1967
The first video game console for home gaming was known as the "Brown box". It got it's name from the appearance of the console a large, bulky, brown wooden box with 2 controllers wired to it. It was invented by Ralph H. Baer in 1967. There was a total of 6 whole games for this console which include ping-pong, handball, volleyball, chase games, a light gun game a and even tennis. This device was so influential to the video games industry that Ralph was proclaimed "The father of video games".
The popular arcade machine pong was so popular that it was released as a home games console in 1975. The home gaming system known as "Atari Sears Tele-games Pong System" was released this machine had 2 knobs on either side so it could be played cooperatively. This interaction added a small level of a competitive aspect to video games and was a basic 1 on 1 interaction between 2 players, this of course started all kinds of competitive genres and video games in modern day.
1977-1980
The first video game console from Nintendo came between 1979-1980, It was the "Color TV Game series" however they were only on sale in Japan. The console itself plays 6 versions of paddle and ball games similar to pong the six different alterations changed the game in some minor way, it cost around 9800 yen (£52.60 approx). As the name suggests, it was the very first video game console for colour television. The console could be played single player or 2 player co-operative, this is why the 2 knobs were fitted to the device (which Nintendo would later advance to separate controllers). This video games console was rather innovative for Nintendo because this was their first home video game console which they would later go on to create many more. The "Colour TV game series 6" actually lost money with each sale and they would have to bump the price up to 12,000 yen (£64.40) to make profit. Nintendo resolved this by releasing the "Colour TV game series 15" This featuring 9 more games, a much slicker design with detachable controllers as well, this popularized the game pad and most likely influenced the Wireless controller in some way as well.
1983
The NES or "Nintendo Entertainment System" was released on July 15th. This is by far one of Nintendo's biggest hardware successes in a very long time. It sold approximately 62 million units which is only rivaled by the Wii (2010). This home entertainment console was considered the successor to the Colour TV series of consoles. The NES was an extremely iconic console, it had vast improvements to it's predecessor, in fact it was so popular it saved the entire US industry following the fall of Atari in early years. The video games for this console were also boundary pushing and influential, for instance the Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Duck hunt, NES Zapper and by far Nintendo's biggest success The Super Mario bros. The NES Hardware included 2 controller ports and 1 expansion slot. It uses the NES ROM Cartridge and has a 2A03 8-bit Processor. The processor type also links in with the fact the console is a 3rd generation console using 8-Bit technology.
1986
The Atari pro 7800 System was released in 1986 and was Atari's attempt to comeback into the game industry, in a sense Atari's Revival. For this console, Atari asked thousands what they enjoy about video games and what they don't. The Atari 7800 (much like the NES) had an expansion port for later released or expanding hardware maybe even peripherals on the console that Atari could release on top of the Atari 7800. One of the peripherals mentioned was the Laserdisc Interface system which Atari wanted to add to the 7800, however it wasn't that compatible due to all the ports being output and hardly any input ports meaning you would need to it something that would connect the laserdisc to the Atari 7800 this proved a problem for Atari so it was believed to be scrapped. As well as the laserdisc, there was also a computer keyboard plug in for the Atari 7800, this was placed into the second joystick port, it had disk drivers, a printer and even a cassette player. Classic games such as Dig dug, Asteroids and Centipede were available on the Atari 7800.
The super Nintendo entertainment system was the successor to the first NES and is Nintendo's second home video game console, it was also the 2nd international console that Nintendo ever released. It is a 16 Bit "4th generation" console, it still used the ROM Cartridge in order to play media, although a few years later that was set to change. The Super NES in comparison to its predecessor has enhanced graphics, sound systems, a new controller and even more features. The super NES itself was home to a variety of popular games, these include: Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past, Super Metroid and Super Mario world (it's best selling game). This console is definitely not the first to have a hand held controller or game pad, although it did have a D-pad and Letter buttons that some modern day consoles even use in this format now, to this day, the D-pad and Letter buttons are still in the (roughly) the same location for the PS4 and Xbox One. The Super NES did so well, with around 41.4 million sales that it kept up the competition through-out the 32-Bit (Fifth generation) age of consoles competing with Some of SEGA's systems and was still popular even during this era of revolutionary gaming despite some of it's draw backs.
1995
PlayStation
The original PlayStation was released in 1995, this truly shaped the modern standard of video games by its successors the PS2 and the PS3. The PS1 used CD-ROM instead of a media cartridge, it was also one of the first consoles to do so. It had a 2 Memory card unit slots that 2 memory cards could be slotted into, as well as 2 controller inputs. The PlayStation also had the world's first dual analog controller that was released 2 years later than the original controller that didn't have any analog sticks, in addition the PlayStation's controllers also had new dual shock technology which is basically a vibration input to the pad depending on the actions on the screen. For instance in an FPS if you were shot by an enemy the pad would vibrate. The console had a MIPS R-3000A33.868 MHz CPU, due to this it made the fifth generation of the console era (32bit - 64bit primarily 3D games). The PlayStation had the functionality of not just playing games, it could play back audio CD's and this did not require a separate CD-ROM slot, it also had the ability to loop 1 song or an entire selection of songs, it could also shuffle through different songs in the playlist. Later PlayStation models also made use of audio software such as soundcloud, and spotify which players could listen to whilst playing there games. It's safe to say the PS1 was definitely influencial in terms of Sony's success within the industry.
