A
video game console is a dedicated electronic device designed to play
video games. Often the output device is a separate
television. Once, video game consoles were easily distinguishable from
personal computers: consoles used a standard
television for display, and did not support standard PC accessories such as keyboards or modems. However, as consoles have become more powerful, the distinction has blurred: some consoles can have have full
Linux OS's running with hard drives and keyboards, and Microsoft's Xbox is basically a stripped down PC running a version of
Microsoft Windows.
The console market has steadily developed from simple one-off games (Pong) to fully featured general purpose games systems.
Older game consoles and their software now live on in emulators as they are no longer supported by their manufacturers;
however, console makers try to prevent legitimate console and software buyers from playing games on emulators,
using a special mask work copyright and a special copyright on encrypted media created by the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act and foreign counterparts.
Note that the "bit" names of generations were in large part created by the console makers' marketing departments and may have little to do with the actual architecture of the systems.
See Also: Nintendo, SEGA, Sony, Microsoft, Atari
List of game consoles in use
This includes stand-alone game consoles, see also hand held consoles for portable devices with integrated displays.
- Sony PlayStation 3 (Sony has plans to release such a system around 2004)
This generation was followed by a collapse in the video game market (1984).
Consoles of this era were often inaccurately called "analog" but actually used discrete logic.
- Several Odyssey consoles
- Several Pong consoles
The
Odyssey1 - discrete logic
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