We have lived with video games for practically 50 years. Since the early 70s of the last century, the world has progressively seen small steps in the world of electronic entertainment that have taken us from those old Pong of home consoles, to the ray tracings that our current PS5 and Xbox Series X boast. In between, up to eight generations that have filled the leisure and entertainment time of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
An almost newborn phenomenon
Talking about the historiography of videogames is daring because today there are few conventions on how to separate each of the different eras. In what does seem to be more consensus is in differentiating generations based on similar hardware that was arriving with each new machine. That, in the last 20 years, It has been quite simple thanks to the atomization of the companies that continue to launch consoles, although throughout the 70s, 80s and a good part of the 90s, that distinction becomes hazy due to the endless number of companies that tried their luck in this sector
So if you think We are going to review all those generations of consoles that came to our homes over the last five decades and that left us with an unmistakable stamp that, over the decades, have shaped an industrial sector that currently bills as much worldwide as music or cinema . Something that has only been possible due to the almost unhealthy need of companies to always go one step further, and offer users ever more complete and real experiences. So fasten your seatbelts, we're going around the world for the history of all generations of video game consoles.
First generation (1972-1983)
Those early consoles were the product of research and development that took place in the 60s and even the 50s, when some advanced in their time managed to create interactive systems in televisions that were the embryo of what we would later know as Pong. Some sticks that the player could move around the screen and hit a point that moved from one side to the other to get a point when it exceeded any of the sides of the screen. And the first of all these attempts led Magnavox (Philips in Europe) to get hold of the concept developed by one of the fathers of video games, Ralph Baer.
Magnavox Odyssey
On that first machine, the Odyssey, designed a shell for the console, added internal components With the supervision of the original creators, the ability to display color was limited, leaving only those classic black and white so characteristic and two controllers were connected with the ability to move those sticks around the screen, up and down or from one side to the other ( depending on the game). When everything was finished, its creators set a release date for what we can consider to be the first home console in history. Which happened, in the US, in September 1972.
That first generation suffered from a serious problem because as it became popular in many parts of the world, what were known at the time as clones emerged, manufacturers who took the idea of those first machines and replicated them in series adding their own casing and trademark, which saturated the market with an infinite number of variants, models and video games that suddenly filled many stores of what, in those times, came to be known in Spain as confiscation establishments.
Pong
In (practically) all of those models we had a game of tennis, variants for up to four players with soccer fields with goals on both sides and even very rudimentary optical rifle shooting developments, but which worked perfectly and with amazing precision for The time. They were so limited that in competitive games against each other, the only way to keep the score achieved by each of the contenders was with a piece of paper and a pen, since there were no digital markers as such. The consoles, at least in that beginning, had enough to show certain interactive elements on the screen.
coleco telstar
This first generation of consoles were called dedicated consoles, since the hardware of that time was created to run a single game, and with luck, two or three more in the same memory. Cartridges did not exist, and if they wanted to offer another game, they simply launched a different console. This is what happened with the Coleco Telstar series, which launched a large number of versions between 1976 and 1977, offering variations of games such as Tennis, Hockey, Soccer, Basketball, Handball, Pinball and many others.
Second generation (1978-1992)
Video games take a leap in quality and machines arrive that, saving the distance, mark the beginning of a way of building consoles around components that we all know. It is the time of the inclusion of chips from brands such as Zilog (with its Z80), Intel, Fairchild, Motorola, etc., which have a power of between 1,5 and 3Mhz., that is, the prehistory of computing. Anyway, It is at this moment when the color begins to reach the screens of video games, without templates to place on the television and even markers to score points. The first sound effects and melodies are also heard, adapted to what is happening on the screen as well as custom graphics to show us cowboys, Formula 1 cars and even spaceships.
Atari 2600
The console that led this generation was, without a doubt, the Atari 2600, which was discontinued in 1992 after selling just over 30 million units. Surely this generation would have already died long before, in the mid-80s, but its permanence in stores justifies that this second generation last so long. Keep in mind that during this period the world will see the birth of the first 8-bit consoles and the rise and fall of microcomputers focused on video games such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC or MSX.
