Chronology of Gaming?

[Blackjack]

Has anyone put together a chart or something showing the release dates and end of production dates (lifespan) for the various gaming systems? I'd be interested in seeing one.

[NovaXpress]

No one can even confirm the release/end dates of popular 2600 products, let alone less popular items.

[glitch]

Here is a list I was working on before. I cannot guarentee it's accuracy and it doesn't have exact dates nor production end dates. I started compiling the list but never finished it. But it may help a little.

 

Unknown

Sega SG-3000 (Japan)

View-Master InteractiveVision

 

1972

May

Magnavox Odyssey Home Entertainment System (Odyssey 1)

 

1975

Atari Pong

Magnavox Odyssey 100

 

1976

Coleco Telstar Arcade

Fairchild Channel F

 

1977

January

RCA Studio II

Atari Tank

Atari Video Pinball

Atari 2600/VCS

September

Bally Professional Arcade (Astrocade)

 

1978

Magnavox Odyssey^2

Zircon Channel F 2

APF M1000/MP1000/Imagination Machine

 

1979

Mattel Intellivision

Milton Bradley Microvision

 

1980

Commodore Vic 20

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer

 

1981

Astrovision Bally Computer System (Bally Professional Arcade)

 

1982

Entex Adventurevision

GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex

Emerson Arcadia 2001

Atari 5200

August

ColecoVision

Zircon Channel F II

Texas Instruments TI 99/4a

Astrovision Astrocade (Bally Professional Arcade)

 

1983

Mattel Intellivision II

Mattel Aquarius

June

Coleco ADAM

Ultravision Video Arcade System

Nintendo Famicom (Japan)

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2

Sega SG-1000 (Japan)

 

1985

Nintendo NES

Mattel INTV System III

 

1986

Sega Master System

Atari 7800

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 3

 

1987

Mattel Captain Power

Atari XE Videogame System

Worlds of Wonder Action Max

 

1988

NEC PC Engine

October

Sega Megadrive (Japan)

Atari 2600 Jr.

 

1989

Konix Multi-System

NEC TurboGrafx-16

September

Sega Genesis

Nintendo Gameboy

Atari Lynx

 

1990

SNK Neo-Geo

NEC TurboExpress

Sega GameGear

 

1991

Nintendo Super Famicom/SNES

 

1992

Phillips CD-i

Watara SuperVision

 

1993

3DO R*E*A*L

Atari Jaguar

Sega Genesis Model II

 

1994

November

Sega 32X

 

1995

Sega Saturn

Nintendo VirtualBoy

Sony Playstation

Sega Nomad

Tiger Electronics R-Zone

 

1996

Nintendo N64

SNK Neo-Geo CDZ

 

1999

Bandai Wonder Swan

[Blackjack]

Thats a start anyway.

[Christophero Sly]

The TI-99/4A came out sometime in the late 70's, not 1982.

[Christophero Sly]

Here is an interesting link.

 

http://www.icwhen.com/book/index.shtml

[Lost Monkey]

Electric Tool did:

 

TROY'S GAMING HISTORY

1977- Atari 2600 (primitive)

1985- Commodore=128 (8-bit)

1989- Amiga 500 (16-bit)

1991- zzzzzzzzzzz :scatter:

2002- Playstation 2 (128-bit)

 

 

Nuff' said..

[Christophero Sly]

Actually, you're right. The TI-99/4 was released in the late 70's. The TI-99/4A didn't appear until 1982, maybe late 1981. My mistake.

[SteveW]

The TI-99/4 Home Computer came out in 1979. The TI-99/4A version (better keyboard) came out in 1981.

[SteveW]

Dang, you beat me to it.

[SteveW]

Sorry for the triple post, but you forgot that the RDI Halcyon came out in 1985, and you also didn't list the Tomy Tutor, a cool little game computer. I believe that the Japanese version, the Tomy Pyuuta, came out in 1982, and the US and UK versions came out in 1983. Nearly all the software available for it was games, and only one cartridge was educational, but Tomy still tried marketing it in the US as an educational computer. Google around for it, it's a pretty interesting machine. Like a supercharged TI-99/4A.

[shep]

http://videogames.org I beleive.

[Mr_8bit_16bit]

great start, but you forgot Sega CD (92, wasn't it?)

[JerseyDevil]

The Atari 2600 Jr came out earlier than 1988. I bought one when I first moved back to NJ from Florida and that was early 1986.

[Dr. Van Thorp]

And since you listed computers, you may want to add Apple II (1976) to the list. Not to mention Commodore 64 and MSX.

 

Also worthy of research for inclusion: the original Spacewar game that ran on a maneframe, and the original transister based osciloscope pong demo game. What was the first cartridge-based handheld game?

[Lost Monkey]

Turbo Duo 1992

[Ze_ro]

1989

Konix Multi-System

I'm fairly certain that this thing never actually came out... other than that, your list looks like a great start. It would be cool if someone could manage to tack down some "death dates" for consoles so we could make a chart with lines to show the lifespans of consoles and see where they overlap and such. Could be an interesting project.

 

--Zero

[Dones]

The link below doesn't have a chart but it does offer a comprehensive account of the history of SEGA consoles. If you take the time to read it you will find many dates (even for Nintendo/Sony products) that might fit into your work.

 

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/segabase/

[George Gray]

And since you listed computers, you may want to add Apple II (1976) to the list. Not to mention Commodore 64 and MSX.

 

Also worthy of research for inclusion: the original Spacewar game that ran on a maneframe, and the original transister based osciloscope pong demo game.  What was the first cartridge-based handheld game?

 

The first cartridge based hand held was the Milton Bradley Microvision ('79-'82) About a dozen or so cartridges were released. Primitive lcd 'graphics' and piezo sound. The CPU was in the cartridge itself. The 'console' was just the display, touchpad and battery compartment. Cool for the day, laughable now.

 

I think that between '82 and '89 (GAMEBOY) there was at least one other cartridge based hand held. I don't recall the name, but I THINK it was a Japanese unit. It was opposit the Microvision in that the screen was part of the cart and the cpu in the console. Sound familiar to anyone? It was bigger than a Gameboy, smaller than the Microvision (which was HUGE).

[digitalpress]

This is far from complete but maybe it helps?

 

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/timeline.htm