Types of game consoles The history of consoles and their appearance in Russia The number of released games for consoles

The game console is able to give a sea of ​​​​emotions to absolutely any person. Even ardent opponents of computer games, having picked up a gamepad, willingly and recklessly play shooters, strategies, and races. Choice console type directly depends not only on your financial capabilities, but also on what game genres you prefer. If you want more sports, cars, alien monsters or a variety of simulators - your way to the ranks of owners Xbox. Love all kinds of cuts, fights, battles, battles (and further down the list of epithets), treasure hunting and overcoming dangers - focus on prefixes Sony. Of course, this division is very conditional, insofar as you can run on the PlayStation in FIFA 19, and on Xbox One shoot Call Of Duty. Microsoft consoles have some advantage of backward compatibility with games released for previous generations of xboxes. Plus, in favor of the Playstation, there is a richer choice of exclusives. Only a really big TV will allow you to feel the beauty of 4K. Don't forget that it must be able to play high dynamic range (HDR10).

Finally, simple retro consoles are also quite capable of delivering a lot of positive emotions to an older gamer and are good option game console for kids.

Happy shopping!

Due to the imminent start of sales in our shopping center game consoles, we think that our visitors will be interested in the history of the development of game consoles. Today, eighth-generation consoles with super-powerful processors, a bunch of gigabytes rule the world. random access memory and disk space. In this regard, it is now difficult to imagine games with flat graphics, low resolution and a three-color palette. But there were times when people opened their mouths when they saw games on the first 8-bit consoles, and then a riot of colors on 16-bit consoles. And now we will tell you about the development of game consoles and even give you the opportunity to play them by downloading the emulators of these consoles. Let's start in order.

The first generation of game consoles.

Magnavox Odyssey is considered the world's first game console. Attachment presentation.

The Magnavox Odyssey 100 was launched on the market in the fall of 1975. It was cheaper than the previous one, but at the same time, the presentation of this model was on May 24, 1972
year, and in August of the same year it became available to customers. Unlike modern gaming systems, the first console did not have any chips or microprocessors. The operation of the Magnavox Odyssey was based on diode-transistor logic. She only had two games. This was followed by a few more consoles from this manufacturer. Magnavox Odyssey 200 and Magnavox Odyssey 300, the latter of which ran on a General Instruments AY-3-8500 chip. In 1976, M entered the market. agnavox Odyssey 400 and Magnavox Odyssey 500, the second pleased customers with fairly advanced color graphics. In 1977, several more consoles saw the light: Magnavox Odyssey 2000, 3000 and 4000. In 1975 and 1976, Pong consoles from Atari and Coleco Telstar also came out. In 1977, the first prefix from Nintendo appeared - the Nintendo Color TV Game.

The second generation of game consoles (the appearance of the first 8-bit consoles).

The era of the second generation began in 1976. The founders of this era are the Fairchild Channel F.

Atari 2600 - this console is also worth noting. It was released in 1977 and became the most popular gaming system of the time.

Mattel Intellivision can be called a console that was ahead of its time from a technical point of view. Released in the 80th year of the 20th century, long before the 16-bit generation, it had a processor with 16-bit registers.

The third generation of game consoles (restoration of the gaming industry after its crisis).

The third era is the era of 8-bit consoles, and most important and significant is the advent of sprite graphics. And although up to this point in some consoles there were 8-bit processors, the very concept of "8-bit consoles" came during this period.

Famicom/NES/Dendy is the most popular 8-bit. The start of sales of this gaming system took place in Japan, back in 1983. It was very successful in terms of technical solutions. It is she who is considered by many to be the impetus for the gaming industry after the crisis. A huge number of games were released on this console, and Mario, the protagonist of the game series super mario Bros., became the company's mascot. The NES console is still on sale to this day, but if you do not have the opportunity to buy it, you can download the Dendy emulator and play on it.

In addition to the console from Nintendo, the Master System game systems from Sega and Atari 7800 came out in the era of the third generation. It is also worth noting that it was then that many famous game series were born, such as: Sonic, Prince of Persia, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Castlevania, final fantasy and many others.

The fourth generation of game consoles (the times of 16-bit game systems).

This era dates back to 1987, when TurboGrafx-16 (NEC PC Engine) entered the Japanese market. Yes, it was this system that was the first 16-bit, and not consoles from Sega or Nintendo. But major players nevertheless, the prefixes of the last two companies have become.

Those who want to remember their youth, or those who want to know what 16-bit games are, can still find and buy a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis console today. Here you can download the Sega MD emulator.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Nintendo, Super NES and SNES) - the console appeared at the end of 1990, mainly due to the fact that the Sega MD became very popular, and the first prefix from Nintendo began to lose ground in front of 16-bit systems. The SNES ran on a 16-bit Ricoh 5A22 processor clocked at 3.58 MHz. The new console from Nintendo was a success from the very beginning and began to quickly force competitors out of the Japanese market. Many considered this console to be much more powerful than its direct competitor from Sega, but this is still a moot point. But it's safe to say that the Super Nintendo has given us a lot of hit games.

Fifth generation of game consoles (times of 32 and 64-bit game consoles).

The times of the fifth generation, in our opinion, is the period of the birth of three-dimensional polygonal graphics and the emergence of new game series.

