The complete history of game consoles. History of game consoles Old game consoles
The first gaming device in the house. The computer, of course, is better, but the console was within the budget. The kit included a console, peripherals and several cartridges. Connected to the TV, two people could play together, a free alternative to gaming clubs. This meant a queue for the TV, sleepless nights of excitement. The first understanding of the need for self-control.
The first household set-top box was designed back in 1972. Steve Jobs began his career working for a game console company. The industry broke through to Russia during the period of perestroika.
The most popular consoles of the 90s
NES (Dendy) - third generation
The first console to appear on the market was Dendy. To be precise, it is not the original. The console itself was copied by the Thais from a similar NES model from the Japanese company Nintendo. The Dendy brand was one of the first franchises in Russia. The proposal immediately gained unprecedented popularity and gave birth to an entire subculture. The first gaming edition was dedicated to Dendy. The seller, Stepler, released a whole line of similar, generally compatible consoles before they fell into oblivion: Classic I and II, Junior I, II, IIP and IVP. Starting from the second model, a light gun was added to the gamepads.
The cartridges, like the console itself, were unofficial. The games were pirated, but few people cared. The graphics left much to be desired, everything consisted of large pixels, but had a peculiar beauty. Unforgettable “Tanks”, “Super Mario”, “Tetris”, “Prince of Persia” and numerous fighting games. The first aviation simulators, hunting. In fact, the entire main set of games without saving, modifications of which are still played.
Dendy's competitors. The most common console was Dandy, but similar offerings included Kanga and Bitman. The Sega brand began with the same class of consoles; this competitor has gone further than Dendy.
Sega fourth generation
The Sega brand appeared in America back in the 80s. In Russia, players became acquainted with the company's products in the 90s on the Sega console Mega Drive. In contrast to SNES (Super Nintendo) games, this console is known as more "mature and serious" due to the fact that blood and violent elements were censored when ported to SNES.
Sega did not have any special characteristics, but it was (especially in Russia) much cheaper and more widespread than the SNES. For a long time, the mascot (personification of the brand) of the company was Sonic the Hedgehog, created as a character in a game competing with the Mario series. Mortal Kombat was also exclusive to this console. On the other hand, games about Mario and a lot of Japanese RPGs like “ Final Fantasy" And " Chrono trigger" Later models were also produced, for example, the Sega Saturn and the disastrous Dreamcast, which led the company to collapse in the late nineties.
Super Nintendo
Sega's heyday didn't last long. Soon Nintendo released the Super Nintendo, which became for a long time the cherished dream of schoolchildren. SNES had very high technical indicators - 8 audio channels, 64 kilobytes of sound memory, hardware alpha channel, more than thirty thousand colors with 256 of them simultaneously present on the screen, as well as Mode 7, which allowed you to draw a pseudo-3D image with a top view.
On Super Nintendo genre RPG arrived in its heyday, with such gems as “Final Fantasy”, “Earthbound” and “Chrono trigger” appearing. The company also released a number of less popular consoles.
Sony PlayStation
The popular CD-ROM console went on sale at the end of the 90s. A representative of the fifth generation with decent 3D graphics, fans will remember the games for PS1 and 2: Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy VII and VIII. On the basis of the popular and relatively inexpensive PlayStation, enterprising citizens opened video clubs.
The peak of popularity came in the 90s game consoles, the sector left advertising media, taking its place in the niche “for an amateur.” A new generation of gamers has moved to PCs that have become more affordable.
The gaming industry is actively developing. As a result, new games and game consoles appear. The latter are improving quite quickly and it’s even difficult to imagine what awaits us in the future.
Game console Sony PlayStation 2
In 2000, it was a revolutionary console that cost a lot of money and was accessible to few. Nevertheless, even adults, not to mention children, bought it and played it with pleasure. Today it is cheap, although it is most likely no longer available in electronics stores.
PlayStation 2 boasts the most luxurious game library:
- God of War 2;
- Takken;
- Silent Hill;
- Devil May Cry
- Final Fantasy, etc.
Of course, the graphics and gameplay were revolutionary at the time, although today it all seems very dull. However, some people today don’t mind playing such gaming masterpieces. PlayStation 2 is available to anyone today - it is inexpensive, as are the games for it.
