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2600 NES Genesis SNES Playstation N64 Dreamcast Odysee

2600 NES Genesis SNES Playstation N64 Dreamcast Odysee

SNES Playstation N64

Nintendo

Sega Nintendo Genesis NES 2600 Odysee

1990 1994 1999 1996

Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007, and Super Smash Bros. Smash Super and 007, GoldenEye Time, of Ocarina

successor to Sega’s final legacy. final Sega’s to successor mainstream gaming consoles. gaming mainstream titles, which include Super 64, The Legend of Zelda: Zelda: of Legend The 64, Mario Super include which titles,

it never came to fruition. The is almost a spiritual spiritual a almost is Xbox The fruition. to came never it which signalled the return of the to to joystick the of return the signalled which Regardless, the console sold very well, as well as its star star its as well as well, very sold console the Regardless,

Xbox backwards compatible with Dreamcast games, though though games, Dreamcast with compatible backwards gave way to the updated DualShock one, one, DualShock updated the to way gave controller

new Xbox ones, and there were even talks about making the the making about talks even were there and ones, Xbox new traditional letters or numbers. Later, the original original the Later, numbers. or letters traditional reviewed as confusing an unintuitive. an confusing as reviewed

shape, the port of many successful Dreamcast titles into into titles Dreamcast successful many of port the shape, accessible shape symbols for buttons, instead of of instead buttons, for symbols shape accessible for different uses in different games, but was often often was but games, different in uses different for

influence from the Dreamcast can be seen in the controller controller the in seen be can Dreamcast the from influence usual flat, bean-shaped ones, as well as universally universally as well as ones, bean-shaped flat, usual as well buttons, the controlled was meant to be versatile versatile be to meant was controlled the buttons, well as

entrance to the console market with the Xbox, whose whose Xbox, the with market console the to entrance more 3D modelled controller with grip handles, not the the not handles, grip with controller modelled 3D more before or after it. With 3 grip handles and a single joystick joystick single a and handles grip 3 With it. after or before

with . Shortly after, Microsoft announced their their announced Microsoft after, Shortly Microsoft. with World, Country, and Kart. Mario Super and Country, Kong Donkey World, controller, being the first successful console to have a a have to console successful first the being controller, console, with a set up unique to any console that came came that console any to unique up set a with console,

Windows CE with DirectX support, developed in partnership partnership in developed support, DirectX with CE Windows franchise line up as is usual, including popular games such as Super Mario Mario Super as such games popular including usual, is as up line franchise Sony also brought about some changes to the the to changes some about brought also Sony The controller design was also very new to a Nintendo Nintendo a to new very also was design controller The

discs to be booted at runtime was an optimized version of of version optimized an was runtime at booted be to discs

The of the SNES was not without help from a stellar Nintendo Nintendo stellar a from help without not was SNES the of success The

Additionally, the loaded onto some game game some onto loaded system operating the Additionally, blurry, stretched, and reused textures. reused and stretched, blurry, about the end of the cartridge gaming era. gaming cartridge the of end the about

size of texture files, resulting in the tell-tale N64 look of of look N64 tell-tale the in resulting files, texture of size buttons to assign - features which still exist on most controllers today. controllers most on exist still which features - assign to buttons successful, and it was widely believed to have brought brought have to believed widely was it and successful,

of a whole new side to console gaming. console to side new whole a of limitations of ROM cartridges capped the number and and number the capped cartridges ROM of limitations additional face buttons and two shoulder buttons, resulting in 6 active active 6 in resulting buttons, shoulder two and buttons face additional to utilize disc-based hardware, it was the most most the was it hardware, disc-based utilize to

the capabilities of future consoles, and ultimately, the start start the ultimately, and consoles, future of capabilities the enough to handle very smooth textures, the technical technical the textures, smooth very handle to enough The SNES controller also got an update from the NES version, adding two two adding version, NES the from update an got also controller SNES The the PlayStation 2 in 2006. Though not the first system system first the not Though 2006. in 2 PlayStation the

