The Amiga was a family of personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Development on the Amiga began in 1982 with Jay Miner as the principal hardware designer. Commodore International bought Amiga Corporation and introduced the machine to the market in 1985. The name Amiga was chosen by the developers specifically from the Spanish word for a female friend, and because it occurred before Apple and Atari alphabetically. Based on the Motorola 68k series of microprocessors, the machine sports a custom chipset with then advanced graphics and sound capabilities, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system (now known as AmigaOS). While the M68k is a 32-bit processor, the version originally used in the Amiga, the 68000, has a 16-bit external data bus so it must transfer 32 bits of data in two consecutive steps, a technique called multiplexing — all this is transparent to the software, which was 32-bit from the beginning. The original machine was generally referred to in the press as a 16-bit computer. Later models featured fully 32-bit designs. The Amiga provided a significant upgrade from 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64, and the platform quickly grew in popularity among computer enthusiasts, especially in Europe. It went on to sell approximately 6 million units. It also found a prominent role in the desktop , video production, and show control business, largely due to the Video Toaster video editing system, and was a less expensive alternative to the Apple Macintosh and IBM-PC. The Amiga's native ability to play back several channels of digital samples made it a popular platform for early "Tracker" music software, and the machine's relatively powerful processor and ability to access several megabytes of memory led to the development of several 3D rendering packages, including LightWave 3D and Blender. The Amiga was most commercially successful as a home computer, with a wide range of games and creative software, although early Commodore advertisements attempted to cast the computer as an all-purpose business machine. The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit video game console that was first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, while the system was popular in Japan due to its successful marketing such as with the character Segata Sanshiro, it failed to gain a similar market share in North America and Europe against its competitors PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Saturn was Sega's first next generation system that had a build in CD-Rom unit (Mega CD was just an addon for the Genesis). It came in direct confilct with Sony's Playstation (1) and lost speaking with the global sales in mind. The Nintendo 64 (N64) was released in mid-1996 as Nintendo's front-runner in the original next-gen console wars. Although it was a much higher powered machine than Sony's Playstation or Sega's Saturn, the N64 always lagged behind in sales. Nintendo chose to sell the machine on the merits of its fast-loading cartridge system and the insignificant fact that it featured a 64-bit architecture - unfortunately for Nintendo, people were more impressed by high-capacity CD media, in-game movie sequences and pre-recorded soundtracks than fast loading and the size of the machine's pipeline. Developers often preferred the Playstation for their titles due to the N64's inability to provide media rich content which games such as the Final Fantasy series demanded. Although the hardware facilitated classics such as Goldeneye and the late Perfect Dark, it wasn't enough to win over the masses. Fortunately the system is well-emulated, allowing us to play legendary games such as Zelda, Turok & Goldeneye. A fairly modern system is needed to play emulate the machine, and a 3D accelerated graphics card is an absolute must (onboard graphics won't cut the mustard here). Game ROMs are available from ripped cartridges, ranging in size (5MB-70MB). The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or PSX) is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 1994. The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices, which was first created and released in Japan. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and the PlayStation 3. On March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PS one reached a combined total of 102.49 million units shipped, becoming the first video game console to reach 100 million. As of July 20, 2008, the PlayStation has sold 102 million units. Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on March 23, 2006. The Dreamcast was the last video game console made by Sega, and is the successor to the Sega Saturn. The Dreamcast is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles and was released in late 1998, before its contemporaries - the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox. Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in North America in November 2001 and withdrew entirely from the console hardware business. However, support of the system continued in Europe 2002, as well as in Japan, where consoles were still sold until 2006 and new licensed games continued to be released. According to Bernie Stolar, former President and CEO of Sega of America, the Dreamcast was canceled because the new chairman of Sega wanted the company to focus on software and drop the hardware business. Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time, and is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming—it was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online play. As of 2009, the console is still supported through various homebrew video game releases. The Nintendo GameCube officially abbreviated as GCN and unofficially as NGC, is Nintendo's fourth home video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to the Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium, after several aborted projects from Nintendo and its partners to utilize optical-based storage media. In contrast with the GameCube's contemporary competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the GameCube uses miniDVD-based discs instead of full-size DVDs. Partially as a result of this, it does not have the DVD-Video playback functionality of these systems, nor the audio CD playback ability of other consoles that use full-size optical discs. In addition, the GameCube also introduced a variety of connectivity options to Nintendo consoles, and was the third Nintendo console, after the Nintendo 64DD, to support online play officially, via the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter. It also enabled connectivity to the Game Boy Advance to access exclusive features of certain games or to use the portable system as a controller for the Game Boy Player. The console was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. The GameCube sold 21.74 million units worldwide. Nintendo discontinued the console in mid-2007. Madden NFL 08 is believed to be the final GameCube game to be released in North America The PlayStation 2 (often shortened to PS2) is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation series of video game consoles. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was released a year later in Japan. Its primary competitors were Sega's Dreamcast, Microsoft's Xbox, and the Nintendo GameCube. The PS2 is the best-selling console to date, having reached over 138 million units sold as of August 18, 2009 and a software library projected to exceed about 1,900 games in 2009. Several new games are scheduled to be released in 2010, thus continuing the sixth generation. The Xbox (name derived from "DirectX box") is a video game console produced by Microsoft. