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| Friday Retro: Need To Entertain Kids? Get A 16-Bit Gaming Console Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:30 AM PST This one I’m writing specifically for the older crowd. If you periodically have relatives, sons, daughters, etc. that bring over kids between the ages 6 to 16, it’s most likely true that there’s nothing in your house that will entertain them. What happens is that they either sit there in agony waiting to leave, or in worse case start snooping around the house just because they’re bored. If you’re thinking, "Send ‘em outside!", well, that’s not always an option because the younger ones need to be looked after so they don’t climb up a tree, fall and break themselves. Generally speaking, what you want the kids to do is sit down, shut up and stay put. The best way to do this is with a non-internet-connected gaming console. It’s better than TV because it gets them engaged in actually doing something. The best gaming console you can get to entertain kids while you talk to the adults are 16-bit generation, namely the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. The reason 16-bit consoles are the best choice for kids is because they’re over-engineered and built like tanks. Modern consoles like the Wii and Xbox 360 are very flimsy in comparison. In addition, the controllers and game cartridges themselves are also over-engineered. In other words, short of taking a hammer to one of these, they are impervious to any punishment a kid could throw at them. Your local flea market (and of course eBay) will always have someone selling one of the two or both above. Your best bet is to buy one with two controllers in case kids want to play multi-player games. The average price you’ll pay for a console is between $25 to $40, depending on condition. Games will run anywhere from 1 to 10 dollars, depending on title. Speaking of games, it’s suggested you get at least 5 titles. Here are the ones I recommend for each console: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Sega Genesis Which is the better console to go with?The Super Nintendo is the better of the two because it has more choices for more kid types. Younger children will like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Kart, older kids will like Super Punch-Out!! and if the kid happens to be in his or her teen years, you may even want to consider purchasing RPG-style titles like Chrono-Trigger, Super Metroid and The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. Will kids actually play these games and not scoff at something so old? Yes, and they will be more than happy to play them. In fact, the most difficult part will probably be trying to get them away from the games when it’s time for them to leave. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.       |
| Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:00 AM PST
Why are graphic calculators still necessary? It mainly has to do with the buttons. Yes, you can do graph-style calculation on a smartphone, but the unfortunate part is you have to go through a sea of menus to find certain functions while the TI has just about everything immediately accessible right in front. Calculators may not be ‘cool’ or pretty (other than the fact TI’s come in multiple colors), but they get the job done because they’re designed as tools first and foremost. If you think that once a company releases a calculator that there would never be an OS update, that’s not true for TI as they just released 2.55MP for the venerable TI-84 Plus, originally released all the way back in 2004. For those of you who haven’t used a TI graphing calculator in a long time, the TI-84 is actually pretty darned close to being a laptop in some respects. It has USB, the ability to run apps (which includes games) and can even give presentations with TI-Presenter. Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.     |
When it comes to graphing calculators, the only name most people know is Texas Instruments, better known as simply TI. You would think that with all the modern handheld stuff we have that can compute great deals of information (like smartphones), calculators wouldn’t have a place in the world anymore, but they still do and students in the tens of thousands buy TI calculators every year – possibly every semester.| You are subscribed to email updates from PCMech To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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