Sega Saturn is a 32-bit console from Sega. The console was released in November 1994. The prefix worked on two Hitachi SuperH-2 7604 central processors with a frequency of 28.63 MHz and 6 coprocessors. The Sega Saturn was a powerful enough console, it was believed that it was even more productive than its main competitor from Sony. However, the console's complex architecture made it difficult for developers to take full advantage of its performance. Today, there are several emulators with which you can play games created for Saturn, but they are quite complicated in settings.

The Nintendo 64, also known as the Ultra 64, is a 64-bit game console released in 1996 by Nintendo. The set-top box was much more productive than its competitors, inside the console there was a central processor with a frequency of 93.75 MHz, and a graphics processor with a frequency of 62.5 MHz. Graphically, Nintendo's system was head and shoulders above the rest, with goodies like texture smoothing, mip-mapping, and more. Believe me, if you saw Super Mario 64 in those days, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire or Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, you would freeze. The weak point of the console was the carrier. As before, the company used cartridges, which limited the volume of released games, and the complexity of programming for this platform was also noted.

Today you can download the Nintendo 64 emulator, which runs almost all games.

The sixth generation of game consoles (many call the consoles that came out at this time - 128-bit).

This era begins with the release of Sega's Dreamcast in November 1998. It is also worth noting the emergence of a new player in this market, it has become Microsoft. Well, we can say that the most unfortunate event is the death of Sega as a manufacturer of game consoles.

Today there are several emulators that will allow you to at least run games on the Sega Dreamcast. If you're willing, you can browse the internet and download Sega Dreamcast emulators such as Chankast alpha, DEmul, nullDC, and Makaron.

Sony PlayStation 2 again Sony and again PlayStation, but this time at number 2. PlayStation 2, or PS2, today it is the most popular set-top box that has been produced for almost 13 years, starting in 2000, the last console left the assembly line in 2013. A huge plus of this system was the ability to run PS1 games on it. The system was powered by a 64-bit "Emotion Engine" CPU at 294 MHz and a "Graphics Synthesizer" graphics coprocessor. On the Internet, you can find a PS2 emulator that can run some games tolerably well.

Microsoft's Xbox is the software giant's first attempt to break into the gaming console market, and, admittedly, a successful one. The prefix was released in 2001, and, thanks to the company's financial capabilities, it quickly gained the support of game manufacturers. From the point of view of the filling of this console, this is a home computer that is well adapted for games. Here is the Intel processor Celeron/PIII Custom Hybrid and Nvidia NV2A video processor. This architecture gave a plus to this console in relation to developers. It was easy enough to transfer computer games to the console. And also, thanks to this game system, we got to know Halo.

The seventh generation of game consoles.

Nintendo Wii - although from a technical point of view, this console was much weaker than its competitors. However, it was she who was sold in the largest quantity. The system ran on an IBM "Broadway" processor with a frequency of 729 MHz, and the graphics chip "Hollywood" from ATI was responsible for the video. The main popularity of the Wii was due to its Wii Remote controller and games made for it.

The PlayStation 3 from Sony is a real multimedia center. On it you can play, chat on the Internet, watch movies and much more. It also implemented backward compatibility with previous generations of consoles. This console was the most powerful in terms of performance among the seventh generation consoles. The heart of the console was an octa-core Cell Broadband Engine clocked at 3.2 GHz, while the graphics was the RSX Reality Synthesizer at 550 MHz. Sony claimed that its gaming system produced 1.8 TFLOPS, which was almost twice as much as its closest competitor, the Xbox 360. But the complex architecture made it difficult to get the most out of this console.

A game console is a specialized electronic device designed and built for video games. Usually, the output device of such equipment is a TV or, more rarely, a computer monitor - that is why such devices are called set-top boxes, since they are attached to an independent display device. Now the world is conquered by high-budget shooters and colorful arcade games. But how did we get to this point?

1. Magnavox Odyssey

Year of release - 1972. Magnavox Odyssey - the world's first home game console, released in May 1972. The history of the Magnavox Odyssey began in the summer of 1966, when Ralph Baer began working on a TV set-top box that could be used to play at home. In September, he already had a plan of action and a flowchart for a game for two people. From March 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey began to be sold in stores at a price of 99.95 US dollars.

2. Pong Atari

Year of release - 1975. Pong - a series of game consoles manufactured by Atari, produced from 1975 to 1977. The consoles were sold under the Atari and Sears Tele-Games brands. In 1973, Atari engineer Harold Lee proposed creating a home version of the Pong slot machine. Development began in early 1974 by three designers: Harold Lee, Alan Alcorn and Bob Brown, and the console was created at the end of the year.

3. Coleco Telstar

Year of release - 1976. Telstar - a series of game consoles manufactured by Coleco, based on clones of the Atari Pong console. The first modification of Telstar was released in 1976. In 1975, two engineers from the Scottish branch of General Instruments developed a game chip. This chip had several advantages: firstly, it was a practically finished product (very few additional components were required to create a full-fledged game console), and secondly, it allowed you to run six games with several difficulty levels. The console quickly became popular ; Coleco created and released 15 console modifications, 11 of them based on the AY-3-8500 chip (and its versions 8510 and 8512). The differences between them were only in the number of games and difficulty levels, the configuration of the console, as well as in the way the image was displayed, which could be color or black and white.

4 Fairchild Channel F

Released in 1976. The second game console in the world with interchangeable games on cartridges and the first console with a cartridge containing the program. The console was released by Fairchild Semiconductor in August 1976 under the name Video Entertainment System (VES), with a retail price of 169.95 US dollars The set-top box is based on the Fairchild F8 microprocessor, designed by Robert Noyce before he left Fairchild to found his own company, Intel. The F8 processor was quite complex compared to typical integrated circuits of the time, and had more I/O than other chips of the time.

