Some Notes About Our Recommendations

• This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don't play games, then the cards on this list are more expensive than what you really need. We've added a reference page at the end of the column covering integrated graphics processors, which is likely more apropos.
• The criteria to get on this list are strictly price/performance. We acknowledge that recommendations for multiple video cards, such as two Radeon cards in CrossFire mode or two GeForce cards in SLI, typically require a motherboard that supports CrossFire or SLI and a chassis with more space to install multiple graphics cards. They also require a beefier power supply compared to what a single card needs, and will almost certainly produce more heat than a single card. Keep these factors in mind when making your purchasing decision. In most cases, if we have recommended a multiple-card solution, we try to recommend a single-card honorable mention at a comparable price point for those who find multi-card setups undesirable.
• Prices and availability change on a daily basis. We can't base our decisions on always-changing pricing information, but we can list some good cards that you probably won't regret buying at the price ranges we suggest, along with real-time prices from our PriceGrabber engine, for your reference.
• The list is based on some of the best U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary.
• These are new card prices. No used or open-box cards are in the list; they might represent a good deal, but it's outside the scope of what we're trying to do.

Best PCIe Card: Under $85

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$50:

Radeon HD 4650 (Check Prices)

Great 1280x1024 performance in most games, 1680x1050 with lowered detail

You will not find a card that packs more punch than ATI's Radeon HD 4650 under the alluring $50 price point. With solid stock performance and an overclockable GPU, this card is an excellent starting point for our recommendations, and a wholly worthwhile upgrade if you're currently stuck using a motherboard with integrated graphics.

Best PCI Express (PCIe) Card For ~$65: Tie

Radeon HD 4670 (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

With the release of Nvidia's GeForce GT 240, ATI's Radeon HD 4670 is no longer the most powerful reference card without a dedicated power connector. However, it remains a compelling solution under the $75 price point, which Nvidia's solution simply hasn't hit yet.

Performance is excellent and power usage is very low, making this product an impressive performer all-around. Its accelerated clock rates and modestly-higher price tag are worth considering if you originally had your eye on the Radeon HD 4650.

GeForce 9600 GSO (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GSO is seems to be getting quite hard to find, and is likely being end-of-life'd soon in favor of the new GeForce GT 240. Nevertheless, as long as it is available, the GeForce 9600 GSO remains a powerful competitor compared to the Radeon HD 4670. While the GeForce requires a dedicated PCIe power connector to supply more juice than the Radeon, it does offer better performance in some situations.

Best PCIe Card For ~$85:

GeForce 9600 GT (Check Prices)

Good 1680x1050 performance in most games

The GeForce 9600 GT is a great performer, thanks in part to its high-end 256-bit memory interface and speedy DDR3 memory. It's a great choice on an $85 budget, even if the architecture on which it centers is showing its age.

Certainly, this card's continued presence here is a testament to Nvidia's engineering work dating back almost two years ago. With that said, we'd certainly like to see the company's latest DirectX 10.1 cards drop in price to compete against ATI's strong offerings.

Best PCIe Card: ~$90 To $140

Best PCIe Card For ~$95: Tie

GeForce 9800 GT (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with lowered detail

The GeForce 9800 GT is essentially a rebadged GeForce 8800 GT, and offers the same great performance it has for years now (that sure sounds funny to say in reference to graphics cards).

With the rising price of ATI's Radeon HD 4850 giving it space to breathe, this legendary card is once again a recommended buy. But once again, we're looking forward to seeing technological progress put new, faster, and cooler products loaded down with more features in this space rather than revisiting history.

Fortunately, there's still PhysX and 3D Vision support to like about this aging board.

Radeon HD 4830 512MB (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1680x1050 performance in most games, 1920x1200 in most games with lowered detail

Just as the GeForce 9800 GT can once again be recommended due to the rising price of the Radeon HD 4850, so can the Radeon HD 4830. While availability is low, this Radeon is still a viable option under the $100 price point if you can find it. You'll discovered that it offers great performance on par with the GeForce 9800 GT, with the added benefit of DirectX 10.1 support.

Best PCIe Card For ~$110:

GeForce GTS 250 512MB (Check Prices)

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

The dissapearance of the $100 Radeon HD 4850 has not only opened up the GeForce 9800 GT and Radeon HD 4830 for recommended status, but also the GeForce GTS 250.

At $110, the 512MB version of this card offers respectable performance, and nothing else in the price range can compare to it. As fast as the Radeon HD 4850 and new Radeon HD 5750 (and notably cheaper), the GeForce GTS 250 has no real competition from the rest of the sub-$150 market at this time.

Bear in mind that going this route instead of the Radeon HD 5750 will cost you DirectX 11 support and Eyefinity. But in the context of gaming, you'll need to make other quality sacrifices long before trying to enjoy either value-add in the $110 range.

Best PCIe Card For ~$120:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB (Check Prices)

Good 1920x1200 performance in most games

For $10 more than the 512MB version, an interested gamer can get the benefit of a full gigabyte of memory. At the highest resolutions and levels of anti-aliasing, this extra memory might provide a performance boost, though it's unlikely the GeForce GTS 250 is powerful enough to run at those detail levels. Still, many buyers might find the slight $10 price increase worthwhile in something like Grand Theft Auto IV.

