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Video Game Consoles
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Brown Box
The brown box was the prototype to Ralph Baer's Magnavox Odyssey. -
Odyssey
The Odyssey was designed by Ralph Baer, who began around 1966 and had a working prototype finished by 1968. This prototype, was known as the Brown Box. -
Pong
Pong quickly became a success and is the first commercially successful video game, which led to the start of the video game industry. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that copied Pong's gameplay, and eventually released new types of games -
Atari 2600
The Atari VCS was the first successful console featuring interchangeable cartridges. Although released in time for Christmas, it would be another three years before kids everywhere were blasting Space Invaders and avoiding the Pitfalls. It also had 128 bytes of system ram. -
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word intellivision is a short version of "intelligent television". Over 3 million Intellivision units were sold and a total of 125 games were released for the console. -
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo rolls out its Entertainment System (NES) to a lucky, but limited US consumer market in October featuring a killer app with a plumber named Mario. It would dominate console gaming through the rest of the 80s and clear into the early 90s. It contained 1.79 MHz CPU speed and 16 K RAM. -
Sega Genesis
The Sega Genesis came out in 1989 but won't be so popular until after the 1991 release of Sonic the Hedgehog that the public would hail Sega Genesis as the true next generation gaming system. Sega Genesis went on to dominate the console games market by 1992, succeeding Nintendo as the console king. It contained a 16-bit Motorola 68000 CPU,7.61MHz CPU speed, 64K RAM, and 512 colors . -
Neo-Geo
The Neo Geo is a cartridge-based arcade and home video game system released in 1990 by Japanese game company SNK. The hardware featured comparatively colorful 2D graphics and high-quality sound. -
Super NES
Strategically timing the PlayStation's release to coincide with a wide variety of games that take full advantage of the new system's 3D capabilities. Marketing the release of a Playstation as a news worthy event will be imitated by every console hereafter. Putting PlayStation into stores with a complete line of games that offered so much more than any other system, making Sony a marketing genius. The new system contained 3D Geometric Transfer Engine, 1.5 million flat-shaded polygons per second -
Playstation
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Nintendo 64
The N64 sold 32.93 million units worldwide. The console was released in at least eight variants with different colors and sizes. -
Playstation 2
Sony strikes again with the North American launch of PlayStation2 in October 2000 giving gamers another disc driven console. The most anticipated console release yet. This system contained a 128 Bit "Emotion Engine" CPU, and 66 Million polygons per second 3D geometry. -
Xbox
The Xbox is more powerful than anything seen to date in 2001; even topping PS2 in specs. Microsoft succeeded in creating the largest online gaming community with Xbox Live. In a move that was considered controversial in 2001, Xbox's online capability was only accessible if you had a high speed internet connection. Contained 64 bits of RAM, and a 8GB hard drive. -
Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance became the modern flagship of sprite-based games. With hardware comparable to the Super NES it had proven that sprite-based technology could improve and live side by side with the 3D games of the day's consoles. -
Nintendo DS
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PSP
The PlayStation Portable is the first handheld video game console to use an optical disc format, Universal Media Disc (UMD), as its primary storage medium. Other distinguishing features of the console include its large viewing screen and other multi media capabilities. -
Xbox 360
Microsoft wasted little time in establishing itself in the next-gen with the Xbox 360. For the first time in its history, Microsoft developed a console before the competition, arriving a year ahead of hardware from Nintendo and Sony. Through a plethora of quality first and third-party titles like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Project Gotham Racing 3, and the more recent and highly acclaimed Gears of War a person could no go wrong with buying this. -
Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 boasts the most internal power of any of the new consoles, and certainly holds the potential to reassert itself as the dominant player in a bitterly-fought market.Sony’s graphical unit for the PS3, Nvidia’s “RSX”, is more powerful than two GeForce Ultra video cards, which would cost the average PC gamer over $1,000. -
Nintendo Wii
The Wii uses motion sensor to completely change the way players experience a game. Playing a baseball game? Swing the controller and you’ll see your in-game character react to what you do.
