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The History Of The Home Video Game Console - With Pictures And Timeline

thegameconsole.com — Consoles from 1970 to Present. A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer. The term is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing video games from a personal computer.

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  • Darksyderydaz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Man it's sad to see how many of those units I actually still own.
  • drethedog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Fairchild Channel F... The Wii controllers of the 70's....
    • caddyalan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Back then, there was no difference between casual and hardcore gamers... only games such as Pong variants and Computer Space existed. No one back then would have thought of controllers intended to help casual fans (re-)discover games...
  • avoidance, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Fourth time this has been posted. Come on now.
  • Superflks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6nothing says get ready to start at a website for minutes on end like BRIGHT ORANGE.
  • krasht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5No Amiga CD32 in the list = NO DIGG.
  • donotdigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Where's the Phantom? oh, right....
  • markp93, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6
    I'm sure everyone else has heard of this but I was surprised to read the following:

    Sony PlayStation
    Released in 1995
    Nintendo asked Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on called "PlayStation" for the SNES. Because Sony wanted 25% of all profits Nintendo earned from sales of this PlayStation and all PlayStation games, after Sony revealed that they were developing it, Nintendo instead went to Philips. This caused Sony to consider abandoning their research, however instead they used what they had developed so far and made it into a full blown console.

  • ptsd, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1people keep posting these incomplete history of the videogame console, evolution of the controller. please stop.
    • dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6dude this is digg. Please stop posting comments telling people what to post and not to post.

      let the user decide. If it's garbage, it will be buried. (I had to copy the text and paste it elsewhere. the orange was getting to me)


      now , do I digg the stories? or do I mark it as lame because the page sure as hell was lame looking :P
    • jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know that cramped up feeling, like a million pounds per square foot of diarrheal pressure, and your ass just can't hold it in any longer. You're running, begging the porcelain God's mercy so that you might just make it there before hell spurts forth.... And then you arrive, drop trou in the nick, and let spew like the nozzle of a fireman's hose!

      Oh wait. What were you saying again?
  • JackCampbell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Nintendo asked Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on called "PlayStation" for the SNES. Because Sony wanted 25% of all profits Nintendo earned from sales of this PlayStation and all PlayStation games, after Sony revealed that they were developing it, Nintendo instead went to Philips."

    wow, I didn't know that. No wonder crappy Zelda games landed on that Philips system. I wonder how different things would be if Nintendo would have agreed to give 25% of the profits.
    • Hurricane, on 01/15/2008, -0/+1Nintendo would have been on top in the Playstation era and Sony would not have ever developed the PS2 or PS3, of course we would have some weird possibly cool things instead of the PSX,PS2,PS3,N64,Gamecube,and Wii. Nintendo Playstation 4 anyone?
  • fluffydestroyer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0OMG
    it's hard for me to believe that i played with the Intellivision released in 1980 and the NES released in 1985! I also remember my super nintendo from 1991 and the nintendo 64 bought the same day of the release...
    This is a great site. It is very interesting to see how the technology has changed over the last years... *sigh*
    Has anyone tried the Wii console?
  • toneii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've got a rare tale for you:

    My friends John and Dan marketed the first WebTV. The hardware was from the UK and it was based on a Phillips CD32 (same as the Amiga, but I believe manufactured by Phillips). It had a modem hacked in. My friends somehow got to pitch it in the US. They branded it with the name "Web TV", made a brochure and pitched it to Microsoft who declined interest. Then a couple of years later, Microsoft released WebTV.

    My friend still has the original brochure from this presentation and the dated envelopes the stuff was mailed back from Microsoft in.
    • dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1RE: toneii