Best PCIe Card: ~$150 To $290

Best PCIe Card For ~$155: Tie

Radeon HD 5770 (Check Prices)

Great 1920x1200 performance in most games

While the new Radeon HD 5770 isn't any faster than its older Radeon HD 4870 cousin (we've found that it's even slightly slower in many instances), it does have something the Radeon HD 4870 doesn't have: full DirectX 11 and Eyefinity support. Indeed, while the Radeon HD 5770 doesn't run away with any performance crowns in this category, it does look good from a longevity/value standpoint.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

GeForce GTX 260 (Check Prices)

Great 1920x1200 performance in most games

Like many cards, the GeForce GTX 260 is becoming very hard to find, and may soon be end-of-life'd. In any case, it does offer advantages in titles that run better on Nvidia's GT200 architecture, and it sports some GeForce-only value-added features like PhysX compatibility and support for GeForce 3D Vision.

Once again, a little diligence is required on the part of the buyer to find out which card is best adapted for his or her favorite titles, and whether or not your motherboard supports SLI, CrossFire, or both multi-card technologies.

Best PCIe Card For ~$200:

Radeon HD 4890 (Check Prices)

Excellent 1920x1200 performance in most games

The Radeon HD 4890 is essentially an overclocked Radeon HD 4870. However, the tweaks that AMD made to the newer RV790 die result in much higher overclocking headroom. At stock speeds, this card is worth the $200. But to get the most out of it, some overclocking is in order. And now that the prices on Radeon HD 5850 cards are through the roof, there's not much between this board and ATI's next-fastest solution.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$240:

2 x GeForce GTS 250 1GB in SLI Configuration (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most games with lowered detail

Two GeForce GTS 250 cards in SLI pack a punch and make a strong case for multi-card setups. With the Radeon HD 4850s going up in price and down in availability, these GeForce cards replace them as the weapon of choice for sub-$300 brute force power.

Best PCIe Card: ~$300 To $400

Best PCIe Card For ~$310: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5850

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5850 has some definite advantages over a pair of GeForce GTX 260s in SLI or a pair of Radeon HD 5770s in CrossFire. It doesn't need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard, it uses a lot less power thanks to its 40nm manufacturing process, and it sports DirectX 11 capabilities (plus Eyefinity).

Unfortunately, scant availability forces us to relegate the Radeon HD 5850 to Honorable Mention status until it can be purchased without having to fight for it.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5850 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$330: Tie

At approximately the same price, these options retain the same advantages of their single-card counterparts: two GeForce GTX 260s offer SLI compatibility, PhysX, and GeForce 3D Vision support, and two Radeon HD 5770s offer DirectX 11, Eyefinity, and high-def audio bitstreaming to CrossFire-compatible motherboard users. A good case can be made for either of these options, and none of them are a poor choice. Just pick your poison.

2 x GeForce GTX 260 in SLI (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles

Nvidia doesn't have a DirectX 11-class architecture yet, so if you're going to sink $300+ into DirectX 10 hardware, do so knowing that there are competing DirectX 11 boards available in the same price range.

A pair of Radeon HD 5770s won't offer quite the same level of performance as two GeForce GTX 260s in SLI; that's the trade-off for more modern functionality, though.

2 x Radeon HD 5770 in CrossFire (Check Prices)

Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, good 2560x1600 performance in most titles

The new Radeon HD 5770 sports added benefits over its GeForce GTX 260 competition: DirectX 11, triple display outputs, and the ability to bitstream high-definition audio content from Blu-ray movies contribute significant value to ATI's newest mainstream graphics cards. For those seeking long-term DirectX 11 compatibility, this might be the more attractive option.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5770 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$400:

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

Two Radeon HD 4890 cards should, on average, perform on par or better than a single GeForce GTX 295, and will definitely beat out a single Radeon HD 5870. Plus, these Radeons cost less than either option. If you have a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and want some serious performance at high resolutions, this route is the way to go.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 4890 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card: ~$400 And Up

Best PCIe Card For ~$410: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5870

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

For $10 less, a couple Radeon HD 4890s will easily beat a single Radeon HD 5870 in the titles that matter today (perhaps this will change when DirectX 11 software becomes more pervasive). From a raw price/performance standpoint, this makes the Radeon HD 5870 a hard sell. But that is not to say this card is underpowered: it sports the fastest single GPU on the planet, relatively low power usage (remarkably low at idle), and DirectX 11 support. For folks without a motherboard that supports CrossFire and a hefty power supply, the new Radeon HD 5870 is definitely a more-than-viable option. Unfortunately, availability is still quite rare.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5870 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$465: None

Honorable Mention: GeForce GTX 295 (Check Prices)

Good 2560x1600 performance in most games

Despite ATI's new Radeon HD 5970 taking its place as the fastest graphics card on the planet, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 (with SLI-on-a-board) remains an extremely powerful graphics card. Essentially two conjoined GeForce GTX 275s, the GeForce GTX 295 offers very notable gains over a single Radeon HD 5870 in the great majority of game titles, although the Radeon will use far less power doing so. The GeForce GTX 295 does have an advantage in that it it still quite easy to find and purchase. Moreover, ATI's release has forced prices on these cards down by a significant chunk.

Read our full review of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

Best PCIe Card For ~$625: None

Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5970

Great 2560x1600 performance

3,200 shader processors. There isn't much more we need to say about the brutal grace of execution that characterizes the world's fastest graphics card, the Radeon HD 5970. With two Radeon HD 5870 GPUs onboard, the only things we can complain about are scant availability and an extremely high price tag. Availability should improve over time; the price not so much, but if you're in the market for this card price probably isn't an issue.

Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5970 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.

There you have it folks; the best cards for the money this month. Now all that's left to do is to find and purchase them.

Don't worry too much about which brand you choose, because all of the cards out there are close to Nvidia's and ATI's reference designs. Just pay attention to price, warranty, and the manufacturer's reputation for honoring the warranty if something goes wrong.

Also remember that the stores don't follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you'll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!