Still, the Atari 2600 will have important competitors, above all in terms of video games, such as CBS Colecovision, with its extraordinarily advanced cartridges, Intellivision, Vectrex (portable) from MB Juegos or Philips Videopac (Odyssey 2 in the US), heir to that first video game console. the 70s. It is at this time when the first developer companies appear and one of them, the first external one that did not belong to any of the so-called cookiesIt's Activision. The North Americans, arisen from the split of a series of programmers from Atari itself, began a journey of successes that continues to this day. Or do you not remember a certain Pitfall?
ColecoVision
Launched in 1982, it did not reach Europe until the following year. It had more potential than its Atari 2600 and Intellivision rivals and brought the arcade experience of the day even closer. Such were his intentions that among the 12 games included in his ROM was the first domestic version of Donkey Kong (a Nintendo title only present in arcades). It had special accessories and controllers, but with 2 million units sold it ended up disappearing in 1985 when Coleco withdrew from the video game market.
Intellivision
Created by the toy company Mattel, its name hides the daring compound “Intelligent Television”. They managed to sell 3 million units thanks to the experience of Mattel's commercials, but also because of its attractive potential.
FairChild Channel F
The interesting thing about this console regarding the history of video games is that it was the first to have a microprocessor and use ROM cartridges instead of having them pre-installed. A total of 27 different cartridges were released, but they weren't enough to convince, as the console sold no more than 350.000 units.
Atari 5200
It was the answer to ColecoVision. In Atari they put their batteries to be able to offer an entertainment option that could take away the role of the Coleco machine (CBS Electronics in Europe). Atari's bet was to include Super Breakout to fight the interest generated by Donkey Kong in Colevo's offer. The included controllers featured a joystick and number pad, and later also released a track ball for games like Centipede and Missile Command.
In these times, the US market rules, Although there was a time when the industry went bankrupt due to the saturation of games in stores and impossible expectations that led many companies to disappear. That crash at the end of 1983 had as an unexpected protagonist the cartridge of ET the alien, which has since been treated by many as the worst video game in history. Something that today many already question.
Third generation (1983-2003)
Is it possible for a console generation to have lasted two decades? Well, this has an explanation and it is that It wasn't until September 2003 that Nintendo discontinued manufacturing of the NES. officially in Japan. Obviously, its useful life and the development of games had already ended long before, so we could set the end of that generation around 1995. It must be said that this is the first generation of consoles that begin to be known by the number of bits of their processors (eight in this case) and both NES and Master System attend to that way of defining them.
In any case, this third generation was able to start a little earlier thanks to the launch of two Japanese consoles, which are the companies that took over from the American ones after the crash of 1983. These are the Famicon and the SG-1000 from SEGA. The first was recognized worldwide as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the second as the embryo of what we would later know in our country as the Master System.
Atari, however, tried to continue in the market with the successor to the Atari 2600. Its name was Atari 7800 and, in addition to being compatible with the cartridges of the original console, It launched a good catalog with titles from important companies of the time, such as Activision, Parker and, of course, the company's own studios. Even so, nothing could be done in the face of the strength of the Japanese who managed to capture the market and begin a worldwide expansion that would become more evident in the following decade of the 90s. NES reached 61 million consoles sold, Master System brushed 20 and Atari could barely make a million. Far behind were other machines such as the Philips Videopac+ or the Amstrad GX4000, which was basically an Amstrad CPC microcomputer with a cartridge slot.
in this generation video games are more complex, with much larger maps, The mechanics and graphics advance and offer much more advanced effects that allow wonders such as the sagas of The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Sonic, etc These consoles were, in a way, the ones that laid the foundations of the industry as we know it today.
During this generation, Atari did not stand still and wanted to regain its throne after the ravages of the sensational CBS Colecovision but, above all, the Japanese arrival of the NES and Master System. Atari 7800 had a first release in 1984 but it did not materialize or reach the figures expected by the company, which decided to make a new attempt two years later, in 1986. Even so, It did not serve to take off the flight, much less face its competitors and proof of this is that its catalog of cartridges expressly developed for its hardware (because it was compatible with the Atari 3600) barely reached 59 titles.