The next brainchild from Sony is the PlayStation 3 console. This is a fairly powerful console with good hardware inside, which pulls modern games. The company first introduced this product to the market in 2006, and then it was positioned not so much as a game console, but as a media player. The set-top box is equipped with a Blu-ray drive and can play very high quality audio and video.
In fact, it is almost a full-fledged computer. Here you can even go online thanks to the built-in browser, watch videos and comment on articles. Oh yes, you can play here too. Almost every modern gaming release is ported to the PlayStation 3 console (almost!), so this is a great option for gamers.
It is important! Even today the console is sold in two versions:
- Slim;
The FAT modification is outdated, although Slim differs only in its smaller body and larger hard drive capacity. If you suddenly want to buy yourself a PlayStation 3, then be sure to take the Slim modification.
Game library! She's simply gorgeous. Latest new types FarCry 4, Mortal Kombat X, GTA 5, Metal Gear Solid V, The Last of Us– they are all ported to Sony PlayStation 3.
Console players would not forgive me if I did not mention one important advantage of the console. All owners can play among themselves online for free if they use licensed versions games. And Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service requires gamers to pay an annual fee of $60. By the way, about the Xbox 360.
Xbox 360 console
Xbox 360 is the brainchild of Microsoft. Today it is the most common console. It, like the PlayStation, is equipped with a Blu-ray drive, excellent hardware and wide functionality, making it a gaming computer and multimedia center.
The library of games is also quite impressive, plus there are game exclusives that cannot be played on other consoles (however, this also applies to the PlayStation 3). It is unofficially believed that the Xbox 360 is the best gaming console, because... it has the least problems with porting multiplatform projects (Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed). There are also no problems with the network mode.
But it is definitely worth mentioning an important drawback, although many do not consider it such. The Xbox LIVE service, which allows you to play with other players online, is a paid service and costs $60 per year. However, if a person allowed himself to buy expensive set-top box And licensed games to her, this price is quite symbolic.
You need to know this: the very first Xbox 360 consoles are very unreliable. They get hot when played for a long time and break. The developers noticed this after numerous complaints and corrected the problem. This is how the Xbox 360 S console appeared - this is what we recommend buying.
PlatStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are all one type of game console. It is this that is the most common today, and the latest consoles are the most desirable devices that can “pull” the latest gaming products.
Nintendo Wii is another type of console
At one time, the Nintendo Wii revolutionized game world. The developers proposed moving away from the usual gamepads and created a unique Wiimote control system.
This system “sees” the controller in the player’s hand, recognizes its position in space and, depending on this, allows you to control the game. If you need to hit a baseball, for example, swing your hand as if you were actually hitting it. The console will “see” this and your player on the screen will do the same.
It used to be really cool, although now everyone is tired of it. Plus, there are no cool games you can play using the Wiimote. All games on the Nintendo Wii have dull old graphics and boring gameplay, so the console itself is gradually losing its popularity. Most players prefer sophisticated games with revolutionary graphics and gameplay.
Can this game console be classified as a separate type? Perhaps it is possible. About 5 years ago the PSP was all the rage. It was bought by students to reduce time in classes, schoolchildren.
Today PSP is not in fashion, because... any modern smartphone is a serious competitor to this console, and now everyone has a smartphone. We can already say for sure that the PlayStation Portable console is morally outdated, but it was impossible not to mention it.
Which console should I choose?
The choice is really difficult, although out of all of the above there are only 2 acceptable options - this. There are eternal disputes between the owners of these devices about the merits of this or that console, which cannot be resolved a priori.
You can’t definitely give preference to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, because... it's a matter of taste. To finally choose a console, it is advisable to play them separately, and not listen to anyone’s advice, no matter how trivial it may sound.
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A portable gaming console occupies a very important place in the life of every gaming enthusiast. It's convenient, easy and profitable.
So which ones are the best? We have selected the TOP 15 current consoles at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.
