Choose your Gaming Console:

Nintendo Wii	Playstation 3 - PS3	XBOX 360
XBOX	Nintendo DS and DS Lite	Nintendo Gameboy

History Of Gaming Consoles:

First generation

Although the first computer games appeared in the 50s[4] it was not until 1972 that Magnavox released the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, designed by Ralph Baer. The Odyssey was initially only moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game PONG popularized video games several months later the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By [[1975] Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of PONG, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled down console that only played PONG - the Odyssey 100. Almost simultaneously released with Atari's own home PONG console through Sears, these consoles jump started the consumer market. As with the arcade market, the home market was soon flooded by dedicated consoles that played simple pong and pong derived games.

Second generation

Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES) in 1976. While there had been previous game consoles that used cartridges, either the cartridges had no information and served the same function as flipping switches (the Odyssey) or the console itself was empty and the cartridge contained all of the game components. The VES, however, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions.

RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles.

Video game crash of 1977

In 1977, manufacturers of older obsolete consoles sold their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market and causing Fairchild and RCA to abandon their game consoles. Only Atari and Magnavox stayed in the home console market.


Rebirth of the home console market

The VCS continued to be sold at a profit after the 1977 crash, and both Bally (with their Home Library Computer in 1977) and Magnavox (with the Odyssey2 in 1978) brought their own programmable cartridge based consoles to the market. However it wasn't until Atari released a conversion of the arcade hit Space Invaders that the home console industry was completely revived. Many consumers bought an Atari just for Space Invaders. Space Invaders' unprecedented success started the trend of console manufacturers trying to get exclusive rights to arcade titles, and the trend of advertisements for game consoles claiming to bring the arcade experience home.

Throughout the early 80's other companies released video game consoles of their own. Many of the video game systems were technically superior to the Atari 2600, and marketed as improvements over the Atari 2600. However, Atari dominated the console market throughout the early 80's

Video game crash of 1983

In 1983, the video game business suffered a much more severe crash. A flood of consoles, glut of low quality video games by smaller companies especially for the 2600, industry leader Atari hyping games such as E.T. that were poorly received, and a growing number of home computer users caused consumers and retailers to lose faith and interest in video game consoles. Most video game companies filed for bankruptcy, or moved into other industries, abandoning their game consoles. Intellivision sold the rights of the Intellivision to INTV Corp, who continued to produce Intellivision consoles and develop new games for the Intellivision until 1991. All other North American game consoles were discontinued by 1984.

Third generation

The Robotic Operating Buddy that came packaged with the NES
Enlarge The Robotic Operating Buddy that came packaged with the NES

In 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom in Japan. It supported high-res, full color, tiled backgrounds, and high-res sprites. This allowed Famicom games to be longer, and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo brought their Famicom over to the US in the form of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. In the US, video games were seen as a fad that had already passed. To distinguish its product from older video game consoles Nintendo used a front loading cartridge port similar to a VCR on the NES, packaged the NES with a plastic "robot" and a light gun, and originally advertised it as a toy.

Nintendo also built a lock-out chip into the NES. This kept third parties from producing their own cartridges and forced all developers to go through Nintendo to get NES games published. This allowed Nintendo to do things like prevent developers from releasing low-quality games and limit developers to five titles a year.

Like Space Invaders for the 2600, Nintendo found its breakout hit game in Super Mario Brothers. Nintendo's success revived the video game industry and new consoles were soon introduced in the following years to compete with the NES.

Fourth generation

Sega's Master System was intended to compete with NES, but never gained any significant market share and was barely profitable. Sega regained market share by releasing their next-generation console, The Sega Genesis, which was released in Japan on the 29th of October 1988, and in the USA/Europe on the 1st of September 1989 (under the new name of Sega Mega Drive), two years before Nintendo could release the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)(1990).

Fifth generation

Going from left to right, top to bottom: Iron Soldier (Atari Jaguar), Gex (3DO), Starfox (SNES), Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES), Virtua Racing (Genesis), Vectorman (Genesis).
Enlarge Going from left to right, top to bottom: Iron Soldier (Atari Jaguar), Gex (3DO), Starfox (SNES), Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES), Virtua Racing (Genesis), Vectorman (Genesis).

The first fifth generation consoles were the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO. Both of these systems were much more powerful than the SNES or Genesis (known as Mega Drive outside the U.S.); they were better at rendering polygons, could display more onscreen colors, and the 3DO used CDs that contained far more information than cartridges and were cheaper to produce. Neither of these consoles were serious threats to Sega or Nintendo, though. The 3DO cost more than the SNES and Genesis combined, and the Jaguar was extremely difficult to program for, leading to a lack of games that used its extra power.

Nintendo released games like Donkey Kong Country that could display a wide range of tones (something common in fifth-gen games) by limiting the number of hues onscreen, and games like Star Fox that used an extra "Super FX chip" inside of the cartridge to display polygon graphics. Sega followed suit, releasing Vectorman and Virtua Racing (the latter of which used the Sega Virtua Processor.)

It was not until Sony's PlayStation, Sega's Saturn, and Nintendo's Nintendo 64 were released that fifth generation consoles started to become popular. They had advanced polygon capabilities. The Saturn and Playstation used CDs to store games, while the N64 still used catridges. All three cost far less than the 3DO, and were easier to program for than the Jaguar. The Saturn also had 2D sprite handling power on par with the Neo-Geo.

Sixth generation

This generation is currently phasing out.

* Sega's Dreamcast was Sega's last videogame console, and is discontinued, despite being the first internet ready console. Sega now develops software for other consoles.
* Sony's PlayStation 2 was the sequel to their first console, PlayStation.
* Nintendo's GameCube was Nintendo's fourth home videogame console and the first nintendo console to use cd's.
* Microsoft's Xbox was Microsoft's first videogame console.

Seventh generation

This generation is currently phasing in.

* Microsoft's Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005.
* Sony's PlayStation 3 was announced to be released in Japan on November 11, 2006 and in North America on November 17, 2006 and in Europe in March of 2007.
* Nintendo's Wii was announced to be released in North America on November 19, 2006 (retailing for $250), in Japan on December 2, 2006, in Australia on December 7, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006.
* Evizions Computer Entertainment's Evo: Phase One will be released October 20, 2006.