Fourth generation (1987-1999)
Also known as 16-bit consoles, it's time for the explosion around the world with a quantum leap in the quality of games thanks to first-rate technological additions. Not only do they increase the capacity and speed of the machines' processors, but also their color palette and the perfection of their audio section. Practically In general, the cartridge is maintained as a format to publish the games and the new consignment of consoles debuted in 1987 with one of the most remembered models: the NEC Turbografx 16.
It will be shortly after, at the end of the decade, when SEGA decides to launch the successor to Master System, a Mega Drive that will land in 1988 with the mission of bringing recreational games to our house. The result of this intention would come superb adaptations of his Altered Beast o Golden Ax. In 1991 it will have a Sonic under the arm while Nintendo continues to succeed across the planet with NES. Even so, he soon realized the small disadvantage he had and, at the end of 1990, he put his new console, Super Nintendo, on the market, with better hardware than its competition but with the drawback of the time it had taken to react.
The new laptops that hit the market also belong to this generation to open an industry that had not had other references up to that moment than those of Nintendo itself, with its Game & Watch. Game Boy, Master System or Atari Lynx are still consoles with 8-bit hardware, but their appearance together with the 16-inch models at the same moment classify them within this new wave of models that fragmented the market and forced many publishers to having to develop versions for all commercialized platforms.
An effort that would land many in serious trouble. It is in these times when giants that had already been succeeding such as Konami (now in decline), Capcom, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Codemasters, etc., which are still at the foot of the canyon developing all kinds of games, are consolidated.
The generation concluded with SNES reaching sales of nearly 50 million units, Mega Drive reaching 40 and Turbografx 16 staying at just 10. Other remembered consoles from that time, such as the famous SNK Neo Geo, barely reached 400.000 worldwide. A figure to take into account for a very, very expensive machine and that, yes, brought the experience of arcades to our home without losing an iota of its quality.
Fifth generation (1994-2002)
We have reached one of the industry's inflection points. The 32-bit console generation is one of the most important because introduces three dimensions for the first time. It is from this moment that we begin to talk about 3D environments, graphics engines, polygons, textures and lighting effects. And all this happens in the heat of a good bunch of models that tried to take the first place of the best sellers. It is the generation of PlayStation (above all), but also of Saturn, Nintendo 64, 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Nec's PC-FX, and of course that SEGA spawn called the 32X for your Mega Drive.
The battle began very soon, with Saturn and PlayStation coming to market in 1994. The first was done after the continued successes of the Japanese since the Master System in the mid-80s and the second, after the resounding failure of that MSX standard that never succeeded as it deserved. So things were looking pretty much in Sega's favor until the games started arriving. Ridge racer, Tekken and all that first batch of titles managed to win over arcade conversions like Sega Rally, Virtua cop, Virtua Fighter, etc.
Nintendo 64, in 1996, could barely contain the success of Sony and it became a console between the wars that barely had an extensive catalog like that of its main rival, a PSX that began a path of success that lasts to this day, with millions of players returning to what was their preferred mode of entertainment. in the previous decade, when 8-bit microcomputers.
Apart from PSX, 3Do tried to gain a foothold with the close collaboration of Electronic Arts; Jaguar was advertised as a 64-bit machine but its technical limitations and cartridge format barely allowed it to even compete, let alone with its CD accessory. Like PC-FX, it never left Japan and Nec decided to pursue other things leaving the video game industry behind. In terms of laptops, It's time for the Virtual Boy to fail and the proliferation of models that seek to compete against the Game Boy. SNK's Neo Geo Pocket (normal and color), Bandai's Wonderswan and other gadgets such as Tiger's Game.com or Sony's PocketStation, which is more a Tamagotchi than anything else, are born.
Sixth generation (1998-2013)
With the sixth wave of consoles the industry begins to concentrate, bets from brands outside the traditional ones in the market stop appearing and Sony is consolidated as the main rival to beat. Qualifiers such as 64 or 128 bits end up being used to refer to these machines and Sega desperately tries again before throwing in the towel and focusing on software development instead of hardware. Anyway, in 1998 we see the launch of the Dreamcast, the one that is for many the best machine of Sonic's parents, and which was not given the opportunity to succeed due to the huge success that PlayStation still enjoyed when it hit the stores.
