Console City

A video game console is a dedicated electronic device designed to play video games. Often the output device is a separate television or a computer monitor. Once, video game consoles were easily distinguishable from personal computers: consoles used a standard television for display, and did not support standard PC accessories such as keyboards or modems. However, as consoles have become more enhanced, the distinction has blurred: some consoles can have full Linux operating systems running with hard drives and keyboards (like the Sega Dreamcast) (one university has even created a Beowulf cluster of PlayStation 2 consoles), and Microsoft's Xbox is basically a stripped down PC running a version of Microsoft Windows.
The console market has steadily developed from simple one-off games (Pong) to fully featured general purpose games systems.
Older game consoles and their software now live on in emulators as they are no longer supported by their manufacturers. However, console makers try to prevent their games from being played on emulators using copyright-like exclusive rights in mask works and a protection of encrypted media created by the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act and foreign counterparts.
Note that the "bitness" of past generations (8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit and 128-bit) were in large part created by the console makers' marketing departments and may have little to do with the actual architecture of the systems.

1972

Magnavox Odyssey

1975
Atari Pong
Magnavox Odyssey 100
Magnavox Odyssey 200


1976

Fairchild Video Entertainment System
Atari Super Pong
Coleco Telstar
Wonder Wizard 7702
Coleco Telstar Classic
Magnavox Odyssey 300
Magnavox Odyssey 400
Magnavox Odyssey 500
RCA Studio II

1977

Home Library Computer
Nintendo Color TV Game
Atari Video Pinball
Atari Stunt Cycle
Atari VCS 2600
Coleco Telstar Combat
Coleco Telstar Alpha
Magnavox Odyssey 2000
Magnavox Odyssey 3000
Magnavox Odyssey 4000

1978

Odyssey²
Coleco Telstar Colortron
Coleco Telstar Arcade
Bally Professional Arcade
Coleco Telstar Gemini

1979

Zircon Channel F System II
Atari 400

1980

Commodore 128
Commodore VIC-20
Mattel Intellivision

1982

ColecoVision
 Commodore 64
Atari 5200
Vectrex
Emerson Arcadia 2001
Coleco Gemini
Mattel Intellivision II

1983

Famicom
MSX


1984
Atari 7800

1985

NES

Sega Master System
Atari ST
Amiga 1000


1986
Atari 2600 Junior
Atari 7800

1987

TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine

1988

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

1989

Gameboy
NEC Turbo Grafx 16

1990

SNES

Neo Geo
Game Gear
Sega Master System II

1991

Mega CD/Sega CD


1992
NEC TurboDuo
Sega CD

1993

Atari Jaguar

Panasonic 3DO Interactive
Sega Pico
Nintendo Entertainment System Model 2

1994

Sega 32X

Macintosh
Sega Saturn
Playstation
Sega Genesis 2
Sega CD for Genesis 2
Neo Geo CD
Sega CDX


1995
Playstation
Play It Loud Gameboy
Atari Jaguar CD
Panasonic 3DO FZ-10

1996

Pippin
Nintendo 64
Gameboy Pocket


1998
Sega Dreamcast
Gameboy Light
Gameboy Color
Sega Genesis 3


2000
Playstation 1
Playstation 2


2001
Nintendo GameCube
Xbox
Gameboy Advance


2003
Gameboy SP


2004
XaviXPORT


2005
Xbox 360
Gameboy Micro
Gizmondo
GP2X
EZ Mini


2006
Playstation 3
Nintendo Wii
Pelican VG Pocket


2007
IPod Touch 1G
IPhone


2008
IPod Touch 2G
IPhone 3G


2009
Dingoo A320
GP2X Wiz
Zune HD
IPod Touch 3G
IPhone 3GS


2010
OpenPandora

IPod Touch 4G

IPhone 4G

IPad
Samsung Galaxy S Tab