Console Games

The contrast between today's video games and those that first started appearing in the 1960s is huge. Most early games were black and white and operated on a black and white TV. When we look at today's Gears of War on a 1080p widescreen, the difference is stunning. A man by the name of Ralph Baer actually got the idea for building a video game console back in 1951 in the Bronx, New York. His vision for an interactive TV was ahead of its time.

However, they got nowhere until 1966. Baer was the Chief Engineer and Manager of the Equipment Design Division at Sanders Associates. He built a two-player video game using a standard television set where two dots chased each other around the screen. This may not seem like much, but dots bouncing round the screen were the basis for most video games for the next seven years. Baer had the idea of selling the product to Cable TV companies that could transmit static images as game backgrounds. However, the Cable TV industry was slumping and the idea went nowhere.

Development continued on the unit for a few more years. The prototype had two controllers, a light gun and sixteen switches that selected the game to be played. These first generation games were actually built into the unit. 

First Generation (1972-1976): 

First generation game consoles like the Magnavox Odyssey used removable cartridges, which were nothing but jumpers to activate the games already wired in to the console.This method was soon replaced during the move to PONG consoles, where the logic for one or more games was hardcoded into microchips using discreet logic, and no additional games could ever be added

Second Generation (1976-1983): 

The second generation of computer and video games (sometimes referred to as the early 8 bit era) began in 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F Advanced Programmable Video System. The early period of this generation saw the release of several consoles as various companies decided to enter the market; later, the releases were in direct response to the earlier consoles. The Atari 2600 was the dominant console for much of the second generation, with other consoles such as Intellivision, the Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision also enjoying market share.

The second generation came to an abrupt end at the video game crash of 1983.

With games now consisting of microprocessor-based code, games were burned onto ROM chips that were mounted inside plastic cartridge casings that could be plugged into slots on the console.

When the cartridges were plugged in, the general-purpose microprocessors in the consoles read the cartridge memory and ran whatever program was stored there. Rather than being confined to a small selection of games included in the box, consumers could now amass libraries of game cartridges. And much as we have today, the longer a console was in the market, the better the games graphics and sound.

The Fairchild was the world's first processor-based video game console. Previous generation consoles had their games inside the console. The cartridges simply contained switches to enable the games. The Fairchild was the first console to use the cartridge as the storage medium. Fairchild released their console in August 1976.

Third Generation (1983-1992): 

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 the smoldering wreckage of 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.

The post-crash 8-bit era saw the first console role-playing video games, and was the birth of the side-scroller. Editing and censorship of video games was often used in localizing Japanese games to North America. It is the era when many famous video game series, and the characters starring in them, originated. Some notable examples include Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and Bomberman.

In the later 8-bit era, the NES came out on top in North America and Japan, partially due to its earlier release, but mostly because of Nintendo's strict licensing rules that forbade developers from releasing their games on other systems if their games were released on the NES. This put a damper on third party support for the Master System and the rest of Nintendo's competition. However, the Master System was far more popular in Europe and Brazil, which were markets first covered by Sega. Many more games were released in Europe and Brazil than in North America, and the Master System had a very long shelf-life in Brazil, finally being discontinued in the late 1990s.

Fourth Generation (1991-1996):

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 it's 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 Megadrive (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 establish large profit margins in their arcade level prices, none 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. It's 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, in 1991 the first two fully licensed NFL Football games were released: Joe Montanna II and Madden '92. Both games were available on the Genesis and neither for the SNES. Their impact on Genesis sales 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 crunchy, techno 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 addons 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.

Fifth Generation (1992-2002):

The fifth generation video game consoles marketed a significant shift in the type of games and the style of play. The consoles of this era were powered by 32- and 64-bit processors that were powerful enough that the market transitions to 3D-based game designs. It also marked the transition away from side scrolling and rail-style games.

Sega released the Sega Saturn and after modest sales, released their last console in 1998, the Sega Dreamcast. While the Dreamcast sold well, Sega did not feel they could compete against Microsoft and SONY and pulled out of the hardware market forever.

The colour and graphics of this generation was a significant improvement over the previous generations, which allowed for more immersive environments and longer and more dynamic playing games.

Nintendo, while losing out to SONY, still managed to eek out 30 million units in sales with the Nintendo 64. While significantly lower than SONY, it was significant enough to provide enough funds to stay in the market. Nintendo also continued development on the handheld market where they achieved significant sales figures.

The fifth generation saw the departure of the 3D and TurboGrafx, among other consoles. However, it also saw the entry of a new a powerful console to the market from SONY. It also saw the return of Atari in an attempt to regain market dominance.

While new to the market, SONY spent many years looking at the market to determine what worked and what failed. As a result, their first entry to the market rose to top spot and managed to sell over 100 million units before being replaced with the PlayStation 2.

Another significant note from this era is the departure of Atari from the hardware market after failing to achieve any significant sales from its Jaguar.

Sixth Generation (1978-2006):

The sixth-generation era is characterized by 32-bit processors or cores.

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.[4][5] 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.

Seventh Generation (2006-today):

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.[6] 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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console