball

Sony Station
An online game platform.

Monopoly City Streets
A 2009 browser game featuring an early attempt to integrate geographical features from the real world into gameplay.

Don't Look Back
A 2009 flash 2D shooter which is noted for integrating it's mechanics with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, increasing the difficulty of the game considerably by ending the game should the player look back during the second half.

LEGO.com Flash games
A notable and ever-changing collection of LEGO-themed Flash games, some of which have now been collected in an online archive.

Neopets
Though its general relevance declined, a small number of dedicated gamers kept playing two decades after its heyday.

Mario Net Quest
A 1997 Shockwave Flash game made in collaboration between Nintendo, IBM, and C3 Entertainment.

title: History of video games/Web


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History of video games/Computer games

Early Computer Games
See the chapters early games and Dr. Nim for early examples of computer games.

CPUs

 * 16 bit Intel 80286 (286) - 1982-1991
 * 32 bit Intel 80386 (386) - 1985-2007
 * 32 bit Intel 80486 (486) - 1989-2007

Regional Computers
In the 1980's there was a rivalry between Iraqi users of the Al Warkaa and the Sakhr 170 home gaming computers.

In Wales, Dragon computers were popular.

1990-1999
By 1990 well used dithering was being used in EGA games to create the illusion of better colors. From the early to late 1990's Color Cycling, the shifting of a palette on a still image, was used to produce resource efficient animations in computer games.

The 1990's saw the first common graphics cards, as well as the first common 3D API's for graphics cards such as Glide.

The introduction of CD-ROMs was initially seen as a way to reduce costs and piracy compared to floppy disks, though pirates quickly gained familiarity with the new format.

In 1994, the first Dreamhack was held in Malung, Sweden.

In 1996 the Marine Doom is made for US military training, a notable early use of FPS games for military training.

The Nvidia GeForce 256, considered as the world's first GPU, was released in 1999. It offered a huge improvement in 3D graphic capabilities.

2000-2009
Valve launches Steam on September 12th, 2003.

Audio Cards remain popular till the end of the decade in many high end gaming rigs, along with brief experiments in gaming themed network and physics acceleration cards.

Rise of Steam
"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

In 2011 Valve identifies game piracy as a service problem. In 2013 Steam distributed 75% of digital games on PC.

In 2015 Steam and Bethesda briefly introduced paid mods as a feature, before quickly withdrawing it in response to widespread criticism.

Ray-tracing games started in 2018 and ray-tracing cards were released to be capable of ray-tracing in supported games. The first ray-tracing graphics cards were Nvidia RTX 2060, 2070, 2080, and Titan RTX.

2020-2029
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of computer parts. Despite this the Folding@Home distributed computing project reaches quickly 1.5 Exaflops of capability as thousands of PC gamers donate unused cycles from their computers to tackle biomedical research in the fight against COVID-19.

The Trump Administration began enforcing a new tariff on computer components from China near the end of it's term in mid January 2021, causing GPU prices to significantly increase, sometimes by several hundred dollars.

Some manufactures experimented with PCs in handheld console formfactors. In 2022 Steam released the Steam Deck, which is a handheld console that runs PC games.

In 2022 Intel released its first graphics cards: the Arc A750 and A770. These GPUs supported RTX 3060 performance for cheaper prices in games, especially DirectX 12 ones. DirectX 9 support was improved on these GPUs in 2023.

title: History of video games/Computer games


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

Background
Philosophy alone is defined as "the use of reason in understanding such things as the nature of the real world and existence, the use and limits of knowledge, and the principles of moral judgment" Meanwhile, evidence is defined as anything that helps to prove that something is or is not true. Hence, particularly in philosophy of science and in epistemology, it is always necessary to also consider evidence, in order to understand one needs to decide whether something is true or untrue. Understanding the role of evidence in philosophy is therefore very important too, since it can form the base of a rational judgement of two different scientific theories that could change our perception of the world.

