Every Game Console Is a Magic Trick

The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of memory, less than it takes to store one long sentence. Your console today has 16 gigabytes. Every jump in between happened because a machine hit a wall, and someone found a way to cheat. In this video: how Atari programmers "raced the beam" because there was no memory for a picture, the lock chip that saved the industry after the 1983 crash, why your NES flickered, the cartridge that came with its own 3D processor, Sony's revenge on Nintendo, why PS1 textures wobble and N64 textures blur, and how the PS5's SSD quietly brought back the cartridge's best idea. Chapters 0:00 Less memory than a sentence 0:45 Racing the beam 2:24 The lock and the sprite 4:51 Sony's revenge 7:16 The gamble and the return 8:22 The cartridge comes back Sources Stella Programmer's Guide (Atari 2600 hardware, 128 bytes RAM, 76 cycles per line): https://www.qotile.net/minidig/docs/s... Montfort & Bogost, Racing the Beam (MIT Press, 2009): https://bogost.com/books/racing-the-b... Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America, 975 F.2d 832 (Fed. Cir. 1992): https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/... Nintendo corporate history: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/... / Nintendo IR hardware sales: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/fina... Iwata Asks, Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary (clouds and bushes): https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks... Nintendo 64 Programming Manual, texture memory (4 KB TMEM): https://ultra64.ca/files/documentatio... Sony Interactive, business data & sales: https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-co... PlayStation Blog, PS5 hardware details (18 Mar 2020): https://blog.playstation.com/2020/03/... Xbox Wire, Xbox Series X tech (16 Mar 2020): https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/1... Microsoft 8-K, Xbox 360 warranty charge (5 Jul 2007): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... AFRL Condor supercomputer (1,760 PS3s): https://www.wpafb.af.mil/News/Article... PS2 export controls, Reuters/Kyodo (17 Apr 2000): https://www.deseret.com/2000/4/17/195... Music "Twilight Echo", "Resonance" and "Stars In Her Skies" by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au "8-Bit Curious Theme" by emanresU (opengameart.org) - CC0 Image credits (Wikimedia Commons) Atari E.T. landfill dig, Alamogordo NM (2014): Taylor Hatmaker, CC BY 2.0 Nintendo PlayStation prototype: Mats Lindh, CC BY 2.0 Ken Kutaragi (2014): Official GDC, CC BY 2.0 Super FX "MARIO CHIP 1", PlayStation 5 photo, Cell Broadband Engine: CC0 Console and cartridge product photos (SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Xbox, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, NES cartridge board): Evan-Amos / Vanamo Online Game Museum, public domain Licences: CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... All trademarks belong to their respective owners; shown for identification and commentary only. 3D consoles and graphics are computer-generated illustrations, not exact models. Narration: AI voice. #VideoGames #Retro #Nintendo #PlayStation #HowItWorks