Nintendo Entertainment System / Duck Hunt

Today is the 25th birthday of the NES, the Nintendo Entertainment System. That's 25 years of gaming-at-home Nintendo fun (as long as you don't count its sister model, the Family Computer, which was the Japanese version of the NES that debuted two years before its American counterpart.) In honor of the venerable NES, today I'll be discussing one of its most iconic games and how it worked.

Duck Hunt, a game instantly recognizable by gamers and non-gamers alike for its light-sensitive gun, was one of the original NES games. It came pre-packaged with the system and after a few years was even included on the same cartridge as Super Mario Bros. for the now-famous Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cartridge. What made the game so special was its innovative Zapper gun. The Zapper was a hand-held "gun" that plugged into the TV and worked just like the real thing. Point it at a duck on the screen, pull the trigger and poof! Dead duck. While current socio-political sensitivities might suggest that a hunting game complete with a model gun is a poor choice of game to pre-package with something ultimately aimed at children, there's no denying that the game itself was fun and different.

Conceptualizing Science

Walking down the hallway on a perfectly unobstructed day at school or work…it happens: a voice shrieks out “Who is GALILEO?!?!” While the question may have merit for a person that missed out on this subject earlier in life and simply needs to learn the subject matter…those who have made it through the majority of their high-school careers without the simple knowledge of one of science’s greatest contributors, Galileo (the man that perfected out model of a heliocentric solar system, have a serious lack of scientific understanding.

3D Displays

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm really excited about the Nintendo 3DS handheld system that will be released to the US market next March. Nintendo has a history of staying one innovative step ahead of other game companies, and the 3DS marks a major jump with its built-in 3D screen. It's not your father's 3D screen, though...it looks convincingly three-dimensional without any sort of glasses or extra eyewear required (Nintendo). 

Many people know how traditional 3D movies and games are shown, but how did Nintendo manage it without glasses? The process is called autostereoscopy. While there are several different types f this technology, we're focusing on the 3DS for now. The method Nintendo chose to use was a parallax barrier display. What do all of these big words mean, though?