Wednesday, 31 January 2024

The Morning After: This is Doom running on E. coli bacteria

MIT biotech researcher Lauren “Ren” Ramlan has run the iconic computer game Doom using gut bacteria. It’s not doing the running of the game, per se, but it is running (barely) on a display inside a cell wall made entirely of E. coli bacteria.

The researcher dosed the bacteria with fluorescent proteins to ensure they lit up like digital pixels, reaching a heady 32x48 resolution. In their paper, Ramlan says “To run Doom, all one needs is a screen and willpower,” mentioning Doom running on the digital display for a pregnancy test.

However, this is not playable. It takes 70 minutes for the bacteria to illuminate one frame of the game and another eight hours to return to its starting state. So, nearly nine hours per frame. Your Switch doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?

— Mat Smith

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Microsoft’s gaming revenue was up 49 percent in Q2

Mostly thanks to the Activision deal.

It’s earnings season, so we’re trawling through reports and press releases and suffering earnings calls to eke out what it all means. For Microsoft, it was a boost in gaming revenue, having finally adopted Activision Blizzard. The entire company reported revenues of $62 billion (up 18 percent on last year) and profits of $21.9 billion (a 33 percent increase). Microsoft says its overall gaming revenue increased by 49 percent, 44 points of which came from the “net impact” of the Activision deal. Xbox hardware sales were up only three percent.

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Samsung’s annual profits continue to decline

The company is banking on the Galaxy S24.

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The best gaming handhelds for 2024

From portable PC powerhouses to mobile emulation machines.

TMA
Engadget

There are enough of them now to warrant a guide. Yes, handheld gaming PCs are having a moment and, depending on what you want to play, the right handheld could range from a solid $100 emulation machine to a $700 portable PC more powerful than your existing laptop. My one tip: consider battery life.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/7tg3exf

from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/7tg3exf

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