I never knew that!

[CatCopter]

I don't claim to be an expert on the history of video games but i learnt something the other day and was really surprised that id never heard it mentioned before.So i thought i would ask you lot if you were aware of it or not.

Here goes:

The company Magnavox that released the home games system the Odyssey purchased the technology from the company that developed it along with a patent. The patent was a very broad one and basically meant that any company producing video games had to pay a license fees to Magnavox.

Was anyone else aware of it? Apparently between 1972 and 1996 they never lost a court case or settled out of court.

[Asura]

Here's one people might find contentious:

Kinect has been a huge success

Yeah, we all hate Kinect. It started off as an interesting idea that had a lot of promise, but so far, it hasn?t enjoyed the best of reputations. Many of the games were disappointing, and the reviews were scathing, so surely we all foresaw that it would be a waste of money?





This image from VGCats often gets posted when people talk about Kinect, but unfortunately, it?s not entirely accurate.


Kinect sold 24 MILLION UNITS before February 2013. Of course, you might say ?well a fair few of those were bundled with consoles?, and you?d be right - but even before those bundles existed, MS sold 8 million in the first 2 months the device was on sale, making Kinect the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever, at that time.


The games might be another story, but by most measures, the Kinect hardware has been a success; Microsoft?s insistence on supporting it for Xbox One might be abrasive, but it?s probably not that surprising.

[speedlolita]

I still find it baffling the amount of people don't know that any PS3 machine can play retail PS1 discs.

[importaku]

Really? i thought that only the 1st gen of ps3's could play ps1&2 stuff never thought to try. Would test it out with PS1 but all my games are Japanese & my machine is uk, something tells me that region free doesn't extend to backwards compatability.

[speedlolita]

Yep, any model.

As long as the region matches that is, unfortunately.

It is only the PS2 side affected as you say.

[importaku]

Add me to the list, as i never knew that hehe.

[Lyris]

I didn't know that either. Makes sense I guess since the emulation can be done in software fairly easily?

[speedlolita]

Yeah. Emulating a PS1 will require far less hardware I guess. A PSP can do it after all.

['Press Start']

Add me too. I can replay Suikoden II on my PS3!

[Asura]

Saw this today:

[S3M]

Yep, any model.

As long as the region matches that is, unfortunately.

It is only the PS2 side affected as you say.

About 98% of the game work 100% too, only ones I had problems with were Kartia & Wing Commander III

[Deuteros]

Dungeon Keepers and Other Buried Treasures: US PC to Console Ports In Japan, part of the 'Did YOU Know?' series of features by Greg Wilcox.

[kryss]

The Fire Emblem 3DS XL was EU only.

[Yakumo]

Here's one people might find contentious:

Kinect has been a huge success

I don't find that at all surprising. If you role in the world of home robotics you'll see that pretty much everyone uses the Kinect to provide the robot with "vision". Not only robotics but many other tech areas use the Kinect as well.

[sj33]

Really? i thought that only the 1st gen of ps3's could play ps1&2 stuff never thought to try. Would test it out with PS1 but all my games are Japanese & my machine is uk, something tells me that region free doesn't extend to backwards compatability.

It's only the PS2 emulation that was hardware (and thus was removed to save costs). PS1 emulation has always been software.

I'm surprised so many people don't know this actually. PS1 support was never removed in the first place!