With the Xbox 360's, PS3's and Wii's of today, it's hard to imagine let alone compare the gaming technology that we have now to what videogaming was like ?back in the day.? The evolution of videogaming was fast paced, and revolutionary achievements were being made left and right. Let's explore a few of the historically landmark videogame systems of the past.



Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, was a ?third generation? 8-bit console. It came out in 1985, and was released in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia. In 1983, the North American Videogame Crash happened. This was a financial dip in the videogame industry that caused videogame console production to die down. Video gaming became unpopular, and one could see the spiral effect it was so apparently leading to. However, the NES recharged the industry and set videogaming back on the fast track of technological advance.

Sega Master System

In 1986, the Sega Master System came out. It featured 3d Glasses and rapidfire controllers, which were previously unavailable and added to the appeal of this new console. At the same time as the Sega Master System was released, so was the Atari 1000.

1989-1999

These 10 years sported several new and important consoles, such as:

?TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine (1989)

?Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (1989)

?Neo Geo (1991)

?Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom (1991)

?Amiga CD32 (UK ? 1993)

?Atari Jaguar (1993)

?Sega Saturn (1995)

?Sony Playstation (1995)

?Nintendo 64 (1996)

An interesting, little known fact, is that in 1999, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64DD in Japan only, which was an add-on to the original.

Sega Dreamcast

The Dreamcast was one of the more modern revolutionary consoles, beign released in 1999 in North America. It implemented such new features as a web connection + browser, as well as a full SD resolution.