Comparison of consoles
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| Name | Price up to 10,000 rub. | Possibility of connection to TV | Additional functions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| – | + | + |
| – | + | + |
| + | – | – |
| – | + | + |
| – | + | + |
Exeq Freestyle | + | – | + |
SEGA Genesis | + | + | – |
Exeq Net | + | – | + |
Exeq Ray | + | – | + |
X-Game CH-22B | + | – | + |
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First place goes to the portable console from Nintendo.
What is so special about her? Because you can change game modes in it. This can be done in just a few movements with your fingers.
P The console comes complete with a gamepad, which can literally be divided into two.
The console can be connected to a TV, and You can also use the screen located on the gamepad itself.
The two sides of the attachment are disconnected, and they can either replace a joystick for two players or act as a kinect. That is, repeat the movements of the hands if they are properly secured.
This feature is ideal for games like Just Dance, or when using virtual reality glasses, where knowledge of the buttons on the gamepad is not required, but the movements of your hands.
Besides, The console is equipped with the ability to set parental controls, comes complete with game steering wheel and can be used as an ordinary set-top box, as a portable one, and as a kinect. That is, the thing is incredibly multifunctional.
And this is not to mention the support of many games with amazing graphics, the highest settings and characteristics of new products of the last year.
All this adds up to making the console one of the best of its kind.
Price
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An honorable second place is occupied by the portable game console from Nintendo.
This time the company tried to release an amazing gadget that has a number of advantages over previous versions.
The console is quite compact, it’s easy to throw it in your pocket and take it with you to kill time on the road or during breaks; with such a console it’s convenient to even just play in bed.
It came in two colors, white and blue, and has more convenient controls than the previous version.
Quick control buttons and an imitation joystick located on the panel make working with the console easier. In the improved version it is convenient to play together.
Supports console and amiibo system oh there is the ability to transfer a character from real world to virtual.
In other words, you can take a LEGO figurine, or any gaming figurine, and use a special panel to “scan” it into the world.
Not every game, really, but most of those available on the Nintendo market.
The figurine must have a special stand; it can be purchased separately.
And finally, the 3D effect that the manufacturers lovingly put into the console is pleasing. This gives the Nintendo 3DS XL a place in the ranking.
Price
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A console that came out a little earlier than the 3DS, but which has some significant advantages.
This console is designed for children, and completely - from the size and design, to the buttons and joysticks that perfectly fit children's fingers.
But this does not mean that only children can use the console, far from it.
It is designed for a number of cult games from Nintendo, and has pre-installed games such as “Pokemon: Sun and Moon Edition” or “Mario Kart 7”. You also have access to all games from Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL, which is a huge plus.
By the way, a special stylus comes with the console., which makes it easier to control in some games.
It also compensates for the absence of some very necessary joystick buttons, and replaces some of the existing ones.
In addition, the console has an interesting design, support for drawing with a stylus in the game and the ability to display 3D games in 2D mode, which is very useful if you do not have special glasses at hand.
So, in general, the console does not “herd in the rear” at all, but takes its rightful place, being another representative of the company in the ranking.
Price
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The PSP Vita portable gaming console, although it receives some negative reviews, still remains very, very good, and here's why.
The design of the gamepad itself is no different from the design of the joysticks in versions of the same PSP, starting from the first and ending with the fourth.
That is, a person who is used to playing Sony consoles, it will probably be even more than comfortable.
And it’s quite comfortable to hold it in your hands, the console doesn’t take up too much space, and even though it’s larger in size than, for example, the SEGA Genesis, it still fits easily in your pocket. You can take it anywhere.
Equipped with a console and the ability to access YouTube, that is, when connected to the Internet, you can watch videos.
And still with the same connection, you can establish a connection with the TV by switching to full-length game mode. As a bonus with your purchase you will receive a free set of Adventure games.
Price
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And another wonderful gaming console from Sony. This time it is different in that it has a sliding panel, like in slider phones, if anyone else remembers those.
The controls, as in all versions of the PSP, remain unchanged, incredibly convenient and familiar, and the ability to use a two-level gamepad significantly increases the screen size and comfort of use.
This console takes up no more space than mobile phone , and at the same time can accommodate up to 1000 various games simultaneously thanks to the large amount of memory.
Plus, the set-top box has a connector, thanks to which it can be connected to a TV, and, although not latest version, but quite fast. And this makes using the console much easier.
