So I am a computer science major, as such everyone expects me to love to program. Let me set things straight right now: I don’t. Well not really. I did enjoy writing a driver in perl that initiated a bunch of sorting algorithms and compared their times. I also like learning new languages I am currently working on learning a bit of Python. Python creeps me out because it does not use end of line characters, at least not that I have discovered yet.
example: printing Hello world!
perl:

print "\nhello world\n";

c:

main() { printf("\nhello world!\n"); }


python:


print '\nhello world\n'


GAA!! Notice the complete lack of semi-colon! As if this oft mis understood piece of punctuation hasn’t been trimmed from the english language enough now we must remove it from programing as well?! What will the future coders of America complain about?! Do you know how many hours of my life have been spent hunting for the missing semi-colon? or the misplaced semicolon? (interestingly enough demi, semi, and hemi can all mean the same thing),,, So I guess good riddance to the foul thing.

Continue after the jump

All the talk of python has made me think about Monty Python and all the myriad of amused moments I have spent watching the show. Surprisingly few actually. I find the most amusing thing about Monty Python is not WATCHING it so much as talking about it. The quote-ability of the show is what makes it great. I mean a knight slapping people with a chicken carcass? How is that funny? however TALKING about the knight slapping someone with a chicken carcass, or simply saying “no one expects the spanish inquisition!” and getting a laugh is a wonderful feeling it gives one a sense of belonging a sense of being part of the group. Where am I going with all of this? No where. Fast.

So my good friend Jenn over at Diary of a Gamer Girl brought up an interesting point, the fact that Wiis are outselling PS3s AND Xbox 360s. Since she already covered the sailent points as to why I shall not. I am, however, going to bring up a similar fight back in the day, I am also going to tell the tale in the fashion of an anime. In the bygone era there were many who would seek to rule, Atari, ColecoVision, and commodore 64.

These titans in their time fought for market share and the clear victor was the elder, the wiser, the Atari. The Atari reigned supreme but the people began to lose interest as the competion dried up and the games went to pot. The field of gaming seemed to be dying when a young upstart in the gaming world took the throne, Nintendo. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) dominated the gaming world for several years, fighting off other systems like the sega master system, the turbo graphix 16 and even the sega genisis.

Stepping back a bit lets examine the turbo-grafix vs NES battle. The TG-16 far out classed the NES, it wasn’t until the SNES that Nintendo out powered the offering from NEC, it was an 8-bit system that possessed a 16-bit graphics processor. The main reasons it didn’t gain ground were simple bad marketing and multiple opponents. The initial product offerings with the TG-16 failed to show the true power of the system. When the TG-16 was released it was competing with the Sega Genisis and the NES. It was far superior to the NES and could have held ground against the Genisis if it had the games to win the market. The TG-16 boasted about its technical prowess but no one cared, they were busy playing Altered Beast on the Sega Genisis. Nintendo, meanwhile sat back and lost profits as the NES fell out of favor. Sega smashed the TG-16 with superior process handeling and better use of graphics. For Sega there was not much competition as the NES was aging and not able to compete with the superior power of the new systems.

Then, from the secret labs located deep beneath Kyoto, a ravening beast was let loose upon the masses. The SUPER Nintendo Entertainment System! The SNES learned from all the wisdom it’s sire, the NES, had gained from earlier battles, win them over with game play, not power, finess them and they will love you. Sega matched technique with power and with the skill of Ueshiba Morihe, Nintendo met force with skill, stepped off the line and deftly defeated Sega. During the golden era of gaming, the SNES vs. Genisis days many peripherals were created, sega-CD, sega 32x to name a few. Curiously absent were peripherals from Nintendo. In a clever ploy to combat the advancing technology sega was fielding, Nintendo entered into talks with a company who had little to no involvement in the console wars. Nintendo commisioned a CD-rom add on, but witnessing the failure of the sega-CD and feeling that a new system, The Nintendo-64, would best defeat the growing power of the sega saturn, Nintendo reneged on their aggreement. With the act of dishonor, Nintendo awakened the sleeping tiger, for the company was Sony, and the CD-rom add-on became the Playstation.

In 1995 the PSX began to fight in earnest, easily defeating the SNES as it had been cut from the same cloth and trained by the same masters but the PSX was stronger, faster and offered better game play. Nintendo, in an attempt to quell the beast released a new system and tried to combat skill with brute force and met the same fate as the foes it had faced in the past for the N64 perished under the might of the PSX. Not only did the PSX gain victory over Nintendo but it also defeated Sega, managing something beyond even mighty Nintendo, the complete and total defeat of Sega. For even though the Sega Dreamcast was a powerful system it fell beneath the strength of the mighty PS2. In 2001 sega retreated and left the console battle to the reigning master, Sony, and the old champion laid low, Nintendo, and the new upstart the X-box.

Nintendo, having learned from it’s mistakes, knew it could not meet force with force so it seemed to retreat and become smaller, in-efficient, the game cube. It was simply a delaying action, life support, while the reigning juggernauts slugged away at one another forgetting about the ancient master Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft continued to fight one another and while the PS2 reigned supreme both combatants continued to produce bigger and better weapons, the PS3 and X-Box360. Arrogent compettitors puffed up and blinded by their own power the fighters paid no heed to the ancient masters most recent incarnation. They saw no challenge in the ancient master, mocked him and would not even challenge him. Then he arose and in his full power bested the others not with force, not with strength but with skill. Not only had Nintendo returned but they had brought the venerable ones with them Nintendo brought back the NES, SNES, SEGA and the TG-16. With the old masters gathered poised to strike it was evident who would win for not only had Nintendo allied with their old enimies they had gained knowledge of the field from their current foes, they unleased the Wii.

The battle still rages the master again seems to reign, but only the fullness of time will tell who will win the ultimate battle. The lesson of the 7th generation is that skill and playability win the day, not posturing and statistics. Fight the good fight, concentrate not on beating one another but on supplying what the people want and you will find victory, Wiis sell out the day they arive, while Ps3s and Xbox360s weigh down shelves. I greatly anticipate the 8th generation and what other lessons will be learned.