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55-902: RetroArch runs programs converted into dynamic libraries called libretro cores, using several user interfaces such as command-line interfaces , a few graphical user interfaces optimized for gamepads , several input, audio and video drivers, and other sophisticated features such as dynamic rate control, audio filters, multi-pass shaders , netplay , gameplay rewinding, cheats, etc. RetroArch has been ported to many platforms. It can run on several PC operating systems , home consoles , handheld consoles , smartphones , smart TV 's, single-board computers and web browsers . Versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 are not out yet, but are available unofficially (as of 1st April 2024.) Formerly known as SSNES, initially based on pseudonymous programmer Near 's predecessor libsnes , it began its development in 2010 with Hans-Kristian "themaister" Arntzen committing

110-584: A PCSX2 libretro core allowed the Xbox Series X and Series S to emulate the PlayStation 2 , something that Sony's own PlayStation 5 could not do at the time. On September 14, 2021, RetroArch was released on Steam. On May 15, 2024, RetroArch was officially released on iOS through the App Store . Its major features include: RetroArch can run any libretro core. While RetroArch is available for many platforms,

165-411: A human–machine interface ( HMI ) that typically interfaces machines with physical input hardware (such as keyboards, mice, or game pads) and output hardware (such as computer monitors , speakers, and printers ). A device that implements an HMI is called a human interface device (HID). User interfaces that dispense with the physical movement of body parts as an intermediary step between the brain and

220-423: A decade. Ars Technica Ars Technica is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software , science, technology policy , and video games. Ars Technica was privately owned until May 2008, when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital ,

275-420: A history going back to 1902 and had already become well-established in newsrooms and elsewhere by 1920. In reusing them, economy was certainly a consideration, but psychology and the rule of least surprise mattered as well; teleprinters provided a point of interface with the system that was familiar to many engineers and users. The widespread adoption of video-display terminals (VDTs) in the mid-1970s ushered in

330-408: A job to a batch machine involved first preparing a deck of punched cards that described a program and its dataset. The program cards were not punched on the computer itself but on keypunches , specialized, typewriter-like machines that were notoriously bulky, unforgiving, and prone to mechanical failure. The software interface was similarly unforgiving, with very strict syntaxes designed to be parsed by

385-471: A link to the original source. After being purchased by Condé Nast, Ars Technica began publishing more original news, investigating topics, and interviewing sources themselves. A significant portion of the news articles published there now are original. Relayed news is still published on the website, ranging from one or two sentences to a few paragraphs. Ars Technica ' s features are long articles that go into great depth on their subject. For example,

440-446: A paid subscription service since 2001. Ken Fisher, who serves as the website's current editor-in-chief , and Jon Stokes created Ars Technica in 1998. Its purpose was to publish computer hardware and software-related news articles and guides; in their words, "the best multi- OS , PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while ... having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible". "Ars technica"

495-507: A postdoc at Memorial Sloan Kettering . The cost of operating Ars Technica has always been funded primarily by advertising. Originally handled by Federated Media Publishing, selling advertising space on the website is now managed by Condé Nast. In addition to online advertising, Ars Technica has sold subscriptions to the website since 2001, now named Ars Pro and Ars Pro++ subscriptions (previously known as Ars Premier). Subscribers are not shown advertisements, and receive benefits including

550-438: A relatively heavy mnemonic load on the user, requiring a serious investment of effort and learning time to master. The earliest command-line systems combined teleprinters with computers, adapting a mature technology that had proven effective for mediating the transfer of information over wires between human beings. Teleprinters had originally been invented as devices for automatic telegraph transmission and reception; they had

605-573: A result on magnetic tape or generate some data cards to be used in a later computation. The turnaround time for a single job often spanned entire days. If one was very lucky, it might be hours; there was no real-time response. But there were worse fates than the card queue; some computers required an even more tedious and error-prone process of toggling in programs in binary code using console switches. The very earliest machines had to be partly rewired to incorporate program logic into themselves, using devices known as plugboards . Early batch systems gave

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660-399: Is "arguably the biggest improvement to the experience the retro gaming community has yet seen". User interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction , a user interface ( UI ) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end, while

715-447: Is a graphical user interface (GUI), which is composed of a tactile UI and a visual UI capable of displaying graphics . When sound is added to a GUI, it becomes a multimedia user interface (MUI). There are three broad categories of CUI: standard , virtual and augmented . Standard CUI use standard human interface devices like keyboards, mice, and computer monitors. When the CUI blocks out

770-560: Is a Latin phrase that translates to "Art of Technology". The website published news, reviews, guides, and other content of interest to computer enthusiasts. Writers for Ars Technica were geographically distributed across the United States at the time; Fisher lived in his parents' house in Boston, Stokes in Chicago, and the other writers in their respective cities. On May 19, 2008, Ars Technica