And the design, of course, unlike other consoles, ensures both the safety of the buttons and protection from accidental pressing, as well as an original appearance.
Price
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Quite a cheap console, compared to those presented in the rating, but it has its own characteristics that are unlikely to leave at least anyone indifferent.
The small console, available in bright pink, red, blue, white, black and green colors, has a very convenient design - it is easy to hold even in one hand.
The buttons are located in such a way that you don’t have to work too hard while playing, and by the way, there are a lot of games here.
The main advantage of this portable console is that it supports games familiar from childhood.
Games that were released for Dendy, SEGA, Game Boy...all of them are known to everyone who has held a joystick in their hands at least once in their life.
To enhance the feeling of nostalgia, the developers have included as many as 700 pre-installed games in the console, which, when good quality the sound of the console itself makes you immerse yourself in the world of pixels and pleasant memories.
SEGA Genesis Gopher 2
Back to the past. SEGA. Familiar name, isn't it? Can you feel the taste of childhood?
And although we all remember the old ones good consoles the size of a good cinder block, this time the developers pleased us with a compact console.
At first, the console turned out to be too compact, and it was simply inconvenient to use.
And in the end I had to abandon the 2.8” screen, replacing it with another, larger one, and installing a gamepad with a combined cross-pad. This is how SEGA Mega Drive, better known as SEGA Genesis, was born.
Despite its still rather small size, the SEGA portable gaming console cannot but delight with its characteristics and the bonus of 500 pre-installed games.
There are both retro games that can be found on the retro Nintendo Classic Mini console, as well as more modern ones, and, of course, branded games for SEGA.
The console also looks quite unusual; it is very stylish and convenient if you need to take it with you.
For four decades now, television game consoles have been bringing joy to children and teenagers around the world! Some of them managed to become real legends, and the characters of their games became part of popular culture. Today we will talk about the ten most popular game consoles - their history, hardware and software features and of course our favorite games!
Atari 2600 (1977)
Sold: 30,000,000, generation: II
Ladies and gentlemen, meet a legend, the Atari 2600! If for you and me the era of game consoles began only in the 90s, then in the homes of our peers from Europe and America computer games came a decade earlier - with the Atari 2600!
Today, neither the bulky case with a wooden false panel, nor the rather primitive graphics look attractive. However, at the end of the 70s, this console was innovative in almost everything!
Originally released as the Atari VCS, it was the first console based on a microprocessor (originally the MOS 6502, later the MOS 6507) rather than digital logic. It was in the Atari 2600 that removable cartridges were first used.
Its predecessors (for example, the “Pong” console from the same Atari) were released on the principle of “one console, one game.” The cartridge system allowed most games from the Atari to be ported, providing an almost limitless selection! Only home computers could compete with it, but their games were on magnetic tapes or floppy disks, loading them took a long time, while games from cartridges loaded instantly!
In the first years, sales of consoles and cartridges grew exponentially: secret successful business Atari's idea was to sell consoles almost at cost (about $200 apiece), making the main profit from the sale of games.
However, in 1982 there was a recession - the video game market was oversaturated with cheap and low-quality games, which led to massive consumer disappointment. Even the porting of the mega-popular Pac-Man to Atari did not live up to expectations - out of 12 million cartridges produced, only 7 were sold. Great hopes were also placed on the game “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, released based on the Spielberg film “E.T. But out of 5 million cartridges, only 1.5 were purchased. As a result, millions of unsold games were buried in a landfill in the New Mexico desert...
All this, of course, did not affect the post-Soviet space, where the public was not at all spoiled, and even pocket games“Electronics” were considered “computers”! In the 90s, in Russian stores you could find the “Rambo TV Games” console, a Taiwanese clone of the Atari 2600, with a sealed cartridge slot and 208 (in some cases the numbers varied up to 2001 and even 11554) games in memory!
NES (aka Dendy) (1983)
Sold: 61,910,000, generation: III
In Japan it was called Famicom, in Korea Hyundai Comboy, in Europe and America - Nintendo Entertainment System, but for the residents of our country it will forever remain just Dandy!
The early 80s were the era. Following the success of arcade games like Donkey Kong and Popeye, Nintendo set out to create a gaming console that would allow these games to be played at home!
