QUESTIONNAIRE

Respondent #1
Q: What gadget you’ve enjoyed using during your younger years? Why?
A: Atari console 2600 because that were the one which is really popular on that days.

Respondent #2
Q: What gadget you’ve enjoyed using during your younger years? Why?
A: Gameboy because it’s really accessible because it’s lightweight and easy to use.

FINAL OUTPUT

 Name of gadget (may include model)

- Atari 2600

 Picture/s of the actual gadget

 Year it was introduced and year it became obsolete

- It was introduced in 1977 and obsolete in 1992
 Price range
- In today’s worth, 15$ to 1000$ second hand. In 1980’s, 200$ to 300$.

 Features (may include parts discussion)

- Media ROM cartridge
- CPU 8-bit MOS Technology 6507 @ 1.19 MHz
- Memory 128 bytes RAM
- Controller input Joystick, paddles, driving, keypad, Trak-Ball
- Best-selling game Pac-Man, 7 million (as of September 1, 2006)
- Predecessor Atari Home Pong

 Advantages and limitations

- The Atari 2600's CPU is the MOS Technology 6507, a version of the 6502,
running at 1.19 MHz in the 2600. Though their internal silicon was identical,
the 6507 was cheaper than the 6502 because its package included fewer
memory-address pins—13 instead of 16.

- Further reducing the already limited addressable memory to 4 kiB (212 =

4096). This was believed to be sufficient as Combat is itself only 2 kiB. Later
games circumvented this limitation with bank switching.

- The console has 128 bytes of RAM for scratch space, the call stack, and the
state of the game environment.

- The 2600 does not have a frame buffer. Instead the video device provides
two 8-pixel bitmapped sprites, two 1-pixel "missile" sprites, a 1-pixel "ball",
and a 40-pixel "playfield" that is drawn by writing a bit pattern for each line
into a register just before the television scans that line.

- As each line is scanned, a game must identify the non-sprite objects that
overlap the next line, assemble the appropriate bit patterns to draw for those
objects, and write the pattern into the register. Similar to its predecessor
Pong, the right side of the screen is a mirrored duplicate of the left; to control
it separately, the software may modify the patterns as the scan line is drawn.
After the controller scans the last active line, a slower vertical blanking
interval begins, during which the game can process inputs and update the
positions and states of objects in the game world. Any mistake in timing
produces visual artifacts, a problem that programmers call "racing the beam".

- The 2600's video hardware is therefore highly flexible, but also challenging to
program. One advantage the 2600 has over more powerful contemporary
competitors such as the ColecoVision is that the 2600 has no protection
against altering settings in mid-line.
 - The Atari 2600 was designed to be compatible with the cathode-ray tube
television sets produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s,[46] and uses
different color palettes depending on the television signal format.

 Reasons for its popularity

- The Atari 2600 is known for its amazing games like Pitfall.

- Atari 2600 is also touted as the console to popularize microprocessor-based

design and pioneered the use of ROM cartridges.

 Reason for its obsolescence

- The game was poorly reviewed, leading to only about 1.5 million units sold,
weaker results than expected in December 1982, having expected a 50%
year-to-year growth but only obtaining 10–15%

ASSIGNMENT

1. What makes a gadget popular? What makes it unpopular?

- For me as a student, gadgets become popular because of their target
population. They are planning on what type of society wants and need for the
future and even in the present that can give the people some enjoyment or
fulfill the needs and also when people thinks it’s new which is really
interesting they will buy it quickly that can result to popularity (of course in
good ratings a good unit). It makes unpopular because of the poor ratings like
the appearance of the gadget is not good to attract the people. The gadget
may likely unknown because the gadget doesn’t have a name on the society.

2. Having a better understanding of the evolution of ICT, what trends do you

foresee in the coming years?
- For me the, the trends I foresee in the coming years would be the wearable
technology and the upgrade of the 5G because the wearable technology are
the ones who upgrade a period of time but the way they upgrade are on a
high level. Yes we can agree phones upgrades was great but in my opinion
when the wearable technology already make a gadget on where the uses of
phone can be apply, people will start buying those wearable gadget because
 it’s a something new. I chose 5G as well because as time goes by people will
find always a way to upgrade it because the faster the better so in my opinion
I already expect it.

3. If you’re an inventor, what gadget would you introduce to make the world a better
place to live in? Share your insights.
- If I would be an inventor, the gadget that I would introduce to the world to be a
better place to live in is a device that can be the remote of all your appliances,
electricity, water consumption even your whole house. It’s a phone size on
where you can click or use the talk mode on it if you want to close the lights,
open the gates, cook the food and any other works in the house. I chose that
kind of gadget remote because in today’s generation security is not really
good enough, virus can spread through our hands as well and it can really
help to those people who are fully dedicated to their work and for those
people as well who are sick. This is not to abuse the ability of the person but
it’s to lessen the workload of the other people who really in needs of help but
nobody can do the help for them.