History of Game Consoles
Generation 1:
Magnavox Odyssey - The first home game console. It could only play a few very simple built in games and lacked a CPU. These were not as popular as Atari's consoles later on. This generation didn't use ROM cartridges like later consoles, instead using 'game cards' which were printed circuit boards. It was only capable of displaying a vertical line and two dots on the screen.
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Atari Pong - This was a much more successful console due to the inclusion of the popular arcade game Pong, with similar technology.
Generation 2:
Atari 2600 - This was the first console to use ROM cartridges. Had a MOS Technology 6507 CPU with 1.19MHz and 128 bytes of RAM. It could create a few different types of sprites on screen between 1 and 40 pixels.
Generation 3:
Nintendo Entertainment System - An 8 bit console that offered high resolution sprites, larger colour palettes and overall more advanced graphics. It offered many classic games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. It had a 1.79MHz CPU and 2 kB of ram. It could use only 25 different colours and games were all sprite based.
Generation 4:
Super NES - A more advanced version of the NES. Was released late outside Japan which hurt it's sales and SEGA's consoles grew more popular. This version was 16 bit, with a 3.58 MHz CPU and 128 KB of RAM. 16 bit allowed for a huge colour palette of 32,768. The higher technical power and colour palettes of these new consoles allowed for higher quality graphics and 3D looking sprites.
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Sega Mega Drive - SEGA's direct competition with Nintendo. Had more advanced graphics than the NES (and the SNES was not available in Europe/America at the time) and included many arcade classics like Altered Beast, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog. It had a 7.6MHz CPU and 72kB of RAM.
Generation 5:
Playstation - Sony's first console that became the first to sell over 100 million units. Featured real 3D graphics. The console was easier to produce games for and the system had a wide range of third party games. Popularized the use of CDs rather than cartridges. Generation 5 consoles were 32 bit. It had a 33.8 MHz CPU and 2 MB of RAM.
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Nintendo 64 - Featured greater ability to handle 3D polygons. Used cartridges that cost more and made the PlayStation more appealing to third party developers. Included a library of Nintendo games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Goldeneye. Had a 93.7 MHz CPU and 4 GB of RAM.
Generation 6:
Playstation 2 - The best selling game console of all time. Consoles started having dedicated GPUs for 3D graphics in this generation. The PS2 had a GPU with a fillrate of 2.4 gigapixels per second, able to render 75 million polygons per second and also accounts for lighting, texturing, AI and physics.