servers and online service, SegaNet, which foreshadowed foreshadowed which SegaNet, service, online and servers date, and while the console’s graphic chip was powerful powerful was chip graphic console’s the while and date, best-selling console until surpassed by its successor, successor, its by surpassed until console best-selling

web browsing and online gameplay though Sega’s dedicated dedicated Sega’s though gameplay online and browsing web the most realistic rendering a could achieve to to achieve could computer a rendering realistic most the day. day. and Solid, the PlayStation became the the became PlayStation the Solid, Gear Metal and

component to a console. The on-board enabled enabled modems on-board The console. a to component its competitors. Some reviews praised its 3D graphics as as graphics 3D its praised reviews Some competitors. its after year, the SNES remained a popular choice of console long after it’s hay hay it’s after long console of choice popular a remained SNES the year, after successful series such as , , Raider, Tomb Turismo, Gran as such series successful

The most notable of these is the introduction of an online online an of introduction the is these of notable most The and priced at just $150, it was significantly cheaper than than cheaper significantly was it $150, just at priced and and flexible system that allowed upgrading the console’s capabilities year year capabilities console’s the upgrading allowed that system flexible and Catering to an older audience, with extremely extremely with audience, older an to Catering

to utilize a 64-bit for superior graphics, graphics, superior for microprocessor 64-bit a utilize to high end CPUs became obsolete in a few years, so by utilizing a modular modular a utilizing by so years, few a in obsolete became CPUs end high

respected for its lasting legacies of innovation. of legacies lasting its for respected console of any generation, it was the first home system system home first the was it generation, any of console This was a smart move on Nintendo's part, as expensive technology like like technology expensive as part, Nintendo's on move smart a was This console for themselves. for console

the face of financial hardships. Nevertheless, the Dreamcast was still still was Dreamcast the Nevertheless, hardships. financial of face the Still highly regarded by many as the most beloved beloved most the as many by regarded highly Still and Sony developed the PlayStation as a fully fledged fledged fully a as PlayStation the developed Sony and

2, sales of the Dreamcast fell steeply and Sega lost the drive to compete in in compete to drive the lost Sega and steeply fell Dreamcast the of sales 2, helped to keep the console competitive in the marketplace. marketplace. the in competitive console the keep to helped want to give up, so Nintendo went to Phillips instead, instead, Phillips to went Nintendo so up, give to want

However, upon Sony's announcement for the much anticipated Playstation Playstation anticipated much the for announcement Sony's upon However, at all. all. at and sound capabilities, as well as a variety of enhancement chips which which chips enhancement of variety a as well as capabilities, sound and wanted a large cut of the profits that Nintendo didn’t didn’t Nintendo that profits the of cut large a wanted

release to use ROM cartridges - and it didn’t fare badly badly fare didn’t it and - cartridges ROM use to release some of the first three-dimensional games to be seen on console - - console on seen be to games video three-dimensional first the of some their storage limits and CDs having a lower cost for production. Sony Sony production. for cost lower a having CDs and limits storage their

popular game series such as and . Sonic and Soulcalibur as such series game popular Phillips partnership, the N64 was the last major console console major last the was N64 the partnership, Phillips Genesis console. It did this with the introduction of advanced graphics - - graphics advanced of introduction the with this did It console. Genesis more prevalent due increasingly more complex games pushing cartridges to to cartridges pushing games complex more increasingly due prevalent more

advanced graphics capabilities due to its 128-bit microprocessor and and microprocessor 128-bit its to due capabilities graphics advanced they had intended to switch to CD-ROM gaming with a a with gaming CD-ROM to switch to intended had they best-selling console of the 16-bit era despite heavy competition from the the from competition heavy despite era 16-bit the of console best-selling to develop a CD-ROM for the SNES, as CDs started becoming becoming started CDs as SNES, the for peripheral CD-ROM a develop to

once-gaming giant, Sega. The Dreamcast was well received initially, with its its with initially, received well was Dreamcast The Sega. giant, once-gaming consoles yet, even with the success of the PS1. Though Though PS1. the of success the with even yet, consoles quickly overtook other consoles of the generation, becoming the the becoming generation, the of consoles other overtook quickly career, and almost didn’t come to be. Originally, Nintendo approached Sony Sony approached Nintendo Originally, be. to come didn’t almost and career,