5. RCA Studio II

Released in 1977. The RCA Studio II is a video game console developed by RCA and released in January 1977. The console's graphics were black and white and resembled those of the earlier Atari Pong. The console did not have a joystick or similar game controller, instead a 10-button keyboard was built into the body of the console. This method of connection was extremely rare and subsequently did not occur until the release of the Atari 5200 game console.

Released in 1977. The Atari VCS, later called the Atari 2600, appeared in 1977 and became the dominant video game console of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It became the first successful console with games on cartridges. In the 1980s in the United States, the word "Atari" was perceived as a synonym for "Atari 2600". The model usually came with two joysticks or paddle controllers and one Pac-Man game.

7. Magnavox Odyssey²

Year of issue -1978. Magnavox Odyssey² is a game console released in 1978. In the early 1970s, Magnavox was an innovator in the home video game industry. They got off to a very good start, introducing the Odyssey game console to the market, followed by several models with some technological modifications. In 1978, Magnavox released the Odyssey², its second gaming console, which belongs to the second generation of gaming systems.

Released in 1980. Intellivision is a game console launched by Mattel in 1979. The development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the release of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The name "Intellivision" is made up of the words "intelligent television" - "intelligent television." The creation of Intellivision began, as is the case with many other game consoles 80s, influenced by the high sales of Atari. Mattel intended to throw the king off the throne with the help of graphics that were quite advanced for those times, good games and an additional keyboard that turned a children's toy into a home computer.

9. Vectrex

Released 1982. Vectrex is an 8-bit game console developed by GCE, later bought by Milton Company. The Vectrex is unique in that it is the only game console to use a vector monitor; no other system used a similar configuration. The Vectrex has been on sale since 1982 for $199. The device ended in 1984, during a downturn in the game console market. depicting vector graphics.

10 Arcadia 2001

Year of release - 1982. Arcadia 2001 - 8-bit game console of the second generation, released by Emerson Radio Corporation. Emerson sued Arcadia Corporation for trademark infringement, forcing it to change its name to Starpath. Emerson licensed Arcadia 2001 to many companies around the world, resulting in over 30 versions of the console. Thus began the golden age of the console era. How many steps still had to be taken by technology to crawl to the present day.)

For four decades, TV game consoles have brought joy to children and teenagers around the world! Some of them have become real legends, and the characters of their games are part of popular culture. Today we will talk about the ten most popular game consoles - their history, hardware and software features and of course favorite games!

Atari 2600 (1977)

Sold: 30,000,000 Generation: II

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the legend, here is the Atari 2600! If for you and me the era of game consoles began only in the 90s, then computer games came to the homes of our peers from Europe and America a decade earlier - with the Atari 2600!

Today, neither a bulky case with a wooden false panel, nor rather primitive graphics look attractive. However, at the end of the 70s, this console was innovative in almost everything!

Originally released as the Atari VCS, it was the first set-top box based on a microprocessor (originally MOS 6502, later MOS 6507) rather than digital logic. It was in the Atari 2600 that replaceable cartridges were first used.

Its predecessors (for example, the prefix "Pong" from the same Atari) were produced according to the principle "one prefix - one game". The cartridge system has made it possible to port most games from Atari to Atari, providing an almost limitless choice! Only home computers could compete with it, but their games were on magnetic tapes or floppy disks, their loading required a long time, while games from cartridges loaded instantly!

In the early years, sales of consoles and cartridges grew exponentially: the secret of Atari's successful business was to sell consoles at close to cost (about $200 apiece), making most of the profits from selling games.

However, in 1982, a recession set in - the video game market was oversaturated with cheap and low-end games, which led to massive consumer disappointment. Even the porting of the mega-popular Pac-Man to Atari did not live up to expectations - out of 12 million cartridges released, only 7 were sold. Great hopes were also placed on the game “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, based on Spielberg's film The Extra-Terrestrial. But out of 5 million cartridges, only 1.5 were purchased. As a result, millions of unsold games were buried in a dump in the New Mexico desert...

All this, of course, did not affect the post-Soviet space, where the public was not spoiled at all, and even pocket games "Electronics" were considered "computers"! In the 90s, in Russian stores you could find the prefix "Rambo TV Games" - a Taiwanese clone of Atari 2600, with a patched cartridge slot and 208 (in some cases, the numbers varied up to 2001 and even 11554) games in memory!

NES (aka Dendy) (1983)

Sold: 61,910,000 Generation: III

In Japan it was called Famicom, in Korea Hyundai Comboy, in Europe and America - Nintendo Entertainment System, but for the inhabitants of our country it will forever remain just Dandy!

The early 80s was the era. Following the success of arcade games like Donkey Kong and Popeye, Nintendo set out to create a game console that would allow you to play these games at home!

At that time, the first home computers were already appearing in Europe and America, and it was originally planned to release something similar to the ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 - with a disk drive and a keyboard. However, the then president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauki, rejected this idea - the set-top box had to be as simple as possible (and therefore cheap), and replaceable cartridges should be used instead of floppy disks! The concept was developed by Masayuki Uemura. It was his wife who suggested the name Famicom (the working name of the project was GameCom). Abandoning the traditional Atari-style "pedal" joysticks, Nintendo has developed a new type of controller with buttons and a d-pad, based on electronic Game& Watch, known in our country as "Electronics".

