Digital and Analog Systems - The Nintendo Way

It's difficult to find someone who grew up in the 1980s who hasn't heard about Super Mario Bros. And, just as it's perplexing to figure out why a plumber can shoot fireballs from a flower or why he keeps jumping down pipes to save a princess, it's perplexing to figure out the difference between analogue and digital. So, what distinguishes each from the others? Is analogue and digital, like the Mushroom Kingdom and our Planet Earth, two distinct realities that coexist? To figure out the difference, we'll use some classic video games, specifically the NES and Nintendo 64. Let's get started!

Before we go into the intricacies, we'd want to define two terms: signals and circuits, which we'll use throughout our discussions. Signals are similar to the fireballs Mario sends around when he picks up a flower power. They always bounce in the same direction, and you could quantify how far they go over time and how much damage they deal when they hit an adversary if you wanted to.

This is similar to a signal, which is usually voltage or current that is measured over time. Signals are used to convey data across wires or by wireless means such as Radio Frequency (RF) or WiFi. Every signal, no matter what form it takes, has the same goal: to transfer data between devices.

These signals can be used in a circuit, which is a circular path through which electricity travels to perform a function, such as illuminating an LED, powering a speaker, or spinning a motor. Circuits can comprise both digital and analogue signals, and it's this eclectic combination that allows magic to happen, such as converting the tilt of a Nintendo 64 controller to control Mario's speed and direction in the Mushroom Kingdom.

GOING DIGITAL
Do you recall playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System? Those were the days, when you could crush bricks, jump down pipes, and tread on mushrooms till the sun set (or up in some cases). Everything in Super Mario Bros is on a two-dimensional plane. Our pixelated Mario could travel left, right, up, or below.
This is how digital signals work in the real world. It's a world of black and white, with signals that are either on or off. Take, for example, the Nintendo NES controller. Every button has a definite function – the D-pad can only move in four directions, while B and A have highly precise functions. So, if you hit the right arrow, Mario will take one step forward, and if you use the A button, Mario will take one step forward. It makes no difference how hard you press any button; they all perform their own unique actions.

We can replace our NES buttons with voltages in the world of digital communications. Our voltage can go up to 5 volts or down to 0 volts, similar to how our controller can go up and down. There is no such thing as a middle ground. The waveform of a digital signal would appear like this if plotted on a graph:

Digital circuits are far more defined than their complex analogue counterparts, and they're mostly constructed of transistors, logic gates, microcontrollers, and microprocessors. These processors can range in size from the massive ones seen in video game consoles to the tiny ones found in Arduinos. However, they all have the same goal in mind: to produce a digital signal.

Digital signals are used in a lot of the devices that we use today. You know how you plug your video game console into your TV with an HDMI cable? This is equivalent to sending a digital signal of 1s and 0s. What about all those music you listen to on Spotify? Another digital signal has arrived. What is it about digital signals that makes them so popular?

They are succinct and to the point. Digital signals are extremely consistent. Either it's on or it's off. When you chain the logic together in a circuit, you can achieve some really complex effects.

They can be copied indefinitely. When working with digital signals, such as music, they may be replicated indefinitely without losing quality. Analog signals present in ancient tape cassettes, on the other hand, start to sound dreadful with time.

They're a lot more precise. Digital signals can produce extremely accurate findings since they are either a 1 or a 0, with nothing in between. In contrast, analogue can have an almost limitless number of combinations between 1 and 0.

GOING ANALOG

Now is the time to turn everything you know about digital on its head. Do you recall the day the Nintendo 64 was released? It was the first time I saw Mario in 3D, and it absolutely transformed my perspective! The analogue signal's essence is being able to make Mario run around in a large, open universe in any direction I wanted.

The Nintendo 64 controller, unlike the NES's solely digital controller, included a unique addition: an analogue joystick. This fancy gizmo completely rewrote the rules of virtual reality. You could not only move up, down, left, and right, but also in any direction in between! Mario could now fly, jump, and slide through space in a whole new way.

This is what analogue is like: limitless possibilities! Unlike its digital cousins, which have a defined on and off position, this signal is constantly changing.

The love/hate relationship with analogue is that it can be unexpected and prone to interference because it always has the flexibility to do what it wants. Do you recall those old tube televisions from back in the day? You had to smash the picture every now and then when it became all hazy. This is an analogue signal that has been warped by external interference.

Despite these drawbacks, analogue is the purest signal available, and it may be found throughout the physical universe. That lovely singer's voice that sends shivers down your spine? Analog signals are the sound waves you hear.

There are several essential electronic components used in analogue circuits, such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, and so on. Because these circuits are so difficult to learn due to the constantly changing factors, you'll come across engineers whose primary focus is mastering the analogue world and building analogue radio receivers and battery chargers.

Analog and digital do not always coexist. Consider music: a musician's voice was most likely captured using an analogue microphone, which captured the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But what happens if you record that song on a computer? Similar to capturing photographs, digital recording software samples bits and pieces of the original analogue waveform. It then turns all of this data into usable 1s and 0s in order to create the music you're listening to on Spotify.

Unfortunately, the purity of the original analogue signal is lost in the translation process. You now have a clearly defined peak and low. All of the magic in between has vanished. While this method is wonderful for shrinking songs to the point where they can be shared and copied without losing quality, one has to wonder if you're listening to the same song you initially heard in its analogue version.

In the world of electronics, both analogue and digital play a role, whether it's delivering digital bits of music for your ears to enjoy or giving you the wide-ranging flexibility that an analogue joystick affords in a virtual environment. We must not forget that digital would not have been conceivable without the basis of analogue electronics!