The Console Story

With the hype about the ‘Next Generation’ consoles reaching it’s height with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3 (but not here obviously) on the run up to Christmas, I thought it would be a good time to look back and see just how we got to the stage where games generate more revenue than Hollywood and the launch of a new games console is significant enough to make headline news in mainstream media. So lets start at the beginning.

The 1st Generation - 1972: A Console Odyssey

The first games console was released in 1972, it was called the Magnavox Odyssey and was quite primitive, using screen overlays to give colour and definition to it’s extremely rudimentary graphics. The actual electronics of the console used no ICs (Integrated Circuits, aka chips), instead it used discrete logic circuits which interfaced with analogue circuitry which displayed the graphics. The games consisted of a card which plugged into the console and a corresponding screen overlay. The Odyssey had a monopoly until 1975 when Atari created a home version of their popular arcade tennis game PONG, which was the first truly big success story in video gaming and like most successful products the market was soon swamped with clones of PONG which often offered more game modes, sometimes more games.

The 2nd Generation - The arrival of ROM

The 2nd generation of consoles was defined by the innovation of using true ROM cartridges to store games on, rather than changing variables in the console using cards or switches. This, allied to more sophisticated hardware allowed for a greater variety of games. The most successful games console of the period was the Atari VCS (later known as the 2600) for which Atari initially published a variety of very playable conversions of their most successful arcade games as well as converting arcade games from other companies such as Space Invaders. The quality of the games made the VCS very successful and Atari very profitable, so profitable that Time-Warner wanted a piece of the action and bought Atari a move that made Atari’s founders very wealthy but would ultimately mark Atari’s high point. The end of the 2nd generation was marked by what has come to be known as the video game crash of 1983. Home console technology had remained static whilst home computer technology had evolved to a much higher standard and when Commodore launched the C64 they stormed the market with a computer that was powerful and cheap for its era and for a while the console market was as good as dead.

The 3rd Generation - The console reborn in the land of the rising sun

With the American console business in tatters after the crash of 1983 the Console industry was revived, but this time the main players were the Japanese. The Nintendo Famicom (known as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES in the west) was a revelation, using High resolution graphics, full colour, sprites, good sound and bigger cartridges which allowed for bigger and more complex games. This console was a massive hit in Japan and then made it big in America when it was released there 2 years later. Sega, another Japanese company, entered the market with the Master System, which although more technically capable than the NES it couldn’t compete with it in either the Japanese or North American market but did sell well in Europe where the NES never matched it’s Japanese and American success.

The 4th Generation - 16 bits and add-ons

Until the 4th generation consoles were typically based on 8 bit processors which dated from the late 70s. The 4th generation saw consoles go 16 bit and this time it was Sega that took the lead, releasing the Megadrive (known as Genesis in North America) in 1990. The Megadrive showcased many conversions of Sega’s successful arcade games, such as Golden Axe, Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, Outrun etc. The 16 bit consoles were considerably more powerful than their 8 bit forbears and capable of producing effects previously unseen in console games, opening up the scope for game design. Nintendo were quite late to the party with the sequel to the all conquering NES and suffered as a result as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System couldn’t hope to match the market share that the NES had at it’s height, even though the SNES was technically very capable. The 4th generation was a time of much innovation with add-ons such as the 32X & Mega CD for the Sega Megadrive, the former enhancing performance by using 32 bit processing, the latter allowing the use of full motion video in games as well as giving more space to create ever bigger games. Interestingly Nintendo was in advanced negotiations with 2 companies about a CD add-on for the SNES, Sony and Philips. The negotiations broke down when Sony realised that they were working with another manufacturer as well as themselves, this resulted in Sony going it alone.

The 5th generation - Consoles go 3D & CD

The first 5th generation consoles were the cartridge based Atari Jaguar and CD based 3DO (manufactured predominantly by Goldstar and Panasonic), both of which made their respective debuts at the end of 1993. The Jaguar sold more units than the 3DO but neither had lasting appeal, the Jaguar being dogged by it being difficult to develop for and containing various bugs, the 3DO was very expensive and lacked 3rd party support, plus many of the games were of low quality. These early 5th generation consoles were eclipsed by the arrival in late 1994 (Japan) of 2 new CD based consoles, the first was the Sega Saturn and a few weeks later the Sony Playstation was launched. The Saturn was well received as Sega at the time were the main player in the business following the success of the Megadrive, but as soon as the Playstation was launched it became apparent that the Sony console was a vision of the future. The product was sleek and very well marketed and for the time had excellent 3D capabilities. The Saturn on the other hand was quite bulky, reportedly had some hardware problems and was difficult to program for. Another thing that didn’t help the Saturn is that it was optimised around 2D gaming, infact its an excellent console when only using 2D graphics, but in the era of 3D it was a little lacking and featured some perculiarities, such as rendering 3D in quads rather than polygons. Again late to the party were Nintento in 1996 with their N64, touting 64 bit processing but still based on cartridges thanks to their earlier negotiations falling through. This console had some good games made for it but it suffered from a lack of 3rd party support and the expense of it’s cartridge based games. By the end of the 90’s the Sega Saturn was dead, the Playstation reigned supreme with the N64 carving out its own niche.