Evidentialism
Evidentialism is a thesis in epistemology that states that one can only be justified to believe something if and only if that person has evidence to support their belief. . Hence it suggests that evidence is necessary to have belief, rather than the contrary. Thus it can be easily countered with the endless regression argument, which makes us ask ourselves "what made the first piece of evidence become evidence?"

Underdetermination Of Scientific Theory
Underdetermination of scientific theory is the idea that evidence could be insufficient to decide what beliefs should be associated with it. This was a view held by philosopher Quine in the 20th century, which suggests that there are philosophical approaches to evidence that question its entire legitimacy as a concept.


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Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/April 24

Today in 2010 Diaspora started its record-breaking crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.


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Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/July 25

The first public version of Ruby on Rails dates from today in 2004.

title: Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/July 25


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History of video games/1970-1979

Mass Media
While the general public remained generally oblivious to video games during the early part of the decade, this quickly began to change with the dawn of the golden age of arcade gaming, as well as the release of the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. With the rise of this new mass media, also came some of the first widespread moral panics and controversies over video gaming.

In addition to consumer usage, edutainment games in schools began to propagate more broadly during the 1970's, though their usage was hampered by both the technology, and by a lack of computers.

Women Developers
Despite facing workplace adversity, the 1970's saw several women make prominent contributions in the video game industry, most notably at RCA and Atari. However these developers would often not see widespread recognition in their day. This trend would continue into the 1980's.

Popular Genres

 * Arcade style games, especially the Lunar Lander subgenre
 * 2D Shooters
 * In the first half of the decade Spacewar! clones were popular among video gamers.
 * The massive success of Space Invaders (1978) led to the popularization of the genre with the public.
 * Tabletop games often influenced computer games of the time.
 * Wargaming, as well as tabletop role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons inspired many early computer roleplaying games.
 * Text adventures and other interactive fiction proved popular among those few who owned home computers. These simplistic games often required no special graphics hardware, yet offered a glimpse into fantastic worlds for imaginative gamers despite their limitations.
 * Edutainment games were a popular target for developers, hoping to improve or capitalize on the educational market.
 * In the first half of the decade, these games were common on minicomputer and mainframe time share systems, limited to those affiliated with specific institutions.
 * Later in the decade, as schools began adopting home computers, these games became much more accessible to the public.

The May 4th Massacre
The horrific events of the May 4th massacre by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University had drastic effects on America, and especially on those present. Several of those present at the event would go on to influence the game industry.

Several students present were moved by what they witnessed transpire to form the band DEVO. Band member Mark Mothersbaugh later goes on to work on games such as Crash Bandicoot. Another student, John De Lancie, was less then 20 yards from the shooting, and worked with Senator Young and Ted Kennedy to share his experience with the Senate. John De Lancie would later pursue a career as a prominent actor, which included voice acting for video games.

Game of Life
After development in the 1960's, Conway's Game of Life is published in Scientific American in 1970. Although initially a simple mathematical game, it was later turned into various computer programs. The game is formed by a simple playfield of "cells", each one surrounded by eight "neighbors" (the adjacent cells), and either "lives" or "dies" in the next turn based on them. The correct combination of "alive" and "dead" cells can create stable systems ("still lives"), mutating shapes, ("oscillators"), moving objects ("spaceships") or generate an infinite stream of shapes through "guns", thus allowing for a sort of "war" to be "fought".

Galaxy Game
In September 1971 the arcade game Galaxy Game is installed at Tresidder Memorial Union of Stanford University. The game is a Spacewar! clone, designed with multiplayer-only capabilities in mind as it lacked an artificial intelligence for single-player gameplay. Although it ranks as the first known coin-operated video game (running on a modified PDP-11), it was never commercially released. Despite this, it can be ran on the popular MAME emulator for modern computers.

Computer Space
In November 1971 the arcade game Computer Space is released by "Syzygy Engineering" (the progenitor of Atari, Inc.) to try to recreate the success of the Computer Quiz game of 1968. The gameplay is reminiscent of Spacewar!, but is distinct enough to avoid being classified as a Spacewar! clone. Few units survive to this day, but the game itself is a popular culture icon among video game fans, both due to it's historical value and due to it's distinctive and funky cabinet design.