At that time, the first home computers were already appearing in Europe and America, and initially it was planned to release something similar to the ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 - with a disk drive and keyboard. However, the then president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauki, rejected this idea - the console had to be as simple as possible (and therefore cheap), and use replaceable cartridges instead of floppy disks! The concept was developed by Masayuki Uemura. It was his wife who suggested the name Famicom (the project's working title was GameCom). Abandoning traditional Atari-style pedal-based joysticks, Nintendo developed new type controller with buttons and a cross, based on electronic games Game& Watch, known in our country as “Electronics”.
The set-top box was equipped with a Ricoh 2A03 microprocessor (based on MOS 6502) with a frequency of 1.79 MHz and supported a graphic resolution of 256x240. The amount of RAM was 2 KB.
Successful sales in Japan, where by that time 2 million consoles had already been sold, prompted Nintendo to think about American market, but it was not at all easy! The United States was experiencing a severe crisis in the gaming industry. Demand dropped sharply and it seemed that the era of video games was about to come to an end before it even really began!
To get away from the boring Atari image of a typical game console, which users associated with unsuccessful and low-quality games, the creators of the NES made it look like a VCR - just as flat and with front-loading cartridges (which had 72 contacts instead of 60, like the Japanese ones).
The advent of the NES (originally planned to be called AVS - Advanced Video System) breathed a second life into the industry and heralded the beginning of the third generation of game consoles! Brand new games like Duck Hunt, Kung-Fu or Ice Climber appeared on the gaming market, but the main sales hit was, of course, the trilogy Super Mario Bros! Due to his popularity, Mario became the official logo of Nintendo.
So the third generation of game consoles ended the crisis forever. But neither the NES nor the Famicom came to Russia, which made it possible for the Moscow company Stipler, which initially specialized in supplying Hewlett-Packard equipment, to become a distributor of the Taiwanese Famicom clone Micro Genius, selling it in Russia and the CIS under the brand Dendy. The console looked exactly like the Famicom, but did not have the classic red and white design, but gray - like the NES. The Dendy logo is a gray baby elephant drawn by artist Ivan Maksimov. This image turned out to be so tenacious that Russian consumers called all similar consoles: Syubor, Kanga and even Rambo nothing more than Dandy!
Dendy - unofficial Famicom clone
Sega Genesis (1988)
Sold: 39,750,000, generation: IV
And here is the Sega Genesis - the same one from our childhood... Excuse me, someone my age will say, but in our childhood it was called not Genesis, but Sega Mega Drive?! That's right, because both of these titles refer to the same console! Since mainly Chinese clones of Japanese consoles came to our country, it is not surprising that we knew it under the Japanese name “Mega Drive”, while in Europe and America it was sold as Sega Genesis.
The console was based on an already proven platform slot machines Sega, known as System 16. The company's developers turned it into a game console, equipping it with a 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor (7.6 MHz) and a Z80 coprocessor from Zylog (yes, the same Z80 on which the entire ZX Spectrum was built !) - it was used for sound processing. The system had 72 KB of RAM and 64 KB of video memory.
The release of the console was overshadowed by the noisy release of the game “Super Mario Bros. 3" from Nintendo, in the shadow of which Sega's presentation took place. To draw attention to the console, the company decided to release a series of devices with similar names like Sega Mega Answer answering machines!
Competing with Nintendo was not easy, and in order to expand the target audience, the company's management paid more attention to adult games (for example, Mortal Combat without censorship), while Nintendo focused on a more children's audience. Although the Mega Drive quickly lost ground in Japan (the competition was too strong), in Europe and North America it left a fairly significant contribution to pop culture, largely thanks to the popularity of the series of games about Sonic the Hedgehog, which became a symbol of Sega for many years!
Sega came to our country in the mid-90s and was remembered as more “advanced” compared to Dandy - the same games looked much brighter on a 16-bit console. “Aladdin”, “The Jungle Book”, “Mortal Kombat”, “The Lion King” and of course the same Sonic for that time looked like cartoons come to life! The black rounded controllers (versus the square ones of the NES) deserved special attention, since 1993 they were produced with six game buttons! Although in Russia most game consoles were called “Dandy” out of habit, no one ever confused Sega with Dandy!