Disney, who is probably the most IP-protective company in the entertainment industry, realizes that I'm a lot more likely to buy their Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray for a small price premium if it includes every other format I could possibly want.

So why isn't the video games industry offering me the same choice with multi-platform titles like Call of Duty? Or, put differently, why is it that buying Call of Duty on the 360 doesn't give me a portable version for the DS or my iPhone?

I know, how ignorant of me to ask such a question! Porting a Call of Duty title from the Xbox 360 to PS3 is an expensive endeavor—we're talking huge development teams costing millions of dollars. For the DS or Wii, it's likely that game is designed again from the ground up to accommodate the unique hardware and lower processor specs. If I own an Xbox and a DS, they can't just give me the DS version for cheap or free!

Or could they?

Let's use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's numbers as an example. According to data from VGChartz, 4,890,348 discs sold of Xbox 360 version alone in the first week. Imagine, for a moment, that $5 extra would buy you Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 alongside a bonus version for the DS. If only 10% of buyers were tempted into this upsell, that's 489,000 additional DS version sold, or an extra $2,445,170 in DS-related revenue for Activision.

And for all of you think this would just cannibalize DS sales, I respond, what sales? Only 12,000 units of the DS's Modern Warfare 2 sold over the same period of time. (More figures on Kotaku.) Plus, by using digital downloads tied to existing PSN, Xbox Live and Nintendo accounts, software companies could greatly limit sharing/resale of these extra versions.

Assuming my rough numbers aren't too nuts (actually, I believe they are quite conservative), why isn't the games industry following the movie industry's lead? Why can't buying a game on one platform allow you to play it on many?

The real limitation isn't development costs, it's that the video games industry is fundamentally designed to ignore competing formats and charge developers licensing fees that would cripple such a model. Nintendo doesn't want to acknowledge that a gamer might want to play Call of Duty on the Wii for motion controls, on Xbox 360 for networking and on an iPhone for the road. Nintendo wants Nintendo gamers to live in a digital bubble. And the same can be said for Sony and Microsoft.

We're not supposed to want to play games on more systems than one. But you know what? We already do. According to the NPD, 42% of Xbox 360 and PS3 owners also own a Wii. And if those same numbers were run in relation to mobile devices, including cellphones, the number would skyrocket to nearly 100%.

Nintendo, with the Wii and DS, and Sony, with the PS3 and PSP, are both advantageously positioned to make such a model work. But ideally, software companies and retailers could take such promotions cross-platform, cross-company.

I don't live in a Utopian dream state, believing that the next generation of games will play on one uniform platform. And in fact, I think diversity and competition within the market is key to innovation. So let's leverage these differences to a more consumer-centric model that will probably, ultimately, make all involved companies more money while offering shoppers more choice.

Last updated December 8th, 2009 but we'll update this list as the new stuff replaces the old and crusty. We read and write reviews so you don't have to!

Smartphones

• The Best Smartphones: We like the iPhone, the Motorola Droid because it runs Android 2.0 operating system, and the Palm Pre for people who have stuck with Sprint. We do not like anything Symbian or Windows Mobile 6.5, for the time being. (But are excited for Windows Mobile 7.)

• Cheapest Android Phones: Droid Eris and HTC Hero.

• The Best Smartphones, By Carrier: We sorted out theses answers on Nov 24th, but this category moves quickly so stay sharp when researching.

• Best Windows Mobile Phone We Wish Didn't Run Windows Mobile 6.5: The HTC HD2

• Best BlackBerry: If you're into phones with exceedingly reliable push email, the Bold 9700 is your phone. (We don't like Blackberry's touchscreen interfaces, so the Storms are no good.)

• Non-Smartphones: You mean dumbphones? No thank you.

Computers

• Netbook: If you must get one of these small, cheap and utterly slow machines, the HP Mini 311 with ion graphics is a good one. The Samsung N140 along with the Toshiba mini NB205 are also excellent picks.

• Netbook for Hackintoshing: Dell Mini 10v (and it must be the v) is the top choice. Here's our guide to making it run OS X.

• Laptop: Our bias for OS X and Windows 7 becomes apparent in our choice of hardware that can run both without hacking. Macbook Pros. (Plus, we like unibody construction.)

• Best Non-Apple Laptops: Dell's Adamo XPS may not be fast but it is "insane," raising the bar on design and quality outside of Cupertino. We also like Thinkpads in general, like the X series and the new multitouch t400s. (It's probably also worth noting that Asus and Toshiba recently came out on top in reliability.) And here are our faves at every pricepoint.

• Gaming Laptops and Desktops: Our friend Will Smith at Maximum PC likes these two laptops and two desktops. I personally like Xbox.

• All in One: We like the iMac, the HP Touchsmart and although we haven't used it yet, the Sony Vaio L because it can double as a TV even when the PC is off. The PCs here have infrared touchscreens, so they do multitouch, but in a really shoddy way.

• MIDs: We hate MIDs. Always have, always will. Intel said they had the tech to make them; but the world never had the need. It either fits in a backpack and lets you do real work on a real screen and keyboard, or it fits in your pocket. There's no real need for anything inbetween.

• Operating Systems: Windows 7 or Snow Leopard

• Network attached storage: We like the HP Mediasmart series with upnp, iTunes and Time Machine servers among other things. But the Iomega NAS is only a little less fancy and costs half the price.

Audio

• The Best receiver under $1000: We haven't tested one in awhile, but we're going to go out on a limb and say we like Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha and Pioneer gear. While some of our own testing is in progress, we'll go with what our friends at Sound and Vision like: The Onkyo TX-SR706 7.1 receiver with 4HDMI ports and THX certification for $900.