825-418: Is a general principle in the design of all kinds of interfaces. It is based on the idea that human beings can only pay full attention to one thing at one time, leading to the conclusion that novelty should be minimized. If an interface is used persistently, the user will unavoidably develop habits for using the interface. The designer's role can thus be characterized as ensuring the user forms good habits. If

880-400: Is better described as a direct neural interface . However, this latter usage is seeing increasing application in the real-life use of (medical) prostheses —the artificial extension that replaces a missing body part (e.g., cochlear implants ). In some circumstances, computers might observe the user and react according to their actions without specific commands. A means of tracking parts of

935-409: Is categorized by four types: news, guides, reviews, and features. News articles relay current events. Ars Technica also hosts OpenForum, a free Internet forum for the discussion of a variety of topics. Originally, most news articles published by the website were aggregated from other technology-related websites. Ars Technica provided short commentaries on the news, generally a few paragraphs, and

990-436: Is devastating to the sites you love" was published on Ars Technica , imploring readers not to use the software on websites they care about: ... blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical ... It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect

1045-449: Is the number of senses interfaced with. For example, a Smell-O-Vision is a 3-sense (3S) Standard CUI with visual display, sound and smells; when virtual reality interfaces interface with smells and touch it is said to be a 4-sense (4S) virtual reality interface; and when augmented reality interfaces interface with smells and touch it is said to be a 4-sense (4S) augmented reality interface. The user interface or human–machine interface

1100-492: Is the part of the machine that handles the human–machine interaction. Membrane switches, rubber keypads and touchscreens are examples of the physical part of the Human Machine Interface which we can see and touch. In complex systems, the human–machine interface is typically computerized. The term human–computer interface refers to this kind of system. In the context of computing, the term typically extends as well to

1155-413: Is written in a less-formal tone than that found in a traditional journal. Many of the website's regular writers have postgraduate degrees, and many work for academic or private research institutions . Website cofounder Jon Stokes published the computer architecture textbook Inside The Machine in 2007; John Timmer performed postdoctoral research in developmental neurobiology ; Until 2013, Timothy Lee

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1210-468: The UK and Europe. The UK site began with around 500,000 readers and had reached roughly 1.4 million readers a year after its launch. In September 2017, Condé Nast announced that it was significantly downsizing its Ars Technica UK arm, and laid off all but one member of its permanent editorial staff. The content of articles published by Ars Technica has generally remained the same since its creation in 1998 and

1265-607: The ability to see exclusive articles, post in certain areas of the Ars Technica forum, and participate in live chat rooms with notable people in the computer industry. To a lesser extent, revenue is also collected from content sponsorship. A series of articles about the future of collaboration was sponsored by IBM , and the site's Exploring Datacenters section is sponsored by data-management company NetApp . Ars Technica also collects revenue from affiliate marketing by advertising deals and discounts from online retailers, and from

1320-410: The availability of a specific core varies per platform. Below is a non-exhaustive table of which systems are available to RetroArch and what project the core is based on: RetroArch has been praised for the number of systems and games it can play under a single interface . It has been criticized for how difficult it is to configure, due to the extensive number of options available to the user, and at

1375-464: The body is required, and sensors noting the position of the head, direction of gaze and so on have been used experimentally. This is particularly relevant to immersive interfaces . The history of user interfaces can be divided into the following phases according to the dominant type of user interface: In the batch era, computing power was extremely scarce and expensive. User interfaces were rudimentary. Users had to accommodate computers rather than

1430-402: The computer pioneers of the 1940s. Just as importantly, the existence of an accessible screen—a two-dimensional display of text that could be rapidly and reversibly modified—made it economical for software designers to deploy interfaces that could be described as visual rather than textual. The pioneering applications of this kind were computer games and text editors; close descendants of some of

1485-453: The costs for matchmaking servers. In December 2016, GoGames – a company contracted by video game developer and publisher Sega – approached the RetroArch developers with the intention of using their software in their SEGA Forever project but ultimately the cooperation did not come to fruition due to licensing disagreements. In April 2018, an input lag compensation feature called "Run-Ahead"

1540-423: The currently running job the entire computer; program decks and tapes had to include what we would now think of as operating system code to talk to I/O devices and do whatever other housekeeping was needed. Midway through the batch period, after 1957, various groups began to experiment with so-called " load-and-go " systems. These used a monitor program which was always resident on the computer. Programs could call

1595-512: The designer is experienced with other interfaces, they will similarly develop habits, and often make unconscious assumptions regarding how the user will interact with the interface. Peter Morville of Google designed the User Experience Honeycomb framework in 2004 when leading operations in user interface design. The framework was created to guide user interface design. It would act as a guideline for many web development students for

