Video game console

A video game console is a device that outputs a video signal to display a video game. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to use for playing video games on a separate television in contrast to arcade machines, handheld game consoles, or home computers.

Although Ralph Baer had built working game consoles by 1966, it was nearly a decade before PONG made them commonplace in home theaters. Through evolution over the years, game consoles have expanded to function as CD players, DVD players, web browsers, set-top boxes and more.

History

First generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (first generation)

See also: First video game

The Magnavox Odyssey was the first video game console, released in 1972.

Although the first video games appeared in the 1950s, they were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the 1960s he created a working video game console at Sanders Associates, but struggled for years to find a television manufacturer willing to produce the console.

Finally, in 1972 Magnavox released the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console which could be connected to a TV set. Ralph Baer's initial design had called for a huge row of switches that would allow gamers to turn on and off certain components of the console (the Odyssey lacked a cpu) to create slightly different games like tennis, volleyball, hockey, and chase. Magnavox replaced the switch design with separate cartridges for each game. Although Baer had sketched up ideas for cartridges that could include new components for new games, the carts released by Magnavox all served the same function as the switches and allowed gamers to choose from the Odyssey's built in games.

The Odyssey was initially only moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games, that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By the autumn of 1975 Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of Pong, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, "higher end" console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added onscreen scoring, up to four players, and a third game—Smash. Almost simultaneously released with Atari's own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey with no board game pieces or extra cartridges.

In the years that followed, the market saw a multitude of companies rushing similar consoles to market. After General Instrument released their inexpensive microchips, each containing a complete console on a single chip, many small developers began releasing consoles that looked different externally, but internally were playing exactly the same games.

Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing only the games that came with the console. These video game consoles were often just called video games, because there was little reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari, Magnavox, and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, the market became flooded with simple, similar video games.

Second generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (second generation)

The Atari 2600 became the most popular game console of the 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 (Coleco Telstar) 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 and Pong clones sold their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market, and causing RCA and later Fairchild to abandon their game consoles. Only Atari and Magnavox remained in the home console market, despite suffering losses in 1977 and 1978.

In North America this drove most smaller game companies out of business, but in Europe it had different impact. The reduction in demand for the chips that powered first generation consoles, caused the price of those chips to drop dramatically. European manufacturers like Hanimex, Secam, and Soundic released cartridge-based game consoles that contained no CPU. Cartridges for these consoles would contain the same chips that had powered later pong consoles.

Rebirth of the home console market

Initially, VES 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 was not until Atari released a conversion of the arcade hit Space Invaders in 1980 that the home console industry was completely revived. Many consumers bought an Atari console so they could play Space Invaders at home. 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 1980s, 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 in the early 1980s.

Video game crash of 1983

Main article: Video game crash of 1983

In 1983, the video game business suffered a much more severe crash. A flood of consoles, low quality video games by smaller companies (especially for the 2600), industry leader Atari hyping games such as E.T. and a 2600 Pac-man that were poorly received, and a growing number of home computer users caused consumers and retailers to lose faith in video game consoles. Most video game companies filed for bankruptcy, or moved into other industries, abandoning their game consoles. A group of employees from Mattel Electronics formed the INTV Corporation and bought the rights for the Intellivision. INTV alone continued to manufacture the Intellivision in small quantities and release new Intellivision games until 1991. All other North American game consoles were discontinued by 1984.

Third generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (third generation)

The NES made video games popular again after the 1983 crash.

In 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer (or Famicom) in Japan. The Famicom supported high-resolution sprites, larger color palettes, and tiled backgrounds. This allowed Famicom games to be longer and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo began attempts to bring their Famicom to the U.S. after the video game market had crashed. In the U.S., video games were seen as a fad that had already passed. To distinguish its product from older game consoles, Nintendo released their Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which used a front-loading cartridge port similar to a VCR, included a plastic "robot" (R.O.B., and was initially advertised it as a toy).

The NES was the highest selling console in the history of North America and revitalized the video game market. Mario of Super Mario Bros became a global icon starting with his NES games. Nintendo took an unusual stance with third-party developers for its console. Nintendo contractually restricted third-party developers to three NES titles per year and forbade them from developing for other video game consoles. The practice ensured Nintendo's market dominance and prevented the flood of trash titles that had helped kill the Atari, but was ruled illegal late in the console's life cycle.