The Oregon Trail
In November 1971 three student teachers (Bill Heinemann, Don Rawitsch, and Paul Dillenberger) make The Oregon Trail for a UNIVAC computer operated by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium and is connected to a number of schools in Minnesota by teletypewriter. The Oregon Trail was made despite challenges posed by limited computer access. The first version of The Oregon Trail had to be made with teletypewriters in mind, so shooting mechanics were based on accurately typing words quickly.

The Oregon Trail is one of the earliest edutainment games. As of 2020 the game's modernized versions are often considered to be among the best edutainment games made.

Intel 4004
1971 saw the release of the Intel 4004, Intel's first chip produced on a 10 micron process. This chip becomes one of the first generally available microprocessors, helping to usher in an era where mass-produced computers and programmable game consoles could reach the home.

Atari & Pong
In 1972 Nolan Bushnell founds the company Atari, releasing the arcade hit Pong by fall 1972.

Gaming at BGSU
You have just run out of fuel - pray for rescue. Across the United States, many gaming cultures have sprung up at various universities, piggybacking off of the advanced computing resources available to students. Records from the rural Bowling Green State University show that this spread was not limited to the biggest or most elite universities by 1973. The Bowling Green State University computer center offers about 250 computer games for students to play freely, including Moon an early game in the Lunar Lander genre.

Lemonade Stand
A programmer working for the educational institution Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium makes Lemonade Stand for their UNIVAC mainframe, which is connected to a number of schools via teletypewriter. Gameplay revolves around simulating a business, balancing prices and costs with demand influenced by external factors like weather.

Lemonade Stand is among the first games that attempts to simulate a business, as well as an early example of an edutainment game.

Oil Panic
The OPEC Oil embargo to the United States, Japan, and other nations creates great economic shock and a recession. Hanafuda cardmaker and toy manufacture Nintendo is nearly pushed to financial ruin by the economic effects of the embargo and begins desperately seeking alternate revenue sources, eventually leading them to make home video games.

Phong Shading
Phong Shading is invented in 1973, becoming a common 3D graphics shading technique which adds dynamic highlights to objects.

BASIC Computer Games
1973 sees the release of one of the most influent computing and video gaming books of History: BASIC Computer Games, initially a DEC book titled "101 BASIC Computer Games". The book is a collection of BASIC source codes (usually converted from DEC's FOCAL) for simple video games, collected and partially modified or created by David H. Ahl. The book initially written in the DEC dialect of the language for use on PDP computers, but Ahl later left DEC to found the magazine Creative Computing, purchased the rights to the book, changed its title and ported the games to the now more standard Microsoft BASIC (which was starting to be used for home computers, and still survives today in its Visual Basic form), with instructions on how to port the games to platforms running personalized dialects.

Dungeons & Dragons
In 1974 the original "White Box" edition of the World-famous Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying game is released with it and its derivatives influencing a number of programmers, and through them highly influenced the creation of both Western computer RPGs and Japanese RPG genres.

Video Games on Planes
In 1975 Braniff Airlines offers Pong during flights, becoming the perhaps first airline to offer a video game as an official in flight entertainment option.

First Digital Camera
On December 12th, 1975 the first digital photograph is taken by Kodak employee Steven Sasson of subject Joy Marshall. The Camera captures the image using a CCD from Fairchild Semiconductor and then takes 26 seconds to record the result onto an audio tape. Later on gaming devices such as the GameBoy camera and the Xbox Kinect used digital cameras to offer unique gameplay experiences.

Graphic Music Synergy
At ACM SIGGRAPH 1975 in Bowling Green, Ohio a presentation is given on graphics influenced by music, an early example of a relationship that would become common in games with adaptive music.

Cars!
1976 was an important year for automobiles and racing in video games.

