>>>>My checklist:
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>>LOL at the sorting algorithm wars. ;-)
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>>On the TRS-80 there was a game called "Engineer" that wouldn't run on a base machine with 4K. You needed the LII with 16K. Apart from specialist graphic or processing apps, when was the last time you had to check specs to make sure something would run on your machine? ;-)
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>>When writing software we did care about memory usage and used 1-byte Restart vectors to save 2 bytes per call, as did the OS that hogged RST for its own use. It was no wonder Gates said that 640K with the PC is an awesome memory allocation and the loss of the discipline of conservation was hammered home when I encountered a printer driver whose bloat exceeded the total memory availability just two year earlier. Those were the days when tech advances were constant and it made sense to upgrade. These days the only reason to upgrade in te PC world is because hardware is fading or a peripheral needs it.
>
>Almost every game seems to present a processing challenge somewhere. One of the advantages of the games console (ps3 etc) if its a game for that console it will run out of the box.

Of course hardware is generally "frozen" on consoles, whereas on PCs they're apt to change according to what technologies are available. Downside to this is that it doesn't take too long for console specs end up seemingly low-powered compared to PCs. Whenever a new model of game console is introduced with slightly different specs, there have been on occasion where older games didn't work right and required a patch because of those change in specs. Although hardware spec-wise a game console might seem lower-powered than what you'd find in a PC -- but at least on game console you don't have to contend with an OS that might get in the way (save for some games for the Sega Dreamcast where WinCE was used).

One of the things that's amusing is noting how some PC users are getting confused with situation where raw CPU speed isn't as important, and that computing capacity of peripherals like the GPU become more important in many cases. It's not too different than what occurred in the game consoles in the past -- look at the old Nintendo console from the early to mid 1980s, game console which is essentially based on a descendant of the MOS 6502 -- something that was commonly found on 8-bit micros. What did make a difference is the video and sound processors that were included in the console (that were generally not included on baseline 8-bit microcomputers). Of course, when one looks at the history of the digital computer, you'll notice such things aren't really new -- look at how mini and mainframe architectures that utilized channels or peripheral processors to handle I/O.