Sega's Master System was intended to compete with the NES, but never gained any significant market share in the US or Japan and was barely profitable. It fared notably better in PAL territories. In Europe and South America, the Master System competed with the NES and saw new game releases even after Sega's next-generation Mega Drive was released. In Brazil where strict importation laws and rampant piracy kept out competitors, the Master System outsold the NES by a massive margin and remained popular into the '90s.

Jack Tramiel, after buying Atari, downsizing its staff, and settling its legal disputes, attempted to bring Atari back into the home console market. Atari released a smaller, sleeker, cheaper version of their popular Atari 2600. They also released the Atari 7800, a console technologically on par with NES and backwards compatible with the 2600. Finally Atari repackaged its 8-bit XE home computer as the XEGS game console. The new consoles helped Atari claw its way out of debt, but failed to gain much market share from Nintendo. Atari's lack of funds meant that its consoles saw fewer releases, lower production values (both the manuals and the game labels were frequently black and white), and limited distribution.

	Japan	North America	Europe
Famicom/NES	1983	1985	1986
Sega Master System	1985	1986	1987
Atari 7800	none	1986	1987
Atari XEGS	none	1987	1987

Fourth generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (fourth generation)

NEC brought the first fourth generation console to market with their PC Engine (or Turbografx16) when Hudson Soft approached them with an advanced graphics chip. Hudson had previously approached Nintendo, only to be rebuffed by a company still raking in the profits of the NES. The Turbografx used the unusual HuCard format to store games. The small size of these proprietary cards allowed NEC to rerelease the console as a handheld game console.

NEC advertised their console as "16 bit" to highlight its advances over the NES. This started the trend of all subsequent fourth generations consoles being advertised as 16 bit. Many people still refer to this generation as the 16-bit generation, and often refer to the third generation as 8-bit.

Sega scaled down and adapted their Sega System 16 (used to power arcade hits like Altered Beast and Shinobi) into the Mega Drive (or Genesis) and released it with a near arcade-perfect port of Altered Beast.

Arcade gaming company, SNK developed the high end Neo Geo MVS arcade system which used interchangeable cartridges similar to home consoles. Building on the success of the MVS, SNK repackaged the NeoGeo as the NeoGeo AES home console. Unfortunately the AES was prohibitively expensive and incompatible with MVS cartridges. This resulted in a small library of games that were difficult to find and expensive to buy.

The fourth generation graphics chips allowed these consoles to reproduce the art styles that were becoming popular in arcades and on home computers. These games often featured lavish background scenery, huge characters, broader color pallettes, and increased emphasis on dithering and texture. Games written specifically for the NES, like Megaman, Shatterhand, and Super Mario Bros 3 were able to work cleverly within its limitations. Ports of the increasingly detailed arcade and home computer games came up with various solutions. For example when Capcom released Strider in the arcade they created an entirely separate Strider game for the NES that only incorporated themes and characters from the arcade.

While NEC did well in its native Japan, Sega did well in areas where the Master System was still popular, and SNK was able to establish large profit margins in their arcade level prices, none of these companies was initially able to really eat into Nintendo's market share.

In 1990 Nintendo finally brought their Super Famicom to market and brought it to the US as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System a year later. Its release marginalized the Turbografx and the NeoGeo, but came late enough for Sega to sell several million consoles in North America and gain a strong foothold. The same year the SNES was released Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog which spiked Genesis sales, similar to Space Invaders on the Atari. Also, by 1992 the first fully licensed NFL Football game was released: NFL Sports Talk Football '93, which was available only on the Genesis. This impact on Genesis sales, and the overall interest of realistic sports games, would start the trend of licensed sports games being viewed as necessary for the success of a console in the US.

One trait that remains peculiar to the fourth generation is the huge number of exclusive games. Both Sega and Nintendo were very successful and their consoles developed massive libraries of games. Both consoles had to be programmed in assembly to get the most out of them. A game optimized for the Genesis could take advantage of its faster CPU and sound chip. A game optimized for the SNES could take advantage of its far superior graphics and its flexible, clean sound chip. Some game series, like Castlevania, saw separate system exclusive releases rather than an attempt to port one game to disparate platforms.

