Friday, September 4, 2009

Where did gaming laptops originate?

By Michael Stanton

It is astonishing to think that the first video game was only developed in the early 1950's as a design project for A.S. Dougal's PhD degree. This video game was a simple version of Tic-Tac-Toe. It took two decades for the first commercial home game console to be released, this being the Odyssey that was designed by Ralph Baer and released by Magnavox. The Odyssey came programmed with twelve games. In 1971, a year before the home game console was released, Nolan Bushnell, along with Ted Dabney created the first arcade game - Computer Space, which was based on Nolan's earlier game Spacewar! However it was the next year that Nolan Bushnell (with assistance from Al Alcorn) truly hit gold, with the release of their arcade game Pong! It soon became a household name, and everybody wanted to be the master of Pong! Seeing the appeal of the game, Atari (Bushnell and Dabney's recently formed company) released Pong! as a home video game in 1975.

The computer gaming industry is now a billion dollar business. Those hardcore gamers still fondly remember Pong! but for most it is naught but a distant memory. From a humble beginning sprouted a gigantic industry. Serious gamers will tell you that buying a gaming PC or gaming laptop should not be done without professional input and lots of thought. In today's world, most people require laptops or notebooks because of their mobility. Many different laptops can be found on the market today and when buying gaming laptops you should take the following factors into consideration:

Processor The processor is the most important part of your laptop - especially so with gaming laptops. Recent games need at least a 1.6 GHz processor but they recommend a 2 GHz processor. Anything less than this will most likely not be suitable for the newest and best games.

Memory After the Processor (CPU), the memory space is the most important aspect to consider. A low memory will slow down your computer's processing speed tremendously which will result in a lot of frustration. Newer games need a lot of memory space and thus we recommend a RAM memory of no less than 1GB - 2GB is the better option. When looking at memory speed, do not settle for anything less than 667Mhz.

Graphics The type of game you play does not influence your need to have a great graphics card - the best graphics is required no matter which game you play. Don't settle for anything less than 512MB dedicated memory on your graphics card. Even this is a low amount of dedicated memory.

Hard Drive This is also a very important aspect when looking for a gaming laptop or computer. A few years ago, a 100GB hard drive was considered more than enough for the biggest and best gamers in the world. Nowadays, 500GB is the minimum that any serious gamer settle for and even that is sometimes insufficient. External or portable hard drives are available though, which makes it easier to just purchase one and link it to your computer. You can buy portable hard drives with a 1 TB available space or even more!!

Optical Drive With the optical drive (CD, DVD ect.) you can settle for something a bit cheaper as this does not rely on specific speeds or other necessities. The only thing you need to consider is if you want a multiformat (DVD RW) DVD burner.

Display A screen size of less than 19 inches is usually not acceptable for any serious gamer. Maximum resolution for the screen size of your choice is needed as this will enhance your viewing pleasure when you watch movies on DVD's or blu-ray discs. This should also improve the graphics output of your games.

As you can see, there are many things to consider when buying a gaming laptop, and you should not take to this challenge without advice from professionals if you are new to gaming. Ask around, and remember to shop around. Computer sales are a competitive environment, and you may be surprised by some of the specials out there. - 22787

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