Arie Kaplan - The Awesome Inner Workings of Video Games

Copyright 2014 by

Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. International
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Content Consultant: Crystle Martin, postdoctoral researcher, Digital
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kaplan, Arie.

The awesome inner workings of video games / by Arie Kaplan.

pages cm. (Shockzone games and gamers)

Includes index.

ISBN 9781467712507 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

ISBN 9781467717793 (eBook)

ISBN 9781467759946 (Audisee ISBN)

1. Video gamesDesignJuvenile literature. I. Title.

GV1469.3.K34 2014

794.8dc23

2013001160

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 MG 7/15/13

NOTE TO READERS: Not all games are appropriate for
players of all ages. Remember to follow video game
rating systems and the advice of a parent or guardian
when deciding which games to play.

Table of

Under the Hood

You love playing on the latest video game console, but have you
ever taken a moment to think about whats going on
inside that mysterious box? Ever wonder
what goes through all of those cords?
Or how Mario knows to jump when you
hit the A button? Turns out, the answers
to these questions are totally interesting.
Even better, theyre not as tough to
understand as you might think.

console =
a device used to
play video games

Gamers buy millions of video game consoles
each year. Ever wonder how those small
boxes make your favorite games possible?

Believe it or not, whether youre using an Atari 2600 from the 1970s
or a PlayStation 3, most game systems are basically the same. Sure,
the graphics look better on more modern consoles, and the ways of
controlling games have changed. But the same kinds of parts are
found inside just about all of them. Pretty much every console has
the following guts:

Processors
Software kernel
Computer code
Storage space

Memory
Outputs
Controls

All of these parts work together to
bring your games to life. But what
does each part do, and how do they
play nice together to bring games to
your TV screen? Lets crack open
the plastic and dive inside a game
console to figure out how all the
pieces work.

Surprisingly, the same kinds of parts
are inside these two consoles.

The Brains of
the Operation

Game consoles have to be able to think
for themselves. Imagine youre playing a basketball video
game and the other team is just standing around. Sure, it might
be fun at first to run past them and leap into the air for a couple of
slam dunks. But it would get boring pretty quickly. For the opposing
players to fight back, were going to need to give the console a
brain. This brain is known as the central processing unit, or CPU for
short.

Any kind of video game console or other computer needs a CPU.
A consoles CPU does three basic things. First, it performs math.
Second, it makes decisions based on rules that the game creators
gave it. And third, it moves information from one place to another.