1650-589: The earliest specimens, such as rogue (6), and vi (1), are still a live part of Unix tradition. In 1985, with the beginning of Microsoft Windows and other graphical user interfaces , IBM created what is called the Systems Application Architecture (SAA) standard which include the Common User Access (CUA) derivative. CUA successfully created what we know and use today in Windows, and most of

1705-667: The event. Jennifer Ouelette , the former science editor of Gizmodo, contributes science and culture coverage. Beth Mole, who has a PhD in microbiology, handles Ars ' health coverage. She was formerly at Science News. Eric Berger , formerly of the Houston Chronicle , covers space exploration. John Timmer is the science editor for Ars. He formerly taught scientific writing and science journalism at Stony Brook University and Weill Cornell Medical College. He earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his PhD from University of California, Berkeley and worked as

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1760-401: The expression graphical user interface for human–machine interface on computers, as nearly all of them are now using graphics. Multimodal interfaces allow users to interact using more than one modality of user input. There is a difference between a user interface and an operator interface or a human–machine interface (HMI). In science fiction , HMI is sometimes used to refer to what

1815-412: The first change on GitHub . It was intended as a replacement to bsnes 's Qt -based interface but it grew to support more emulation "cores". On April 21, 2012, SSNES was officially renamed to RetroArch to reflect this change in direction. RetroArch's version 1.0.0.0 was released on January 11, 2014, and at the time was available on seven distinct platforms. On February 16, 2016, RetroArch became one of

1870-615: The first ever applications to implement support for the Vulkan graphics API, having done so on the same day of the API's official release day. On November 27, 2016, the Libretro Team announced that, alongside Lakka ( LibreELEC -based RetroArch operating system ), RetroArch would be on the Patreon crowdfunding platform to allow providing bounties for developers who fix specific software bugs and to cover

1925-453: The goal of user interface design is to produce a user interface that makes it easy, efficient, and enjoyable (user-friendly) to operate a machine in the way which produces the desired result (i.e. maximum usability ). This generally means that the operator needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output, and also that the machine minimizes undesired outputs to the user. User interfaces are composed of one or more layers, including

1980-482: The interface design include prototyping and simulation. Typical human–machine interface design consists of the following stages: interaction specification, interface software specification and prototyping: In broad terms, interfaces generally regarded as user friendly, efficient, intuitive, etc. are typified by one or more particular qualities. For the purpose of example, a non-exhaustive list of such characteristics follows: The principle of least astonishment (POLA)

2035-449: The machine simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operators' decision-making process. Examples of this broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems , hand tools , heavy machinery operator controls and process controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to, or involve such disciplines as, ergonomics and psychology . Generally,

2090-639: The machine use no input or output devices except electrodes alone; they are called brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) or brain–machine interfaces (BMIs). Other terms for human–machine interfaces are man–machine interface ( MMI ) and, when the machine in question is a computer, human–computer interface . Additional UI layers may interact with one or more human senses, including: tactile UI ( touch ), visual UI ( sight ), auditory UI ( sound ), olfactory UI ( smell ), equilibria UI ( balance ), and gustatory UI ( taste ). Composite user interfaces ( CUIs ) are UIs that interact with two or more senses. The most common CUI

2145-441: The monitor for services. Another function of the monitor was to do better error checking on submitted jobs, catching errors earlier and more intelligently and generating more useful feedback to the users. Thus, monitors represented the first step towards both operating systems and explicitly designed user interfaces. Command-line interfaces ( CLIs ) evolved from batch monitors connected to the system console. Their interaction model

2200-542: The more recent DOS or Windows Console Applications will use that standard as well. This defined that a pulldown menu system should be at the top of the screen, status bar at the bottom, shortcut keys should stay the same for all common functionality (F2 to Open for example would work in all applications that followed the SAA standard). This greatly helped the speed at which users could learn an application so it caught on quick and became an industry standard. Primary methods used in

2255-427: The online division of Condé Nast Publications. Condé Nast purchased the site, along with two others, for $ 25 million and added it to the company's Wired Digital group, which also includes Wired and, formerly, Reddit . The staff mostly works from home and has offices in Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, and San Francisco. The operations of Ars Technica are funded primarily by advertising, and it has offered

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2310-497: The other way around; user interfaces were considered overhead, and software was designed to keep the processor at maximum utilization with as little overhead as possible. The input side of the user interfaces for batch machines was mainly punched cards or equivalent media like paper tape . The output side added line printers to these media. With the limited exception of the system operator's console , human beings did not interact with batch machines in real time at all. Submitting

