by Yasmin | Mar 26, 2014 | 1970s, 1980s, Computers
Atari Inc. had purchased an engineering think tank in 1973 called Cyan Engineering to research next-generation video game systems, and had been working on a prototype known as “Stella” (named after one of the engineers’ bicycles) for some time. Unlike prior generations of machines that used custom logic to play a small number of games, its core was a complete CPU, the famous MOS Technology 6502 in a cost-reduced version, known as the 6507. It was combined with a RAM-and-I/O chip, the MOS Technology 6532, and a display and sound chip known as the Television Interface Adapter, (TIA). The first two versions of the machine contain a fourth chip, a standard CMOS logic buffer IC, making Stella cost-effective. Some later versions of the console eliminated the buffer chip.
Programs for small computers were generally stored on cassette tape, disk or paper tape. By the early 1970s, Hewlett Packard manufactured desktop computers costing thousands of dollars such as the HP 9830, which packaged Read Only Memory (ROM) into removable cartridges to add special programming features, and these were being considered for use in games. At first, the design was not going to be cartridge-based, but after seeing a “fake” cartridge system on another machine, they realized they could place the games on cartridges essentially for the price of the connector and packaging.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
by Yasmin | Nov 13, 2012 | 1980s, Computers, Electrical, Household
Argos is a catalogue merchant based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. With about 740 stores, it is the largest general-goods retailer in the UK. Together with sister company Homebase, it today forms part of the Home Retail Group.
Argos owns numerous brands including Elizabeth Duke (jewellery and watches), Alba, Bush, Chad Valley, and many others.
Argos was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent in its own right but is today represented by its parent company Home Retail Group in the FTSE 250 Index.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
by Yasmin | Sep 12, 2012 | 1990s, Computers
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates andPaul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world’s largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
by Yasmin | Sep 11, 2012 | 1990s, Computers
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 byMicrosoft, and was a significant progression from the company’s previous Windows products. During development, it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
Windows 95 integrated Microsoft’s formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its relatively simplified “plug-n-play” features. There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly 16-bit architecture to a pre-emptively multitasked 32-bit architecture.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
by Yasmin | Jun 27, 2012 | 1970s, Christmas, Computers, Toys
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
by Yasmin | Jun 21, 2012 | 1980s, Computers, Featured Ads
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed “Atari 2600”, after the unit’s Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.
The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during much of the 1980s, “Atari” was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and, by extension, for video games in general.
The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York in 2007. In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the second greatest video game console of all time by IGN, who cited its remarkable role as the console behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it “the console that our entire industry is built upon.”
Info gleaned from Wikipedia
Recent Comments