Kotaku: electricity

E For All Ends Early With Blackout

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:00:00 MDT

At approximatley 7:10 PM on Friday evening, the E For All expo came to a close, abruptly and unintentionally. While the gathered masses, quite thin at this late hour, were still busying themselves watching Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel play Quake IV, enjoying The Orange Box and Super Mario Galaxy, they were surprised to see... blackness. A power outage on the right half of South Hall, encompassing the Nintendo and EA booths—arguably two-thirds of the show—made the last hour of the show a dark affair. Staff escorted gamers out for their own safety, largely wrapping up the show for the night.

It's not the first time this has happened at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Multiple E3s had power failures, resulting in blazing hot temperatures and very boring booths. This one just happened to be surprisingly timely.

Wii's Uses About One-Tenth Power of 360

Brian Crecente — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:00:50 MST

The hopefully non-prophetically named Singe did a little bit of research on Wii power consumption since the thing is on 24/7. Turns out that Nintendo's nifty new console isn't just light on power use, it's super light.

Wii:

- In Standby Mode: 10w
- Idle @ Wii menu: 17w
- Running a Wii Game (Test with Zelda / Trauma Center) in 480i: 17w

37" Sharp Aquos LCD TV:
- In Standby Mode: 40w
- Turned on: 180w

XBox 360:
- In Standby Mode: 2w
- Idle @ Dashboard: ~140w
- Running a Game: ~160w
- Playing a DVD: ~110w

Brian Crecente

Many Consoles Hemorraging Power into the Void, Says Report

egauger — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 22:00:08 MDT

According to a new report from the British government, consoles are wasting electricity at an alarming rate.

Last month, a group of bloggers in the United States reported that while the original PlayStation leaked just 0.2W - accounting for some 1.752kWh wasted each year - the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 both leak a massive 2W, or 17.52kWh each year.
The energy review proposes a number of measures to minimise energy waste, including working with electronics companies to phase out costly standby routines that drain energy while the device is not in use.

But even if policies on conservative standby modes are eventually made law, they would not affect this newest generation of consoles. It's too late to be modifying that hardware, but the next batch would be ripe for messing-with. Eliza gauger

More here [GamesIndustry.biz]

Super Mario Wall Socket, Perfect for Prodding!

brownlee — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:40:37 MDT

The improbably spelled Matte Morgan sent us this cool picture of a fire spitting Mario he painted on a power plug.

I just moved in with my girlfriend &her kids. To make my self feel more at home I painted one of the power plugs plates in the kitchen, (my girl friend just painted the kitchen) It is the plug that I use for my coffee grinder in the mornings after I wake up, so its nice to see something that cheers me up first thing in the morning. Its not the greatest paintings , but I gonna do another more in tune to The New Super Marios Bros., I just picked it up and it inspired me.

Great job, Matte! Remember: painting talent is not necessary to make something cool looking. Also, we love the entire idea! Moving into a house full of small children? Why not make those power sockets even more attractive to the exploration of their prodding fingers and tongues?FLORIAN ECKHARDT