The set-top box was equipped with a Ricoh 2A03 microprocessor (based on MOS 6502) with a frequency of 1.79 MHz and supported a graphic resolution of 256x240. The amount of RAM was 2 KB.

Successful sales in Japan, where by then 2 million consoles had already been sold, prompted Nintendo to think about the American market, but it was not at all easy! The United States experienced a severe crisis in the gaming industry. Demand plummeted and it seemed that the era of video games was about to come to an end without really starting!

To get away from the annoying Atari image of a typical game console, which users associated with unsuccessful and low-end games, the creators of the NES made it look like a VCR - the same flat and front-loading cartridges (which had not 60 pins, like Japanese ones, but 72).

The advent of the NES (originally planned to be called AVS - Advanced Video System) breathed new life into the industry and ushered in the third generation of game consoles! Brand new games such as Duck Hunt, Kung-Fu or Ice Climber appeared on the gaming market, but the main hit was, of course, the Super Mario Bros trilogy! For his popularity, Mario became the official logo of Nintendo.

So the third generation of game consoles ended the crisis forever. But neither the NES nor the Famicom came to Russia, which made it possible for the Moscow firm Stipler, which originally specialized in the supply of Hewlett-Packard equipment, to become a distributor of the Taiwanese Famicom clone Micro Genius, selling it in Russia and the CIS under the brand name Dendy. The set-top box looked exactly like the Famicom, but it did not have the classic red and white design, but gray - like the NES. Dendy's logo was a gray baby elephant, drawn by artist Ivan Maksimov. This image turned out to be so tenacious that Russian consumers called all similar consoles: Subor, Keng and even Rambo none other than Dandy!

Dendy - unofficial Famicom clone

Sega Genesis (1988)

Sold: 39,750,000 Generation: IV

And here is the Sega Genesis - the same one from our childhood ... Excuse me, - some of my peers will say, - but in our childhood it was not called Genesis, but Sega Mega Drive ?! That's right, because both of these names refer to the same console! Since mainly Chinese clones of Japanese consoles came to our country, there is nothing surprising in the fact that we knew it under the Japanese name "Mega Drive", while in Europe and America it was sold as Sega Genesis.

The set-top box was based on the already proven Sega slot machine platform, known as System 16. The company's developers turned it into a game console, equipping it with a 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor (7.6 MHz) and a Z80 coprocessor from Zylog (yes, that the very Z80 on which the whole ZX Spectrum was built!) - it was used for sound processing. The system had 72 KB of RAM and 64 KB of video memory.

The console's release was overshadowed by the noisy release of Super Mario Bros. 3" from Nintendo, in the shadow of which the presentation of Sega took place. To draw attention to the prefix, the company decided to release a series of devices with similar names like the Sega Mega Answer!

Competing with Nintendo was not easy, and in order to expand the target audience, the firm's management focused more on adult games (such as Mortal Combat uncensored), while Nintendo targeted a more childish audience. Although Mega Drive quickly lost ground in Japan (the competition was too strong), in Europe and North America she left quite a significant contribution to pop culture, largely due to the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games, which became the symbol of Sega for many years!

Sega came to our country in the mid-90s and was remembered as more “advanced” than Dendy - the same games looked much more vivid on a 16-bit console. "Aladdin", "The Jungle Book", "Mortal Kombat", "The Lion King" and of course all the same Sonic for that time looked just animated cartoons! Black rounded controllers deserve special attention (against the square ones of the NES), since 1993 they have been produced with six game buttons! Although in Russia most game consoles were habitually called “Dandy”, no one ever confused Sega with Dendy!

Nintendo SNES (1990)

Sold: 49,100,000 Generation: IV

The Super Nintendo (Super Famicom in Japan) is Nintendo's second console with enhanced graphics and audio capabilities. Nintendo was inspired to develop this "super Dandy" by the appearance of two competitors on the market: the PC Engine from NEC and the Mega Drive from Sega, which in the long run meant a decrease in demand for the NES. Both competitors were 16-bit and therefore had significantly better performance in terms of graphics and sound.

The new platform was built on a 16-bit Ricoh 5A22 processor (modified by WDC 65816), developed specifically for Nintendo, with a clock speed of 3.58 MHz. RAM was 128 KB.

The new miracle from Nintendo became an instant bestseller - the very first batch of 300,000 units sold out in just a few hours, and the "black shark" Sega Mega Drive began to quickly lose ground. The lack of native 16-bit games (there were only two of them at the time of the console's release - Super Mario World and F-Zero) was covered by third parties such as Capcom, Konami and Tecmo. One of the bestsellers was the game street fighter II by Capcom., ported to the SNES before Sega. The confrontation between SNES and Sega entered the history of video games under the name of "console war", the winner of which came out SNES, becoming the best-selling 16-bit console!

When the first 32-bit consoles appeared on sale, the SNES remained afloat even then, thanks to the release of the magnificent Donkey Kong Country game from Rare with an interesting storyline, mesmerizing graphics and equally amazing melodies! But the most popular character was, of course, Super Mario. New game Super Mario World has sold over 20 million!

On the territory of our country, Super Nintendo (unlike NES) was distributed quite legally. Its official distributor was Steepler, the same company that supplied Dandy to Russia. However, it was not possible to even come close to the sales of Dandy SNES due to the significantly higher cost of set-top boxes (try to explain to your mother that you need a new set-top box when Dendy has already been bought!) And very expensive licensed cartridges, and therefore most Russian teenagers admired her beautiful 16-bit games a la "Cool Spot" only on TV screens in stores and department stores ...

