So what should a junior developer with no full-time experience put down as an acceptable salary range? In general, what steps should one take to learn "what someone in his position should be earning" for each combination of job title, years of experience, and location? Is there a widely accepted set of reliable statistics?

If you treat the system software update as something that people are expected to choose not to install, then the PlayStation 3 has no online play because Sony shut down PSN on April 1, 2010.

But how many PC games will recognize more than one game controller? I was under the impression that most were intended for mouse and keyboard and a separate PC per player. And how many allow use of a controller during the first-time installation that you acknowledge "may take a bit"?

You'd have to build one that plays games of PlayStation 4 quality for that price, because you can get a PlayStation 3 that plays games of PlayStation 3 quality for about $250.

True, the last major set-top console to use cartridges was the Nintendo 64. But Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita are currently for sale and currently use cartridges.

I was looking for brands. I know Retrode works with Super NES and Sega Genesis cartridges, but what works with NES cartridges?

The law does.

If I build a PC for someone, and I recommend that the customer break the law to obtain games for it, I'm committing contributory copyright infringement. See MGM v. Grokster.

Even Nintendo's discs that use a slightly nonstandard physical sector format that a lot of DVD-ROM drives have trouble with?

Nor did the agency responsible for "the form to get the boat out of customs impound" agree to correct errors on "the form to get the boat out of customs impound".

I've never seen a console game that allows the players to host the matchmaking servers, even if one of the consoles acts as the server once the game has begun. In the interest of user interface simplicity and validation of genuine copies, these games all rely on servers operated by the publisher and/or console maker for matchmaking.

I have, and I use it. So does Nintendo for those games that publishers on its past consoles have made available in the Virtual Console section of Wii Shop. But not all such games are available for re-buying. How are most people going to turn their cartridges into ROM images useful with an emulator without going the illegal route of downloading dumps from the Internet?

Until the multiplayer servers get shut off. Or until the sports game's rosters become outdated by several years. Or until your console finally dies and replacements are expensive because it has become a collector's item. Try finding a replacement CD-i console at an affordable price, especially since YouTube Poop brought it back to popularity. Or just try finding an affordable working Vectrex console.

So what should I buy if I both want to run Linux and want to play games?

• Will your PC play Blu-ray movies?
• Will it have a nice case that fits in next to the TV, as opposed to the big ugly tower seen next to a desk?
• Will it have a large library of games that support multiple USB gamepads, as opposed to being focused on online play that requires a separate PC for each player?
• Will installation of games from discs be as easy as insert and go, or will the user have to click through an installation wizard that copies pretty much the entire game to the hard drive?
• Will there be a guarantee that video card drivers won't have a defect that renders them incompatible with the game you bought?
• And will it cost less than the "five hundred ninety-nine US dollars" that the last PlayStation launched at even with the video card and Windows license?

Unless you like playing online, at which point most games will be raising DNAS error -103 "This software title is not in service" because the matchmaking servers have been switched off permanently.

Not as likely as some might assume, at least among grown-ups. There are people on Slashdot who rarely have friends over because they lack the time to coordinate schedules. Instead, they play online with strangers.

But do they also bring their saved games with them? If not, that could be done by offering a demo. Perhaps a game will play on other consoles but save only on the first console in which a disc is used. Allowing someone who borrows a game to play up to the first major save point would seem to align with the free demo that all Ouya games will have.

Console makers want to block that. In the cartridge era, Nintendo even applied for a patent for a version of the CIC (checking integrated circuit, the lockout microcontroller in NES, Super NES, and N64 consoles and Game Paks) designed to discourage rental of Game Paks. The CIC in the console would have a couple digits of its serial number stored in e-fuses and send it to the CIC in the Game Pak, and the CIC in the Game Pak would store ten serial numbers that it has been used with in its own e-fuses and fail to boot on an eleventh.

The average age of a gamer is in the mid-30s, not under 18. Perhaps Sony is willing to abandon kids to Nintendo and mobile in order to focus on the DINK market with more disposable income, treating your DINK friend as collateral damage.

On what grounds would governments hit Sony for this in a way that they haven't already hit console and smartphone makers for opening download stores?

The official word is that Steve Jobs died of complications from pancreatic cancer, not from inability to resell iPhone and iPad games.

If console gaming dies, on which platform will people play games that use multiple gamepads? Or will people have to buy a separate PC for each player?