benford | 
03 11th, 2009| 
When I was significantly younger (I give a false impression here; I still go to this day) I would often frequent various arcades, filled with the promise of a diverse electronic playground with flush with flashing lights and exotic sounds. Of course, some simpler games, sacrificed deep gameplay for the ability dispense tickets for the bright eyed player. Even when I was young I realized that most of these games were a money loosing proposition: it would take me at least 10 tokens to earn enough tickets for a few pieces of candy, an eraser which did no such thing. All of the cool things, such as a lava lamp, radio, or disco ball, cost at least 2000 tickets. However, with age, comes experience, and with experience (somtimes) comes a healthy understanding of game theory.
After keeping track of technical and practical features of the cuirrent lineup of computers branded as gaming consoles my friends and I have come to some conclusions about what is available today. And also, directly due to its triviality, I’ll be sure to cover our logic in extreme detail.
To restict our focus to a managable amount, we’ll restrict the argument to home game consoles (not portables), and since PC games are another can of worms entirely we will leave those out as well.
Please join me as I once again delve deeply into the history of televised gaming. Back in the day, before Nintendo was a household word and Mario or Link was a mere twinkle in Miyamoto-san’s eye, the video game world was quite a diffferent landscape. Atari was king, though numerous other manufacturers were in the fray. The biggest looming threat to any game console at the time was the consistently falling cost of home computers. After all, if you could buy a full fledged computer for only $100 more than a dedicated game playing device, would you not be tempted to take the plunge? With so many platforms, hardware configurations, and market fragmentation, any newcomers must do something significant to distinguish themselves or be lost in the noise.
Digging (doing stuff) through my (Benford’s) closet I found a few true gems. This included the entirety of my pogs collection, including a canister full of slammers. 8-Ball slammers were cool, as were shiruken slammers, but by far the coolest are the 8-ball shiruken slammers. If manufactured today, my collection would be a scrap metal heavan for all the scrap copper/iron/any metal theives who routinely destroy statues and priceless fireplaces to sell the metal for pennies on the dollar. I sincerley hope that the ninties will never suffer the fate of a retro-craze because our civilization would probably not surive a second coming of Hammertime. Also, if I hear the phrase “it’s the ninties” anytime before 2090, many other places will be safer than the one I am currently in.