Sony PlayStation (1994)

Sold: 102,490,000 Generation: V

The history of this now legendary console goes back to the distant 1986, when, having mastered the floppy diskette (Famicom Disk System) as a carrier, Nintendo turned to Sony with a proposal to jointly develop a new SNESCD-ROM format that allowed playing games from laser disks. The main considerations, of course, were copyright - while a magnetic disk could be easily copied, laser disks did not. It was called the future device, attention, Play Station! Its development was supervised by Sony employee Ken Kutaragi, who went down in video game history as the "father of the Play Station"!

The project was not destined to materialize. Fearing that Sony would take control of the release of products in the SNESCD-ROM format, Nintendo management stopped all cooperation with it, joining further efforts with Philips. And so that numerous developments were not in vain, the Sony management, which had not taken the video game market seriously before, decided to release its own console. A 32-bit MIPS R3000A microprocessor with a clock frequency of 33.8688 MHz was taken as the basis; a controller for working with three-dimensional graphics was on a separate chip. As well as RAM: 2 MB, video memory: 1 MB, sound RAM: 512 KB.

The console was released in December 1994, when such hits as Doom, Twisted Metal and Warhawk were already written, successfully ported to the Play Station. Equipped with a 2-speed CD-ROM, in addition to playing game discs, the set-top box made it possible to play music discs in Audio CD format.

The success of the Play Station led to the end of the cartridge era. Although Sega, Nintendo, and other manufacturers resisted for a while, the new games demanded too much memory, and they, too, were forced to switch to optical discs.

The PS-1 was the first console to sell over 100 million, and until 2006 it was the best-selling console in history!

Nintendo 64 (1996)

Sold: 32,930,000 Generation: V

If the Atari 2600 was the first console to use cartridges, then the Nintendo 64 (or simply N64) was the last - the future of the gaming industry was with optical discs!

Although Nintendo has been one of the leaders in the video game market since the mid-80s, the emergence of new competitors in 1994: the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn prompted the company's management to think about "offspring" for the still quite successful SNES...

The commercial offer from SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) was the decisive one. Together with MIPS Technologies, they developed a new MIPS R4000 processor solution that combined a central and graphic processor and was waiting for its implementation! The choice between Sega and Nintendo was decided in favor of Nintendo, since this company did not require exclusive rights to the technology and was ready to use it on a common basis. The new solution made it possible to play games in 3D!

The console owes its name to the 64-bit NEC VR4300 processor with a frequency of 93.75 MHz. In the interests of marketing, the number 64 was also added to the names of games: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, Donkey Kong 64, etc. -bit data required significantly more memory resources!

The release of the N64 started in June 1996, but at first the company's management showed some confusion - experience with 3D graphics from by Nintendo was minimal, and developers were able to provide users with a decent number of three-dimensional games only by the 98th year.

To attract the buyer, the console was released in different colors and with different types of joysticks, for example, for the debut of Donkey Kong 64 in the USA, a limited edition of banana-shaped joysticks was released!

Sony Playstation-2 (2000)

Sold: 155,000,000 Generation: VI

The second console from Sony in the glorious Play Station family was the answer to the release of the Sega Dreamcast, which launched the VI generation of gaming systems. But this competitor quickly left the market, the PS-2 had to compete really hard with Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox!

Demand for a new miracle exceeded all expectations! New consoles were literally swept off the shelves of stores, and the factories were simply not ready for such a hype. As a result, at some point there was a shortage of PlayStation-2 in the world, which led to large-scale speculation on the Internet!

From the very beginning, it was stated that the console would be backward compatible with PS-I games, but in addition to CDs, PS-2 also allowed you to play DVDs, including DVD movies! Despite the fact that the PS-2 lagged behind the GameCube and Xbox in terms of hardware, only it had full support for the DVD format (in the Xbox, a special adapter was needed to play DVD, the GameCube did not support DVD in principle).

While the range of games wasn't particularly impressive at first, thanks to clever third-party recruitment and a policy of exclusive rights to best-selling game titles, Sony was quickly able to catch up. As of today, the number of PS-2 games is approaching 4,000!

In addition to regular games, several music titles have been released, such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. After installing a special network card, the set-top box made it possible to play multiplayer games over the Internet. Following the trends of the times, a huge number of accessories were released for the PS-2 console: remote controls, light guns, USB cameras, karaoke microphones, memory cards, an electric guitar for Guitar Hero, a katana sword, and even a chainsaw controller for Resident Evil 4!

At the heart of the hardware was a 64-bit microprocessor "Emotion Engine" at a clock frequency of 294.912 MHz (later 299 MHz), a graphics processor "Graphics Synthesizer" with a frequency of 147 MHz, as an I / O controller was a processor from the PlayStation-1. RAM was 32 MB.

This game console remains the best-selling game console in history to this day - the number of purchased devices today exceeds 155 million, and games 1.5 billion!

Microsoft XBOX 360 (2005)

Sold: 77,200,000 Generation: VII

If back in the late 90s, Bill Gates spoke highly of Sony's game consoles, then from the beginning of the 2000s they will become Microsoft's main competitors in the gaming market!

The company came up with the idea of ​​releasing its own console in the process of developing a special version of Windows CE for Sega Dreamcast consoles. In November 2001, Microsoft's own console called the Xbox was released. The name for the new set-top box was chosen during an online survey.