Datsun became the first automaker to license one of it's cars for a arcade game in 1976, later seeing a home console port to the Bally Professional Arcade. Later on, real automobile brands would later proliferate in racing games, adding to realism and immersion, as well as being a powerful marketing tool for the automobile industry.

In 1976 the Death Race arcade game is introduced, prompting media to question the violence featured in the game. The newness of video games meant that some outlets struggled to differentiate the game from a pinball machine or board game. The sensationalism surrounding the game ultimately boosted it's sales.

Apple Computer
On April 1st, 1976, Apple Computer is founded by Steve "Woz" Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the latter's garage. The initial purpose of the company is to manufacture Woz's Apple I motherboard. The company later produces a number of computers which were commonly used for gaming, and would even help produce the short lived Apple Pippin game console during the 1990's.

1978
The gameshow TV Powww debuts, focusing on playing video games on a television show via telephone.

Mobile Suit Gundam
The Anime Mobile Suit Gundam is released in Japan, having a huge influence on Japanese geek culture, and by extension influencing a number of Japanese game designers. The designs of Mobile Suits from Gundam may have had an influence on other game series as well.

title: History of video games/1970-1979


text:
Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/August 15

Today in 1997 GNOME was started.


text:
Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/June 2

Today in 2016 ownCloud Inc. filed for bankruptcy almost immediately after its founder Karlitschek had left and forked the ownCloud software.

title: Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/June 2


text:
Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/August 18

Today in 2008 the domain bitcoin.org was registered, the first trace in the obscure early history of the successful cryptocurrency. Prying financial exchange out of government control by technical means is a cryptoanarchist dream. It has gained wider acceptance after its first significant use to circumvent the financial blockade against Wikileaks in 2011. Besides the environmental problem of wasting electricity on the scale of a medium-sized country just to prove that it has indeed been wasted, its adoption for the purpose of laundering money from child pornography and human trafficking, which have since led to enormous increases in value, represents another dark side. The gigantic financial stakes have sparked a new interest in the critical importance of open source principles for the safety of computer code.


text:
Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/March 4

Today in 1993 Marc Andreesen announced the NCSA Mosaic browser and introduced the HTML image tag. Mosaic quickly subsumed all text-oriented information search tools and surpassed them. Because it was easy to install, ported to several major operating systems and supported by a large institution (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, NCSA), it became the first graphical user interface for the Web. It has been described as the killer application of the 1990s. Members of the development team founded Netscape in 1994; a rebranded version was packaged with Windows as Internet Explorer.

title: Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/March 4


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Microvision

Development
Milton Bradley was founded in 1860 to make board games, making it one of the oldest companies to have a major impact in the video game industry.

Jay Smith designed the Microvision and would later design the Vectrex.

Launch
The 1979 release of the Microvision was the first major portable console to use swappable cartridges, allowing a single system to play multiple games.

The Microvision is seen in the 1981 movie Friday the 13th Part 2, a significant early appearance of a handheld game console in popular culture.

Legacy
The Microvision was discontinued in 1981, though one game saw a Europe only release in 1982. The failings of the Microvision design were lessons for Nintendo employees during the design of Game and Watch and Game Boy consoles.

Technology
Unlike most modern consoles but similar to many other consoles at the time, the Microvision contained processing elements on each game cartridge, not the console itself, though the clock speed used was always at 100 kilohertz (0.1 megahertz). Cartridges either used an Intel 8021 CPU or a Texas Instruments TMS1100 CPU.

The Microvision had a grey and black LCD with a resolution of 16 pixels by 16 pixels, and a size of 2 inches. The screen ages poorly, and is prone to damage from screen rot.

Cartridges were known to be quite fragile and especially vulnrable to electrostatic discharge.

Early Microvision consoles required two 9 volt batteries, though later models only required a single 9 volt battery.

1979

 * Block Buster
 * Bowling
 * Baseball
 * Connect Four
 * Mindbuster
 * Pinball
 * Star Trek: Phaser Strike
 * Vegas Slots

1980

 * Baseball
 * Sea Duel

1981

 * Alien Raders
 * Cosmic Hunter

1982

 * Super Block Buster

External Resources

 * Computer History Museum - Microvision page.
 * Centre for Computing History - Microvision page.
 * Video Game Kraken - Microvision page.
 * Handheld Museum - Microvision page.


