How did you guys acquire your knowledge?

[Brad251]

I am new to this forum and am really impressed at how knowledgeable some of the people on here are about gaming and gaming hardware. How did you guys acquire all of your knowledge and what do you do for a living?

[Xyga]

In most cases it depends a lot on how old you are, you know, experience.
When you've been playing all kinds of video games for 30 years or more it's only natural.

EDIT: also forgot to mention that of course all people are different, some really do specialize, but in their case focusing on a single genre or game can mean they've either been playing for a long time, or only since recently but very intensely, dedicating a lot of their time and attention to it.
The really broader general experience though, always requires time.

PS: what I've been doing never really influenced my hobby, only the time and energy spent playing. Lots of factors including trends and moods, in the gaming industry and personal life, there's been 'eras' you know, never been a constant stream.

[Koop]

From literally having a controller in my hands the moment I could physically hold one growing up. I suppose I was born into gaming.

I sometimes wonder if that more a bad thing than good.

With that said though I lack a lot of technical knowledge on hardware, monitors, etc... Hey, that's why I am here.

[kamiboy]

Visit this hardware section once a day and let your brain be a sponge, then you too will learn a thing or two.

[MintyTheCat]

Right time and place growing up in the 1980s to 90s.

Videogames got me into programming, which got me into Engineering.

I only really play the 8-32bit games though and modern gaming does not interest me much.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

This is a good question. I'm trying to figure out how do I know what I know and put that into perspective with what's out there right now. (this ended up as some sort of a video gaming biography but I'll just hit submit anyway)

Maybe I have this knowledge because when I started I could not rely on Wikipedia, buzzfeed style clickbait lists and attention whoring Youtube gaming videos? I had to find the information and then decide for my own sake if it was something that sounded plausible. I might sound like an asshole right now for using such harsh examples and I'm not implying new users are like that. But the information back then was scarce. I re-read issues of CVG countless times, had limited access to the internet and read other gaming magazines in the library. I had to wait for a monthly issue of something to come out and then go buy it. I had to wait to have my turn of using the internet for 30 minutes. And I had to go to the library and hope the magazines I came to read were free.

I remember when I found out that my favourite gaming magazine during my teenage days was cancelled. What did I do? I emailed the editor just like he was some random dude that owed me answers. I was 15 and spoke broken English. But he replied to me! I wrote him three emails and he finally ignored the last one, but I still learned a lot even from that. He gave me some pointers on how to use my savings to buy import games that would last me a while instead of buying games that would probably lose value fast. I never got those games because the import shops in Finland didn't carry the ones I was after, but the kind man actually made me think and I found myself interested in video games beyond having fun playing them or taking part in fandom.

Now that I'm older and I've spent 15 years of my life pretending to be an expert in video games I've found out that my interests in the "field" are rather narrow and I don't feel the need to be so obsessed with them. Part of the reason has to be that since the PS360 era I've felt like game companies are no longer catering to me. But that actually helped me to realise why I enjoy what I buy/collect/play. I love fighting games more than ever now. And I love being a shitty niche elitist about them.

EDIT: I want to add that without this forum I wouldn't know shit about some hardware related stuff.

[FinalBaton]

There's one place where I learned most of my modest knowledge of video signals, scaling and deinterlacing etc : it's here! at the shmups forum

So keep visiting here, and absorb the informations from the knowledgeable people. Browse the Hardware section on here a little everyday. Even if it's just for 2-3 minutes.



I've been playing videogames since the late 80's, but to be honest I've just fairly recently started getting to really know more about hardware and software. Maybe since 2 years or so.

Before that my only interest was to play the games. I didn't care about picture quality at all. I've used composite video up to the 5th gen of consoles, I didn't know about S-Video, let alone RGB. I just wasn't curious about the stuff back then.

But, like I said, since 2 years ago or so i became interested in pushing the limits of retro consoles : and now I am hooked. I made a lot of research online and at some point I stumbled upon Fudoh's site, on wich I learned about this forum.



So, you've already reached THE place to learn about gaming hardware and software, now all that's left for you to do, is to visit the forums regularly

[emphatic]

Curiosity.

[Ed Oscuro]

Psychic powers™

...nah, just kidding you amigo
Mostly being told repeatedly when I'm wrong. That, and lots of reading got me the little knowledge I have today.

[FinalBaton]

Mostly being told repeatedly when I'm wrong. That, and lots of reading got me the little knowledge I have today.

Yep, that's pretty much it that's just how it goes

[darcagn]

Visit this hardware section once a day and let your brain be a sponge, then you too will learn a thing or two.

Pretty much this.

And a lot of money spent on trial and error as I modded my own systems and such.

[BazookaBen]

Fudoh

[tacoguy64]

By reading about it first. Even if I don't understand, I just keep reading about as much as I can from a subject. After I feel like i got a good idea about what's going on, I take action. From there on is a bunch of trial and error. Throw in asking a bunch of questions in between all of that.

[ZellSF]

Reading and talking to people.

Never watching Youtube videos. I've seen lots of young people who think that is an efficient way to learn and just... no.