Xbox consoles are entirely based on Microsoft's own technologies and largely repeat the architecture of a personal computer. They work on the basis of Windows 2000 (due to significant changes allocated to the "Xbox OS" family). The "stuffing" was also quite computer-based - the first Xbox of 2001 was based on the Intel Pentium III processor, 733 MHz, the Xbox 360 used the tri-core Xenon - a special IBM development based on PowerPC technology with a clock frequency of 3.2 GHz. GPU - Xenos from ATI, 512 MB RAM, removable hard drive and DVD drive included.

To support users on the Internet, the Xbox Live service was created, enabling users to communicate with each other and, in some cases, play network games. The Xbox Live Arcade service allows you to download games from the Internet in order to try them out before you buy them. Game patches, demos, and video trailers are distributed through the Xbox Live Marketplace download center.

As with other consoles of its generation, a large number of accessories are available for the Xbox 360: wireless headsets, removable hard drives, WiFi adapters, webcams, and interchangeable faceplates. The Kinect touch controller deserves special attention, allowing you to interact with the console using gestures!

The joy of users from the Xbox 360 was somewhat overshadowed by technical problems. Insufficient cooling of the electronics caused the device to overheat and fail. Toshiba DVD drives scratched discs. The answer was to extend the warranty for set-top boxes to 3 years, install additional heatsinks on the graphics processor and replace drives from Toshiba with Lite On.

Sold: 80,000,000 Generation: VII

The release of the Xbox 360 console from Microsoft in November 2005 heralded the beginning of the VII generation of gaming systems. A year later, Sony has managed to present a worthy alternative - the PlayStation-3!

It was the first game console to use Blu-ray discs as media! The hardware was built on an 8-thread Cell 3.2 GHz processor. The amount of RAM was 256 MB with the same amount of video memory. Initially, the set-top box was produced in two trim levels - a budget one with a 20 GB hard drive and a full one - 60 GB. The operation of the device was controlled by Cell OS, which interacted with the user through the XMB (XrossMediaBar) interface.

In addition to the Bluetooth 2.0 interface, the console allowed you to surf the Internet both via Ethernet and Wi-Fi. With the built-in browser, you could browse the web and even send email!

To support users, a free online service PlayStation Network, which made it possible to play multiplayer games over the network. Another service - PlayStation Store - worked as an online market for digital content, both paid and free.

Unlike the previous model, the PS-3 did not have a quick start - the cost of a set-top box of about $ 800 seemed to users to be very high, and the number of new quality games it was small. There were also compatibility issues - not all games created for the PS-1 and PS-2 played normally on the PS-3. Sales increased with the release of the Slim, a "slim" version of the PS-3, released in September 2009. The slim model featured a flatter chassis, lower power consumption, and a quieter cooling system. Four years later, an even smaller Super Slim was released.

Sold: 101,630,000 Generation: VII

The Nintendo Wii (or simply “wi”) game console was released almost simultaneously with the Sony PlayStation 3 in November 2006 and immediately got off to a fast start! During the first half of 2007, the number of devices sold exceeded the Xbox 360 and PlayStation-3 combined!

The name of the console (during development it was called "Revolution") was subjected to a lot of ridicule on the Internet. Nintendo representatives had to come up with clarifications: “Wii sounds like “we”, which means that this console is suitable for everyone. Wii is easier to remember for a person from any country, no matter what language he speaks.

A distinctive feature of the console was the Wii Remote wireless game controllers, which, thanks to the built-in accelerometers and infrared sensors, respond to the player's movements in three dimensions, allowing you to control the characters on the screen with hand movements, as well as the Wii Nunchuk controller. The connection of the controller with the set-top box is carried out via Bluetooth.

Hardware specifications: 729 MHz Broadway processor (joint development with IBM), 88 MB memory and 512 MB internal Flash memory for saving games and software. As well as USB ports, support for SD memory cards and Wi-Fi.

It is easy to see that the Wii hardware is significantly inferior to its competitors, and the console can be attributed to the VII generation with a big stretch - more by its release date than by its parameters. But Nintendo representatives said that the company is not going to compete with anyone in the number of gigabytes and gigahertz, its advantages: a unique controller and interesting games!

“We've come to understand that console power isn't everything. Too many powerful consoles will not be able to coexist. It's the same as if there were only carnivorous dinosaurs, sooner or later they will simply exterminate each other.

(Game developer Shigeru Miyamotu)

By the way, among its main competitors: Xbox 360 and PS-3, Wii is the smallest!

Rating

TOP 10 game consoles of all time

Let's talk about game consoles or consoles. Unlike a computer, the main priority is on games, and the TV is used as the main output device. More recently, each console had a unique set of games distributed as exclusives. Now many projects are multi-platform, which is welcome.

In 2019, the 8th generation of set-top boxes is already underway, which have certain similarities and differences with their direct competitors - computers. Note that at the moment, online projects have become especially popular on consoles due to the optimization and improvement of the hardware of gaming stations.

• Nothing needs to be collected. Plug and play.
• Portability. Compactness has always been considered a plus of consoles.
• No fiddling with device configuration.
• Ease of disassembly and cleaning.
• High-quality factory thermal paste with a service life of up to 5 years.

• Subscription. Very often you can’t just buy the game, you will need a subscription.
• Worse picture quality than on a computer. The frame rate is at the lowest level of playability, usually 30 fps.
• If left unmaintained, the thermal paste may boil.

We have selected for you the 10 best game consoles in the world.