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History of video games/Platforms/Master System

Launch
The Sega Master System was preceded by the SG-1000.

On October 20th, 1985, the Sega Master System launched in Japan.

Legacy
Discontinued in Europe in 1996, the Master System sold over 20 million units. The Master System saw it's greatest success in Brazil, where it enjoyed a status similar to the NES in North America and remained popular and in production even in the year 2016. Elsewhere the Master System was a more modest success, where it sold 1 million units in Japan, 2 million units in North America, and 6.8 million units in Europe.

The Sega Master System was followed by the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis.

Compute
The Sega Master System is powered by an 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor clocked at 3.58 megahertz, with an identical second source NEC D780C-1 CPU being used alternitively sometimes.

The Master System has eight kilobytes of RAM and 16 kilobytes of low latency VRAM.

The Master System uses a modified TMS9918 processor, called the Video Display Processor, with added features over the base design by adding mode 4. The VDP also includes a Texas Instruments SN76489 for sound.

SegaScope 3D Glasses
The glasses were released at a cost of ~$50 in North America, Europe, and Japan in 1987.

Game case
Games boxes for the Sega Master System games were made of durable plastic. Box art for these games was relatively uniform.

Alex Kidd
Read more about Alex Kidd in Miracle World on Wikipedia.

Phantasy Star
Phantasy Star is noted as an early example of a game with a female protagonist.

Read more about Phantasy Star on Wikipedia.


text:
History of video games/Platforms/SG-1000

Background
Sega has its origins in Standard Games, a Honolulu, Hawaii based American amusement company founded in 1940. Sega, a shortened version of Service Games, would form into a Japanese amusement company in a roundabout way as American legislation banned coin operated gambling games in their primary markets.

Launch
The SG-1000 was launched on July 15, 1983 in Japan on the same day as the Nintendo Famicom launch.

The improved Mark III was launched in October of 1985.

The SG-3000 model added a keyboard, and proved to be more popular in Japan then the original SG-1000.

By 1985 the SG-1000 sold about two million units. The SG-1000 was followed by the Sega Master System.

The Dina game console was also related to the SG-1000.

Technology
The SG-1000 CPU uses a 8 bit Zilog Z80A clocked at 3.58 megahertz.

The SG-1000 uses a Texas Instruments TMS9928A for graphics processing, and a Texas Instruments SN76489 for sound processing.

Girl's Garden
Released in either 1984 or 1985.

Read more about Girl's Garden on Wikipedia.


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History of video games/Platforms/Atari 7800

Development
The system was initially known as the Atari 3600, with some prototype consoles bearing this marking.

Launch
The Atari 7800 was announced in 1984, mothballed despite being ready for launch for two years following losses Atari sustained during the crash of 1983, and launched in 1986. The system cost $140 on launch.

Legacy
The Atari 7800 was discontinued in 1992. 3.77 million Atari 7800 consoles were sold, with its peak sales year being 1988.

The system is well regarded for it's clean yet techie design aesthetic.

The Atari 7800 was meant to be followed by the Atari Panther, though was instead followed by the Atari Jaguar.

Games
The Atari 7800 is backwards compatible with the Atari 2600.

Compute
The Atari 7800 uses an 8-bit Atari "Sally" (MOS 6502c) CPU clocked at 1.79 megahertz.

The 7800 has 4 kilobytes of RAM.

The Atari 7800 used a "Tia Maria" chip for graphics. This chip allowed for the 7800 to display nearly 100 sprites.


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History of video games/Platforms/Magnavox Odyssey

Background
The Magnavox company was founded on the 5th of July in 1917, and mainly produced products such as radios, speakers, and televisions for consumers and the military.

