Game Platforms Generations

1 st Generation (1972–1976) the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey First game to be released was Pong A second multiplayer edition was later launched with 3 Games!

2 nd Generation (1976–1985) During these years the games market crashed When Atari released cartridges and a home version of space invaders in 1980 consoles exploded! Too many companies were trying to hard to compete resulting in too many rubbish games!

3 rd Generation – The Birth of Nintendo and Sega ( ) Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released with Robbie and a light gun. Created a boom in video game sales Launched the first video game legend Super Mario Brothers first appeared in 1983 The Master Systems popularity never really took off in the US but had a significant impact in the UK.

4 th Generation ( ) Sega got in first to try and capture a market in 1988 with the Sega Megadrive. Very popular in the US and UK and gave them 2 years to create a market foothold saw the introduction of the Super NES and this rivalry grew for the next few years.

5 th Generation the busy years All of the major console makers released a new console during this time. –Sony released Playstation –Nintendo released the N64 –Sega released the Saturn –Panasonic tried the 3DO –Atari released the Jaguar

6 th Generation Playstation2 Sega Dreamcast Xbox Game Cube

7 th Generation Playstation 3 Xbox 360 Sega cant compte and move to game production Nintendo Wii claims the saies market

Bits Each new generation of console hardware made use of the rapid development of processing technology. Newer machines could output a greater range of colors, more sprites, and introduced graphical technologies such as scaling, and vector graphics. One way this increase in processing power was conveyed to consumers was through the measurement of "bits". The TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, and SNES were among the first consoles to advertise the fact that they contained 16-bit processors. This fourth generation of console hardware was often referred to as the 16-bit era, and the previous generation as the 8-bit.spritesscalingvector graphicsbitsTurboGrafx-16processors The bit-value of a console referred to the word length of a console's processor (although the value was sometimes misused, for example the TurboGrafx 16 had only an 8-bit CPU, and the Genesis/Mega Drive had the 16/32-bit Motorola 68000, but both had a 16-bit dedicated graphics processor). As the graphical performance of console hardware is dependent on many factors, using bits was a crude way to gauge a console's overall ability, but served better to distinguish between generations.word lengthCPUMotorola 68000

Media: Cartridges Standard game cartridges for several popular consoles. From front to back: Game Boy Color, Sega Genesis, and Atari 2600.Game Boy ColorSega GenesisAtari 2600 Game cartridges consist of a printed circuit board housed inside of a plastic casing, with a connector allowing the device to interface with the console. The circuit board can contain a wide variety of components. All cartridge games contain at the minimum, read only memory with the software written on it. Many cartridges also carry components that increase the original console's power, such as extra RAM or a coprocessor. Components can also be added to extend the original hardware's functionality [12] (such as gyroscopes, rumble packs, tilt-sensors, light sensors, etc.); this is more common on handheld consoles where the user does not interact with the game through a separate video game controller. [13]printed circuit boardread only memory [12]gyroscopes, rumble packstilt-sensorslight sensors [13] Cartridges were the first external media to be used with home consoles and remained the most common until 1995 continued improvements in capacity (Nintendo 64 being the last mainstream game console to use cartridges). [14] Nevertheless, the relatively high manufacturing costs saw them completely replaced by optical media for home consoles by the early 21st century, although they are still in use in some handheld video game consoles. [14] Due to the aforementioned capabilities of cartridges such as more memory and coprocessors, those factors make it harder to reverse engineer consoles to be used on emulators.

Media: Cards Several consoles such as the Sega Master System and the TurboGrafx-16 have used different types of smart cards as an external medium. These cards function similar to simple cartridges. Information is stored on a chip that is housed in plastic. Cards are more compact and simpler than cartridges, though. This makes them cheaper to produce and smaller, but limits what can be done with them. Cards cannot hold extra components, and common cartridge techniques like bank switching (a technique used to create very large games) were impossible to miniaturize into a card in the late 1980s. [15][16]Sega Master SystemTurboGrafx-16smart cardsbank switching [15][16] Compact Discs reduced much of the need for cards. Optical Discs can hold more information than cards, and are cheaper to produce. The Nintendo Gamecube and the Playstation 2 use memory cards for storage, but the Nintendo DS is the only modern system to use cards for game distribution. Nintendo has long used cartridges with their Game Boy line of hand held consoles because of their durability, small size, stability (not shaking and vibrating the handheld when it is in use), and low battery consumption. Nintendo switched to cards for the DS, because advances in memory technology made putting extra memory on the cartridge unnecessarymemory cards Nintendo DS

Cartridges: Magnetic Tape Home computers have long used magnetic storage devices. Both tape drives and floppy disk drives were common on early microcomputers. Their popularity is in large part because a tape drive or disk drive can write to any material it can read. However, magnetic media is volatile and can be more easily damaged than game cartridges or optical discs. [18]magnetic storage tape drivesfloppy disk microcomputers [18] Among the first consoles to use magnetic media were the Bally Astrocade and APF-M1000, both of which could use cassette tapes through expansions. In Bally's case, this allowed the console to see new game development even after Bally dropped support for it. While magnetic media remained limited in use as a primary form of distribution, two popular subsequent consoles also had expansions available to allow them to use this format. The Starpath Supercharger can load Atari 2600 games from audio cassettes; Starpath used it to cheaply distribute their own games from 1982 to 1984 and today it is used by many programmers to test, distribute, and play homebrew software. The Famicom Disk System was released by Nintendo in 1985 for the Japanese market. Nintendo sold the disks cheaply and sold vending machines where customers could have new games written to their disks up to 500 timesBally AstrocadeAPF-M1000Starpath SuperchargerFamicom Disk System

Media: CDs In the mid-1990s, various manufacturers shifted to optical media, specifically CD-ROM, for games. Although they were slower at loading game data than the cartridges available at that time, they were significantly cheaper to manufacture and had a larger capacity than the existing cartridge technology. By the early 21st century, all of the major home consoles used optical media, usually DVD-ROM or similar disks, which are widely replacing CD-ROM for data storage. The PlayStation 3 system uses even higher-capacity Blu-ray optical discs for games and movies while the Xbox 360 formerly used HD DVDs in the form of an external USB player add-on for movies, before it was discontinued. Microsoft still however, supports those who bought the accessory.HD DVDsUSB

Media: Internet Distribution Microsoft's Xbox Live service includes the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring digital distribution of classic and original titles. These include arcade classics, original titles, and games originally released on other consoles. The Xbox Live Marketplace also includes many different hit movies and trailers in high definition, and is accessible with a free Xbox Live Silver Membership.Xbox Livehigh definition Sony's online game distribution is known as the PlayStation Network (PSN). It offers free online gaming, downloadable content such as classic PlayStation games, high definition games and movie trailers, and original games such as flOw and Everyday Shooter as well as some games that also release on Blu-ray Disc such as Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. A networking service, dubbed PlayStation Home, was released in December Sony also announced a video/movie service and music service for some time in 2008.PlayStation Networkhigh definitionflOwEveryday ShooterWarhawkPlayStation Home Nintendo's Virtual Console service emulates games from the Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, NES/Famicom, TurboGrafx-16, SNES/Super Famicom, Neo Geo, and Sega Master System/Game Gear. The service also emulates titles from the Commodore 64 in US and Europe, and the MSX platform in Japan. Nintendo also has original Wii content available for download through its WiiWare service.Virtual ConsoleWiiWare