Nintendo SNES (1990)
Sold: 49,100,000, generation: IV
Super Nintendo (Super Famicom in Japan) is the second console from Nintendo with improved graphics and sound capabilities. Towards the development of this " super dandy“Nintendo was prompted by the appearance of two competitors on the market: PC Engine from NEC and Mega Drive from Sega, which in the long term meant a decrease in demand for the NES. Both competitors were 16-bit and therefore had significantly better graphics and sound performance.
The new platform was built on a 16-bit Ricoh 5A22 processor (modified WDC 65816), developed specifically for Nintendo, with a clock frequency of 3.58 MHz. RAM was 128 KB.
The new miracle from Nintendo instantly became a bestseller - the first batch of 300,000 units sold out in just a few hours, and the “black shark” Sega Mega Drive began to quickly lose ground. The lack of own 16-bit games (at the time of the console's release there were only two - Super Mario World and F-Zero) was covered by third-party manufacturers such as Capcom, Konami and Tecmo. One of the bestsellers was Street game Fighter II from Capcom, ported to SNES before Sega. The confrontation between SNES and Sega went down in video game history as the “console war,” from which the SNES emerged victorious, becoming the best-selling 16-bit console!
When the first 32-bit consoles went on sale, the SNES remained afloat even then, thanks to the release great game Donkey Kong Country from Rare interesting story, mesmerizing graphics and no less stunning melodies! But the most popular character remained, of course, Super Mario. A new game Super Mario World sold 20 million!
In our country, Super Nintendo (unlike the NES) was distributed quite legally. Its official distributor was Steepler, the same company that supplied Dendy to Russia. However, it was never possible to even come close to Dandy’s SNES sales due to the significantly higher cost of consoles (try explaining to your mom that you need a new console when you’ve already bought Dandy!) and very expensive licensed cartridges, and therefore most Russian teenagers admired it beautiful 16-bit games a la “Cool Spot” only on TV screens in shops and department stores...
Sony PlayStation (1994)
Sold: 102,490,000, generation: V
The history of this now legendary console goes back to 1986, when, having mastered floppy disks (Famicom Disk System) as a storage medium, Nintendo approached Sony with a proposal to jointly develop a new SNESCD-ROM format that allowed playing games from laser disks. The main considerations, of course, were copyright - while a magnetic disk could be easily copied, laser disks did not provide such an opportunity. The future device was called, attention, Play Station! Its development was supervised by Sony employee Ken Kutaragi, who went down in video game history as the “father of the Play Station”!
The project was not destined to come to fruition. Fearing that Sony would take control of the release of products in the SNESCD-ROM format, Nintendo management stopped all cooperation with it, joining further efforts with Philips. And so that numerous developments would not be in vain, Sony management, which had not previously taken the video game market seriously, decided to release its own console. The basis was a 32-bit MIPS R3000A microprocessor with a clock frequency of 33.8688 MHz; there was a controller for working with three-dimensional graphics on a separate chip. And also RAM: 2 MB, video memory: 1 MB, sound RAM: 512 KB.
The console was released in December 1994, when such hits as Doom, Twisted Metal and Warhawk had already been written and successfully ported to the Play Station. Equipped with a 2-speed CD-ROM, in addition to playing game discs, the console made it possible to play music discs in Audio CD format.
The success of the Play Station led to the end of the cartridge era. Although Sega, Nintendo and other manufacturers resisted for a while, new games required too much memory, and they too were forced to switch to optical discs.
The PS-1 was the first console to exceed 100 million in sales, and until 2006 it remained the best-selling console in history!
Nintendo 64 (1996)
Sold: 32,930,000, generation: V
If the Atari 2600 was the first console to use cartridges, then the Nintendo 64 (or simply N64) was the last - the future of the gaming industry lay in optical discs!
Although Nintendo has been one of the leaders in the video game market since the mid-80s, the emergence of new competitors in 1994: Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn prompted the company's management to think about “offspring” for the still quite successful SNES...