The best stationary game consoles

Let's start with the consoles most familiar to a large circle of players. These devices are used exclusively at home paired with a TV. Their dimensions are too large for transportation, but this allows you to install the most productive hardware inside and good system cooling for a consistently smooth and beautiful picture, which is what consoles are famous for. In this category, we have pitted two main market rivals - PlayStation and Xbox.

5 Sony PlayStation 4 1 TB

The largest number of discounts and bonuses when buying
Country: Japan
Average price: 24690 rubles
Rating (2019): 4.5

We begin the review of home game consoles with a very popular old man in the world - the usual PlayStation 4. The model, at first glance, can do little to attract buyers. A performance of 1.82 teraflops is enough for a comfortable game in FullHD resolution, but you can’t rely on PS4 Pro-level graphics or a powerful gaming computer. The design is more angular than the new comrades, which many will like. Of the relative shortcomings, we note the lack of Wi-Fi of the latest generation (802.11ac) and a fairly high average cost.

Why, despite these shortcomings, is the model included in the rating? It's simple, the base PlayStation 4 is gradually being retired, which is why sellers often make big discounts. Also, the set-top box almost always comes with games that are sold separately for at least 2 thousand rubles, a PS Plus subscription and even additional DualShock 4 gamepads. Finally, this version of the “curling iron” has already acquired a large number of accessories that can be bought for a penny.

4 Sony PlayStation 4 Slim 1 TB

The most compact fixed console on the market
Country: Japan
Average price: 22899 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.7

The Slim version has become a "lighter" version of the classic PS4, featuring slightly smaller dimensions, quieter operation and a lower price. The good news is that the HDMI cable is now included in the kit by default and does not need to be purchased separately. We have not forgotten about the DualShock with pleasant tactile sensations, but slightly worse ergonomics than the Xbox.

The console looks decent. In terms of dimensions, it turned out to be smaller than the 3rd generation. The graphics chip, although average, is based on modern architecture, while the 3rd generation had a powerful graphics core, but it was obsolete. The processor operates at a frequency of 1.6 GHz, RAM is only 8 GB of GDDR5 format. There is no port for reading memory cards, but Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are fully present. I was upset by the fact that it will not work to connect external audio peripherals to it like speakers. You will have to choose between connecting headphones to a gamepad or being content with sound via an HDMI channel.

3 Microsoft Xbox One S

Lowest Cost
Country: USA
Average price: 22990 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.8

The first representative of Microsoft game consoles hurts competitors with several features at once. First of all, you pay attention to the significantly lower cost. Some stores offer the device for only 16-17 thousand rubles. True, this will be a version with a 500 GB hard drive, which will not be enough for an avid gamer. For 23-24 thousand you will find One S with a 2 TB HDD - this is the best indicator on the market.

The second feature is 4K support. Blu-ray in this quality works fine. Games are more difficult. Firstly, in the settings you need to force the upscale to UltraHD. Secondly, you will not get a smooth and beautiful picture. But with FullHD everything is fine - the picture quality is slightly better than on PS4, PS4 Slim and regular Xbox One. The refresh rate can reach 60 fps. There is support for HDR - high contrast mode, in which the picture looks much more contrast. Finally, let's not forget the look - many reviewers and buyers agree that the Xbox One S is a very beautiful device.

2 Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

Best value for 4K gaming
Country: Japan
Average price: 29999 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.9

Powerful and silent device. If the original model produces 1.8 Teraflops, then this one immediately 4.2. The Wi-Fi module has been updated, which works stably with 5 GHz networks. The power of the set-top box is enough to display both Full HD and full 4K on the screen. In general, this is still the same PS4, only for large screens. Matte 3 piece monoblock collects a minimum of dust and fingerprints. There are 2 USB 3.0 ports on the front and 1 on the back, which allows you to connect PS VR not from the front, but from the back.

At the same time, power consumption increased to 310 watts. The device is delivered in a voluminous and heavy box of medium presentable appearance. The package also includes a mono earpiece with a microphone, the feasibility of which is currently in question.

The prefix consists of the following components:

• controllers or manipulators for navigation;
• the main unit, consisting of the motherboard, processor, RAM and other elements;
• carriers. this role is mainly played by optical discs;
• data cables, including a high-frequency antenna cable for transmitting images to a TV.

1 Microsoft Xbox One X

The most powerful gaming console in the world
Country: USA
Average price: 36350 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.9

The Xbox One X is officially the most powerful gaming console in the world. Its performance is 6 teraflops! The closest competitor from Sony has a third less power. All thanks to the new Scorpio Engine processor and 12 GB of RAM. Of course, there is support for 4K and HDR10. The picture is excellent. But if you have a simpler TV, don't worry - One X will be relevant for you too, because in FullHD or 2K resolution, the set-top box simply produces a much more beautiful (due to various effects) and smooth picture with a refresh rate of up to 60 frames per second. You also don’t have to worry about the sound - DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 standards with Atmos TrueHD technology are supported.

On Xbox, compared to PlayStation, there are not so many exclusives. At the same time, purchased games will also be available on a Windows PC on board, making them a smarter purchase in some ways.

The best Nintendo game consoles

Nintendo has always been a special company. They have never seriously competed with the guys from Sony and Microsoft, while having a huge army of fans of the most different ages. At first glance, it may seem that their games are monotonous and boring, but digging deeper, you realize that they all have perfectly polished gameplay. What about consoles? They are just as crazy and unusual as their creators.