Ralph Baer was born in 1922 in Germany, where he was soon denied an education under the increasing power of the Nazis. Baer and his family fled to the United States as refugees, fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. A chance encounter on a subway in 1938 lead Baer to gain an interest in technology. Baer later was drafted into the American army to fight the Nazis in World War II.

Development

Ralph Baer, now an engineer who specialized in television, thought of an interactive television game in 1966. In 1967 a prototype unit called TV Game Unit #1, which allowed a dot to be manipulated on a television screen. This test system used vacuum tubes instead of transistors, but was still compact due to its simplicity.

The following prototype TV Game Unit #2 allowed for two players, and was referred as the "Pump Unit" because of its unique up and down handle controller.

Baer convinced company leadership to fund his project with a $2000 budget. The TV Game Unit #7 prototype, called the "Brown Box" could play multiple games, and had two controllers with a design that, while unrefined, was quite similar to the gamepads used in the third and fourth generation of consoles. A prototype 1968 controller featuring a real golf ball on the end of a sturdy joystick was made, allowing the use of a standard golf club to be used in a golf game. A prototype plastic lightgun was also made for shooting games. Program card overlays served as a sort of game medium, indicating which switches needed to be pressed to access specific games.

Magnavox contracted Nintendo, then a Japanese company that made a number of consumer goods including toys, to produce the light guns for the Magnavox Odyssey in 1971, adapting an existing Nintendo light gun toy for this purpose.

On January the 27th, 1972 production of the Magnavox Odyssey began.

The name Odyssey was chosen as a nod to the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Launch
Magnavox launched the Magnavox Odyssey in May of 1972. The cost of the Odyssey was $99.95, which included 12 pack in games.

For reasons unrelated to the Odyssey, Dutch company Philips acquired the American company Magnavox in 1974. The Philips company was founded in 1891, making it among the oldest companies to have a large involvement in the gaming industry.

The Magnavox Odyssey 100 was released in 1975, with used four integrated circuits to greatly simplify hardware.

Legacy
Production of the Magnavox Odyssey ended in 1975. The console was followed by the Odyssey series of dedicated consoles. The console would later receive a proper followup in the Magnavox Odyssey².

The Magnavox Odyssey sold less than 100,000 consoles its first year and about 350,000 total due to poor marketing. Magnavox salespeople would often incorrectly imply that a Magnavox Television was required to use the console to sell more Magnavox televisions, despite it's compatibility with nearly all televisions.

The Magnavox Odyssey would inspire Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell to have his company make Pong, eventually leading Magnavox to take legal action against Atari.

In 1973, following the launch of the Odyssey, Baer demonstrated a concept All Purpose Box console pioneered a number of concepts which are now common. The Multimedia Box would run games, including some which could be advertiser supported, educational content, and mail order shopping.

In 2021 Handball for the Brown Box prototype would be the first video game to be depicted on currency produced by the United States Mint.

Because it is commonly recognized as the first home game console, the Magnavox Odyssey is also nearly universally categorized as a first generation console.

Preservation
Due to it's wildly different technical architecture, and a reliance on physical objects, accurate emulation of the Odyssey relies on much different techniques compared to standard emulators.

In 2017 a team at the University of Pittsburgh began working to preserve Odyssey related materials.

Technology

The Magnavox Odyssey lacked a computer, instead using analog circuitry and game cards that manipulate internal jumpers to achieve desired results. Display output was limited to a line and three white blocks, so color overlays and physical items were used to enhance gameplay. Overlays attached to the CRT televisions via either the static electricity generated by the television, or manually with tape.

The system is powered by six C type batteries. , though an optional AC adapter was available. Inserting a game card turned on the power, so the unit lacks a power button.

Games
Because the Odyssey lacked a computer, and was primarily a graphics generating device, games for the Magnavox Odyssey were simple, and were often versions of real sports like tennis. Other games included a US Geography quiz game, and a roulette game. No matter the game, the Odyssey relies a lot on its players to use their imaginations, as well do things like keep score or enforce rules.

