Frist the 1972-1980s
First the Magnavox's Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey was the first video game console, it was released in 1972, but conceived by Ralph H. Baer in 1966.
The Odyssey offered a ping-pong style like game. The Odyssey was the grandfather of many video gaming consoles and if it wasn't made the era of entertainment consoles offer would have happened much later or just never happened.Next the Atari home pong, the next down the line of consoles we have enjoyed
The next game console down are list is the Coleco Telstar, released in 1976
Like most of the consoles in this generation they are mostly made to just play pong. There were tons of of consoles released by Coleco in this period and all of them were basically the same.
Now the next generation of the consoles here, the second generation, the consoles of the 1976-1992s
The Fairchild Channel F starts this Gen off, being released in 1976
The Fairchild was the first game console to not have built in games and use ROM cartridges instead. The Fairchild had 22 game and would in later years release more versions of their console.
The next down the line of video game consoles is the Atari 2600 released in 1977
The Atari followed after the Fairchild and started using ROM cartridges, which will be what is the main use in most of the upcoming consoles. The Atari 2600 was made to make a console that keep up with continuing evolution in society, it's most popular game was pac-man.
The next console is the Magnavox Odyssey 2, released in 1978
The Odyessy 2 was released as a succesor to the Odyessy 1 (the first console made) and one of its strongest selling points was an addon that was made to enance speech, sound, and soud effects of games played on the console.
The next console in this line up is the intellivision, it was released in 1979
The Intellivision was a console that was made to hopefully have rich graphics and long-lasting gameplay so that it could be different from the rest of the crowd. The Intellivision was ranked number 14 in the worlds greatest video game consoles by IGN and also was the first to pose a serious threat to the current market leader of this time period.
The next console to be introduced is the Coleco Vision, released in 1982
The Coleco offered a closer experience to arcade games then the competitors at this time. The Coleco had a lot of good stuff to it like it being able to play the first home version of Nintendo Donkey kong (not the last time you'll here Nintendo in this experience) and also an addon that let people use atari cartridges in their Coleco.
Now the thrid generation, the generation of consoles that fills the 1983-2003s
The next console to show up is the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in 1985
The NES put Nintendo on the board of video game consoles. The NES helped the American gaming industry after the video game crash of 1983. The NES also has an achievement of pioneering a bussiness standard that is having third party developers develp their games.
The next gaming console to be put out is the Sega Master System, released in 1986
The Master System was released to compete with the NES and even though it was unable to rise above the NES in North America it was able to do so in over countries.
The next game console to be introduced in this generation is the Atari 7800, released in 1986 after the Atari 5600 which was released after the Atari 2600
The 7600 made as a succesor to the 5200 and the 2600 and was one of the first consoles to be able to use cartridges from older consoles. The 7600 was designed by an outside company and then devolped in 1983 but was still being developed in 1984.
The next Generation of consoles in this line up is the fourth generation which has the years 1987-2004
The first console of this generation is the TurboGrafx-16, released in 1989
The TurboGrafx-16 was marketed as being a 16-platform but actually had a 8-bit cpu and was kind of criticized of false marketing. The TurboGrafx-16 was popluar in Japan where it was originally released, but in America it was not very popluar for a variety of reasons.
The next console of the fourth generation is the Sega Genesis, released in 1989
The Sega Genesis was very popular in North America and it game libary was a big contributor to its success. One of the big hits on the Genesis was Sonic the hedgehog. The Genesis was also apart of what is known as the console wars.
The next big hit in this generation is the Neo Geo, released in 1990
The Neo Geo was both an arcade system and a home game console. Its arcade system had the ablity to switch between 6 different game cartridges. The Neo Geo was a very powerful system for its time and that did help with its success.
The next game console down the line is the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1991
The Super NES introduced advance graphics and sound capabilities. The Super NES was a big hit even though it arrived late to the fourth generation. The Super NES was the best seller of the fourth generation and for the rest of the fourth generation it would stay that way. The Super NES is the console that started the console wars which will continue for a good while.