When compact disc (CD) technology became available midway through the fourth generation, each company attempted to integrate it into their existing consoles in different ways. NEC and Sega released cd add-ons to their consoles in the form of the PC Engine and Sega CD, but both were only moderately successful. NEC also released the Turboduo which could accept Hucards and compact discs. SNK released a third version of the NeoGeo, the NeoGeo CD that was far less expensive, but it reached the market after Nintendo and Sega had already sold tens of millions of consoles each. Nintendo partnered with Sony to work on a CD addon for the SNES, but the deal fell apart when they realized how much control Sony wanted. Sony would use their work with Nintendo as the basis for their Playstation game console.

	Japan	North America	Europe
NEC TurboGrafx-16	1987	1989	1990
Mega Drive/Sega Genesis	1988	1989	1990
Neo Geo	1990	1990	1991
Super Famicom/SNES	1990	1991	1992

Fifth generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (fifth generation)

The Sony PlayStation became the most popular system of the fifth generation consoles, eventually selling over 100 million systems.

The first fifth-generation consoles were the 3DO and the Atari Jaguar. Although both consoles were more powerful than the fourth generation systems, neither would become serious threats to Sega or Nintendo. The 3DO initially generated a great deal of hype in part because of a licensing scheme where 3DO licensed the manufacturing of its console out to third parties, similar to VCR or DVD players. Unfortunately, that very structure meant that unlike its competitors who could sell the console at a loss, all 3DO manufacturers had to sell for profit. The cheapest 3DO was more expensive than the SNES and Genesis combined.

Atari cancelled their line of home computers, their Atari Portfolio, the Stacy laptop, and their handheld Atari Lynx when they released the Jaguar. It was an all or nothing gamble that ran the company into the ground. The Jaguar had three processors and no C libraries to help developers cope with it. Atari was ineffective at courting third parties and many of their first party games were poorly received. While games like Tempest 2000, Rayman, and Alien vs Predator showed what the console was capable of, the vast majority of releases underwhelmed. Many of the Jaguar's games utilized mainly the slowest (but most familiar) of the console's processors, resulting in titles that could easily have been released on the SNES or Genesis.

To compete with emerging next gen consoles, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country which could display a wide range of tones (something common in fifth-generation games) by limiting the number of hues onscreen, and Star Fox which used an extra 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).

Sega also released the Sega 32x, an add-on for the Genesis, while their Sega Saturn was still in development. The 32x hardware was popular the first year it was released, and the 32x port of Star Wars was well-received, but sales for other titles were sluggish. Sega announced that they would replace the Genesis with the Neptune, a combination 32x and Genesis, and sell it as a budget console alongside their upcoming Saturn. Despite public statements from Sega claiming that they would continue to support the Genesis/32x throughout the next generation, Sega of Japan quietly killed the Neptune project and forced Sega of America to abandon the 32x. Many feel that the 32x's brief and confusing existence damaged public perception of the coming Saturn and Sega as a whole.

Over the course of the fifth generation, Sega saw their market share rapidly shrink. Sega released several highly regarded titles for the Saturn, but a series of bad decisions alienated many developers and retailers. Sega's Saturn was also physically difficult to write 3D games for. The console had started out as 2D machine, and had sprite handling abilities on par with the Neo Geo. However, it's 3D capabilities were expanded late in its development as Sega realized the market was transitioning to 3D games. Partly because of this late decision, it used quadrilaterals, rather than standard triangles as its basic polygon. This meant that any cross platform game would have to be completely rewritten to see a Saturn port.

Born from a failed attempt to create a console with Nintendo, Sony's Playstation would not only dominate its generation, but become the first console to sell over 100 million units by expanding the video game market. Sony actively courted third parties and provided them with convenient c libraries to write their games. Sony had built the console from the start as a 3D, disc-based system, and emphasized its 3d graphics that would come to be viewed as the future of gaming. It's optical discs not only made games cheap to distribute, but gave developers room to add cinematic cut-scenes, soundtracks, and voice acting that made more serious storytelling possible.

Nintendo was the last to release a fifth generation console with their Nintendo 64, and when they finally released their console it came with only two launch titles. Partly to curb piracy and partly as a result of Nintendo's failed disc projects with Sony and Phillips, Nintendo used cartridges for their console. The higher cost of cartridges drove many third party developers to the Playstation. The Nintendo 64 could handle 3D polygons better than any console released before it, but its games often lacked the cut-scenes, soundtracks, and voice-overs that became standard on Playstation discs. Nintendo was able to sell tens of millions of consoles on the strength of their first party titles alone, but their constant struggles against Sony would make the Nintendo 64 the last home console to use cartridges as a medium for game distribution.

