History of video game consoles (third generation)
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In the history of video games, the 8-bit era was the third generation of video game consoles, but the first after the video game crash of 1983 and considered by some to be the first "modern" era of console gaming. It began in 1983 with the release of the Famicom in Japan and lasted until 1987. Although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-bit processors, it was in this time that home game systems were first labeled by their "bits". This came into fashion as 16-bit systems like the Mega Drive/Genesis were marketed to differentiate between the generations of consoles. This generation in gaming was primarily dominated by the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom.
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[edit] Overview
During the era, the Famicom (short for family computer) became very popular in Japan. The Famicom's American counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, highly dominated the gaming market in North America, thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers. Though the NES dominated the market, the Sega Master System (which was popular in Brazil and Europe), and the Atari 7800, were also major players during this era. The Sharp X68000 began its niche run in Japan with its first iteration in 1987.
The latter part of the third generation (argued by some as part of the 4th generation) introduced the Game Boy, which single-handedly gelled and proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years. While the Game Boy product line has been incrementally updated every few years, until the Game Boy Micro and Nintendo DS, and partially the Game Boy Color, all Game Boy products were backwards compatible with the original released in 1989.
The post-crash 8-bit era saw the first console role-playing video games, and was the birth of the side-scroller. Editing and censorship of video games was often used in localizing Japanese games to North America. It is the era when many famous video game series, and the characters starring in them, originated. Some notable examples include Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and Bomberman.
This generation is often mislabeled as the "First Generation" as it is the start of video gaming as it is today (although the grouping of generations is arbitrary).
[edit] The first Sega vs Nintendo console war
In the later 8-bit era, the NES came out on top in North America and Japan (where it was known as Nintendo Famicom), partially due to its earlier release, but mostly because of Nintendo's strict licensing rules that forbade developers from releasing their games on other systems if their games were released on the NES. This put a damper on third party support for the Master System and the rest of Nintendo's competition. However, the Master System was far more popular in Europe and Brazil, which were markets first covered by Sega. Many more games were released in Europe and Brazil than in North America, and the Master System had a very long shelf-life in Brazil, finally being discontinued in the late 1990s.
[edit] Worldwide sales standings
| Console | Units Sold | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Entertainment System | 60 million[1] | February 11, 2006 |
| Sega Master System | 13 million[citation needed] | N/A |
[edit] Third generation (late 8-bit era) systems
[edit] Consoles
| Nintendo Famicom, NES | Sega Master System | Atari 7800 | Amstrad GX4000 | Commodore 64 Games System | Intellivision II | Coleco Gemini | |
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Image:Intellivision2.jpg | ||
| Launch price | ¥24,200 US$199.99 CA$240< |
US$199.99 ¥24,200 |
US$140.00 | n/a | UK£99.99 | ||
| Logo |  |
n/a |  |
n/a |  |
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| Release date |  July 15, 1983 October 18, 1985 February 1986 1986 & 1987 |
June 1986 1987 1987 |
June 1986 1987 |
1990 |
1990 |
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| Media | Cartridge | Cartridge & card | Cartridge | Cartridge | Cartridge | ||
| Backwards compatibility | None | Sega SG-1000 (Japanese system only) | Atari 2600 | None | None | ||
| Top-selling games | Super Mario Bros. (pack-in) Super Mario Bros. 3 (separately) |
Alex Kidd in Miracle World | n/a | n/a | n/a | ||
| Accessories (retail) |
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| CPU | Ricoh 2A03, based on | NEC 780C, Zilog Z80 clone | Custom, 6502C based on | Zilog Z80 | MOS Technology 6510 | ||
| Memory | 2 KB main RAM 2 KB video RAM 256 bytes sprite RAM 28 bytes palette RAM |
8 KB main RAM 16 KB video RAM |
4 KB main RAM | 64 KB main RAM 16 KB video RAM |
64 KB main RAM 512 bytes color RAM |
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| Video | 64 sprites (8 per scanline) 256x240 resolution 25 simultaneous colors 53 color palette |
64 sprites (8 per scanline) 256x240 resolution 32 simultaneous colors 64 color palette |
Unlimited sprites 320x200 resolution 16 simultaneous colors 256 color palette |
16 sprites n/a 32 simultaneous colors 4,096 color palette |
8 sprites 320x200 resolution 16 simultaneous colors 16 color palette |
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| Audio | Mono audio with:
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Mono audio with:
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Mono audio with:
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Mono audio with:
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3-channel synthesizer with programmable ADSR envelope
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[edit] Add-ons
Famicom Disk System
[edit] Handhelds
| Nintendo Gameboy | Atari Lynx | Sega Game Gear | |
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| Launch Price | ¥13,300 US$109.99 €85 |
US$189.99 €145 |
¥14,500 €90 US$119.99 AUD $155 |
| Release date | 1989 1989 1990 |
1989 1990 |
1990 1991 1992 |
| Logo |  |
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n/a |
| Media | Cartridge | Cartridge | Cartridge |
| Top-selling games | Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green | Road Blasters | Sonic the Hedgehog |
[edit] Video game franchises established during the 8-bit era
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¹ The Nintendo Wars franchise was debuted in Japan during the 8-bit era, but Nintendo did not release a Nintendo Wars game in North America until the sixth generation era, where it was marketed as Advance Wars. Interestingly, Advance Wars was not released in Japan until the Gameboy Wars Advance 1+2 compilation, due to the September 11th attacks.
[edit] References
- ^ Classic Systems—Nintendo Entertainment System (html). Nintendo. Retrieved on February 11, 2006.
