A review of almost fifty years of video game history through some of its most representative machines.
Since the first machine appeared in 1972 that made it possible to turn an ordinary television into a tool for playing games, using the advances in the field of the so-called “Generation Zero”, the concept of video game console has not stopped growing until it has become a common element and almost essential in the living rooms of millions of homes in the world. Since then there have been up to nine of the so-called generations of machines, classified as such based on factors such as technology, capacities or year of launch.Some of these machines are well known throughout the world, others have been practically forgotten in the annals. of history.
More than 50 years of history
In this video we review a sample of the most representative tabletop machines, in a unique journey from the origins of the home video game to the present day. In addition to choosing only a representative sample of each generation, by not listing more than 100 names, we have also decided to omit two mainstays of electronic entertainment: computers and microcomputers such as the Amstrad, the ZX Spectrum or the Commodore Amiga, and portable consoles, They are classified on a scale of generations separate from those of the table. Having made this clarification, we grab our DeLorean and enter the exciting world of “Home Consoles” or table consoles.
We will visit the very origins of the home video game and its first success stories, we will enter the 80s riding on the back of the Atari 2600 and we will experience the Crash of ’83 that opened the door to the entry of Nintendo as a global potential of the video game. We will relive the 16-bit console war between Sega and Nintendo and the subsequent rise of Sony as the main protagonist of the video game with its Playstation. We will experience the overwhelming dominance of PS2, the end of Sega’s journey into the world of consoles with the Dreamcast and the birth of Xbox. And so, going through the seventh and eighth generation, we will arrive at the ninth, the current one, with PS5 and Xbox Series beginning to write their history.