• The Best High-End Portable Media Players: Zune HD and the iPod Touch. We Like the Zune pass system a lot, which allows you to keep 10 songs a month out of your unlimited downloads, even after you stop subscribing. But the iPod Touch's large app library makes it a powerful little computer.

• Best high-capacity media player: iPod classic is pretty much the only one left, since Zune has been discontinued and Archos is a mess.

• Flash Media Drives: We've always loved the screenless shuffle's utility, but there are other drives to be had with more functionality for cheaper. Especially now that the buttonless iPod shuffle is sort of annoying to use. We like the Sandisk Sansa Clip+.

• Surround Soundbar: There's only one series of soundbars that uses cold war submarine tech to bounce soundwaves off your walls for surround, and they're made by Yamaha. I tested the YSP-4000.

• iPod Speaker Dock: JBL OnStage 400p (A winner from last year — I'm almost certain we should be retesting this category)

Video

• Best HDTV under $1000: Panasonic's X1 series plasmas, and four more here.

• Best HDTVs, period: Here.

• 1080p Projectors Under $1000: The Vivitek H1080FD is one we like, although we have not tested many.

• Best Monitors: If your'e a Mac user, the 24-inch Cinema Display has a built in magsafe adapter. The Asus 23-inch VH236H is good deal at about $230, but Samsung and Dell are our solid choices for monitor brands, as well.

• The Best Pocket Projectors: There is no such thing, friend. Wait a generation or 3.

• Blu-ray player: The LG BD390 with WiFi with Netflix and DivX playback is awesome, but we'll never leave out the PS3!

• Media Streamers for People Who Hate iTunes or Love Piracy: The WDTV Live is a good one for people who like it easy, but hackers will probably choose Popcorn Hour, both which did well in our battlemodo. However, the current king is the Asus O!Play, which also wins an award for worst use of an exclamation point in a name.

Cameras

• Best Entry-Level Video-Capable DSLR: Canon T1i

• Best Midrange DSLR: The Nikon D90 has the same sensor as the D300 at a better price.

• Best Prosumer DSLRs: The Canon 7D is great at shooting video and has great low light performance for an 18MP camera.

• Best Flash Camcorder: The Flip Ultra HD.

• Best Quality Point and Shoot: We like the Canon G11 (which is pretty big, but pretty wonderful.)

• A Camcorder We Like: We haven't tested any in awhile, but we tend to like DSLRs that shoot video or cheap flash camcorders. If you must have a camcorder, our friends at CamcorderInfo drafted this list with the best at every price.

• Best Point and Shoot: We like the Canon S90, even though we're sure there are slimmer cameras. This uses the same sensor as the G11 and a faster lens, so it takes great shots for a slim.

• Best Rugged Cameras: The Pentax W80 is the best all around camera because of it's depth and temperature ratings and size. The Lumix has the best picture quality but is a bit of a wimp with low thresholds for dives and temperatures. Canon's the best for water only because of its huge nose. And the outstandingly rugged Olympus has a fatal flaw, which is its terrible video.

• Best Helmet Camera: We love the GoPro Hero HD Wide because it mounts anywhere, is really waterproof and lives in a protected case. Plus, 1080p for $250 bucks.

• Best Slow Motion Pocket Camera: Casio EX FC100

Random Stuff

• The Best iPhone Apps: Here's our monthly list of iPhone Apps, as well as our weekly roundups of the best new releases.

• The best GPS: It's really hard to justify these when smartphones are doing so well with their turn by turn apps. But they still need car docks and some of their UIs are not great, so if you want a dedicated unit, bide your time with the cheapest Garmin Nuvi you can find. Usually about $125 at Amazon.

• The Best iPhone GPS Apps: Motion X GPS is our favorite value GPS app, but ALK's CoPilot is another cheap champ. Navigon is still the classiest, but it costs a lot. (We're hoping for free Google Maps with Navigation to come to iPhone.)

• The Best Android Apps: There aren't as many Android apps out, but here are the ones we think are worth checking out.

• Ebook reader: Now that we've reviewed the Barnes & Noble Nook, we can safely say there are finally two great contenders. But until Nook gets some firmware updates making it smoother and quicker, Amazon's latest Kindle will remain king.

• USB drive: The Patriot Xporter is fast, but if you have cash to spare, the Corsair Voyager GT is slightly faster and has 128GB of space.

• The Best Video Game Console: Xbox 360

• The Best Video Service: Anything, really, combined with Hulu and Netflix (for free old stuff).

• Best mid-tier office chairs: Herrman Miller Setu and Steelcase Cobi.

• Vacuums: We will always be loyal to Sir James Dyson because he tried to sell bagless vacuum tech to big vacuum corporations and they shut him down motivated by the profitability of bag sales. Then he started his own company. His machines are loud, but you can't argue with their industrial design. Here's his latest handheld and ball vacuum.

• Routers: D-Link Dir685. I know it has a digital picture frame built into it, but it also has a HDD and a bittorrent client. And Jason says it's been more reliable than the top line Linksys he tested it against. I also like the Time Capsule, but haven't yet tested the one with 2x the wireless performance.

• The Best Headphones: For in ear buds, we like the Shure SE110/SE115, Ultimate Ears Metro.fi and Etymotics hf5 won our tests. (The Last updated August 2008, so look for updates to winners.) We like the Klipsch Image S4i earbuds for people who want to use the iPhone's voice control or iPod shuffle's Voiceover function. For Bluetooth stereo headsets, we like the Motorola s305.

• Rechargeable Batteries: Duracell destroyed Energizer, and kept up with the legendary Sanyo Enerloops.

