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A video game console is an Interactive Entertainment Computer Or Electronic Device that manipulates the Video Display Signal of a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a game. The term video game console is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing Video Games from a Personal Computer , which has many other functions, or Arcade Games , which are designed for businesses that buy and then charge others to play. USE OF THE TERM The "video" in "video game console" traditionally refers to a " the term now implies all display types and formats. The term "console" is used in the user manuals of several early video game systems. Its use, however, is not synonymous with "video game system" or the same as its modern usage. It refers to a specific part of the video game system. The Atari 2600, NES, and other consoles from those decades were called "video game systems" at the time. "Atari 2600 Game Catalog Scans Atari 2600 Manuals Scans The first company to use the term "console" to officially refer to its video game system was Fairchild with the Video Entertainment System (VES) in 1976. Channel F manual ELEMENTS OF A VIDEO GAME CONSOLE Video controllers allow the user to input information and interact with onscreen objects. Power Supply : a power supply converts 100-240 volt AC utility power into direct current (DC) at the voltages needed by the electronics. Console/Core Unit: The core unit in a video game console is the hub where the television, video game controllers, and game program connect. It usually contains a CPU , RAM , and an audiovisual Coprocessor . Game Media : Most video game consoles have their programs stored on external media. HISTORY First generation See Also: History of video game consoles (first generation) Although the first , not video. It was not until 1972 that Magnavox released the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey , invented by Ralph H. Baer . 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 console that only played 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 4 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. As with the arcade market, the home market was soon flooded by Dedicated Consoles that played simple pong and pong-derived games. Second generation See Also: History of video game consoles (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 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 sold their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market and causing Fairchild and RCA to abandon their game consoles. Only Atari and Magnavox stayed in the home console market. Rebirth of the home console market The VCS 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 Odyssey 2 in 1978) brought their own programmable cartridge-based consoles to the market. However it wasn't 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 just for Space Invaders. 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 throughout the early 1980s. Video game crash of 1983 See Also: Video game crash of 1983 In 1983, the video game business suffered a much more severe crash. A flood of consoles, glut of low quality video games by smaller companies (especially for the 2600), industry leader Atari hyping games such as E.T. that were poorly received, and a growing number of Home Computer users caused consumers and retailers to lose faith and interest in video game consoles. Most video game companies filed for bankruptcy, or moved into other industries, abandoning their game consoles. Mattel Electronics sold the rights for their Intellivision system to the INTV Corporation, who continued to produce Intellivision consoles and develop new games for the Intellivision until 1991. All other North American game consoles were discontinued by 1984. Third generation See Also: History of video game consoles (third generation) In 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom in Japan. It supported high-resolution, full color, tiled backgrounds, and high-resolution sprites. This allowed Famicom games to be longer and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo brought their Famicom over to the US in the form of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. In the US, video games were seen as a fad that had already passed. To distinguish its product from older video game consoles, Nintendo used a front-loading cartridge port similar to a VCR on the NES, packaged the NES with a plastic " Robot " (R.O.B.) and a Light Gun (the Zapper), and originally advertised it as a toy. Nintendo also built a lockout chip into the NES. This kept third parties from producing their own cartridges and forced all developers to go through Nintendo to get NES games published. This allowed Nintendo to do things like prevent developers from releasing low-quality games and limit developers to five titles a year. Like Space Invaders for the 2600, Nintendo found its breakout hit game in Super Mario Brothers . Nintendo's success revived the video game industry and new consoles were soon introduced in the following years to compete with the NES. Sega's Master System was intended to compete with the NES, but never gained any significant market share in the US and was barely profitable. It fared notably better in PAL territories, especially Brazil. Fourth generation See Also: History of video game consoles (fourth generation) Sega regained market share by releasing their next-generation console, the Sega Mega Drive , which was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, in the US in August 1989 (renamed as the Sega Genesis) and in Europe in 1990, two years before Nintendo could release the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Fifth generation See Also: History of video game consoles (fifth generation) (Atari Jaguar), (SNES), Virtua Racing (Genesis), Vectorman (Genesis).]] The first fifth generation consoles were the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO . Both of these systems were much more powerful than the SNES or Genesis (known as Mega Drive outside North America); they were better at rendering polygons, could display more onscreen colors, and the 3DO used CD s that contained far more information than cartridges and were cheaper to produce. Neither of these consoles were serious threats to Sega or Nintendo , though. The 3DO cost more than the SNES and Genesis combined, and the Jaguar was extremely difficult to program for, leading to a lack of games that used its extra power. Both consoles would be discontinued in 1996. Nintendo released games like Donkey Kong Country that could display a wide range of tones (something common in fifth generation games) by limiting the number of hues onscreen, and games like Star Fox that 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.) It was not until Sony's PlayStation , Sega's Saturn , and the Nintendo 64 were released that fifth generation consoles started to become popular. The Saturn and PlayStation used CDs to store games, while the N64 still used cartridges. All three cost far less than the 3DO, and were easier to program than the Jaguar. The Saturn also had 2D Sprite handling power on par with the Neo-Geo . =
Sixth generation See Also: History of video game consoles (sixth generation) This generation saw a move towards PC-like architectures in gaming consoles, as well as a shift towards using DVD s 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.
Seventh generation , pictured with a media remote]] See Also: History of video game consoles (seventh generation) This generation is currently being introduced to the home market. The features introduced in this generation include using newer high-definition discs, like Blu-Ray , utilized by the Playstation 3, and HD-DVD , which has been embraced by Xbox 360 and Microsoft. Another new technology is to use the motion of the controller as input (as demonstrated by the Wii and, to a limited extent, the PS3), and understanding where the controller is pointing on the screen (as implemented on the Wii). Backwards compatibility has also become more popular with the seventh generation of home consoles, with all of the consoles employing some physical backwards compatibility, along with virtual backwards compatibility.
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 this increase in processing power was conveyed to consumers was through the measurement of " Bit s". 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 a 32-bit CPU, 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, but served better to distinguish between generations. TIMELINE MEDIA Cartridges , Sega Genesis , and Atari 2600 .]] |
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