Timeline of game consoles

Arcade games had been around since the 1950's but the first actual game console was until 1972.

1972: 1st generation 

The Magnavox odyssey

Magnavox Odyssey

The original game console was named the magnavox Odyssey, all thought the game console was the first of its kind it didn't really sell many copes because it wasn't highlighted as a home entertainment system but as a way for magnavox to sell there new television. The odyssey certainly had a few good ideas for example: 

The odyssey didn't have a power button but was meant to simply turn on when the game was in.  Another nice feature is that at the time there wasn't the technology to make any graphics so magnavox sold the console with a number of sheets that would be placed over the television as a replacement for graphics and colour.
This was the first attempt at home console, although it was used to sell televisions the Odyssey started something incredible it caused a trend that has spread right up to the modern home consoles.  

1976:

Telstar (original)

 Telstar

Due to idea of the Odyssey a large number of companies began to try and copy the idea to true and succeed where the Odyssey had been let down due to poor marketing. One of these remodels was in 1976 and was called Telstar, the console didn't have as many versions of pong simply: tennis,hockey and handball. The Telstar was the first console to use an AY-3-8500 microchip, This meant that it could play a number of different versions of pong without having to insert a different cartridge. This chip was used in a number of different pong consoles. 

Comparison of 1st and 2nd generation consoles

With the end of the first generation of game consoles the second began to show itself the main difference between the two is that while first ten only played simple versions of pong, 2nd generation  played different games with the use of cartridges making the simple pong consoles obsolete and because of the new use of cartridges the system now used an impressive processing power (at the time) 4bits. 

1976: Second Generation 

Fairchild channel F 

The second generation started when the Fairchild Channel F was realised, this was the first console to offer 8bit gaming instead of the simple just versions of pong, You were able to buy a number of different games ranging from space invaders to video blackjack. The console only had 64 bytes of ram but was still the first console to offer the player an option to play against the computer another first for the gaming world was that the Fairchild had a "hold" button that was a simple pause button that allowed the player to change difficulty during the game. 

1977:

Atari 2600 

All tho the Fairchild was the first game console to use the outside method of game cartridges, the Atari 2600 is the console that receives the credit for bringing the idea to the mass market. The Atari had twice  the Ram of the Fairchild a whole 128 bytes. The Atari 2600 is known as founder of modern gaming.

1979:

Microvision

The Microvision was another interesting console realised in this Era simply because it was the first handheld console, it lasted four years before being discontinued due to a number of different problems that made the console very fragile, the screen leaked and broke itself with no way to stop that, the buttons but aside all these fragile faults it still managed to make a gross profit of 8 million.

1983

Vectrex 

The Vectrex wasn't the first console in the second generation far from it but it is by the most interesting of that generation. The reason it was so interesting is that the screen was built into the console itself and the consoles would slide out so the idea was that the console could be brought with you wherever you were but it would have be to plugged in to a main source. The Vectrex used vector graphics making it one of the first by had to have a plastic sheet above the screen to add colour. The key selling puts of the Vectrex was that it used a light pen and had a 3D imager four years anything else.

Comparison of 2nd and 3rd generation

The second generation of consoles had taken there hold of the market due to them being the only on the market until the third generation hit the screen because of there higher graphics and processor power they were a lot better than the consoles available causing the second generation to be replaced. Like the difference between the first and second, the third generation had double the processing power as the previous and now obsolete.

1983: Third generation

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System was the start of generation 3 of game consoles due to it being realised in july 1983 several months before Casio PV-1000. The NES is by far the best made console of this Era and has was known not to break because it didnt have many moving parts. The NES had a number of accessories that were years ahead of there time. For example the power glove which was a first attempt at using human movement to control the character. That wasn't the only thing that was made for the NES many items such as the super scope,power pad and many more were realised in order to give the console the widest range of consoles possible.

1986:

Atari 7800 

After the failure of the 5200 Atari tried to enter the market again with the Atari 7800, The console was meant to be the turning point and try to replace the poor reputation left by the Atari 5200. The Atari 7800 failed on the simple fact that nintendo had already had 3 years to get control of the market so the console was only able to sell short of 4 million consoles while its main rival the Nintendo Entertainment System sold around 62 million.

Comparison of 3rd and 4th generations

With consoles like the Nintendo entertainment system, companies were trying to constantly race towards a never ending finish line. This caused new more technically advanced consoles to be created to try and take a hold of the market so the 4th generation was born and quickly replaced 3rd with better sound and  16bit graphics.

1988 Fourth generation

Sega Genesis/Mega-drive

The Sega Genesis often referred to has the Sega Mega Drive came out between the years 1980 and 1990. This was the second console to be made for this era. The main selling point of this console is that it was the first official 16bit Era console because of its Motorola 68000 CISC microprocessor. This meant that the console would have better picture quality than any other console on the market while lacking in sound quality with its rivals. One of the most ridiculous problems is that the console only had three buttons and a D-pad so that the console wasn't really able to play fighting games.