• Mice: For gaming, the Microsoft Sidewinder X8. The Logictech MX1100 for regular mousing. And the Magic Mouse is not amazing, but it's pretty good if you have a Mac—the best mouse Apple has ever made.

• Keyboard: We like the Logitech DiNovo.

Suggestions? Requests for review? Leave em in the comments or email us!

Written by me, directed and edited by Craig Rowin, makeup by Annamarie Tendler, starring Noah Plener, John Ward, Matt Fisher and myself, voiceover by Sam Reich.

I read those 1979 stories all last week, and it put me in a nostalgic mood, so wanted to offer my own memory to add to the collection.

In 1979, Microsoft had 13 employees, most of whom appear in that famous picture that provides indisputable proof that your average computer geek from the late 1970s was not exactly on the cutting edge of fashion. We started the year by moving from Albuquerque back to Bellevue, just across the lake from Seattle. By the end of the year we'd doubled in size to 28 employees. Even though we were doing pretty well, I was still kind of terrified by the rapid pace of hiring and worried that the bottom could fall out at any time.

What made me feel a little more confident was that 1979 was the year we began to sense that BASIC was right on the verge of becoming the standard language for microcomputers. We knew this could be the catalyst that would unlock the potential of the PC to democratize computing and create the right conditions for an explosion in programs and applications that would lead to really rapid growth of the PC market.

By the middle of 1979, BASIC was running on more than 200,000 Z-80 and 8080 machines and we were just releasing a new version for the 8086 16-bit microprocessor. As the numbers grew, we were starting to think beyond programming languages, too, and about the possibility of creating applications that would have real mass appeal to consumers. That led to the creation of the Consumer Products Division in 1979. One of our first consumer products was called Microsoft Adventure, which was a home version of the first mainframe adventure game. It didn't have all the bells and whistles of, say, Halo, but it was pretty interesting for its time.

Back in the 1970s, there was a publication called the International Computer Programs Directory that handed out what was known as the ICP Million Dollar Award for applications that had more than $1 million in annual sales. In the late 1970s the list included more than 100 different products, but they were all for mainframes. In April, the 8080 version of BASIC became the first software product built to run on microprocessors to win an ICP Million Dollar Award. That was a pretty good sign that a significant shift was underway.

Today, I would be surprised if the number of million-dollar applications isn't in the millions itself, and they range from apps and games created by a single developer working at home that you can download to your cell phone to massive solutions built by huge development teams that run the operations of huge corporations.

More important, of course, is the fact that more than a billion people around the world use computers and digital technology as an integral part of their day-to-day lives. That's something that really started to take shape in 1979.

Thanks for the memories, Bill—please keep us posted on that new beer keg of yours!

Microsoft Adventure shot found on YOIS

When game historians recall the late '70s wave of video arcade games, they will correctly identify the major time-wasters, which include Asteroids, Breakout, Missile Defense Command and Space Invaders. (Pong was sort of a brain-damaged predecessor.) But the way it really was, at least in a certain central New Jersey bar, the correct way to describe the arcade video game craze was this way: Space Invaders. Period.

It was like the Beatles of video games. Maybe Space Invaders wasn't such big news to canonical hackers like those MIT Wizards who played Spacewar on a PDP-1 back in the sixties, but to people for whom computers still meant giant data-processing machines the game was a revelation, something totally different from the physical engagement of a pinball machine, yet icily futuristic. There was also the fact that these weird machines would just appear in a bar one day, without explanation. You'd go out for drinks and there in a dark corner was the future, standing head high in a cheesy enclosure with the monitor just below eye level.

I was hooked, of course, compelled to endure the humiliating learning curve where your laser cannon gets immolated by the relentlessly advancing rows of bug-like creatures. Without access to hints or cheat sheets-no, you couldn't Google stuff back then-you had to figure out strategy on your own. (Or hang around until someone really good played it, so you could learn his tricks.)

One key aspect of Space Invaders circa 1979: You played it in a bar. This affected game play, strategy and your liver. After playing it for a while, you got into a groove and could ditch your normal thought processes to become an alien-killing machine. Instead of the soundtrack of dread, the cardiac thumping that accompanied the advancing horde would energize you like a Led Zeppelin anthem, as you'd scoot behind the bunkers, wipe out rows of invaders and finally, in the frantic final stages, go into a ruthless, pixel-shredding melee mode. (Not that you knew what a pixel was.) But this Ender-like zone you were entering was counterbalanced by the fact that longer you were in the bar, the drunker you got.

You have to remember that this was new. Space Invaders was the population's first chance to develop the computer-game chops that are now second nature to a four-year-old. Believe it or not, the heart-stopping mix of bloodlust and panic that sprang up when the "mystery ship" with all its bonus points boogalooed across the top of the screen was a novel experience. (I was about to say that the mystery ship "randomly" appeared but after you played it a long time, you learned exactly when this would happen. Space Invaders might have been a twitchfest, but it was a puzzle as well.)

Should I expound upon the concept that the unforgiving menace of the space aliens tapped subconscious Cold War fears? Nah.

Later on, of course, reasonably faithful simulations of the original appeared first on the Atari 2600 and later on computer software. And now you can play it online, free. But that doesn't do justice to the original context—where you had one foot in the strange new world of digital simulation and the other foot in beer-soaked sawdust. You just can't, in this day and age, replicate the feeling when the last murderous wave finally wipes you out and you know that it's going to cost you another quarter to fight them back.

Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired, most recently writing about Google's ad business and the secret of the CIA sculpture. He's written six books, including Hackers, Artificial Life and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod. In 1979, he had just left his first real job, at a regional magazine called New Jersey Monthly, to become a freelance writer, and had yet to touch a computer.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Duck Hunt (1976)
Before Duck Hunt hit the NES as part of the most famous (and arguably most successful) gaming bundle of all time, Nintendo released a version of the game as a standalone toy. A revamp of their IR-based Laser Clay Shooting System! (1973), Duck Hunt used a battery powered lightgun and projector to fly ducks randomly around your wall. Tastefully, there was no little dog there to laugh at you when you inevitably ran out of batteries. [See Duck Hunt in action here]

The Atari 2600 (1977)
Parents may hate consoles now, but the Atari 2600 was greeted with open arms by parents who were happy to keep their kids safe at home rather than exploring seedy arcades. It wasn't the first modern (cartridge-based) console—that award goes to the 1976 Fairchild Channel F. But Fairchild gave up on games before the phenomenon had passed while Atari became the best selling Christmas gift of 1979. Powered by a 1.19MHZ process and bundled with two joysticks, two paddles (for Pong) and a game, the launch price was $199. That doesn't sound like much, but in when adjusted for inflation since 1977, that was about $700.

Simon (1978)
In 1974, Atari released an arcade cabinet called Touch Me. It was a critical flop. But four years later, a pair of inventors tweaked the game, shrinking it down to portable sizes and adding color to the formerly black buttons. The result? Simon, the addictive memory-music game that holds up to this day. Sold by Milton Bradley, a slew of clones would pop up over the years. But c'mon, Simon they were not.

Really Bad Sports Games
Sports are hard enough to stomach on their own, but Atari's early versions of baseball, basketball and football, while necessary to the evolution of video game sports, were simply horrible. With the exception of Activision's 1981 Ice Hockey, none of these games have aged well because even in their simplified versions with limited rule sets and minuscule rosters, the very premises of these sports are far wider in scope than any early era video game. Then again, Pong, made in the early '70s, may be the best "tennis" game of all time.

Space Invaders (1978)
Space Invaders is, quite simply, the biggest arcade game of all time. Taito's simple game incorporated sci-fi elements like lasers and aliens to a humble 5x11 grid of monochromatic descending sprites. (In fact, Space Invaders was never technically in color—colored cellophane was merely laid over the monitor.) It's been attributed to coin shortages in Japan and the rise of mainstream arcade prominence in the US. And while Pac-Man would also be a mega force of its own, he wouldn't be around until 1980.

Coleco Telstar Arcade (1977/78)
No, the Coleco Telstar Arcade did not revolutionize gaming forever, it's just a personal favorite. Before the rise of cartridge-based consoles, single-title home arcade units were extremely popular. There was a huge market of PONG clones that were essentially a base unit with knobs that plugged into your TV. Anyway, Coleco made a lot of these dedicated machines, but their most advanced/ridiculous was the Telstar Arcade. The triangle base unit contained Pong, gun and racing controls, plus it actually accepted additional (triangle-shaped) cartridges to expand gameplay. I sort of wish that the Xbox 360 were designed so ludicrously.

Adventure (1979)
It might not look like much now, but Adventure was, aptly, the first action/adventure video game. A modest 4KB, Adventure followed a dragon-slaying hero through a labyrinth of mirrored environments (the Atari simply wasn't capable of more complex levels) in his quest to transport a chalice to a yellow castle. Grand! And beyond its invention of an entire genre, the game introduced the concept of inventory (to hold contemporary gaming mainstays like swords and keys). What Adventure was missing was the motivation of a damsel in distress. [Try it here]

Asteroids (1979)
One ship stuck in an asteroid field—duplicate that idea in arcade cabinet form over 56,000 times and you have Asteroids, Atari's best selling arcade game of all time (though admittedly only about a third as successful as Taito's Space Invaders). As players blew the heck out of space rocks, they also had to control inertia in what's considered the first real physics based game. The effect is akin to a dogfight on ice. [Try it here]

Pinball Wizardry
It's tough to think of the year 1979 without Pete Townshend popping into your head. So what was going on in terms of Pinball in that era? Circuitboards. In 1977, Bally's Lost World became the first pinball machine to replace chimes with electronic sounds. And by 1979, Williams' Gorgar introduced the first pinball game with a continuous soundtrack. But since this was the '70s we're talking about, we'll remind you that Kiss pinball came out, too, and people weren't playing it with any aura of self-deprecation.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and a healthy dose of Wikipedia/wasted youth].

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Price: $40

Verdict: In one sense, the verdict is that straightforward—the fantastic floating D-Pad and arcade-style six-button layout crush the regular Xbox 360 controller when it comes to fighting games. The FightPad makes my game so much better, so much more precise, I don't think I could go back to using the old pad.

Here's what I mean: With the old pad, on average, I would successfully execute Fei Long's rising dragon kick (or insert any dragon punch-based maneuver) about 5-7 times out of 10 tries. With the FightPad, it's like 9 times out of 10. Moves requiring 720-degree motions, like Zangief's super, come off much easier as well, and exactly when I want it to (when someone's up in my face—PILEDRIVER). Back, forward, back forward style specials, like with Honda or Blanka, aren't noticeably easier to perform, though.

The shape and layout of the FightPad kinda reminds me of a Sega Genesis controller, and is for the most part, excellent, though if you have elven hands it might feel a little too big. For me, with medium mitts, it fits perfectly, no matter which way I hold it (I actually turn my right hand palm side down, so I can mash the buttons with my fingers whenever I play fighting games) and there's some breathing room for gorilla-handed people too.

But there are some things you should know about that would be dealbreakers if beating people didn't matter above all else. Numero uno, on the Xbox 360, this sucker is wired, which is lame balls for a $40 controller. It also feels very cheaply made, with glossy plastic Mad Catz found and melted down after it fell off a Christmas ornament truck. The rubber coating on the sides and back helps a little bit. Last, the sound quality coming through the headset on this thing is really terrible, like I was stranded on a desert island with a cellphone from 1987—it's noticeably crappier than it is on the regular Xbox 360 controllers.