	Japan	North America	Europe
Atari Jaguar	1994	1993	1994
3DO	1994	1993	1994
PC-FX	1994	none	none
Sega 32X	1994	1994	1994
Sega Saturn	1994	1995	1995
Sony Playstation	1994	1995	1995
Nintendo 64	1996	1997	1997

Sixth generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (sixth generation)

With more than 155 million units sold, the Sony PlayStation 2 is the best selling videogame console in history.

The sixth generation saw a move towards PC-like architectures in gaming consoles, as well as a shift towards using DVDs for game media. This brought games that were both longer and more visually appealing. Furthermore, this generation also saw experimentation with online console gaming and implementing both flash and hard drive storage for game data.

• Sega's Dreamcast was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999, in Europe on October 14, 1999 and in Australia on November 30, 1999. It was the company's last video game console, and was the first of the generation's consoles to be discontinued. Sega implemented a special type of optical media called the GD-ROM. These discs were created in order to prevent software piracy, which had been more easily done with consoles of the previous generation; however, this format was soon cracked as well. It also sported a 33.6Kb or 56k modem which could be used to access the internet or play some of the games, like Phantasy Star Online, online. The Dreamcast was discontinued in March 2001, and Sega transitioned to software developing/publishing only.
• Sony's PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4, 2000, in North America on October 26, 2000, in Europe on November 24, 2000 and in Australia on November 30, 2000. It was the follow-up to its highly successful PlayStation, and was also the first home game console to be able to play DVDs. As was done with the original PlayStation in 2000, Sony redesigned the console in 2004 into a smaller version. As of November 21, 2011 over 150 million PlayStation 2 units have been sold. This makes it the best selling home console of all time to date, and now the best-selling video game console to date.
• Nintendo's GameCube was released in Japan on September 15, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002 and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It was Nintendo's fourth home video game console and the first console by the company to use optical media instead of cartridges. The Nintendo GameCube did not play standard 12 cm DVDs, instead it employed smaller 8 cm optical discs. With the release of the Gamecube Game Boy Player, all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges could be played on the platform. The Nintendo Gamecube was discontinued in 2007 with the release of Wii.
• Microsoft released their first games console, the Xbox in North America on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002, and in Europe and Australia on March 14, 2002. It was the first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, the first to include an Ethernet port for broadband internet, and the beginning of Microsoft's online Xbox LIVE service. Microsoft was able to attract many PC developers by using the NT kernel and DirectX from their Windows operating system. Though criticized for its bulky size and the awkwardness of its original controller, the Xbox eventually gained popularity, especially in the US, due in part to the success of the Halo franchise.

	Japan	North America	Europe
Sega Dreamcast	1998	1999	1999
Sony PlayStation 2	2000	2000	2000
Nintendo GameCube	2001	2001	2002
Microsoft Xbox	2002	2001	2002

Seventh generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (seventh generation)

The release of the Xbox 360 began the seventh generation.

The features introduced in this generation include the support of new disc formats: Blu-ray Disc, utilized by the PlayStation 3, and HD DVD supported by the Xbox 360 via an optional $200 external accessory addition, that was later discontinued as the format war closed. Another new technology is the use of motion as input, and IR tracking (as implemented on the Wii). Also, all seventh generation consoles support wireless controllers. This generation also introduces the Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo DSi, which add touch screens and cameras to portable gaming.