The decisive one was the commercial proposal from SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.), which, together with MIPS Technologies, developed a new processor solution MIPS R4000, which combined a central and graphics processor and was waiting for its implementation! The choice between Sega and Nintendo was decided in favor of Nintendo, since this company did not require exclusive rights to the technology and was ready to use it on a general basis. The new solution made it possible to play games in 3D format!
The console owes its name to the 64-bit NEC VR4300 processor with a frequency of 93.75 MHz. In the interests of marketing, the number 64 was also added to the names of games: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, Donkey Kong 64, etc. However, in reality, the capabilities of the 64-bit system were rarely used - high accuracy of calculations in games was of no use, while 64 - bit data required significantly larger memory resources!
The release of the N64 started in June 1996, but at first the company's management showed some confusion - Nintendo had minimal experience in working with 3D graphics, and the developers were only able to provide users with a decent number of 3D games by 1998.
To attract buyers, the console was produced in different color solutions and with different types of joysticks, for example, for the debut of Donkey Kong 64 in the United States, a limited edition banana-shaped joystick was released!
Sony Playstation-2 (2000)
Sold: 155,000,000, generation: VI
The second console from Sony in the glorious Play Station family was a response to the release of the Sega Dreamcast console, which began the 6th generation of gaming systems. But this competitor left the market quite quickly; the PS-2 had to compete really hard with Nintendo’s GameCube and Microsoft’s Xbox!
The demand for the new miracle exceeded all expectations! New consoles were literally flying off store shelves, and factories were simply not ready for such a rush. As a result, there was a worldwide shortage of the PlayStation 2 for a moment, leading to massive speculation on the Internet!
From the very beginning it was stated that the set-top box would be backwards compatible with PS-I games, however, in addition to CDs, the PS-2 could play DVDs, including DVD movies! Despite the fact that the PS-2 lagged behind the GameCube and Xbox in terms of hardware characteristics, only it had full support for the DVD format (the Xbox needed a special adapter to play DVDs; the GameCube did not support DVDs at all).
While the selection of games wasn't particularly impressive at first, Sony quickly caught up thanks to its clever outsourcing of third-party developers and its policy of exclusivity on best-selling games. Today the number of games for PS-2 is approaching 4000!
Besides regular games, several musical ones were released, such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. After installing a special network card, the console made it possible to play multiplayer games over the Internet. Following the trends of the times, a huge number of accessories were released for the PS-2 console: remote controls, light guns, USB cameras, karaoke microphones, memory cards, an electric guitar for Guitar Hero, a katana sword and even a chainsaw controller for Resident Evil 4!
The hardware was based on a 64-bit microprocessor "Emotion Engine" with a clock frequency of 294.912 MHz (later 299 MHz), a graphics processor "Graphics Synthesizer" with a frequency of 147 MHz, and a processor from the PlayStation-1 as an input/output controller. RAM was 32 MB.
This game console still remains the best-selling game console in history - the number of devices purchased to date exceeds 155 million, and there are 1.5 billion games!
Microsoft XBOX 360 (2005)
Sold: 77,200,000, generation: VII
If back in the late 90s Bill Gates spoke highly of Sony game consoles, then in the early 2000s they will become Microsoft's main competitors in the gaming market!
The company came up with the idea of releasing its own console while developing a special version of Windows CE for Sega Dreamcast consoles. In November 2001, Microsoft released its own console called Xbox. Name for new console was selected through an online survey.
Xbox consoles are entirely based on Microsoft's own technologies and largely replicate the architecture of a personal computer. They run on Windows 2000 (due to significant changes allocated to the “Xbox OS” family). The “stuffing” was also completely computer-based - the first Xbox of 2001 was based on an Intel Pentium III processor, 733 MHz, the Xbox 360 used a tri-core Xenon - a special development by IBM based on PowerPC technology with a clock frequency of 3.2 GHz. The graphics processor is Xenos from ATI, 512 MB of RAM, and a removable hard drive and DVD drive are also included.
To support users on the Internet, the Xbox Live service was created, allowing users to communicate with each other and, in some cases, play network games. Xbox Live Arcade lets you download games from the Internet to try before you buy. Game patches, demos, and video trailers are distributed through the Xbox Live Marketplace download center.