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market, and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast, and Nintendo's GameCube. The integrated Xbox Live service allows players to compete online. The Xbox was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe. It is the predecessor to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. It was discontinued in late 2006, although the final Xbox game (Madden NFL 09) was released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2, 2009; any in-warranty repair now needed will not be undertaken and faulty consoles will be replaced with an Xbox 360 instead. The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others. As of December 2009, the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales. A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. The Wii is Nintendo's fifth home console, the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube, and able to play all official GameCube games. Nintendo first spoke of the console at the 2004 E3 press conference and later unveiled the system at the 2005 E3. Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show. At E3 2006, the console won the first of several awards. By December 8, 2006, it had completed its launch in four key markets. The PlayStation 3 is the third video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as well as the original PlayStation. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. So far there have been several versions of the hardware with changes mostly in the hard drive. The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netfilx in the USA or Sky TV and BT Vision in the UK. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan, and, as of October 2009, nearly 34 million units have been sold worldwide. The Xbox 360 is currently available in two configurations—the "Arcade" and the "Elite"—and each has its own selection of accessories. MAME ==> stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. When used in conjunction with images of the original arcade game's ROM and disk data, MAME attempts to reproduce that game as faithfully as possible on a more modern general-purpose computer. MAME can currently emulate several thousand different classic arcade video games from the late 1970s through the modern era. Mame has been ported to almost every platform you can think of: Windows, Linux, PS2, Dreamcast, Wii, PSP .. etc. There are many other versions with frontend graphical GUI available like Mame32 and MamePlus .. The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977. 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. Originally known as the Atari VCS for Video Computer System the machine's name was changed to "Atari 2600" (from the unit's Atari part number, CX2600) in 1982 following the release of the more advanced Atari 5200. 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. During the 1980s, "Atari" was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and, by extension, for video games in general, similar to "Nintendo" and "PlayStation" in the later 1980s and 1990s respectively. The Memotech MTX500, MTX512 were a series of Zilog Z80A processor-based home computers released by Memotech in 1983 and 1984. They were technically similar to MSX computers, but were not compatible. The MTX500 had 32KB of RAM, the MTX512 had 64KB, and the RS128 had 128KB (a significant amount at that time). Although the Z80A could only address a maximum of 64KB at a time, the MTX and RS128's extra memory, up to a maximum of 768KB, was accessible through the technique of page switching. The computers featured an all-aluminium case and full size keyboard with real keys (unlike others of the same vintage such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum). In addition to the standard (for the time) BASIC language interpreter, it included some interesting variations like a built-in assembler, a built-in disassembler/debugger called Panel, more sprites than the comparable equipment at the time. The computers also featured support for plug-in ROM cartridges (a little like the BBC Micro). The most popular of these was the ISO Pascal language which was much faster than interpreted BASIC. A considerable addition to any Memotech system was the hugely-expensive FDX system which added 5.25" floppy disk drives, Winchester hard disks and CP/M 2.2 operating system. A Memotech badged CGA monitor was also made available around the time of the FDX launch. Although they were generally well-received, the computers were not a commercial success, and Memotech went bankrupt in 1985. MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s. It was a Microsoft-led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time Microsoft Japan executive Kazuhiko Nishi. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain, but they were popular in other markets. Eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold worldwide. Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create a single industry standard for home computers. Inspired by the success of VHS as a standard for video cassette recorders, many Japanese electronic manufacturers along with GoldStar, Philips and Spectravideo built and promoted MSX computers. Any piece of hardware or software with the MSX logo on it was compatible with MSX products of other manufacturers. In particular, the expansion cartridge form and function were part of the standard; any MSX expansion or game cartridge would work in any MSX computer. Amstrad was founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. Amstrad entered the market in the field of consumer electronics. During the 1970s they were at the forefront of low-priced hi-fi, TV and car stereo cassette technologies. Lower prices were achieved by injection moulding plastic hi-fi turntable covers, undercutting competitors who used the vacuum forming process. Amstrad expanded to the production of audio amplifiers and tuners.In 1980, Amstrad went public trading on the London Stock Exchange, and doubled in size each year during the early '80s. Amstrad began marketing their own home computers in an attempt to capture the market from Commodore and Sinclair, with the Amstrad CPC range in 1984. The CPC 464 was launched in the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Italy. It was followed by the CPC 664 and CPC 6128 models. Later "Plus" variants of the 464 and 6128, launched in 1990, increased their functionality slightly. In 1985, the popular Amstrad PCW range was introduced, which were principally word processors, complete with printer, running the LocoScript word processing program. They were also capable of running the CP/M operating system. The Amsoft division of Amstrad was set up to provide in-house software and consumables. The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January, 1982. Volume production started sometime in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes of memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of that time. It is commonly known as the C64 and occasionally referred to as CBM 64 (Commodore Business Machines Model number 64), or VIC-64. It has also been affectionately nicknamed the "breadbox" and "bullnose" due to the shape and colour of the first version of its casting. Million units were sold, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. For a substantial period of time (1983-1986), the Commodore 64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple computers, and Atari computers. Approximately 10 000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office applications, and games. The machine is also credited with popularizing the computer demo scene. The Nintendo Entertainment System (abbreviated to NES or Nintendo) is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia in 1985. In most of Asia, including Japan (where it was first launched in 1983), China, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines, it was released as the Family Computer), commonly abbreviated as the Famicom or FC for short). In South Korea, it was known as the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. In Russia, although it has never been officially distributed by Nintendo and there were no official representatives, it was known as Dendy. In South Asia, it was known as the Tata Famicom. It was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As the best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983, and set the standard for subsequent consoles in everything from game design to controller layout. In addition, with the NES, Nintendo introduced a now-standard business model of software licensing for third-party developers.