• Microsoft kicked off the seventh generation with the release of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 in the United States, December 2, 2005 in Europe, December 10, 2005 in Japan and March 23, 2006 in Australia. It featured market leading processing power until the Sony PlayStation 3 was released one year later. While the original Xbox 360 "Core" did not include an internal HDD, most Xbox 360 models since have included at least the option to have one. The Xbox 360 optical drive is a DVD9 reader, allowing DVD movies to be played. Up to four controllers can be connected to the console wirelessly on the standard 2.4 GHz spectrum. There are 3 discontinued versions of the Xbox 360: the "Arcade," the "Pro," and the "Elite." The currently shipping "Slim" version of the Xbox 360 includes 3 configurations: a 4GB SSD version, a 250 GB HDD version, and a branded 320 GB HDD version. The motion gaming capabilities of this console is named "Kinect."
• Sony's PlayStation 3 was released in Japan on November 11, 2006, in North America on November 17, 2006 and in Europe and Australia on March 23, 2007. All PlayStation 3s come with a hard drive and are able to play Blu-ray Disc games and Blu-ray Disc movies out of the box. The PlayStation 3 was the first video game console to support HDMI output out of the box, utilizing full 1080p resolution. Up to seven controllers can connect to the console using Bluetooth. There are 6 discontinued versions of the PS3: a 20 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America and Japan, and was never released in PAL territories), a 40 GB HDD version (discontinued), a 60 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America, Japan and PAL territories), 80 GB HDD version (only in some NTSC territories and PAL territories), a "slim" 120GB HDD version (discontinued), and a "slim" 250 GB version (discontinued). The two current shipping versions of the PlayStation 3 are: a "slim" 160 GB HDD version and a "slim" 320 GB HDD version. The hard drive can be replaced with any standard 2.5" Serial ATA drive and the system has support for removable media storage, such as Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, USB, SD, MiniSD, and CompactFlash (CF) digital media, but only the PlayStation versions up to 80 GB support this. The slim PlayStation 3 consoles (120 GB and up) had removable storage discontinued. The motion capabilities of this console is named the "PlayStation Move." One would hold the main controller with the dominant hand and an optional second controller in the recessive hand. The "PlayStation Move's" controllers are always accurately being tracked by a camera. With recent software updates, the PlayStation 3 can play 3D Blu-ray movies and 3D games.
• Nintendo's Wii was released in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, in Australia on December 7, 2006 and in Europe on December 8, 2006. It is bundled with Wii Sports in all regions except for Japan. Unlike the other systems of the seventh generation, the Wii does not support an internal hard drive, but instead uses 512 MB of internal Flash memory and includes support for removable SD card storage. It also has a maximum resolution output of 480p, making it the only seventh generation console not able to output high-definition graphics. Along with its lower price, the Wii is notable for its unique controller, the Wii Remote, which resembles a TV remote. The system utilizes a "sensor bar" that emits infrared light that is detected by an infrared camera in the Wii Remote to determine orientation relative to the source of the light. Like Nintendo's hand-held systems, it is also backwards compatible with previous Nintendo consoles, as it is capable of playing Nintendo GameCube games and supports up to four Nintendo GameCube controllers and two memory cards. It also includes Virtual Console, which allows the purchase and downloading of games from older systems, including those of former competitors. The latest addition to the Wii is the 'Wii Motion Plus', which uses the same technology as the console previously used, but with enhanced motion tracking and sensing to improve gameplay quality. The Wii has four colors: white, blue, black, and red. Current models include Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Motion Plus.

	Japan	North America	Europe
Microsoft Xbox 360	2005	2005	2005
Sony PlayStation 3	2006	2006	2007
Nintendo Wii	2006	2006	2006

Eighth generation

Main article: History of video game consoles (eighth generation)

The Playstation 4 console with its controller

Aside from the usual hardware enhancements, consoles of the eighth generation focus on further integration with other media and increased connectivity. The 3DS introduced autostereoscopic 3D on consoles. The Wii U introduced a controller/tablet hybrid whose features include the possibility of augmented reality in gaming. The OUYA, a Kickstarter-funded Android-based game console, Valve Corporation is also planning to have their system, the Steam Box, be released in 2014. Xi3 Corporation’s PISTON Console is rumored to be Valve Corporation’s hardware model for the Steam Machine, which is slated for a release during the 2013 holiday season. Sony's PlayStation 4 is a recently released eighth generation console, featuring a "share" button to stream video game content between devices, and was released on November 15, 2013. Microsoft announced their next generation console, the Xbox One, on May 21, 2013, and released it on November 22, 2013.

Other game consoles of note released in 2013 include the GamePop, a Kickstarter-funded subscription based console that plays mobile games only. The GameStick, another Kickstarter-funded device was also released in June 2013 and is a small, palm sized device that can be plugged in directly to a TV via HDMI allowing users to play mobile games directly on their TV.

Playstation 4 and Xbox One sold 1 million units each in 24 hours after its release.

Media

Cartridges

File:Cartridgegames.JPG

Standard game cartridges for several consoles popular in the 1980s and 1990s. From front to back: Game Boy Color's Rayman 2, Sega Genesis's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Atari 2600's Kaboom!.