1990

Super Nintendo 

The Super Nintendo Entertain System was released originally in 1990 and was built to take over the long successful line of the NES and compete with the success of the Sega Genesis, It competed with the Genesis using its 65C816 processor giving it the same quality pictures but a lot better sound quality. Even though the genesis had a two year start the SNES sold over 20 million more units. The console controllers itself was the first of its kind because it is the first controller to have a left and right bumpers making it more suitable for fighting games because it gave a wider range of moves. Even with the more suitable fighting games the SNES was more known for its classic RPG games. The most interesting thing about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is that the original version began to change colour to a sort of yellow because of a chemical that was in the plastic that would oxides.

Comparison of 4th and 5th generation

The gaming industry had reached an unbelievable size due to how popular consoles had become so still trying to make money off this growing still growing market newer consoles were created the 5th generation which were better in every way to their pre-assessors.  

1994 - 5th Generation

Playstation 

The playstation was sony's first attempt in to the home console market and was released in 1994. This console was very popular because of its comfortable controllers. This console gave a new idea for the industry which was the idea of memory cards instead of hard drives, this made it easier for players to share data and take it wherever they went along with the use of analog controllers. The console itself uses a MIPS R3000A microprocessor.

1995

Virtual boy 

The virtual boy was released July 1995 during the long delay of the Nintendo 64 and it was meant to be  a virtual reality console featuring 3D games. The basic ideas of the console was that it was just goggles on a simple stand with a battery pack built into it. There were hundreds of problems with this console that main of which is that playing for long times could cause headaches. Another huge fault is that the "portable" console didn't really have any textures in its games so they looked boring and hard to understand making games frustrating. The console was discontinued only a year later with only 9 games ever made but several tried to give to the gimmick of virtual reality.

1996 

Nintendo 64 

The nintendo 64 was released in june 1996, It was built to continue the successful line of Nintendo console and compete with the playstation. It was known for the large number that have lasted because they are very durable consoles. The console uses a 93.75 MHz NEC VR4300. this particular console sold around 32.9 million. For its time the console was incredibly powerful and played 3D graphics with texture and proper rendering.

1998

Gameboy colour

The gameboy colour is a portable console that game out in 1998 and ran on AA batteries. In my personal and many others opinion this is the best portable console that has been made. For its time the portable console had a decent size but the screen is a bit to small and is impossible to play in daylight. The most impressive thing about this console is that since its release in 1998 it has sold 118.69 million units. This console had a Zilog Z80 so it was quite powerful for its time and used cartridges. the most popular games sold on for this console were Pokemon silver and Pokemon gold selling over 14 million units between them.

Comparison of 5th and 6th generation 

Still trying to control the market no company continued to let up and kept trying to increase there profits by creating new consoles to out shine the older less efficient models due to this the 5th generation was started these consoles were the first to have any kind of online service even if it wasn't advertised properly or had reached the mass market but it helped prove the concept of online play.

1998 Sixth Generation

Sega Dreamcast 

The sega dreamcast was the first console released for the sixth generation consoles and was the first console to feature online capabilities but it was quite buggy because it was the first time it had been done. The main reason this console was discontinued in 2002 was that although the idea was great but due to poor marketing it didn't receive the credit it dissevered. The console much like the NES had a large number of different attachments like guns,fishing rod and dreamcast eye. 

2000

Playstation 2

Playstation 2

The playstation was Sonys second attempt at making a successful console and building on the brand name created by the second console. This console was incrediblely successful and managed to sell 153.19 million units worldwide. The console itself used memory cards instead of the conventional hard drive had two controller ports. It was by far the best selling console of all time due to it being a great processor named the "Emotion Engine". Out of all the consoles of its Era it is the only one that hasn't been discontinued and still has several games made each year.

2001

Xbox

In 2001 Microsoft made there first contribution to the gaming market with the Xbox, Despite having a stronger processor and on paper looking better than the other consoles in the Era it was still unable to compete with the success of the playstation 2 only selling 24 million consoles. The console had a hard drive built into the basic works of the console. It was discontinued in 2006.

Comparison of 6th and 7th generation

Due to the success of the consoles in that era, 3 companies came out on top and continued onto controlling the latest 7th generation: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. These consoles would have incredible amounts of processing power compared with the older models along with better sound and higher quality graphics. Everyone of these consoles features an online service that is often updated and works in most cases.

2005 - Seventh generation 

Xbox 360 

In 2005 Microsoft made there second attempt at the gaming market with the release of the Xbox360. The console features a 3.2 GHz Powerpc Tri-core xenon, a detachable hard drive with currently up to 256GB of memory. This was the first console to be able to support four players at once with out the aid of a multi controller port. The graphics are 500MHz delivered by ATI Xenos processor. The console has been going for around 7 years with several different versions being made along with a new slim version. The main problem with Xbox 360's is that 60% of them break within the the first 3/4 years due to a manufacturing error involving the heat sink which causes the motherboard ti disfigure and knock a few microchips loose causing the "red ring of death". 

2006 

Playstation 3 

During the year of 2006 sony decided to make there third successful console with the release of the playstation 3. This console started an argument between gamers that has lasted years after the realise of it and its main rival the Xbox 360. The console over all beats the xbox 360 in every way due to its better process and because of its durabilty. The main thing that attracts people to the PS3 is that the consoles online capability is a lot better than that of the xbox 360 and is free. The only real problem with the playstation 3 is that the systems are constantly being update and can often leave the console useless for several hours.