Next-Gen Gaming Is an Environmental Nightmare

Console waste plus energy-hungry cloud gaming equals the worst of both worlds for sustainability

Last edited by Amiga4000 on 01-Jun-2023 at 04:32 AM.

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@Amiga4000

Not a major issue, if stakeholders have solar panels, wind farms, hydroelectricity, wave farms, geothermal and nuclear. Energy storage can be batteries, hydrogen, and pumped storage hydropower (PSH).

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@Hammer

Quote:

Hammer wrote: @Amiga4000 Not a major issue, if stakeholders have solar panels, wind farms, hydroelectricity, wave farms, geothermal and nuclear. Energy storage can be batteries, hydrogen, and pumped storage hydropower (PSH).

But how many do?

And none of this addresses the waste issue.

I am ashamed to say that a few years ago I did throw some Amiga stuff in the trash, including a fully working A600 with accelerator card and two faulty CD32s, all because I didn't realize how much they were worth. I will not make that mistake again.

Preserving and maintaining old computer hardware is not only good fun, it's good for the environment too. I run several older 'modern' PCs that would have ended up in landfill if I hadn't given them a home. I also take old CRT TVs off people who otherwise would have to pay to dump them, then pass them on to people who are into retro gaming (CRT is much better than LCD due to lower lag and more 'period accurate' display).

Unfortunately due to people like me who threw stuff away, only a tiny fraction of the Amiga product that was produced remains. However now that it is becoming rare and sought after, people are fixing up machines that only a few years ago we would have tossed. This is a good thing in many ways. When you are playing on an Amiga you aren't wasting nearly as much electricity as online gaming on a modern console or computer. In most countries in the world that electricity is largely produced by fossil fuels that are seriously damaging the environment.

You say it's 'not a major issue' if we have 'green' power sources. But until we have enough of them to power everything, including cars, ships, industry and homes, any that is used for one purpose is not available for another.

And it's no joke. Earlier this year the area where I live in New Zealand suffered unprecedented flooding that swamped thousands of homes, took out bridges and left many without power for weeks. Nothing like this has happened before in my lifetime, but they say we can expect more of it due to more intense tropical cyclones hitting the country.

It's been 4 months since that happened and the rail link to the port of Napier still hasn't been restored. Around 700 homes will not be rebuilt due to flood risk, and thousands of displaced people are still living in temporary accommodation. Farmers and orchardists are walking off properties that they don't have the heart to clean up, while others struggle to do so.

This is seriously affecting an economy already suffering from Covid, and it's affecting me personally too. My other hobby is r/c model aircraft. Our airfield, which is close to a river, went under 10 feet of water and was covered in silt and dead trees that will take months to clean up. There has been flooding before but nothing like this, though I have noticed a gradual increase over the years. I may have to give up the hobby if it continues to get worse.

Of course my insurance bills will go up too due to all the claims being made. To anybody who thinks global warming isn't that big a deal, ****'s getting real now - and we are all going to have to pay for it one way or another.

@Amiga4000

My A500 and A1200 are in a safe storage... hope they will last until the end of days.


My main "gaming" machine is a 6 years old notebook powered by 15W SoC. Main downside is, it can't be used as an electric heater.

@bhabbott & Hammer

You need to use a bit more imagination. Gaming consoles could provide additional heating during the winter. You need the heat anyway, using the energy for gaming gets a bit more work out of those electrons.

What about gaming during the summer? Summer is time to go outside, but if you really must, I recommend using your consoles to help heat your swimming pool. Nothing like water cooling to help overclock your machine to get another half an fps or two.


As for the piling waste, stop buying a new console every time Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo burp you wasteful brats! Amiga users are still playing Quake 3 24 years after release, which is proof you don't need the latest gaming machine to have fun.

Oh, you "need" the latest machine to be competitive? How about you compete based on who can win a multiplayer game with the slowest crappiest hardware?

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