User:Kaiyi.xia/Video game console

A breakdown of a Nintendo Video Game System and the inputs and output

Video Game Consoles are Electronic devices that have an output of a video signal, which is used to display the video game that one is playing or display what the console is being used for. The console also has an input of a game controller or another input device such as a virtual reality headset. These consoles are usually hooked up to a television, a monitor or some other display device and these are called home video game console, or the console can be a handheld game console which has its own display built in such as a Game Boy Advance. Then there are also a category of Video Game Consoles called hybrid consoles which are both home consoles and handheld consoles in one, and an example of this is the Nintendo Switch.

These consoles are like a computer but they are specially designed to be used for the consumption of video games, and are designed to be more affordable than a computer with the same specifications. They are also meant to be easily accessible to the general public, with the consoles being sold publicly and the games being able to be purchased through game cartridges or discs to ease the effort required from the console to launch the game as well as allowing easy distribution of games. In more recent consoles they are able to be used as replacements for media players as they come with the capability to play films, music, and or stream media services such as Netflix.

History

Main article: History of video game consoles

The first video game console was made in the early 70s and was called Magnavox Odyssey, created by Ralph H. Baer and conceived in 1966, with the concept of playing spot-based games. After the Odyssey, Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney, and Allan Alcorn were all inspired by a table tennis game on it and came up with the revolutionary arcade game, known as pong in 1972, then developing a home version of it which was released in 1975. These first home consoles were developed only made to be able to play a certain set of games that was built into the hardware. The first console that was programmable with the ability to play different games using ROM cartridges was the Fairchild Channel F, which was introduced in 1976. This type of programmable console was the popularized in 1977 with the Atari 2600 revolutionizing home game consoles.

The next new breakthrough in video game consoles came with the introduction of handheld consoles in 1979 with the Microvision and the Game & Watch soon after in 1980. These handheld consoles moved away from LED indicators to LCD which resembles the video screens. The potential of these consoles were then fully realized when the Game Boy was released in 1989.

Since the first console in 1966, video game consoles have become more advanced following global breakthroughs in the technology sector, including improvement to manufacturing of integrated circuits to the increase in computational power one could acquire at cheaper prices. The introduction of 3D graphics and hardware based graphical processors also pushed the bounds of video game consoles during their discovery as well as many other new breakthrough in technology such as internet, bluetooth, and larger media formats. Consoles then started to be grouped into generations, which each lasts around 5 years and are built of consoles that share similar technology and features. There is no exact definition of the generations for home consoles but the standard generations used by most people can be shown in the below image.

Overview of console generations, and the console release dates. (Excluding newest generation Xbox Series X and Series S and PlayStation 5)

Types Of Consoles

There are three different types of consoles which are, home consoles, handheld consoles, and hybrid consoles.

Home Consoles

• Home video game consoles are built to be used when connected to a display device such as a television or monitor, while also having a power supplied through the use of an outlet. They are typically designed to be used in a fixed location such as ones living room, with input devices such as controllers being connected to them to allow the use of these consoles. These types of consoles date back to 1977 with the introduction of the Atari 2600, and other predominant examples of these consoles are the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Sega Genesis. Newer examples of these consoles can be seen as the Wii U, Xbox Series X and Series S, and the PlayStation 5. Home consoles can then be broken down into
  • Microconsoles are a type of home console which does not have the same computing power of consoles released during the same time period. These consoles are usually less expensive and forms of these consoles are stuff that is based on mobile software and allows the user to play games from either Android or IOS. The consoles also support other applications that are available in the featured operating system, such as Netflix or other streaming services.
  • Plug and play consoles is another type of home console, but there are a specialization of microconsoles which come with games built into the hardware. These force the user to play the preloaded games on the console without the capability of adding more games. Due to this these consoles are considered dedicated consoles, all through if someone has the correct knowledge they can find ways to hack the console to add more functionality to it, all though it breaches the warranty making it null and void. These units come with a console unit with some amount of controllers and require the same things a home console would like power and a display device. These consoles are usually made to distribute many retro games for specific platforms.
  • Handheld Television Games are then a specialized version of plug and play consoles which is a version of microconsoles, and the console servers as a controller where the user then just has to connect the console to their television and a power source. These consoles were made to be relatively cheap compared to other video game consoles and became popular in 2003, yet they ran into a problem where counterfeit Nintendo chips manufactured in China were being used to create models resulting in too many to be tracked.

Handheld Consoles

• Handheld game consoles are video game consoles which are build with a display and controller all in one casing. They typically include a rechargeable battery, or a place to replace batteries when the console dies. Having these components allows the consumer to use these consoles where ever they want and carry them around for easy use wherever and whenever the consumer wants. Examples of these consoles are the Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo 3DS as well as many others.

Hybrid Consoles

• Hybrid consoles is a classification of video game consoles which combines both a handheld and home console into one, where they have some sort of docking station or wire that connects it to the console unit which in turn connects it to the television and a fixed power source, as well as having the capability to use a separate controller. Consoles such as this have had existed to some extent starting in 1995 with the Genesis Nomad and then with the PlayStation Portable but it is generally perceived amongst the gaming community that the first hybrid console to be released is the Nintendo Switch.

Another type of console is a programmable console which means that the console allows the consumer to switch between games, which typically is done by changing game cartridges, by changing optical disc, or by changing to a digital distribution of video games. The aforementioned consoles can either be a programmable console or a dedicated console which means the games are built into the hardware so users cannot easily change games. On these dedicated consoles they some times have multiple games built in and the user can switch between those, yet with the correct knowledge and willpower a consumer can modify the hardware to allow other games not built into the original console to be played on it. Dedicated consoles became outdated and were typically the first generation of home consoles, such as the Magnavox Odyssey but they are also used in new plug and play consoles as mentioned above to allow the consumer to play many retro games.