External Resources

 * MoMA - Magnavox Odyssey exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.
 * Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Magnavox Odyssey page featuring photo with Odyssey and packaging.
 * Smithsonian National Museum of American History - Article about Ralph Baer and prototypes.
 * Video Game Console Library - Magnavox Odyssey page with history and photos.
 * Old Computers - Magnavox Odyssey Page with history and technical information.
 * Centre for Computing History - Magnavox Odyssey page
 * Video Game Kraken - Odyssey by Magnavox page
 * Pong Story's website on the Odyssey.
 * Video Game History Foundation - Page on the Odyssey focusing on the history of advertising the system.
 * BBC Archive - Includes a video from 1973 which introduces the then novel concept of a video game.


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History of video games/Platforms/Fairchild Channel F

Jerry Lawson
Fairchild Semiconductor Engineer Jerry Lawson made an early arcade cabinet called Demolition Derby, which prompted Fairchild Semiconductor to quietly expand into the game industry.

While working on the Fairchild Channel F, Lawson made the first real game cartridges, which contained software and could expand the RAM of the System. Because of this Jerry Lawson is recognized as one of the most important figures in early gaming technology history for his invention of the cartridge, as well as one of the first African American engineers in the video game industry.

Laswson's philosophy on games favored games that were skillful and grew the player. He is remembered as an important early video game and computer industry figure in general, and became a symbol of African Americans in the gaming industry.

Launch

The Fairchild Channel F was released in November of 1976 at a cost of $169.95.

The system was acquired by Zircon and relaunched around 1981 as a budget system.

In 1981 Channel F cartridges cost as little as $18.95 and as much as $29.95.

Legacy

The Fairchild Channel F was discontinued in 1984, coinciding with the video game market crash in the United States, but having been on the market for an exceptional amount of time. Around 250,000 Channel F consoles were sold.

Following the Fairchild Channel F, Jerry Lawson would pursue other ventures, including an early attempt at console based network play.

Technology
The Fairchild Channel F used Fairchild Semiconductor's own 8-bit F8 processor clocked at 1.7897725 megahertz. It could process about 0.14 million instructions per second (MIPS). Importantly, the F8 processor eliminated the need for many support chips required by competing processors, and allowed for horizontal integration, making it a very economical choice for use in the Channel F.

The Fairchild Channel F had 64 bytes of RAM and 2 kilobytes of video RAM.

The original Fairchild Channel F used an internal speaker, while the model II used television speakers.

Games
A novelty at the time, some Fairchild Channel F games supported computer players, as well as pause functionality, which was known as "Hold" on games for the system.

Video Whizball
One of the first games to include an "Easter egg".


text:
History of video games/Platforms/Atari 2600

Development
Development of hardware which would become the Atari 2600 had begun by December 1975. The prototype of the Atari 2600 was based on a Jolt card, which used a 6502 processor. Software for the console was developed on a DEC PDP-11 minicomputer, which despite the classification name was a computer about the size of a refrigerator. (And thus much smaller then room sized mainframes)

Launch
The Atari 2600 was launched in 1977. At launch the Atari 2600 cost $199. Atari was able to leverage their strong arcade game brands to create home ports the same games - achieving massive market success.

Early Atari 2600 units featured six switches and heavy RF shielding, which were later reduced to four switches and lighter shielding.

In 1981 VCS cartridges cost as little as $20 and as much as $35.

The launch of the Atari 5200 in 1982 may have harmed Atari 2600 sales, though a lack of coordination within Atari led to the Atari 2600 overshadowing it anyway.

The 2700, a version of the 2600 with support for wireless controllers, was planned for a 1981 release but was scrapped with only a few prototype units being produced.

The Video Game Crash
The combined success of Atari products in the home and in the arcade made the company a captain of industry, and the name Atari itself had become a cultural icon synonymous with video games and high technology. By 1982 Atari products had become so popular that it triggered an early panic among parents regarding possible negative effects of video games. By 1983 some politicians involved in promoting new high tech industries in the United States were labeled as "Atari Democrats", a moniker which shows just how much pull Atari had on the public mindshare. However this influence was not to last long, and Atari as well as the rest of the North American video game industry would soon find itself under an existential threat.