Game cartridges consist of a printed circuit board housed inside of a plastic casing, with a connector allowing the device to interface with the console. The circuit board can contain a wide variety of components. All cartridge games contain at the minimum, read only memory with the software written on it. Many cartridges also carry components that increase the original console's power, such as extra RAM or a coprocessor. Components can also be added to extend the original hardware's functionality (such as gyroscopes, rumble packs, tilt-sensors, light sensors, etc.); this is more common on handheld consoles where the user does not interact with the game through a separate video game controller.

Cartridges were the first external media to be used with home consoles and remained the most common until 1995 continued improvements in capacity (Nintendo 64 being the last mainstream game console to use cartridges). Nevertheless, the relatively high manufacturing costs saw them completely replaced by optical media for home consoles by the early 21st century, although they are still in use in some handheld video game consoles.

Due to the aforementioned capabilities of cartridges such as more memory and coprocessors, those factors make it harder to reverse engineer consoles to be used on emulators.

Cards

Further information: Smart Card

Several consoles such as the Sega Master System and the TurboGrafx-16 have used different types of smart cards as an external medium. These cards function similar to simple cartridges. Information is stored on a chip that is housed in plastic. Cards are more compact and simpler than cartridges, though. This makes them cheaper to produce and smaller, but limits what can be done with them. Cards cannot hold extra components, and common cartridge techniques like bank switching (a technique used to create very large games) were impossible to miniaturize into a card in the late 1980s.

Compact Discs reduced much of the need for cards. Optical Discs can hold more information than cards, and are cheaper to produce. The Nintendo GameCube and the PlayStation 2 use memory cards for storage, but the PS Vita, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS are currently the only modern systems to use cards for game distribution. Nintendo has long used cartridges with their Game Boy line of hand held consoles because of their durability, small size, stability (not shaking and vibrating the handheld when it is in use), and low battery consumption. Nintendo switched to cards starting with the DS, because advances in memory technology made putting extra memory on the cartridge unnecessary. The PlayStation Vita uses Sony's own proprietary flash-memory Vita cards as one method of game distribution.

Magnetic media

Two forms of magnetic media commonly used in the 1980s and 1990s for video games. From front to back: Cassette and floppy disk.

Home computers have long used magnetic storage devices. Both tape drives and floppy disk drives were common on early microcomputers. Their popularity is in large part because a tape drive or disk drive can write to any material it can read. However, magnetic media is volatile and can be more easily damaged than game cartridges or optical discs.

Among the first consoles to use magnetic media were the Bally Astrocade and APF-M1000, both of which could use cassette tapes through expansions. In Bally's case, this allowed the console to see new game development even after Bally dropped support for it. While magnetic media remained limited in use as a primary form of distribution, two popular subsequent consoles also had expansions available to allow them to use this format. The Starpath Supercharger can load Atari 2600 games from audio cassettes; Starpath used it to cheaply distribute their own games from 1982 to 1984 and today it is used by many programmers to test, distribute, and play homebrew software. The Family Computer Disk System was released by Nintendo in 1986 for the Japanese market. Nintendo sold the disks cheaply and sold vending machines where customers could have new games written to their disks up to 500 times.

Optical media

The most widely used forms of optical media are DVDs and compact discs. Shown is a CD-ROM (left) and a game in Nintendo's proprietary optical disc format similar to a MiniDVD.

In the mid-1990s, various manufacturers shifted to optical media, specifically CD-ROM, for games. Although they were slower at loading game data than the cartridges available at that time, they were significantly cheaper to manufacture and had a larger capacity than the existing cartridge technology. Sega released the second CD based gaming system with the Mega-CD in Japan on December 12, 1991. Commodore followed shortly after with the Amiga-CD32 in September 1993, the first 32-bit game console. By the early 21st century, all of the major home consoles used optical media, usually DVD-ROM or similar disks, which are widely replacing CD-ROM for data storage. The PlayStation 3 system uses even higher-capacity Blu-ray optical discs for games and movies while the Xbox 360 formerly used HD DVDs in the form of an external USB player add-on for movies, before it was discontinued. However, Microsoft still supports those who bought the accessory.

Internet distribution

All three seventh generation consoles (the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360) offer some kind of Internet games distribution service, allowing users to download games for a fee onto some form of non-volatile storage, typically a hard disk or flash memory. Recently, the console manufacturers have been taking advantage of internet distribution with games, video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and film trailers being available.