The last console of the was also the last console for the the for console last the also was century 20th the of console last The Nintendo didn’t intend to be dethroned as the king of of king the as dethroned be to intend didn’t Nintendo Successor to Nintendo’s NES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System System Entertainment Nintendo Super the NES, Nintendo’s to Successor Sony’s first game console, the PlayStation, had an unlikely start to its its to start unlikely an had PlayStation, the console, game first Sony’s

Nintendo SNES Nintendo Sony Playstation Sony Nintendo N64 Nintendo Sega Dreamcast Sega

Magnavox Odyssey Nintendo NES

The Odyssey was the first commercial home console. Created Released in 1977 by Atari Inc., the Atari 2600 was responsible for Following the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo’s Third in Sega’s line of consoles, the Genesis was the successor to by Ralph Baer for US electronics company Magnavox, work started on this popularizing the use of ROM cartridges containing the game code on it, and NES console helped to rebuild the the Sega , and the predecessor to the successful device a early as 1966. microprocessor-based hardware, instead of having all the games built in to due to its popularity and success, going on to become , though the Genesis marked a greater leap in a non-microprocessor dedicated hardware. -selling console of its time. technology and innovation in gaming than others in the Sega family. On release in 1972, there were 27 games available in 12 different The Genesis ushered in the start of the 16-bit era, and was the first cartridges for the console, including some better known ones such as Though a less popular predecessor was the first to do this, the Atari 2600 Much consideration was taken in regards to the of its generation to achieve notable market share in continental Simon Says, Table , Volleyball and Shooting Gallery. did it better and took it a step further by doubling the memory to 128 design of the hardware, with Nintendo making a as well as , competing against both dedicated of RAM and 4kB of ROM. The console also had a number of controller specific choice as to the form factor of the console - gaming consoles and systems. The Odyssey operated in a very crude way, as it was analog rather than variations, ranging from the joystick, to paddles, driving with the front loading cartridge slot allowing it to be digital, capable of producing very little visual material, as well as lacking controllers, and keypads, greatly diversifying the gaming more easily added to a TV stand with other The Genesis had a number of associated compatible any sound capability. The majority of the games utilized special plastic experience. entertainment devices - as well as the look of the with it, including the Power Base Converter for backwards overlays, to be placed on the television screen to simulate the background console, which was supposed to look more like a toy. compatibility with Sega Master System games, as well as two graphics that the system could not draw, while dots of light moved behind Atari Inc. published many original game titles for the console, including the peripherals that each supported their own game libraries - the Sega the screens. well known games Adventure - often credited for being the beginning of the The controller was also extremely different from CD (or Mega CD outside North America) that played its own library of action-adventure genre and the first game to have an ‘’ - and previous consoles’ physical interfaces, with games in CD-ROM format, and the Sega , a 32-bit peripheral While it initially performed fairly well in the new and emerging game Breakout. Atari also licensed the , having been replaced by a more precise, 4-way which utilized ROM cartridges. technology market, it wasn’t long before it fell victim to poor marketing on Pac-Man and Asteroids, increasing the console’s popularity immensely. It directional pad, or D-pad as it is known, a feature Magnavox’s part. However, it proved that home consoles were feasible went on to sell more than 25 million units and 120 million game cartridges. which was later adopted by the industry and remains Successful game series to start on the Genesis and it opened the door for numerous other companies to throw their hat on all primary controllers today. include and , in the ring. the latter of which was controversial in the US for Nintendo’s business model with the NES revolutionized the game its violent content, so Sega decided instead of publishing realm by introducing the now-standard practice of licensing to having it become heavily censored, to create the third-party developers, allowing them to produce and distribute titles for first content rating system for games - the the Nintendo platform. .

Some of the most successful series in gaming history got their start on the NES, including Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid; 's ; and Square 's , all of which are still thriving franchises to this day. 1972 1977 1983 1988

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