Video game console

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

Table of contents 1 List of game consoles in use 1.1 Future systems 1.2 Current systems 1.3 "128-bit" Interactive 1.4 Second "32-bit" generation (including some systems marketed as "64-bit") 1.5 First "32-bit" generation 1.6 "16-bit" generation 1.7 Third "8-bit" generation 1.8 Second "8-bit" generation 1.9 First generation of "8-bit" programmable systems 1.10 First generation home video games (non-programmable) 1.11 The First commercial home video game ever 1.12 Consoles that never made it 1.13 Alphabetical List

List of game consoles in use

This includes stand-alone game consoles, see also hand held consoles for portable devices with integrated displays.

Future systems

• Sony PlayStation 3 (Sony has plans to release such a system around 2004)

Current systems

• Sony PlayStation 2
• Sega Dreamcast
• Microsoft Xbox
• Nintendo GameCube

"128-bit" Interactive

• Nuon

Second "32-bit" generation (including some systems marketed as "64-bit")

• Atari Jaguar (1993) (marketed as "64-bit")
• Sega Saturn (1995)
• Sony PlayStation (1995)
• Nintendo 64 (1996-2001) (marketed as "64-bit")

First "32-bit" generation

• Sega CD (1991)
• 3DO (1993)
• Sega 32X (1993)
• Playdia (1994)
• PC-FX

"16-bit" generation

• TurboGrafx 16 or PC-Engine (1989)
• Sega Genesis aka Sega MegaDrive (1989)
• Neo-Geo (1989)
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Famicom (1991-1996)
• Philips CD-i

Third "8-bit" generation

• NES or Famicom (1985-1995)
• Sega Master (1986)
• Atari 7800 (1986)

Second "8-bit" generation

This generation was followed by a collapse in the video game market (1984).

• Intellivision (1980)
• Colecovision (1982)
• Philips_G7400 (1983) (This was to be released in the USA as the Odyssey3; changing market conditions prevented its release.)
• Arcadia 2001 (1982)
• Vectrex (1982)

First generation of "8-bit" programmable systems

• Atari 2600 VCS
• Odyssey2 (1978) (Known in Europe as the Philips_G7000)
• Channel F (1976)
• Astrocade (1977)

First generation home video games (non-programmable)

Consoles of this era were often inaccurately called "analog" but actually used discrete logic.

• Several Odyssey consoles
• Several Pong consoles

The First commercial home video game ever

The Odyssey1 - discrete logic

Consoles that never made it

• Konix Multisystem
• Sega VR

Alphabetical List

• 3DO
• Adventure Vision[?]
• Arcadia 2001
• Atari 2600
• Atari 5200
• Atari 7800
• Atari Jaguar
• Atari Jaguar CD[?]
• Atari Video Computer System - see Atari 2600
• Bally Professional Arcade[?]
• ColecoVision[?]
• Commodore Amiga CD32[?]
• Commodore CDTV[?]
• Fairchild Video Entertainment System[?]
• Famicom Disk System
• Intellivision
• JVC X'Eye[?]
• NEO GEO Advanced Entertainment System[?]
• NEO GEO CD[?]
• Nintendo 64
• Nintendo 64DD[?]
• Nintendo Entertainment System
• Nintendo GameCube
• Nintendo Virtual Boy
• NUON[?]
• Odyssey
• Odyssey 2[?]
• PC-FX
• Philips CD-i
• Pioneer LaserActive[?]
• PlayStation
• PlayStation 2
• RCA Studio II[?]
• Sega CD
• Sega Dreamcast
• Sega Genesis
• Sega Genesis 32X[?]
• Sega Genesis 32X CD[?]
• Sega Genesis CDX[?]
• Sega Master System
• Sega Pico
• Sega Saturn
• Super NES - Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• SuperGrafx[?]
• Tele-Games[?] - An Atari 2600 sold by Sears
• TurboDuo[?]
• TurboGrafx-16[?]
• TurboGrafx-16 CD[?]
• Vectrex
• WebTV Plus[?]
• Xbox