Console History

FIRST VIDEO GAME:
Alexander S. Douglas invented the first computer game in 1952 that could use a digital and graphical display.

FIRST GENERATION:
The first computer games appeared in the 50s,they used vector displays, not video. It was not until 1972 that Magnavox released the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, was invented by Ralph H. Baer.
SECOND GENERATION:
Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES) in 1976. There had been previous game consoles that used cartridges, the cartridges had no information and served the same function as flipping switches (the Odyssey) or the console itself was empty and the cartridge contained all of the game data.
THIRD GENERATION:
In 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom in Japan.The Famicom had high-resolution and tiled backgrounds, but with more colors. This allowed Famicom games to be longer and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo brought their Famicom over to the US in the form of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. In the US, video games were seen as a fad that had already passed.
FOURTH GENERATION:
Sega regained the market by releasing their next-generation console, the Sega Mega Drive, which was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, in the US in August 1989 (renamed as the Sega Genesis) and in Europe in 1990, two years before Nintendo could release the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
Sega extended the Mega Drive with the Mega CD/Sega CD, to provide more storage space for multimedia-based games that were then in the development community. Later, Sega released the 32X, which added some of the polygon-processing function ewll known in fifth-generation machines.
FITH GENERATION:
The first fifth generation consoles were the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO. Both of these systems were much more powerful than the SNES or Mega Drive (known as Genesis in North America); they were better at rendering polygons, could display more onscreen colors, and the 3DO used CDs that contained far more information than cartridges and were cheaper to produce. SIX SIXTH GENERATION:
This generation saw a move towards PC-like architectures in gaming consoles, as well as a move towards using DVDs for game media. This brought games that were both longer and more visually appealing.This generation also saw experiments with online console gaming both flash and hard drive storage for game data.
As of September 20, 2007, 120 million PlayStation 2 units have been shipped. This makes it the best selling console to date.
The Nintendo GameCube was Nintendo's fourth home video game console and the first console by the company to use optical media instead of cartridges. The Nintendo GameCube did not play standard 12 cm DVDs, instead employing smaller 8 cm optical discs.
Microsoft's Xbox was the company's first video game console. The first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, the Xbox blurred the line between PC and console gaming, as it had similar hardware specifications to a low-end desktop computer at the time of its release.
SEVENTH GENERATION:
The features introduced in this generation include using newer high-definition discs: Blu-ray Disc, utilized by the PlayStation 3, and HD DVD supported by the Xbox 360. Another new technology is to use the motion of the controller as input (as demonstrated by the Wii and the PS3), and understanding where the controller is pointing on the screen Microsoft's Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005. An HD DVD drive was once available as an accessory. The Xbox 360 was the first console with the ability to use wireless controllers out of the box. The Xbox Live service is the hallmark of the system, and the console can connect to the service via the Internet through a built-in ethernet port or a wireless accessory.