Play through over five decades of home and portable gaming consoles where you’ll experience the complete timeline of mainstream video game consoles in the living room with a variety of titles that highlight the major titles and deep cuts of each platform.
From early PONG clones to the advent of Atari, to the Nintendo vs Sega 16-bit wars and the rise of Playstation and XBOX, players will gain an appreciation for how gaming became a major part of our daily lives and a permanent place in our homes.
The first true leading game platform, The Atari 2600 made Atari a staple in the living room. While not the first, the 2600 made swappable cartridges the norm and the concept of developing an expanding software library based on one microprocessor-based platform. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Asteroids could now all be playable right at home thanks to the 2600.
The Coleco Telstar was the first series of game consoles to solidify game consoles' place in the living room. Produced from 1976 to 1978, the Coleco Telstar initially launched with built-in games of hockey, handball, and tennis.
The NES is the platform that single-handedly saved the gaming industry while simultaneously making video games a pop-cultural zeitgeist. While indeed the NES introduced the world to most of the modern concepts of gaming we're more familiar today such as 2-D platformers, RPGs, and adventure games, the Nintendo Entertainment System's place in history is more for its means of getting videogames accepted into the mainstream. Super Mario Bros., Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Kirby's Adventure, Ninja Gaiden - it all started here on the NES and gaming history would never be the same again.
Introduced in 1985 with their first title "Bowling," the Tiger Electronics brand of LCD handhelds would become known as the cheap, alternative solution for gaming on the go. Much simplified and limited in gameplay mechanics than their home console or even Nintendo/Sega handheld counterparts, Tiger Electronics' licensed games represent the halcyon days of 80s and early 90s gaming. Despite their simple designs, Tiger Electronics brought some of gaming's biggest franchises to the platform including Sonic 3, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Castlevania, Mario Bros, and a slew of licensed cartoons featuring Thundercats, Transformers, G.I. Joe and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The Master System was an 8-bit third-generation home video game console originally remodeled from the Sega Mark III in Japan. Containing an Zilog Z80A processor at 3.58 MHz, the Master System contained more horsepower than that of the NES but lacked the wealth of third-party support. Nonetheless, the platform enjoyed a more fruitful lifespan outside of America, hosting ports all the way to Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 3. Scaled-back arcade ports aside, the platform was home to the beginnings of Sega's iconic franchises including Phantasy Star, Hang-On, Sonic, Alex Kidd, and Shinobi, as well fan-favorites Penguin Land, Alf, and an incredible version of R-Type.
The system that put Sega on the map as a household name in America was based on their System 16 arcade board, centered on a Motorola 68000 processor, a Zilog Z80 chip for a distinct sound controller. Popularizing the term "blast processing," the Sega Genesis was capable of fast sprite scaling that set it apart from the competition. With a library that featured the rise of Sonic The Hedgehog along with the genre-defining titles of the 90s in Streets of Rage 2, Castlevania Bloodlines, and Disney's Aladdin, the Genesis was force to be reckoned with in the 16-bit wars.
Woefully underpowered and with only monochrome colored graphics, the Nintendo Gameboy proved it's not about hardware specs, but intuitiveness and software that gets players to come. Sporting a Sharp LR35902 core at 4.19 MHz, the Nintendo Gameboy immediately stormed out of the gate to be a commercial success thanks to possibly the greatest pack-in game of all time - TETRIS. Combined with a simple but familiar two-button interface, ample battery life, and better portability over its more powerful handheld peers, the Nintendo Gameboy would maintain dominance in the market for more than a decade. Amongst its iconic library included early gems as Gargoyle's Quest, Tennis, and Super Mario Land, but also the introduction to modern mainstays such as Kirby and Dr. Mario. Even when its lifespan would seemingly be near its end in the late 90s, the Gameboy would introduce arguably Nintendo's biggest money-maker - Pokemon. Even from a technical standpoint, the Gameboy would also impress with a suite of unique accessories including a sewing machine, a fishing sensor, and the first ever digital selfie camera.
The Super Nintendo further solidified Nintendo's place in videogame dominance and established new techniques in visual fidelity with its introduction of "Mode 7" graphics to create pseudo 3-D effects. The SNES was able to pump the most iconic retro games of all time including Super Mario World, F-Zero, Megaman X, Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, and Earthbound. With the use of cartridge-based chipsets, the SNES' horsepower was further maximized to push larger sprites, improved scaling, and polygonal rendering to produce games such as Star Fox, Doom, and a near-impossible port of Street Fighter Alpha 2. With a near endless library of gems, it's no wonder the SNES is fondly remembered as one of the greatest systems of all time.
With a 16-bit 68000 chip combined with an 8-bit Z80 co-processor, and a a 24-bit graphics data bus, the Neo GEO AES was for the time, the world's most powerful home console. Carrying the same hardware as that of it's arcade equivalent, the Neo Geo MVS, the Neo Geo AES was the Rolls Royce of gaming consoles with arcade-perfect ports of SNK's hit series Fatal Fury, King Of Fighters, Samurai Shodown amongst many.