Those things said, if you wanna do better in Street Fighter IV—or any fighting game really, since it worked fantastically with Samurai Showdown II and SFIITHDR as well—and not have a real reason to curse at your controller when you get scrubbed, but don't wanna (or can't) drop the money on the outrageously awesome Tournament Edition FightStick, this is a reasonable alternative, if you can actually find it for the $40 MSRP.

P.S. If you wanna play Street Fighter IV with me, @reply me on Twitter and we'll set something up later this week.

I was lucky enough to be invited on as a guest on CollegeHumor's video game show, Bleep Bloop. Apparently, after extensive work, uh, "testing" Panasonic's 103-inch and 150-inch plasma screens, I'm somewhat of an expert on playing video games on ludicrously large monitors. Badass.

According to the folks at IAC, who house this monstrosity in their headquarters' lobby, it's the largest, highest-definition screen in the world. That is to say there are larger screens with lower resolution and smaller screens with higher resolution, but this bad boy has the highest combo of both specs. Yes, it is large.

Unfortunately, due to it being 120 feet long, it has a ridiculous aspect ratio that's not designed for regular things like TV or video games, instead acting as a strange art space most of the time. Because of this, we could only use one chunk of the screen. I was told, however, that they have the ability to hook up multiple Xboxes at once, possibly linking them together side by side for some sort of epic multiplayer showdown. I want very much to make that dream a reality, but that's for another day.

Mahoney and I got an opportunity to go behind the wall and check it out, and it's a crazy setup. It has 21 projectors aimed at 42 mirrors. The projectors are actually aimed away from the screen, bouncing down and back off of two mirrors each to combine to fill up the massive screen.

As for playing on the screen, it was pretty killer. Obviously, playing video games on large screens is really fun. But in all honesty, it gets to a point where you aren't even really paying attention to the large screen anymore. You know, it's only a novelty for so long, and then you're just focusing on not falling off the damned buildings anymore in Mirror's Edge. I guess you can get used to anything.

What huge screens like this are really great for is split-screen gaming. If we had played Call of Duty 4 on this thing, for example, all four players would have the equivalent of a 134-inch TV to stare at. But really, a screen like this isn't even an option for anyone other than Barry Diller to use on any type of real basis, but if you ever get an opportunity to spend an afternoon dicking around with one, you won't want to skip it. Trust me.

Thanks to John Mahoney for taking pictures and to Jeff Rubin and Pat Cassels for having me on Bleep Bloop! [CollegeHumor's Bleep Bloop]

At the request of one very loving parent, pastry chef Roshel Michaeli from Schicks Gourmet Bakery got to work meticulously measuring the Wiimote before scaling it to feed a small to medium army of children. The chocolate cake with mousse filling was coated with (edible) rolled fondant, depicting the Wiimote's buttons in perfect detail—including even a properly shaped expansion port in the bottom.

The custom cake cost $360, but we have a feeling that it's a memory the child will not soon forget. Though without a strap, this thing will make a huge mess all over the TV. [Thanks Jack!]

The poor Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends float was just minding its own business when that cocky (though rugged, handsome) superstar Rick Astley showed up and spoiled all the fun. Man, what's with that guy?? Happy Thanksgiving from the internet meme incarnate.

On Friday, Mahoney and I went to Panasonic HQ to check out one of the first prototypes of their ludicrous 150-inch plasma TV. This thing puts the 103-incher that I checked out last year to shame, weighing a whopping 1700 pounds before the stand is attached and sucking up 7kW of power while it runs. We hooked up our energy-efficient-in-comparison PS3 and suffered through playing a bunch of video games on it to report back to you. You're welcome! Today, a taste, with me sizing up a weighted companion cube in Portal, above, and, after the jump, seeing what a 42-inch steering wheel on Gran Turismo would be like in real life and learning the ropes in Call of Duty 4. Check back tomorrow for a full report out Mahoney's in-depth FAQ on the set and my essay on our visit to Panasonic HQ.

Yes, my job is pretty awesome sometimes.

First Place — Andy Graber
Second Place — Thanassi Karageorgiou
Third Place — Chip O'Toole

The Gear
From Razer, I got the Lachesis mouse, Lycosa keyboard, Piranha headset and Destructor pad. That's $80 each for components plus a $40 mouse pad, totalling $280.

From SteelSeries, it's the Ikari Laser ($90), 7G keyboard ($150), Siberia Neckband headset ($100) and QcK+pad ($15). Do the math and it adds up to $355.

My old, battle-tested equipment, all Logitech: MX500, Media Elite keyboard, whatever free Logitech headset came with Unreal Tournament 2004 and a free Vista mousepad. Street (or garage sale) value of about $45.

Quick and Dirty Conclusions
It takes more than 20 minutes to get used to a new keyboard and mouse. So I spent a couple days with each set to get comfortable before actual testing with what I've been at almost exclusively on PC as of late: Team Fortress 2. I didn't want readjusting to a game like Battlefield 2142 added to the list of possible variables.

Because of my style of play (mostly heavy/sniper, offensive support), the best indicator of whether or not my game improved is still kill-to-death ratio, even though TF2 is an objective-oriented game. I've taken the results for 15 rounds of gameplay for each set of gear, then averaged them out to a single K-D ratio for each, and accounting for dominations (killing same guy three times).

