User user

500 votes

Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

answered Jul 1, 2019 at 8:29

94 votes

Why weren't bootable game disks ever common on the IBM PC?

ms-dos ibm-pc gaming boot

answered Jul 8, 2019 at 13:31

37 votes

Accepted

Why does the original Donkey Kong update the screen in a curtain closing pattern?

nintendo arcade mame

answered Nov 6, 2018 at 11:22

35 votes

Accepted

Did arcade monitors have same pixel aspect ratio as TV sets?

hardware display arcade ntsc

answered Mar 22, 2019 at 12:34

34 votes

Accepted

What makes MOVEQ quicker than a normal MOVE in 68000 assembly?

assembly motorola-68000

answered Jul 18, 2019 at 15:47

28 votes

Accepted

How did Elite on the NES work?

graphics nes gaming

answered Apr 23, 2019 at 13:07

25 votes

Why did 8-bit Basic use 40-bit floating point?

history basic floating-point 8-bit-microcomputers

answered Nov 13, 2020 at 13:55

24 votes

What is the most rudimentary input method a platform has ever been programmed in?

programming

answered Apr 30, 2019 at 10:41

23 votes

What makes accurate emulation of old systems a difficult task?

emulation

answered Apr 25, 2019 at 8:11

23 votes

Accepted

Reason for gold lines on old ICs?

hardware chip

answered Nov 19, 2018 at 9:21

23 votes

Accepted

Why does the Galaksija use SRAM instead of DRAM?

memory galaksija

answered Dec 21, 2018 at 10:27

23 votes

Why did Commodore 64 cartridge games disappear?

history commodore-64 game-cartridge

answered Jun 4, 2018 at 9:35

23 votes

Accepted

Why the switch to "Mickey Mouse" (type C14) power cables?

hardware power

answered Jun 29, 2018 at 9:56

22 votes

What is a subpixel in Super Mario Bros, and how does it relate to wall clipping?

graphics nes sprite

answered May 27, 2019 at 8:37

22 votes

Accepted

Details of video memory access arbitration in Space Invaders

memory 8080 arcade

answered Jun 24, 2019 at 15:04

21 votes

Why did 1950s-60s computers have such wide words?

history mainframe dec architecture ibm650

answered Sep 6, 2020 at 10:42

21 votes

Accepted

Was drilling 3"5 720 KiB floppies to 'upgrade' them to 1440 KiB at all reliable?

floppy-disk

answered Apr 3, 2019 at 11:39

20 votes

What did the 'turbo' button actually do?

hardware ibm-pc

answered May 20, 2019 at 11:44

18 votes

What causes that "organic fade to black" effect in classic video games?

graphics color-display sony-playstation

answered Jan 5, 2021 at 16:11

16 votes

Back in 1984 I wrote some games for Spectrum - Will they still be playable?

zx-spectrum gaming

answered Aug 17, 2020 at 11:58

16 votes

Why was the 6809 so expensive?

history z80 market 6809

answered Oct 19, 2018 at 8:43

15 votes

How did Z80 multiprocessing work in the Namco Galaga hardware?

z80 arcade

answered Feb 16, 2018 at 9:40

15 votes

Accepted

How and why did Intel make the PCI bus "CPU Agnostic"?

history amiga apple-macintosh intel powerpc

answered Sep 14, 2020 at 15:04

15 votes

How did computers generate 'noise' sound files?

sound

answered Sep 27, 2019 at 19:43

13 votes

Why did common floppies never advance past 1.4 MB in size?

hardware history floppy-disk

answered Jun 19, 2018 at 8:35

12 votes

Why did Windows 95 crash the whole system but newer Windows only crashed programs?

operating-system windows

answered Jul 29, 2019 at 9:12

11 votes

How did Satoru Iwata compress Pokemon GS to fit two regions on a single cartridge?

gaming game-cartridge game-boy

answered Jun 26, 2019 at 13:12

11 votes

Why did the Apple IIe make a hideous noise if you inserted the disk upside down?

apple-ii floppy-drive

answered Jun 27, 2019 at 10:06

11 votes

Accepted

Source Code Archival in early Game Developement

software-development game-consoles

answered Jul 2, 2019 at 13:46

10 votes

It's now safe to turn off your computer

hardware history

answered Jun 20, 2018 at 8:52

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112 Answers

Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

Why weren't bootable game disks ever common on the IBM PC?

Why does the original Donkey Kong update the screen in a curtain closing pattern?

Did arcade monitors have same pixel aspect ratio as TV sets?

What makes MOVEQ quicker than a normal MOVE in 68000 assembly?

How did Elite on the NES work?

Why did 8-bit Basic use 40-bit floating point?

What is the most rudimentary input method a platform has ever been programmed in?

What makes accurate emulation of old systems a difficult task?

Reason for gold lines on old ICs?

Why does the Galaksija use SRAM instead of DRAM?

Why did Commodore 64 cartridge games disappear?

Why the switch to "Mickey Mouse" (type C14) power cables?

What is a subpixel in Super Mario Bros, and how does it relate to wall clipping?

Details of video memory access arbitration in Space Invaders

Why did 1950s-60s computers have such wide words?

Was drilling 3"5 720 KiB floppies to 'upgrade' them to 1440 KiB at all reliable?

What did the 'turbo' button actually do?

What causes that "organic fade to black" effect in classic video games?

Back in 1984 I wrote some games for Spectrum - Will they still be playable?

Why was the 6809 so expensive?

How did Z80 multiprocessing work in the Namco Galaga hardware?

How and why did Intel make the PCI bus "CPU Agnostic"?

How did computers generate 'noise' sound files?

Why did common floppies never advance past 1.4 MB in size?

Why did Windows 95 crash the whole system but newer Windows only crashed programs?

How did Satoru Iwata compress Pokemon GS to fit two regions on a single cartridge?

Why did the Apple IIe make a hideous noise if you inserted the disk upside down?

Source Code Archival in early Game Developement

It's now safe to turn off your computer