Just like other consoles of its generation, a large number of accessories are available for the Xbox 360: wireless headsets, removable hard drives, WiFi adapters, web cameras, as well as replaceable front panels. The Kinect touch controller deserves special attention, allowing you to interact with the console using gestures!
The joy of users from the Xbox 360 console was somewhat overshadowed by a number of technical problems. Insufficient cooling of the electronics caused the device to overheat and fail. Toshiba DVD drives scratched discs. The answer was to extend the warranty on set-top boxes to 3 years, install additional radiators on the graphics processor, and replace Toshiba drives with Lite On ones.
Sold: 80,000,000, generation: VII
The publication Xbox consoles 360 from Microsoft in November 2005 heralded the beginning of the 7th generation of gaming systems. A year later, Sony managed to present a worthy alternative - the PlayStation-3!
It was the first game console to use Blu-ray discs as media! The hardware was built on an 8-thread Cell 3.2 GHz processor. The amount of RAM was 256 MB with the same amount of video memory. Initially, the set-top box was produced in two configurations - budget with a 20 GB hard drive and full - 60 GB. The operation of the device was controlled by Cell OS, the interaction of which with the user was carried out through the XMB (XrossMediaBar) interface.
In addition to the Bluetooth 2.0 interface, the console allowed you to work on the Internet both via Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Using the built-in browser, you could browse websites and even send email!
To support users, the free online service PlayStation Network was launched, which made it possible to play multiplayer games over the network. Another service - PlayStation Store– worked as an online market for digital content, both paid and free.
Unlike the previous model, the PS-3 did not have a quick start - the cost of the console, about $800, seemed to users to be very high, and the number of new quality games it was small. There were also compatibility problems - not all games created for the PS-1 and PS-2 played well on the PS-3. Sales increased with the release of the Slim model, a “thin” version of the PS-3, released in September 2009. The thin model featured a flatter body, lower power consumption and a quieter cooling system. Four years later, the even smaller Super Slim was released.
Sold: 101,630,000, generation: VII
The Nintendo Wii game console (or simply “vi”) was released almost simultaneously with the Sony PlayStation 3 in November 2006 and immediately got off to a fast start! In the first half of 2007, the number of devices sold exceeded the Xbox 360 and PlayStation-3 combined!
The name of the console (during development it was called “Revolution”) was subjected to a lot of ridicule on the Internet. Nintendo representatives had to come out with clarification: “Wii sounds like “we,” which means that this console is suitable for everyone. Wii is easier to remember for a person from any country, no matter what language he speaks.”
A distinctive feature of the console is the wireless game controllers Wii Remote, thanks to built-in accelerometers and infrared sensors that respond to the player’s movements in three dimensions, allowing you to control characters on the screen with hand movements, as well as the Wii Nunchuk controller. The controller communicates with the set-top box via Bluetooth.
Hardware characteristics: Broadway processor (jointly developed with IBM) with a clock frequency of 729 MHz, 88 MB memory and 512 MB of built-in Flash memory for saving games and software. As well as USB ports, support for SD memory cards and Wi-Fi.
It’s easy to see that the Wii’s hardware is significantly inferior to its competitors, and it’s a stretch to classify the console as the 7th generation – more by its release date than by its parameters. But Nintendo representatives said that the company does not intend to compete with anyone in the number of gigabytes and gigahertz, its advantages: a unique controller and interesting games!
“We've come to realize that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles will not be able to coexist. It’s the same as if there were only predatory dinosaurs; sooner or later they will simply exterminate each other.”
(Game developer Shigeru Miyamotu)
By the way, among its main competitors: Xbox 360 and PS-3, Wii is the smallest!
Rating
TOP 10 game consoles of all time
| Name | Sales |
| Sony Playstation-2 (2000) | 155 000 000 |
| Sony PlayStation (1994) | 102 490 000 |
| 101 630 000 | |
| 80 000 000 | |
| Microsoft XBox 360 (2005) | 77 200 000 |
| Nintendo NES (1983) | 61 910 000 |
| Nintendo SNES (1990) | 49 100 000 |
| Sega Genesis (1988) | 39 750 000 |
| Nintendo 64 (1996) | 32 930 000 |
| Atari 2600 (1977) | 30 000 000 |