2365-547: The quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. The block and article were controversial, generating articles on other websites about them, and the broader issue of advertising ethics. Readers of Ars Technica generally followed Fisher's persuasion; the day after his article was published, 25,000 readers who used the software had allowed the display of advertisements on Ars Technica in their browser, and 200 readers had subscribed to Ars Premier. In February 2016, Fisher noted, "That article lowered

2420-521: The real world to create a virtual reality , the CUI is virtual and uses a virtual reality interface . When the CUI does not block out the real world and creates augmented reality , the CUI is augmented and uses an augmented reality interface . When a UI interacts with all human senses, it is called a qualia interface, named after the theory of qualia . CUI may also be classified by how many senses they interact with as either an X-sense virtual reality interface or X-sense augmented reality interface, where X

2475-416: The sale of Ars Technica -branded merchandise. On March 5, 2010, Ars Technica experimentally blocked readers who used Adblock Plus —one of several computer programs that stop advertisements from being displayed in a web browser—from viewing the website. Fisher estimated 40% of the website's readers had the software installed at the time. The next day, the block was lifted, and the article "Why Ad Blocking

2530-427: The same time has been praised for the more advanced features it possesses. On Android, it has been praised for the fact that overlays can be customized, for the expandability of the libretro cores it supports, for its compatibility with several USB and Bluetooth controller peripherals, in addition to the app being free and having no ads. Kyle Orland, writing for Ars Technica , said that RetroArch's 'Run-Ahead' feature

2585-447: The second phase of command-line systems. These cut latency further, because characters could be thrown on the phosphor dots of a screen more quickly than a printer head or carriage can move. They helped quell conservative resistance to interactive programming by cutting ink and paper consumables out of the cost picture, and were to the first TV generation of the late 1950s and 60s even more iconic and comfortable than teleprinters had been to

2640-418: The site published a guide on CPU architecture in 1998 named "Understanding CPU caching and performance". An article in 2009 discussed in detail the theory , physics , mathematical proofs , and applications of quantum computers . The website's 18,000-word review of Apple's first iPad described everything from the product's packaging to the specific type of integrated circuits it uses. Ars Technica

2695-514: The site's writers agreed to a deal with Condé Nast because they felt it offered them the best chance to turn their "hobby" into a business. Fisher, Stokes, and the eight other writers at the time were employed by Condé Nast. Layoffs at Condé Nast in November 2008 affected websites owned by the company "across the board", including Ars Technica . On May 5, 2015, Ars Technica launched its United Kingdom site to expand its coverage of issues related to

2750-404: The smallest possible compilers and interpreters. Once the cards were punched, one would drop them in a job queue and wait. Eventually, operators would feed the deck to the computer, perhaps mounting magnetic tapes to supply another dataset or helper software. The job would generate a printout, containing final results or an abort notice with an attached error log. Successful runs might also write

2805-557: The software dedicated to control the physical elements used for human–computer interaction . The engineering of human–machine interfaces is enhanced by considering ergonomics ( human factors ). The corresponding disciplines are human factors engineering (HFE) and usability engineering (UE) which is part of systems engineering . Tools used for incorporating human factors in the interface design are developed based on knowledge of computer science , such as computer graphics , operating systems , programming languages . Nowadays, we use

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2860-517: Was a scholar at the Cato Institute , a public-policy institute , which republished Ars Technica articles by him. Biology journal Disease Models & Mechanisms called Ars Technica a "conduit between researchers and the public" in 2008. On September 12, 2012, Ars Technica recorded its highest daily traffic ever with its iPhone 5 event coverage. It recorded 15.3 million page views, 13.2 million of which came from its live blog platform of

2915-496: Was a series of request-response transactions, with requests expressed as textual commands in a specialized vocabulary. Latency was far lower than for batch systems, dropping from days or hours to seconds. Accordingly, command-line systems allowed the user to change their mind about later stages of the transaction in response to real-time or near-real-time feedback on earlier results. Software could be exploratory and interactive in ways not possible before. But these interfaces still placed

2970-600: Was added. The Libretro Team planned to release RetroArch onto Steam as a free download, integrating Steamworks features into the platform in July 2019. It would have been the first major dedicated emulation title to be released on the platform at the time. In August 2020, someone impersonating a trusted member of the team got access to the buildbot server and the GitHub account for the libretro organization, causing vandalism and server wipes. In November 2020, RetroArch in conjunction with

3025-449: Was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publications. The sale was part of a purchase by Condé Nast Digital of three unaffiliated websites costing $ 25 million in total: Ars Technica , Webmonkey , and HotWired . Ars Technica was added to the company's Wired Digital group, which included Wired and Reddit. In an interview with The New York Times , Fisher said other companies offered to buy Ars Technica and

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