1995
Virtual Boy
The virtual boy was discontinued only 1 year after it's release in 1995, and with good reason. It is known as one of the worst video game consoles of all time and also one of the worst selling. It had a 32-Bit processor the same as the PlayStation, although it struggled to cope because of the dual screen (each eye was set alligned on 1 of 2 screens to show a "3D" effect). As soon as the console was released and tested to the public, people had instant complaints some including: Headaches, it was uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the virtual boy went ahead, with all it's problems, and it's price in the US and Japan originally was $179.95. The system came with an IPD dial which was used to set the distance between the 2 screens. There was a volume control and a headphone slot on the left of the system, on the right of the system there was a controller port and a game link socket to connect 2 virtual boys together but the link cable was never released. It had a ROM cartridge in the back which was actually behind its time.1 month after it's release the price was dropped by $20. Consumers of the virtual boy complained of headaches, nausea and neck strain/ eye strain. The console had 22 game released in total but the best to consumers was "Wario land" Because of it's unique style of gameplay.
2000
The PlayStation 2 was released on march 4th, 2000, it had a very similar style to the original PlayStation. It is a Sixth generation console with a Emotion at 294.912 MHz on launch, however it was updated to a 299 MHz in newer models, it also had 128-Bit capabilities. It has a DVD, CD media slot in the front, 32MB of memory using the RDRAM system. The console also has separate units used for storage, for instance, it has a 8MB Memory card, 1MB PlayStation 1 Memory Cards can also be used so people transfering can transfer some save data, and a 40GB Hard Drive extension so that players can save as many games as possible (40GB was alot of memory space for the PS2 although not limitless it was very good because PS2 games didn't use much memory compared to the later Xbox 360). Sony also added backwards compatibility so that players transfering from the PS1 to the PS2 could not only now carry data, but they can play the games they loved from PS1 on the PS2 with the same save state, this and many other features made the PlayStation 2 one of the most popular consoles in history.
The PS2 also went 2 different models, the "fat" original model, the slim version which was released in 2004 (it also had an ethernet port, although it lacked the initial hard drive inside because of the slim design) , in 2010 a Television incorporating a PS2 into it was released to consumers aswell. The PS2 also had different colours available to consumers too, in specific regions and quantities the following colours were released: Navy Blue, Metallic Silver, Opaque blue, Opaque black, satin gold/silver, super red and a limited addition pink was even shipped to oceania and asia. Whilst the PS2 was extemely popular, Sony were taken to court for the "Disc Read error" that many consumers had when trying to load DVD or CD media on the console. The controllers also kept a very similar design to the original, it was tweaked slightly though. The new controller is usually black (or the colour corresponding to the console) it has larger "R2 and L2" buttons that are far more comfortable compared to the PS1's design, the controller is still dual shock and dual analog like the previous also, however the dual shock technology was improved in the newer version to recognise more onscreen. The console's front had 2 memory card slots, 2 controller ports, power & disc open buttons, a USB slot, and small vents too cool the system. The PS2 did have a shining of online although it was run through third party servers which are no longer running, it was connected to using the ethernet cable that was built to the console and connecting a wireless adapter.
2005
The Xbox 360 was released on 2nd November 2005 and was the successor to the original Xbox. Whilst the Xbox 360 was not a popular as the PlayStation 2, it was one of the big 3 consoles of the seventh generation of video games consoles along with the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 was the first console to allow indie developers to create games for their console a good example of this is the super meat boy game, created by team meat, it was one of the biggest selling indie games on the Xbox 360, and it did so with the support of the indie game market place feature on the Xbox 360. If we compare the Xbox 360 to the PS2, we see many more features than previously. The dashboard being a key one, the PS2 and Xbox had some what user interfaces but didn't really have much to show, the Xbox had a dashboard but it certainly wasn't the best. Microsoft made a console with a complete user interface, allowing you to track games, profiles, settings, options, achievements, music, apps and even it's own bing search engine. The Xbox 360 dashboard was updated constantly however and some of these features including the search engine were not available on release.
The Xbox 360 had it's fair share of peripherals, the kinect for instance, which allowed players to interact with the console in a much more physical way. It would recognize and detect the body with accuracy and put this into place instead of the controller. Products for the Xbox 360 especially games eventually got a purple banner showing that the game could be played with kinect as well. Whilst most games are controller based, a lot of games added kinect control too, Forza Motorsport 4 is a great example, the player could use a controller, or turn on the kinect and use their hands as if they're turning the steering wheel. The kinect itself is a sensor that is similar to that of the Nintendo Wii, usually placed under or on top of the television for the most effectiveness. The Xbox controller was similar to the original Xbox's although it was much less bulky, the start and select buttons were moved to the middle of the controller and a new dashboard button was added. Microsoft also released a seperate HD DVD drive that was available for the console too.