The developers, haunted by the success of PSX, blindly trusted PS2 when it landed in stores in the year 2000, despite the fact that programming for her was a real ordeal. Even so, it became practically the only successful machine of the time since Nintendo, still extending the life of its Nintendo 64, did not counterattack until 2002 with the release of the GameCube: the company's first desktop console with disk format (mini) and that did not reach the numbers that the Japanese expected.
This generation is the moment in which Miyamoto's decide to change their definition of what success is: not so much the number of machines sold but the profitability they obtained from all their operations. The distance that Sony got was abysmal, beating all the sales figures seen up to that moment and with such a long life that it saw its last game arrive in 2013 with the launch of FIFA 14 coins.
Before, in 2001, Microsoft makes the leap to the console market (after years on PC) with Xbox, a machine that was essentially a PC compressed into a smaller space and that serves as the first shot for what will come later. It is not a resounding success, but it helps the entire sector to begin to take it into account in the following years and to take seriously the commitment of those from Redmond in an industry that was already showing its first appearances within sectors such as multiplayer gaming through Internet.
In the field of laptops, Nintendo continues to lead by launching its new Game Boy Advance, which has a hardware power equivalent to that of the old Super Nintendo and a whole catalog of competitors appear that are still mere anecdotes: Nokia's N-Gage, Neo Geo Pocket, etc. PS2 reached 160 million machines sold, Xbox reached 24, GameCube a little more than 21 and Dreamcast only 10.
Seventh generation (2005-2015)
Undoubtedly we are before what we can consider as the generation that sets the standards of graphic quality that still remains today, with certain more than evident advances, but the leap in performance of this generation left those seen on PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast and GameCube far behind.
Microsoft, aware of the disadvantage it brought from its previous original Xbox, ran to have its bet on the future as soon as possible. The result was Xbox 360, a solid machine in its hardware., very competitive, cheaper than PS3 and that had the support of an industry that was already seeing the success of Sony with some resentment. Its market share with PS2, much higher than that achieved with PSX, moved many industry leaders to support a counterweight to avoid monopolies that are always harmful to innovation.
The result is that PS3 arrived later and at an exorbitant price of about 600 euros, and they were seen and desired from the beginning to sell more than their competition. At the end of the generation, Microsoft achieved better figures with a very small margin, but it won. While Xbox 360 came to sell 91 million machines worldwide, Sony's console was just below 90. A technical tie that, unfortunately for Microsoft, was broken with the next generation.
Special mention deserves what happened with Nintendo. After not reaching goals with GameCube and chaining two generations in a row in which the Japanese brand was not decisive (yes, influential), In 2006 the Japanese broke the rules with the Wii.: a console with controls that were capable of reproducing movements and that changed the rules of the game, bursting the sales charts and becoming the most successful machine of this seventh generation: at the end of its useful life, around 2012 (approximately), those of Miyamoto reached extraordinary figures by exceeding 101 million units sold.
So influential was the success of the Wii that Microsoft and Sony rushed to replicate that genre casual of games that were controlled with movements and gestures, developing accessories such as the Kinect or the PS Move, respectively, which never managed to come close to the phenomenon created by Nintendo. What's more, in the case of Microsoft, the insistence on Kinect led to a resounding failure for its next console.
Nintendo DS and PSP were two great portables which in the case of Nintendo sold in quantities never seen until that moment. We are in 2004, in one of the sweetest moments of the company that saw how its two bets enjoyed the favor of the most recalcitrant gamers and, also, of millions of users who until then had not considered playing video games. The arrive casual, which will bring huge amounts of profit and income to the Japanese, but also a serious problem when that wave passed by a few years later.
PS, however, it was the first laptop from Sony which launched in December 2004 and it did it causing an impact similar to that of PlayStation 10 years before: quality games, never seen on a machine that we could take on the street and, most importantly, with the support of the main developers: they arrived GTA new, Metal Gear and virtually every successful home console franchise. His problem was piracy, which killed the novelty market as many companies saw their games stop selling and become available to download from the internet the same day they were released. A pity.
Eighth generation (2011-2020)
Nintendo decided to move ahead of its competition and in November 2012 it launched Wii U. A machine that many users did not understand because they did not know if it was a Wii update, or a next-gen really. In reality, the Japanese machine was left in no man's land and from practically the beginning it was clear that there were not many third parties supporting with their franchises. The little power of the console hardly allowed to carry out ports from the new machines that were about to arrive and that drowned their future.