3 Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The most "nostalgic" prefix
Country: Japan
Average price: 9490 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.6

We have already said that Nintendo has a huge fan base. And this army was formed more than one decade ago. In the late 90s, the company that released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (its exact copy, Dendy, is better known in our country) was one of the largest manufacturers. Contra, Donkey Kong, Super Mario World - these and many other games have won the hearts of young gamers.

The novelty, released in 2016, allows you to plunge into childhood. A very compact box with a retro design. A pair of wired joysticks also correspond to it. The design is the same from the 90s, which further immerses you in the atmosphere of retro gaming. The box itself is powered by a regular USB - you can even connect it to the TV connector. The picture is output via HDMI, you definitely won’t have to mess with adapters. There are 21 games preinstalled on the console, but of course, you can download the necessary images yourself. Of the key differences from the original SNES, we note the ability to save and “rewind” game process 40 seconds ago.

2 Nintendo New 2DS XL

The most convenient handheld console
Country: Japan
Average price: 10750 rubles
Rating (2019): 4.6

In the segment of portable consoles, officially presented in our country, Nintendo unconditionally dominates. We will consider a relatively simple New 2DS XL model. First of all, the form factor is interesting. This is a folding model in the form of a book, inside which two displays fit at once (the main one is 4.88 inches, the lower one is an additional one - 4.18 ') and control buttons, a cross and a stick. Such dimensions allow you to carry the console all the time, playing at any opportunity. The case has a place for the stylus, which is much more convenient to manage in some cases. Note that the Nintendo 2DS is also on sale - a slightly more compact clumsy model, the cost of which is an average of a thousand rubles less. Otherwise, there are practically no differences.

The battery capacity is only 1300 mAh. Battery life varies greatly. In modern demanding games the console can live only 3.5 hours, in the classics - up to 10-12 hours. Games - typical Nintendo games - pokemon, mario, etc.

If you want your console to serve you for a long time, it also needs to be cleaned. For 4 years of moderate use, tufts of cotton wool may form inside it without proper supervision, and the smell may not be the most pleasant. The good news is that disassembling the console is a relatively simple process and preventive cleaning can be done once a year.

1 Nintendo Switch

Best Gaming nintendo console. The world's only hybrid console
Country: Japan
Average price: 19990 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.9

The leading position is expectedly occupied by the novelty that has made a noise - Nintendo Switch. This is the world's first hybrid game console. What does it mean? There is the main part, in the form of a tablet with a 6.2 'screen and HD resolution, and "dopa". If you want to play on the go - connect the joycons to the "tablet" and go. A large TV in front of the sofa - the console into a special docking station, and the joycons into a special platform in the form of a gamepad and again play in comfort. You can play alone or with a friend by giving him one of the joy-cons. The games are really interesting and unique. In addition to the traditional Nintendo series, there is a set of 1-2-Switch mini-games and full-fledged third-party projects like TES V: Skyrim, FIFA 18 and Wolfenstein. Battery life is about 6 hours.

You get special pleasure from versatility: you started the game at home in front of a huge TV, then disconnected the console and continued playing on the subway, and at the end of the evening sat down with friends in a cafe, putting the console on the built-in kickstand. Do not part with games anywhere and never - isn't this the dream of a real gamer?

The best retro consoles

For many people, familiarity with game consoles began with 8 or 16-bit games. “Turn it off, otherwise you’ll plant a kinescope”, “don’t hit me, I’ll try something”, “I’ll be the first!” - these phrases sounded from enthusiastic children during the games in Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other legendary projects. Returning to childhood as an adult, as it turns out, is easy enough - you just need to spend a little money on a modern version of the classic console. For example, such as in the rating below.

2 Sega MegaDrive Classic

Imperishable classic
Country: Japan (made in China)
Average price: 1968 rubles
Rating (2019): 4.6

The classic Sega is still available for purchase at a ridiculous price of about 2,000 rubles. This is the fourth generation of game consoles, but this particular model was remembered by many players for its graphics and unique games. The prefix has a 16-bit system and was a direct competitor to the legendary Dandy. Compared to her, Sega was able to offer a better picture. The device is made in a minimalistic black case with a pair of joysticks with a rounded shape. The case has 2 ports for joysticks so that you can play both alone and in pairs with a friend.

It is worth highlighting the cartridges. They look quite simple and not very reliable, which is why chips on their cases were a common occurrence. Often, the set of delivery of the console included a collection cartridge, where you could find 62 or 131 games. The deluxe edition included such games as Golden Axe, The Lion King, Aladdin, Mortal Kombat and many more.

1 SEGA MegaDrive Gopher

The most compact retro console
Country: Japan
Average price: 3590 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.7

Many retro console manufacturers try to copy the original as much as possible. Appearance, controls, system interface. The creators of the SEGA MegaDrive Gopher took a different path - they combined the achievements of modern technology and the "tube" of old games. The device turned out no more than a modern smartphone. In addition to a 2.8 'screen with a resolution of 360x240 pixels, there was a place for a stick and six buttons in front - the layout is familiar from the old joysticks of the original console. There is an AV output and an audio jack for connecting a TV and a headset, respectively. The battery is only 750 mAh, but this is enough for 10 hours of play.

Inside, everything is extremely simple. Motorola processor running at 7.61 MHz, slot for memory cards up to 4 GB. However, an old 512 MB flash drive will probably be enough for you, because game images take up only 1-4 MB. In addition to the 20 pre-installed games, you can always find other projects. There are a lot of them on specialized forums, and if necessary, you can independently port the PC version of the game.