SteelSeries: 2.6, with 5 dominations
Logitech: 2.42, with 2 dominations
Razer: 1.98, with 2 dominations

What It All Means
Objectively, SteelSeries made me a better gamer. Why? Because comfort level is the bottom line when it comes to gaming (or any) gear you grip or pound everyday, more so than any stupid spec or number proving how awesome a piece of equipment is. Ergonomically, the SteelSeries stuff just felt right, even after using it a short while.

Fans of Logitech's MX500 (me!) or G5 series mice will dig the SteelSeries Ikari mouse, since it's almost the exact same, but with an extra nub for your ring finger, plus it fixes the crappy scroll wheel issue that plagues the G5 and G7. The Razer Lachesis mouse is ambidextrous, and it just never felt right. (I'm not a claw gripper, though.) I kept accidentally hitting the buttons on the right side of the mouse, causing it to reboot to change profiles, which got me killed more than once. The braided cable on the Ikari, like on Logitech's G5 mouse, was a construction plus over Lycosa's thin rubber cord, though they both feel solid. I don't think either is worth the price ($90 for a mouse is insane), though—my MX500 is still just fine.

Keyboard-wise, Razer's Lycosa actually has a better layout (big backspace, small enter) than SteelSeries' 7G. It's also the much sexier of the two. But I'm not too big on its squishy laptop-style keys for gaming, and the keys' rubber coating started out as a plus and grew into a minus as it made my fingers feel weird and sorta chapped after extended sessions. SteelSeries compromises between big clacky keys and soft touch by registering the key press at the halfway point—they're tall keys—so you can go light or really slam them. I wish it had the subtle backlighting like the Lycosa , and maybe some more macro options. But the build quality of the 7G is absolutely bunker-worthy—it's incredibly heavy. I could club a family of baby seals to death with it and go back to gaming (after wiping the blood off). Yeah, it's $150, but it feels like it's going to stick around to the next ice age, so you're actually paying for solid equipment, gaming BS aside. The Lycosa feels more fragile—not crappy, but just above average.

Headsets have the same build matchup—the SteelSeries is heavier and more sturdy—but this time the cheaper Razer Piranha comes out ahead in audio quality (no surprise, actually). Positional audio was much truer, especially rear to front (a necessity to avoid getting backstabbed by a bastard Spy). Besides, as SteelSeries readily admitted to me, the Siberias suck for music.

Mousing surfaces? Whatever. Beyond the basics of non-reflectivity, it's total hype.

Conclusion
SteelSeries made me a better gamer, but the label "gaming gear" is BS. Buy what feels comfortable, because that's what you'll game better with. If you're a fan of Razer ergonomic styles (I wasn't overly) then it might be worth the extra price, but on the construction merits alone, it doesn't necessarily stack up. The SteelSeries stuff felt more substantial and like the build quality was slightly more commensurate with the higher price point (though I still think the 7G should go for like $100, not $150). Most scientific statement I can make: I was most comfortable with SteelSeries and my old gear, so I did better with them. [SteelSeries, Razer]

The deets: The movies are around 1GB (standard def and PSP-optimized) and take about 3-5 minutes to download via USB to the Memory Stick Duo in your PSP. Currently, the idea is that they aren't stored locally on your PS3. Sony expects it to be available sometime this year—nothing more fine-grained than that timewise, unfortunately

The sweet news: For now, the plan is that the service will be free and it "can be used potentially on any Blu-ray movie title." Hopefully that means it'll be available for every Blu-ray title.

The potentially bleh news: Sony is still in the processing of reviewing how the DRM is going to work, and how portable the copies are going to be (important, since they're stored on Mem. Stick Duos, which are pretty pocketable.) In particular, the number of copies you can make from each disc is still up in the air—so it looks like how many friends you can share with is definitely going to be limited.

DRM-wise it's nothing unexpected—given Blu-ray's emphasis on strong copy protection, Sony's obviously not going to give free reign with the PSP copies. But even with some limits placed on the service, it stands to be one of the best PS3-PSP connections yet. [Sony]

Small. Quiet. Discreet. Like a console. The Wii, to be precise, but piano black, so it's invisible like a ninja when you turn it off. In fact, that's pretty much the dig of our entire ultimate PC concept—whereas consoles have been mutating into bigger, beastlier, more PC-like creatures, we want to flip the trend on its head, with a more console-like PC.

Keeping your rig in line with the slew of new processors and graphics card that leave it in the dust on an almost monthly basis—the graphics card market in particular has become completely fucking ridiculous—is a certifiable nightmare. We just wanna play our games on max resolution at 60FPS. End of story. So our ultimate gaming PC would stay fresh for four years, running Crysis successors and resource-hog next-gen operating systems alike with ease. And all that juice would run cool, keeping everything purr quiet, a mythical big cat in a kitty's cute little body.

The only thing big or ostentatious about our gaming PC would be the picture and sound. Ridiculously large monitor (at least 30 inches) with an equally ridiculous resolution and practically immeasurable response time for no ghosting with at least a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, to throw out some sorta real specs. In a nutshell, just a massive, gorgeous display that's also thin and sexy like our women. And we wanna really really feel every piece of shrapnel whizzing by with a booming but crystal clear surround sound system..

Fuck wires. There should be a power cable. That's it.

The OS should be as invisible as the computer itself—no hassles, no crashes, no blue screens, no troubleshooting our games for compatibility issues with drivers, software or anything else. All the games would come directly through the internets with a sorta Steam-like delivery system on warp speed that's also incredibly well organized with every game ever, killing CD piles and installation nail-biting with a single stroke.

This PC's bottom line is no bullshit. A seamless gaming machine inside and out. It does everything but feels like you're not doing anything. It just happens, like magic.

No, I did not just describe for you an iMac, fanboys.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.