• Microsoft's Xbox Live service includes the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring digital distribution of classic and original titles. These include arcade classics, original titles, and games originally released on other consoles. The Xbox Live Marketplace also includes many different hit movies and trailers in high definition, and is accessible with a Xbox Live Free Membership. There is also an "Indie Games" section where small time developers can buy a license and release their own games onto the marketplace. Such is their volume, these games are not viewed by Microsoft as standard and are instead rated by the public.
• Sony's online game distribution is known as the PlayStation Network (PSN). It offers free online gaming, downloadable content such as classic PlayStation games, high definition games and movie trailers, and original games such as flOw and Everyday Shooter as well as some games that also release on Blu-ray Disc such as Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. A networking service, dubbed PlayStation Home, was released in December 2008. Sony also announced a video/movie service and music service for some time in 2008.
• Nintendo's Virtual Console service emulates games from previous-generation consoles and is available for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U. Nintendo also has original content available for download through its online stores, the Wii Shop Channel (WiiWare), Nintendo DSi Shop (DSiWare) and Nintendo eShop.
  • In the case of the Wii console, Nintendo offers information and videos of upcoming software through the Nintendo Channel, which also allows users to download demos to the Nintendo DS through wireless connection. Other free services for Wii include the Forecast Channel, where people can access a weather forecast for cities around the world, News Channel, which provides users with the current world news in different categories such as International or Technology, and also the Internet Channel that allows users to browse the web and watch videos in sites like YouTube (which now has its own channel). The Wii Message Board also allows Nintendo to communicate with Wii owners with letters that include update information or contests on the Check Mii Out Channel, Everybody Votes Channel and games like Mario Kart Wii.
  • Eight-generation Nintendo consoles (Nintendo 3DS and Wii U) and later (will) take advantage of the services provided by the Nintendo Network. This includes being able to purchase and download classic Virtual Console games, downloadable games (including most DSiWare/WiiWare downloadable games), downloadable game content, non-gaming apps, game demos, videos, and even certain retail games via the Nintendo eShop. Nintendo Network will allow content, online-gaming support, non-gaming interactions to be provided either for free or for a premium cost. Nintendo also offers its own social network in the form of Miiverse, supported by the Nintendo Network.
• The Ouya has its games distributed entirely over the internet, instead of using any physical media like a disk or cartridge. Users purchase games over the Ouya shop, just like Playstation Network Store and the Xbox Live Arcade.

Bits

Each new generation of console hardware made use of the rapid development of processing technology. Newer machines could output a greater range of colors, more sprites, and introduced graphical technologies such as scaling, and vector graphics. One way console makers marketed these advances to consumers was through the measurement of "bits". The TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, and SNES were among the first consoles to advertise the fact that they contained 16-bit processors. This fourth generation of console hardware was often referred to as the 16-bit era, and the previous generation as the 8-bit.

The bit-value of a console referred to the word length of a console's processor (although the value was sometimes misused, for example the TurboGrafx 16 had only an 8-bit CPU, and the Genesis/Mega Drive had the 16/32-bit Motorola 68000, but both had a 16-bit dedicated graphics processor). As the graphical performance of console hardware is dependent on many factors, using bits was a crude way to gauge a console's overall ability. For example the NES, Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari 2600 all used a very similar 8-bit cpu. The difference in their processing power is due to other causes. For example the Commodore 64 contains 64 kilobytes of RAM and the Atari has much less at 128 bytes of RAM.

The jump from 8-bit machines to 16-bit machines to 32-bit machines made a noticeable difference in performance, so consoles from certain generations are frequently referred to as 8-bit or 16-bit consoles. However, the "bits" in a console are no longer a major factor in their performance. The Nintendo 64, for example has been outpaced by several 32-bit machines.

See also

• Console game
• Console manufacturer
• Console wars
• Dedicated console
• Handheld game consoles
• Handheld TV game
• History of video games
• Home theater PC
• List of video game consoles
• Timeline of video game console releases in North America
• Unlockable games

Further reading

• Forster, Winnie (2005). The Encyclopedia of Game Machines - Consoles, handheld & home computers 1972–2005. Gameplan. ISBN 3-00-015359-4.

External links

• Console platforms at Curlie