The Xbox had a portable hard drive and there were many different sizes of memory that could be purchased, the largest amount of memory for a hard drive on the Xbox 360 was the 320GB hard drive, there were alot more options for consumers with a 250GB, 120GB, 60GB, 20GB and 4GB. This made sense because people who needed more space could simply upgrade their hard drives. The Xbox also stopped saving with memory cards and used the hard drives memory Instead, in earlier version of the console the portable hard drive was stored on the top of the console. When the console was released there were 3 types available, Xbox 360 Arcade, Xbox 360 Pro, and Xbox 360 Elite going from worst to best types. The difference between each was the memory of the hard drive that came with the console. Later on in 2007, these models (Pro, Arcade and elite) were to be replaced with the Xbox 360 "Slim" design. One of the better hard ware designs about the slim was that it's motherboard was more suited to longer usage meaning less cases of overheating arrived. It also had an Xbox Kinect Port built in. The down sides to the new slim design was that many didn't appreciate a console with new features built in after they'd already invested money into their previous Xbox's. The Xbox had 2 USB ports on the front that were behind the small flap on the console. Wired controllers, USB's, more hard drives and advanced headphones could be plugged in here. In order to manually connect a controller the "connect button" is located on the front near the power button. It was used with wireless controllers and when both were pressed it would configure the wireless controller.
The Xbox 360 did have it's faults, on release of the console the system was prone to overheating and hardware failures. This created the notorious red ring of death on the front of the console. There are 4 different patterns the red ring of death could show, 1 red light meant the system had a hardware failure, 2 lights meant the console had overheated, 3 lights means a general hardware failure and this is when 1 or more pieces of hardware have failed and there was no error code compared to 1 light, finally 4 lights on the console means the AV Cable is not plugged in or there is a serious error. To solve the "red ring" error, Microsoft put a warranty in place and corrected the red ring of death in the slim edition of the console.
The PlayStation 3 was unveiled by Sony at the E3 Conference in 2005. The PlayStation 3 was released on November 11th 2006 in Japan and March 23th 2007 in Europe and Australia. The PlayStation 3 sold over 80 million units to date and has had a very long and successful career being one of the big 3 consoles of the seventh generation competing with the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. The console has a lot of similarities to the Xbox 360, however there are a few key differences. For starters, the PlayStation 3 has far more media types than the, some of these include the Blu-ray Discs, Compact Disc, Backward compatibility (PlayStation and PlayStation 2 discs), Super Audio CD's of 1st and 2nd generations and much like the Xbox's marketplace, "Digital Distribution". The PS3 had slightly less sales than it's rivals, at 80 million comparing to the Xbox's 83.7 million. Just like the Xbox 360 the PS3 has many different hard drive sizes for sale. "320GB, 250GB, 160GB, 120GB, 80GB, 40GB, and 20GB. The Controller has DualShock 3 which is the third implementation of the vibration technology in the game pad this time it's pretty much identical to 1 and 2 versions of dualshock except it was further improved. This new DualShock 3 also has plastic parts at the L1 and R1 buttons on the controller that now also vibrate too. The controller itself has just 256MB of memory and 256MB Video memory. Along with the standard controller the PS3 also had the "Buzz" controllers from the PS2 which connect in the controller inputs and have the same interactions and features as they did with the PS2. In addition, The PS3 has PlayStation Move which is most likely Sony's answer to the Xbox's success with the Kinect. Sony also released the PlayStation Vita in December 2011 which could connect to the PlayStation 3 and play it on the go it's design was very similar to that of the PSP. Finally the PS3 could have a Keyboard and Mouse attachment although they would take up both controller inputs. The Console also had it's own online service which is known as the "PlayStation Network" this was similar to Xbox Live however you could not change your profile's display name, and other minor details. Although PlayStation Network was completely free to users with a PS3.
2013
Xbox One
The Xbox one is a present day 8th generation console released and published by MicroSoft Studios. It was released on the 22nd November 2013. The Xbox one is the Xbox 360's successor and has sold approximately 12.8 million units according to Microsoft's sales figures. It had a difficult launch with a lot of hardware problems, some of these include connectivity issues, a small percentage complained about a type of disc error which stopped people playing discs and blue ray discs. Due to these faults on launch. Microsoft issued new consoles to everyone affected and a free downloadable game, this shows that the Xbox one had it's issues just like the older consoles in this time line and even 8th generation consoles aren't perfect on launch.
The Xbox one had little to offer in terms of hardware at launch, whilst the Xbox 360 had 2 versions of the console, the Xbox one's release was a little different, sticking to 1 model with the same hard drive size. External Hard drives and other memory peripherals and like it's predecessor it has USB 3.0 ports on the console except all of the ports and other inputs are at the back of the console, these imports are HDMI input, HDMI output, Kinect Sensor port, Ethernet port and an IR output for satellite TV's. Backwards compatibility was also added to the console much later after launch due to complaints from players.
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