[fafangus]

Fudoh

Chuck Norris approve

[Xyga]

I skipped the part where this is asked in the hardware section.
But it goes along with playing games of course, owning tons of devices over the years and eras.

One thing that's not obvious at once is how big the role of emulation has been, probably often pushing people to turn their backs to it and going for the real stuff again.
There's the 15KHz emulation too right, since it's aiming at accuracy using real low res crt displays it forces you to learn lots of hardware-related things.
Even just through LCD it's a big deal about displays, frequencies, sync, scaling, lag, filters, etc.
Do that for many years, trying everything under the sun and you'll learn tons of useful things, and here is one of the best places to discuss obviously.
Also personal research of course, think of solutions yourself, do experiments, as emphatic says: curiosity.

A bad thing is trusting everything you could read from popular or big mainstream websites, especially when they have articles or opinions that make things look too radical or too simple/definitive.
Always leave room for doubt when it comes to tech knowledge.

[Mrhide]

I've asked myself the same thing ... for pinball there is, ok was, pinrepair.com and Clay's top tapes which I could have never gotten into pinball without.

anything similar here?

[CkRtech]

A bad thing is trusting everything you could read from popular or big mainstream websites, especially when they have articles or opinions that make things look too radical or too simple/definitive.
Always leave room for doubt when it comes to tech knowledge.

This. The Internet is a great resource for learning, but it is just as easy to spread misinformation as it is to share accurate information.

My basic take is -
1: Forums are a quick/cheap way to gain a basic understanding of many different things. They should also most likely generate questions. People can answer any questions you might have, but you will find that sometimes those that respond formulate their advice based on a small foundation of knowledge. A guess turns into something that kinda works, then turns into what you probably want to do, and then somehow into "here is definitively what you do..." when it is actually not the right thing to do.

Nothing wrong with continuing your reading even after you appear to have a solution to a problem.

2: Remember books? You can get some decent books that help provide a basic understanding (and beyond) on electronics.

3: Read datasheets. You'll see a lot of guys on the net just throwing resistors/capacitors, etc., in series/parallel until they get an output that they think looks good. Don't go by what the circuit artists say - go by what the circuit scientists say. There are documents out there that specifically state what components should be used to complete a circuit by the very companies that manufactured the IC being used.

[Ed Oscuro]

3: Read datasheets. You'll see a lot of guys on the net just throwing resistors/capacitors, etc., in series/parallel until they get an output that they think looks good. Don't go by what the circuit artists say - go by what the circuit scientists say. There are documents out there that specifically state what components should be used to complete a circuit by the very companies that manufactured the IC being used.

Ironically we sometimes get a variation on the "argument to authority" where people think that just because somebody is doing something that they must know what they're doing. It's good to be respectful - and I'm not an expert, and I certainly don't know some circuit builder's business better than they do (I barely know the fundamentals of electronics). But it's fine to ask questions (at least, if they aren't distracting or misleading), staying calm and collected, and remembering that in some cases almost all the work was already done by the original part designer and their staff creating a reference design around that part.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

With my insider knowledge regarding NEC's TurboGrafx-16, Turbo Express & Turbo Duo hardware sold in the USA -- it was simply being at the right place at the right time. I had the rare opportunity to try out a production TE handheld (utilizing an Epson of Japan manufactured TFT LCD screen setup) running a Turbo Chip cart of Devil's Crush back in October of 1990 (a mere four months early before it was available for purchase in January of 1991 with a MSRP of $299.99 USD). Fast forward to February of 1995, G&G Captron mail-order business was selling brand new TEs for a mere $99.99 USD -- I snagged one at that attractive pricepoint back in the day from them. From the beginning of 1994 and into 1995, that was the proper time to buy all TurboGrafx-16, TE & Turbo Duo hardware/software at rock-bottom/discount prices due to TTI not releasing anymore new gaming hardware (this was back in early January of 1994).

This type of 411 was never mentioned on the any of the related PC Engine websites but only here on the Shmups.org site exclusively.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Osmosis

[scottmog]

I have been gaming in general since 87 or so, when we first got an NES.

I've only been in the RGB game for a year or two at most and let me tell you this. Be ready to read a lot of threads, posts and watch a lot of youtube videos.

This youtube channel does a very good job of starting people off imo. Also the videos are quite enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/user/mylifeingaming

[scottmog]

Reading and talking to people.

Never watching Youtube videos. I've seen lots of young people who think that is an efficient way to learn and just... no.

:/

Youtube is where I learned most of my car repair stuff. After three years of working on my own car with the help of forums I successfully swapped an engine.

[FinalBaton]

I have been gaming in general since 87 or so, when we first got an NES.

I've only been in the RGB game for a year or two at most and let me tell you this. Be ready to read a lot of threads, posts and watch a lot of youtube videos.

This youtube channel does a very good job of starting people off imo. Also the videos are quite enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/user/mylifeingaming

their channel is a decent way to start, but I feel like I know way more than they do. And I've only been into the RGB game since 2 years or so.

I still suggest to read on here, from very knowledgeable people like Fudoh and others

[Taiyaki]

I think the proper answer was said above: curiosity (and I'd add passion). If you really like gaming hardware and have the time to learn, then you will learn. This site should be a great help too.