The video game generations are used to classify home consoles, handheld consoles, dedicated consoles, and micro consoles, as well as certain peripherals that played different formats of video game titles.
First generation (1972 - 80)
First generation hardware is most often defined by a lack of microprocessors in the circuitry of these electronic devices, instead using a series of logic circuits.
Second generation (1976 - 90)
The history of video games, the second generation of video game hardware refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F.
Third generation (1986 - 2003)
The Third Generation Consoles (1983-1994) improved on the home console market. In Japan, Nintendo released their popular console, the Famicom, the same day as SEGA's SG-1000 in 1983. The Family Computer was re-branded in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System. After the crash of the home console market in North America, the Nintendo Entertainment System brought gaming back to a mass audience and saved the market for video games there. In 1985, SEGA released the SG-1000 Mark III, which was re-branded as the Master System outside of Japan.
Fourth generation ( 1987 - 2003 )
The Fourth generation of video game hardware (1987-2003) expanded the home console market. The generation started in the late '80s with the release of NEC's PC-Engine. The Mega Drive was released a year later to compete with the original NES as well as the PC-Engine. One year after that, both consoles came to North America as the TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis. The Neo Geo AES was also brought into the market as a home version of SNK's arcade machine, the Neo Geo MVS. One year after that, Nintendo released the Super Famicom in Japan and the Super Nintendo in North America.
Fifth generation ( 1993 - 2005)
The Fifth generation of video game hardware (1993-2005) expanded the home console market. With early CD technology, many companies made their own consoles such as Panasonic's 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in North America, Commodore's Amiga CD32 in Europe and NEC's PC-FX. Unfortunately these consoles failed due the lack of third party developers. Learning from mistakes of previous games and using the technology they worked on from the canceled SNES CD add on, Sony released the PlayStation.
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