Specifications

games geeks play
BATTLEFIELD 1942
SPLINTER CELL:
PANDORA
TOMORROW
STAR TREK: BRIDGE
COMMANDER
QUAKE, QUAKE
II (WITH LITHIUM
PATCH), QUAKE III
COUNTER-STRIKE
DESERT COMBAT
TRIBES
SHOGO: MOBILE
ARMOR
DIVISION
UNREAL
TOURNAMENT
TEAM FORTRESS
CLASSIC
Multiplayer mayhem
in the Lab
THE LAB’S BEST FRIEND
Many a concerned reader wrote
in to make sure that we didn’t,
in fact, feed a USB key to
Lucy in our fl ash memory
challenge. We didn’t.
HOT FOR TEACHER
Accused by a reader of “fuzzy
math” in our percentage
calculations of GeForce3 benchmarks, we turned to
a higher authority: Mrs. Schartung, Will Smith’s 10th
grade chemistry teacher.
TURNED UP TO “11”
After our fi rst set of Acoustic Authority A-3780
speakers blew up during testing, we trained the
camera on the replacement—you know, just in case.
Sure enough: Kablooey!
THE BROWN NOISE GENERATOR
EXPERIMENT
In an effort to duplicate the infamous “brown noise,”
we created a 2.12 speaker arrangement and
cranked up the bass. The 12-subwoofer combo
rattled our bones, but thankfully left our bowels
intact.
LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!
The agony of moving our entire Lab upstairs to a
larger and better equipped facility was mitigated
by a surprising fi nd: former Reviews Editor Josh
Norem!
“I ACTUALLY THINK THAT WAS WILL’S
FAULT.”
—Gordon Mah Ung
With a sheet of Plexiglas and a smoke machine,
we were able to determine that having more
intake fans than exhaust fans doesn’t improve
airfl ow. We were also able to determine that the
building’s fi re alarm was in fi ne working condition.
GESTATION POD
Instead of waiting for the perfect intern to arrive, we
made our own. And the Lil’est Intern quickly proved
that size really doesn’t matter.
THE MELTING SAFE DISASTER
Our tests revealed that a so-called “fi reproof” safe
from one manufacturer wasn’t so fi reproof. And
neither was the parking lot we set ablaze. Our bad.
THE WHITEBOARD
When all else fails, the whiteboard comes to the
rescue with an almost occult reliability to solve
problems in the Lab.
FOAMY THINGS
Why not use insulator foam to silence your PC? The
reason, we learned, is that foam expands a lot more
than you’d think. A lot more.
The test PC was taken out the back door and quietly
retired in the dumpster.
great moments in the Lab
After 100 issues, there’s bound to
be some treasured memories
FUN
LINUX
Not just a great OS in and of itself, but a
sharp stick in the side of Microsoft. How
much “innovation” would there be in
Windows without an open-source alternative
breathing down the company’s neck?
MP3
AAC, WMA, OGG, iTunes... they all owe
a mighty tip of the hat to the audio
compression format that started it all.
CHEAP FLASH MEMORY
More economical in size and power
requirements than miniature hard drives,
fl ash memory takes over where the fl oppy
disc left off.
3D ACCELERATORS
Essential to gamers. Essential to life.
LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES
Longer lasting than nickel-cadmium
rechargeables—but without the “memory
effect”—lithium-ion batteries power just
about every laptop, PDA, and MP3 player
we use today.
BROADBAND
There’s something to be said for the old
days of tight, no-frills HTML coded for
14.4bps modems... No, wait, screw that.
We love our gluttonous DSL and cable
connections, and when fi ber optic comes
to town, we’ll be the fi rst in line to get it.
WIRELESS NETWORKING
Liberated from CAT-5 cable and Ethernet
ports, our PCs and handhelds are free to
roam—just as nature intended.
PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKING
P2P networks created an affordable
distribution infrastructure that broke the
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
content delivery.
DIRECTX
It took a few iterations to perfect, but
DirectX has emerged as the savior of
PC gaming.
WINDOWS NT KERNEL
The Windows NT kernel brought
together power and stability before
Apple Computers could even spell
“multithreading.”
monster-size technology revolutions
MAXIMUM PC JANUARY 200564
PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKING
P2P networks created an affordable
distribution infrastructure that broke the
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
content delivery
DIRECTX
It took a few iterations to perfect, but
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
content delivery
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
entertainment industry’s stranglehold on
content delivery
.