HDD? I hardly know her!

Sources:
Events that happened in 1977: https://www.historycentral.com/20th/1977.html

Largest Atari2600 game https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/art-media.htm#page=cartridge

Average NES game size https://80sblog.all80s.co.uk/nintendo-entertainment-system-nes/

Nintendo betrays Sony https://venturebeat.com/games/the-story-behind-nintendos-betrayal-of-sony-and-how-it-created-its-fiercest-rival/#:~:text=Suspecting%20as%20much%2C%20Nintendo%20decided,Nintendo%20had%20inflicted%20on%20it.

All NES game = 237MB https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3h2fqx/how_much_space_it_would_take_to_store_every/

Game cartridge info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management_controller_(Nintendo)

Memory card info https://www.gamebyte.com/the-secret-feature-of-playstation-1-memory-cards-nobody-knew-about/

Info on CDs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_cartridge#:~:text=ROM%20cartridges%20allow%20users%20to,against%20unauthorised%20copying%20of%20software.

https://venturebeat.com/games/3-ways-the-original-playstation-changed-gaming-forever/

Those who failed at disc drives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#:~:text=The%20Saturn%20had%20technically%20impressive,memory%20at%20the%20same%20time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_3DO_Company#:~:text=Poor%20console%20and%20game%20sales,Sega%20Genesis%20combined%2C%20hampering%20sales.

Original XBOX specs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_technical_specifications

Memory limits on consoles https://websites.umass.edu/Techbytes/2014/02/10/history-of-gaming-storage/

Techspot article (has info on The Last of Us’s audio files too) https://www.techspot.com/article/2680-game-install-sizes/

Mississippi test scores https://www.mississippifreepress.org/38374/mississippis-act-scores-drop-as-test-prep-resources-vary-across-state#:~:text=Six%20Consecutive%20Years%20of%20Decline,national%20ACT%20average%20of%2019.5.

Backblaze HDD prices https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-cost-per-gigabyte/

SSD prices https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/historical-cost-of-computer-memory-and-storage?time=2009..latest&facet=none

Info on optical discs
https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/optical-disc

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/HD-DVD#:~:text=A%20standard%20single%2Dsided%2C%20one,provides%20up%20to%2030%20GB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray

Blu rays are the standard for videogame discs nowadays
https://www.whathifi.com/features/why-the-death-of-blu-ray-is-very-bad-for-gamers

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=349675

Large bug patches https://www.gamespot.com/articles/some-star-wars-jedi-survivor-players-have-a-giant-day-one-patch-if-they-preloaded-their-game/1100-6513684/

MW2 70MB disc having 150GB download https://www.eurogamer.net/modern-warfare-2s-disc-has-a-whopping-70mb-of-data#:~:text=With%20a%20150GB%20download.&text=Physical%20copies%20of%20Call%20of,by%20a%20hefty%20data%20download.

Games being announced too early https://www.thegamer.com/games-announced-too-early/

Textures don’t compress well https://www.pcgamer.com/how-game-sizes-got-so-huge-and-why-theyll-get-even-bigger/

Diablo 4 40GB graphics add on https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-high-resolution-assets-should-you-install-them/

Re use assets to save file size https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/file-size-an-important-factor-often-overlooked

Meta’s AI audio compressor https://ai.meta.com/blog/ai-powered-audio-compression-technique/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=blog

Harry Potter and the Extremely Long Download https://www.reddit.com/r/LimitedPrintGames/comments/118tp7b/are_games_still_even_stored_on_the_disc_or_is_it/

#gaming #videoessay #memory #essay