In the field of Microsoft and Sony, for the first time practically in history, the two main contenders in the battle for market leadership arrived at the stores at the same time. With a single week apart, between November 15 and 22, 2013. And the truth is that from day one Sony took advantage because its proposal was solid and cheaper. Microsoft, however, got muddy with Kinect, insisted on keeping it in the box of all its packs and, on top of that, it came with a price 100 euros higher than PS4. Obviously, faced with such an argument, the Redmonds could do little before their bet lost in practically all the territories in which Xbox 360 had surprised in the seventh generation. Nor did the technical evidence help pointed to Xbox One as a significantly inferior machine in terms of graphic power to move some games with the same quality and resolution compared to the Japanese console.
In the field of laptops This generation saw two authentic consoles arrive. On the one hand, PS Vita at the end of 2011, influenced by the smartphone revolution, arrived with hardware somewhere between the power of a PS2 and a PS3, with great games like its particular Uncharted the golden abyss and two touch surfaces, one on the screen and one on the back. In addition, remote gaming became a reality with the arrival of PS4 and had versions with mobile data connectivity for mobile online gaming.
For its part, Nintendo with 3DS opted in 2011 for a 3D console, like the Virtual Boy of the 90s but without the need for glasses to enjoy it. Its catalog of games is very extensive and today items can be purchased in the digital store (until March 2023). Halfway through the generation it received a small hardware update, with the New Nintendo 3DS, the arrival of a USB stick more analog and cartridges that squeezed those possibilities. By the end of his life, Nintendo removed the 3D effect and left the machine cut out under the name Nintendo 2DS.
Although with 3DS (and all its variants) it brought joy to the Japanese by reaching over 75 million units sold. PS Vita, however, fell short of 20 million due to Sony's own erratic policy towards its machine: it barely supported it with truly differential games except in the early days on the market.
Eighth generation… and a half (2016-2020)
We have had doubts about how to treat this milestone in the history of videogames, how it was the first time launch of a middle generation, a revision of the hardware of the machines on the market that multiplied their graphic capacity and that helped to make the virtual reality of the PSVR a little better.
It was in November 2016 when Sony decided to put a much more powerful model in stores capable of reaching 4K resolutions (in this case inflated) that had been banned in the original PS4. The result is an extraordinarily fast machine, which improves the gaming experience compared to the standard versions. This movement also had its response on the side of Microsoft, which reacted a year later with a new model of Xbox One.
The result was Project Scorpio, later known as Xbox One X, a hardware that arrived on November 7, 2017 and that with a more compact size than the original 2013 Xbox One model, it broke all graphics performance records seen up to that time. The shame of this move by Microsoft is that it came when the fate of the generation had already been cast and it could not reverse the enormous difference in sales between the two platforms. On this occasion. we did have true native 4K.
At the end of this eighth generation, PS4 had managed to sell (as of October 2021) more than 116 million consoles while Xbox One barely exceeded 50. Nintendo with Wii U confirmed its failure by not even reaching 14 million machines sold in the years it was available in stores. That they were few.
Ninth generation (2017-202X)
And we come to the present, a time in which we still have Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft fighting to be the best sellers, with a phenomenon that has destroyed the top sales around the world over the last five years. We are referring to Switch which, since March 2017, is the best-selling machine with more than 103 million units. A real outrage that has already left behind practically all the machines that have come to the market.
This generation is the one of the limited units, the stock permanently broken from the same day the new machines were launched (November 2020) and with the unknown of knowing how long the main launches for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will continue to be intergenerational, also for PS4 and Xbox One. So we have little else to say, since history is being written at this very moment.
These new consoles bring ray tracing, a qualitative leap in the conception and development of video games that promises practically photorealistic environments. Therefore, the circle started with the seventh generation and its qualitative leap in the graphic quality of video games is closed. A revolution that we don't know where it will take us and of which we will not be able to say anything until the tenth generation is a complete reality. Or will we also have a novena and a half around the year 2024 or 2025? We will see…
*Opening image from JoshiesWorld