the.com/game console
A space heater that occasionally lets you save the princess.
means A dedicated electronic device built to plug into a screen and run video games, controller in hand.
from 'Console' comes from French 'consoler' (to comfort), which gave us furniture sense too — a 'console' was originally an ornamental bracket or support, later a cabinet or tabletop unit housing dials and controls, like an organ console. Early home video game machines of the 1970s, built as standalone cabinets you'd set near the TV, inherited that furniture-and-control-panel sense of 'console' rather than any link to comfort — fitting, since actual comfort was not guaranteed.
- origin
- Magnavox Odyssey, 1972, used plastic screen overlays for color
- economics
- consoles often sold at a loss, profit comes from games
- obsolescence
- today's flagship is tomorrow's doorstop in five years
- irony
- most powerful chip in the house, mainly idles on a menu