      actually, Microsoft "bought* out WebTV from another provider...they didn't want some third party creeping up on their firm monopoly at the time.
    • Hurricane, on 01/15/2008, -0/+1Get a hold of a lawyer you dumbasses!
  • taus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Cool story, I had a fairchild system and later an atari 800 which looked just about the same as the 400 in the story, now I have a 13 yr old who has already had x box and now xbox 360. I guess we covered both ends ofthe spectrum on that one.
    • overbored454, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I started with Pong in around 1976. I was 6 years old. I owned most of the consoles on that list while growing to adulthood. I gave up console games two years ago (I still play on the PC, though). But it seems weird because I have a 10 year old who has or had most of the stuff since 1996. And as soon as I can find a Wii (fat chance) I will be getting one of those for the kids as well.
  • Misanthrope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Odd. I had a 2600 that looked just like the Junior but it sure as ***** didn't come with that sweet ass controller they show there.
  • drunkard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I love how the Telstar is encased in wood.
  • cryptech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I had never heard of the XaviXPORT before.
    • dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The guy is a spammer, *hiding* a little bit of washed out technology he gets $1 a pop for selling. Which looks about as useful as an atari 2600 :P
    • SurrealS4m, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is sooo much there that I've never seen... probably because it was before I was born. This is a very detailed site. I thought I knew about 95% of the (USA) systems out there... but boy all of those systems from the 70s.. I was wrong. Just the other day I was thinking that it seems like the pace of game systems being developed has sped up, but in reality they were released often back then.

      The odd thing about the site is that it doesnt have any company info or references for feedback.
  • falstaff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Seeing all that faux wood grain from the mid 70's makes me wonder....are people 30 years from now going to look back at all the glossy black and white consoles from this generation and wonder what in hell's name we were thinking to buy something so damned ugly?
    • archer104, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They are going to laugh at how you can actually see the consoles. Then they'll blink three times and go back to playing Mind Tennis.
    • SurrealS4m, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah.. this is actually true... scientists have been working on a cap that you can wear. Something like this..

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4074869.stm

      Really the only thing that needs to be done is get a better way of viewing the game... and I'm not sure that wrap around glasses are the answer
  • Akaji, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This already made it to the front page two weeks ago...
  • wssharp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3it's nuts how many systems were released from 1975-1980
  • Mistic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heres a pretty good video to go with this post http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=3637639460474263178&q=history+of+video+games
  • joevill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Awesome! I love video games!
  • serraph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wow, I now have so much more knowledge about video games in the 70s-80's than I ever thought I needed. Very cool, though. *diggs*
  • WinnemuccaMac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How is this a short history? I've never seen something so comprehensive on so many different systems. Great find. Anyone have a similar site for portables (Sega Nomad)?
  • Majorkerina, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Extensive. Has some gaps but a good job getting a lot of the more influential systems. I would like see some of the more obscure ones as well but nice find :)
  • cr4ft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think a video would have been much better in terms of listing all these consoles.

    It's definitely a good read but as we all know, video games are visual .It'd be nice if they shown not only the systems but also the graphics improvements they each carried on.
  • Imsirion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Seriously, wtf @ all the Magnavoxes? Were there any real updates, or just redesigns? And people think Nintendo goes overboard....
  • cyanics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i still have a Magnavox Odyssey 500 laying around someplace.

    wonder how much it is worth now.
  • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2*started gaming from the NES and above*

    I mean, I knew about the Atari 2600 and Sega Master System even though I never touched one, but I never knew about the other systems. And now that I know...

    Jesus Christ! Just how many freaking Odysseys and Telstars are there? It felt like I couldn't scroll anywhere on that page without seeing ANOTHER Odyssey.

    Considering I heard that people were pissed and confused when the Atari 5200 came out about why they need to buy an upgraded console, I'm surprised they continued to make money after even the first Odyssey. Especially considering that almost every one of those systems made before the Atari 2600 were pong or a very small variation of pong. Just how many times did people before my time buy "pong" and "pong with smaller paddles" and "pong with faster balls" over and over again? Damn...
  • mobislink, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Fond memories of having many of those systems all the way back to pong. The Sega CD was pretty fun to play. I particularly liked Ecco the Dolphin.
  • thesimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1how many ***** Magnavox Odysseys were there :/
  • Steve95613, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1First console I ever played was the Magnavox Odyssey 2.
    Now lets detour this trip down Memory Lane.

    I know its already been said, but,
    No Amiga CD32...
  • crossers, on 07/23/2008, -0/+0XaviXPORT was surprise to me, cause I have never heard about this.

    http://www.shpe-sac.org
    http://www.ocflex.com/
    http://www.trgovinca.org
    http://www.chasr.org/
  •  

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