Now the fifth generation of consoles, the 1993-2006s
The first of this gen is the 3DO, released in 1993
The 3DO at release was highly marketed but mixed reviews of the system and the console market at the time being oversaturated caused its down fall.
The next console to be released is the Atari Jaguar, released in 1993
The Jaguar supposly had a 64-bit rate but in actuality it did not. The game that was released with it had mixed reviwes and the console its self had a lot of hardware bugs and issues and all together was not that good. The faill of the Jaguar prompted Atari to leave the console game for good.
The next console is the Sega Saturn, released in 1995
The Saturn was succesful in Japan where it released. In North America the Satrun was not as adored as it was in Japan. The reasons for its failure was it being launched four months before its shecduled release date and the Nintendo 64 launch in 1996 also hindered it.
The next console released is the Playstation (PS), released in 1995
The PS had a big emphasis on 3D polygon graphics when being made. The PS also started the transistion from cartidges to compact discs. The PS sold very well and a reason for its succes was the amount of games the title had to its name.
The next big title of this generation is the Nintendo 64 (N64), released in 1996
The N64 was over all a good console it had good graphics and 3D quality for its time, its game selction was good, and it was nammed the ninth greatest console of all time by IGN. It was also the last Nintendo console to use game cartridges for the time being.
Now the sixth generation of consoles, the 1998- 2013s
The first console of this generation is the Dreamcast, released in 1999
The Dreamcast started off good it was the first to have internet access and online play, you could port PC games to it, and it sold good in North America. But that high life would quickly start to decline because of the anticpated release of the PS2 and limited thrid-party support, and all of this caused Sega's reputation to go down and Sega would pull out of the console game and would stableize its self as a thrid-party developer.
Now the next console in the sixth generation is the Playstation 2 (PS2), released in the ripe year of 2000
The PS2 was the biggest selling console of all time and also had a processor said to be more powerful than a PC'S. The PS2 aslo had its big and great game selection and ability to play older games to thank for its success. The PS2 just proved that Sony has created one of the greatest game console series.
The next big game console is the Nintendo Gamecube, released in 2001
The Gamecube was the first Nintendo console to use discs instead of ROM cartridges. The Gamecube was made solely focused on gaming and was beloved for its game selection and controller, it also had online capabilities.
The last big hit console of this gen is the Xbox, released in 2001
The Xbox had a lot of stuff to thank for its success, some of those are the Xbox being tecnially more powerful then its rivals, it having a built in hard disk and a ethernet port to connect to the internet, and Xbox live and its game selection.
Now that we've made it this far the layout will change up a bit. The next stuff will be comprived of gens 7,8,and 9 and have a section about Nintendo's console, Xbox's consoles, and Sony's consoles.
Frist the Nintendo section
Their were 3 main releases for them in this time which were the Wii (2006), Wii U (2012), and the Nintendo Switch (2017). The Wii had focus on better gameplay which was different from Sony and Xbox. The Wii also had its remotes which had motion sensors something not seen that much yet. The Wii also had a great game selection. The Wii U had a good amount of accomplishments like being the first Nintendo console to support HD graphics, its intergrated social networking service, and its ablity to use prior controllers. The Nintendo Switch is what we have today for Nintendo's console and is a very good one. Reason for the Switch being good are it being a hybrid console, it being able to have digital games and physical games which are back in flash-based cartidges, and the fact that is has keeped up with Xbox and Sony all these years. All of Nintendos consoles have been backwards compatable in some way.
Next up is Xbox which 3 consoles, the xbox 360 (2005), the xbox one (2013), and the xbox series X and S (2020)
I can really talk about all of these consoles together becuase they all have a lot in common. They all have xbox live, they all have a store to digitaly buy and download games, moives, shows, and music, they all have good graphics, and they all continue to help entertain us till this very day.
Finally the last of the consoles, the Playstations made by Sony. The consoles in this line up are PS 3 (2006), PS4 (2013), and the PS5 (2020)
The PS's are really the main competitor and do basically the same thing except with their own online service Playstation plus.