A major Christmas 1982 title, ET, was rushed into development and given only five and a half weeks of development time. A contributing factor to the glut of systems and games on the market came from Atari requiring retailers to overstock their systems. The game performed poorly on the market and caused massive financial harm to Atari.

Landfill
In September 1983 Atari disposed of surplus cartridges in a Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. This fact became an urban legend as time went on, until it was confirmed in a landfill dig. Cartridges were found following 30 feet of digging. The recovery project caused many to look at archeology in a new light, due to the recovery of something relatively recent.

Later life and discontinuation
Following Nintendo's revival of the American video game market, Atari relaunched the system as the Atari 2600 Jr. in 1986. The system was discontinued in 1992, making the 2600 among the longest lasting consoles on the market.

Legacy
The Atari 2600 remained an iconic gaming system long after it was discontinued.

In 2021 various Atari 2600 games were used to demonstrate machine learning techniques at the organization Uber AI.

In 2021 It was announced that Atari would begin producing new Atari 2600 cartridges as part of the Atari XP line.

Myths
Due to its cultural prominence, a number of historically inaccurate myths have emerged regarding the system. One such false myth is that the blind musician Stevie Wonder was a spokesman for the system, though he was not.

Compute
The Atari 2600 used a MPU (CPU), the 8 bit MOS 6507 (Low cost version of the MOS 6502) clocked at 1.19MHz. This processor was bottlenecked somewhat by poor IO performance. A special chip is used to assist with graphics and sounds called the Television Interface Adapter (TIA) which contains about 10,000 transistors and handles two (first version) or three (Later revision) sprites. The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM, and up to a 4KB ROM.

Some games, such as Pitfall II, used expansion chips to enhance the graphical and audio capabilities of the Atari 2600.

Because of it's limitations, developers resorted to a number of tricks to make the most of the system performance. As an example, some skilled commercial developers and skilled Demoscene creators would later be able to push to Atari 2600 to perform pseudo 3D Games or simple 3D via raycasting.

Controller
A third party motion sensing controller that used mercury switches, the Le Stick, was released for the system. This is a notable example of an early motion controller for a home console.

Notable games
Over 500 games were released for the Atari 2600.

1977

 * Combat - Launch title and common pack-in cartridge, based on the arcade hit games Tank (1974) and Jet Fighter (1975).
 * Video Olympics - Launch title

1978

 * Super Breakout - port of the 1975 arcade game (see Pong and Breakout), using full-color graphics, instead of the black and white of the original version.

1979

 * Superman

1980

 * Space Invaders

Adventure
Adventure was an early game in the Action adventure genre. This game contained the first example of an Easter Egg in a game, the name of it's programmer Warren Robinett, as a way to protest Atari's decision not to credit programmers.

1981

 * Asteroids
 * Missile Command
 * Laser Blast
 * Freeway
 * Kaboom!

1982

 * Pitfall!
 * Yars' Revenge
 * Donkey Kong - Port
 * Pac-Man - Port
 * Frogger
 * Demon Attack
 * Atlantis
 * Megamania
 * Cosmic Ark
 * Centipede
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark
 * Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
 * E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

River Raid
River Raid was an early console game to use procedural generation to save limited console resources.

Notably, this game became the first to be banned in West Germany in 1984 as it portrayed paramilitary content.

Read more about River Raid on Wikipedia.

Pepsi Invaders
Pepsi Invaders is among the rarest games for the system with only 125 copies produced by Coca-Cola working with Atari.

Read more about Pepsi Invaders on Wikipedia.

External Resources

 * Atari Museum - Atari 2600 section.
 * AtariAge - Atari 2600 section.
 * Atari Mania - Atari 2600 section.
 * Old Computers - Atari 2600 page
 * The Strong National Museum of Play National Toy Hall of Fame - Atari 2600 page.
 * Science Museum Group (UK) - Atari 2600 Page.
 * Retro Games UK - Atari VCS page.