When it came to introducing the heralded "Next Generation" of gaming, the Real 3DO was the first to arrive in North America, ushering a new wave of 3-D graphics, CD-ROM technology, and more advanced gameplay. Utilizing a 32-bit custom ARM CPU at 12.5 MHz, the 3DO was capable of touting 3D polygonal graphics at respectable frame rates for the time. While the platform was heavy on FMV games, it is notable for introducing the Need for Speed series, solid SNK ports, the introduction of their pseudo-mascot Gex, and mature storyline titles.
Meant to be a more affordable solution for gamers wanting to get in on the rise of "Next-Gen" gaming in the mid-90s by upgrading their existing Sega Genesis, The 32X would add more advanced 3-D capability to the aging 16-bit hardware. Containing two Hitachi SH-2 32-bit RISC processors at 23 MHz, the 32X run data 40 times faster than a stand-alone Genesis and render an impressive 50,000 polygons per second. While critics at the time panned the add-on, the platform provided exceptional ports of arcade titles T-Mek, Mortal Kombat 2, NBA JAM Tournament Edition, and more remarkable, faithful ports to Sega Model 1 arcade titles such as Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Racing, and Virtua Fighter.
Complex in architecture and over-designed in hardware, the Sega Saturn was both a 2-D powerhouse and an adequate 3-D processor. Containing a dual-CPU architecture and eight processors, the Sega Saturn posed difficulty for developers but when harnessed properly, could churn out some of the finest titles of the generation including a technical marvel of a port of Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop, and Virtual On. Its 2-D library was second to none including X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Vampire Savior and its arcade ports from the Sega ST-V board were nothing short of stellar including Die Hard Arcade, Radiant Silvergun, and Astra Superstars. Not to mention, a slew of golden gems still only exclusive to the Saturn to this day such as Burning Rangers and Panzer Dragoon Saga.
While the Virtual Boy was panned for its red-color palette, the portable tabletop platform was notable for one of the first commercial uses of dedicated "3-D" gaming. Containing an NEC V810 20 MHz chipset, the Virtual Boy's processing power was focused on providing an unparalleled experience of depth for the time. Most of the platform's library made use of the system's ability to separate levels of 2-D planes, which is best utilized by the titles Wario Land, Mario Tennis, and Golf. While the platform never had a two-player connection cable released, the console is displayed at LI Retro with the first ever two-player setup on the homebrew title Hyper Fighting.
Whereas the Atari 2600 solidified gaming at home and the NES established videogames as a pop culture zeitgeist, the Sony Playstation is accredited with being the genesis for gaming to "grow up." The Sony Playstation with its R3000 chip running at 33.8688 MHz, took the gaming world by storm with a stellar library of arcade ports and original titles that best took advantage of the platform's 3D capabilities. Crash Bandacoot, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Finak Fantasy 7, Tekken, and Resident Evil are only a sample of the highlighted franchises that first got their start on the Playstation
No other system is as symbolic of the Gen-x and Millennial generations than the N64. Sporting a 64-bit NEC VR4300 CPU at clock rate of 93.75 MHz and a performance of 125 MIPS, the previously named "Ultra 64," introduced to the world some of the most iconic games of all time including Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Mario Kart 64, the original Super Smash Brothers and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Aided by strong second-party support from RARE that would also add Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing and Goldeneye 007 to the N64's library, the platform would become ubiquitous with the terms "split-screen multiplayer." The N64 would also be the first console to establish analog controls out of the gate, and posses the ability to have resolution modes up to 480p. While the perception of the platform was often conveyed as the system for "kids," the Nintendo 64 was a polygon-pushing beast that had more than the chops to provide developers the ability to create deep gameplay mechanics not bounded by technical limitations. More than 25 years later, the N64 library has aged incredibly well and despite coming second in sales to the Playstation, its legacy is firmly cemented within the memories of gamers both hardcore and casual.
For what was to be Sega's final home console hurrah, they surely pulled out all the stops. Running a two-way 360 MIPS superscalar Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC, clocked at 200MHz and a 128-bit graphics-oriented floating-point unit delivering 1.4 GFLOPS, the Dreamcast (originally codenamed Project Kitana), could draw more than 3 million polygons per second, producing mesmerizing graphics. The Dreamcast was the truly the first system to materialize "better than arcade perfect" ports as evident by launch titles Soul Calibur, House of the Dead 2, and Hydro Thunder. Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast revolutionized the industry with its natively-built online capabilities bringing MMORPGs to home consoles for the first time in Phantasy Star Online, voice-operated gameplay with the title Seaman, cell-shaded graphics with Jet Grind Radio, and the introduction of 2K series of sports titles, featuring the now dominant NBA 2K franchise. The Dreamcast's legacy forever remains one of the greatest and most-beloved consoles of all time.
