IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 26

hands on
naturally reduce what can be
accessed for free," says Larry
Thaler, president of Positive
Flux, a consultancy that helps
media companies deal with
the changing landscape.
My experience with
IPTV may not be the
norm, but it most likely
portends the future of the
industry. Companies such
as Apple and Google have
seemingly cracked the code
in terms of selling apps
and entertainment. Netflix,
whose postal delivery of DVD
rentals killed off Blockbuster,
has already figured out that
the secret to movie rentals
is to stream them over the
Net, seemingly via any
and all devices, including
many Blu-ray players. Can
other content be far behind?
Meanwhile, a new company,
Zediva, "rents" DVDs over
the Net, giving online viewers
access to movies the same day
they are released on DVD.
For now, Internet TV augments rather than displaces
the traditional television
experience. I believe we'll
come to see a hybrid model,
in which we'll buy fewer premium channels and services
from traditional TV providers and go online for more
and more of our entertainment. The only problem that
remains is how we'll pay for it.
Watching TV via the
Net is an adventure. Just
as I had to adjust the aerial
of my Norelco shortwave
radio, sometimes I have to
reboot the Revue Google
TV box or reload a Web
page half a dozen times in
order to get good "reception."
But it's worth the trouble.
-Jonathan B. Spira

26

NA * iEEE SpEctrum * july 2011

1

Building Your own
ArcAde gAme

the ultimate home video-game experience
needs a big cabinet and flashing lights

F

irst there were
pinball machines.
Then came video
games, with far more
computing and graphics
power than you could
get at home. Two
generations later, home
PCs have so far outstripped
those early arcade
machines that emulating
old game programs in
software is trivial.

And yet devotees still
prefer arcade machines,
much as audiophiles cling to
their turntables. What sets
the arcade experience apart
today is what isn't electronic:
big solid joysticks, trackballs
that look like they could
take a blow from a baseball
bat and keep spinning, and
refrigerator-size cabinets
blazing with decorative
lights and gaudy artwork.

John St. Clair, whose
day job is working for a
school district in Georgia,
says it all started with
Space Invaders. It was 1997,
and he and a friend were
reminiscing. "On a whim,"
he recalls, "I went online to
see if I could find a version
of it for the PC. I stumbled
across MAME"-for
multiple arcade machine
emulator-"and was
instantly hooked. After
playing for a while with
keyboard and mouse, I ran
across a thread on a forum
called Dave's Video Game
Classics, where a few guys
spectrum.ieee.org



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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum July, 2011

IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 1
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 2
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 3
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 4
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IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 55
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IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 58
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 59
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 60
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 61
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 62
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 63
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 64
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 65
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 66
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 67
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - 68
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum July, 2011 - Cover4
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