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ARTICLES IN THE BOOK

  1. Action game
  2. Advergaming
  3. Arcade machine
  4. Artificial intelligence
  5. Atari Games
  6. Atari Lynx
  7. Audio game
  8. Board games
  9. Browser game
  10. Casual game
  11. Christian video games
  12. Comparison of handheld gaming consoles
  13. Computer and video games
  14. Computer animation
  15. Computer-assisted role-playing game
  16. Computer graphics
  17. Computer role-playing game
  18. Console game
  19. Dr. Mario
  20. Famicom
  21. First person shooter
  22. Game
  23. Game balance
  24. Game Boy
  25. Game Boy Advance
  26. Game Boy Color
  27. Game Boy line
  28. Game Boy Micro
  29. Game classification
  30. Game controller
  31. Game design
  32. Game designer
  33. Game developer
  34. Game Developer Magazine
  35. Game development
  36. Game development tool
  37. Game mechanic
  38. Gameplay
  39. Game programmer
  40. Game programming
  41. Gamer
  42. Game server browser
  43. Game studies
  44. Gaming convention
  45. Golden Age of Arcade Games
  46. Handheld game console
  47. History of computer and video games
  48. History of video game consoles
  49. History of video games
  50. Hotseat
  51. Internet gaming
  52. Joystick
  53. LAN gaming center
  54. List of books about computer and video games
  55. List of commercial failures in computer and video gaming
  56. List of gaming topics
  57. Mobile game
  58. Multiplayer game
  59. N-Gage
  60. Nintendo 64
  61. Nintendo DS
  62. Nintendo GameCube
  63. Personal computer game
  64. Pinball
  65. Play-by-mail game
  66. Play-by-post game
  67. PlayStation 3
  68. PlayStation Portable
  69. Pong
  70. Programming game
  71. Puzzle computer game
  72. Real-time strategy
  73. Sega Dreamcast
  74. Sega Saturn
  75. Serious game
  76. Simulation game
  77. Single player
  78. Sony PlayStation
  79. Stealth-based game
  80. Strategy game
  81. Strategy guide
  82. Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  83. Synthespian
  84. Tabletop role-playing game
  85. Teamspeak
  86. Tetris
  87. Tokyo Game Show
  88. Video game center
  89. Video game console
  90. Video game crash of 1983
  91. Video game industry
  92. Video game publisher
  93. Wargame
  94. Wii
  95. Xbox 360

 



VIDEO & COMPUTER GAMES
This article is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28third_generation%29

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License 

History of video game consoles (third generation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In the history of video games, the 8-bit era was the third generation of video game consoles, but the first after the video game crash of 1983 and considered by some to be the first "modern" era of console gaming. It began in 1983 with the release of the Famicom in Japan and lasted until 1987. Although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-bit processors, it was in this time that home game systems were first labeled by their "bits". This came into fashion as 16-bit systems like the Mega Drive/Genesis were marketed to differentiate between the generations of consoles. This generation in gaming was primarily dominated by the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom.

Overview

During the era, the Famicom (short for family computer) became very popular in Japan. The Famicom's American counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, highly dominated the gaming market in North America, thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers. Though the NES dominated the market, the Sega Master System (which was popular in Brazil and Europe), and the Atari 7800, were also major players during this era. The Sharp X68000 began its niche run in Japan with its first iteration in 1987.

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.

The latter part of the third generation (argued by some as part of the 4th generation) introduced the Game Boy, which single-handedly gelled and proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years. While the Game Boy product line has been incrementally updated every few years, until the Game Boy Micro and Nintendo DS, and partially the Game Boy Color, all Game Boy products were backwards compatible with the original released in 1989.

The post-crash 8-bit era saw the first console role-playing video games, and was the birth of the side-scroller. Editing and censorship of video games was often used in localizing Japanese games to North America. It is the era when many famous video game series, and the characters starring in them, originated. Some notable examples include Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Sonic and Bomberman.

This generation is often mislabeled as the "First Generation" as it is the start of video gaming as it is today (although the grouping of generations is arbitrary).

The first Sega vs Nintendo console war

In the later 8-bit era, the NES came out on top in North America and Japan (where it was known as Nintendo Famicom), partially due to its earlier release, but mostly because of Nintendo's strict licensing rules that forbid developers from releasing their games on other systems if their games were released on the NES. This put a damper on third party support for the Master System and the rest of Nintendo's competition. However, the Master System was far more popular in Europe and Brazil, which were markets first covered by Sega. Many more games were released in Europe and Brazil than in North America, and the Master System had a very long shelf-life in Brazil, finally being discontinued in the late 1990's.


 

Worldwide sales standings

Third generation (late 8-bit era) systems

Consoles

 

Handhelds

 


 


 

Video game franchises established during the 8-bit era

¹ The Nintendo Wars franchise was debuted in Japan during the 8-bit era, but Nintendo did not release a Nintendo Wars game in North America until the sixth generation era, where it was marketed as Advance Wars. Interestingly, Advance Wars was not released in Japan until the Gameboy Wars Advance 1+2 compilation, due to the September 11th attacks.

References

  1. ^ Classic Systems—Nintendo Entertainment System (html). Nintendo. Retrieved on February 11, 2006.


 

See also

  • Home computer
  • Chiptune
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28third_generation%29"