History of video games/Print version/Fourth Generation of Video Game Consoles

Fourth generation of video game consoles

Trends

Improved hardware

An example of pixel art that emulates the style of the era.

During this generation pixel art in games becomes more much more advanced, often adopting the pointillism art style to the medium to great effect. Sprite based 2D graphics were essentially a solved problem by this generation, which lead to companies to look for ways to differentiate their graphics.

Game consoles also began using pre-rendered 3D Graphics and graphical techniques to give the impression of real 3D graphics running on hardware. Games using simple real time 3D polygons became popular, though they often required enhancement chips to draw just a few hundred polygons a second.

This generation audio improved drastically, with much more advanced audio systems.

CD capable consoles

An illustration of a typical compact disc.

This generation some companies attempted to release high end consoles with built in CD support, while others tried to launch CD add ons. Both strategies saw lukewarm adoption at best. CD-ROM technology was appealing because they could be used to add recorded video to games, recorded soundtracks, and other features. Furthermore, a high capacity CD-ROM was much cheaper to make ($2 for disk and packaging in 1993) compared to cartridges which held far less and cost far more. As a result CD based games saved significant amounts of money for developers. The high lead times and cost of cartridges also lead to financial issues for companies who overproduced games they were unable to sell, further enhancing the appeal of CD-ROMs as a format to some developers.

Yet CD-ROMs in consoles were not a fully ready technology this generation. Game Developers often used the extra space for enhanced graphics or audio, but often did not use the extra space to further gameplay in a way that could not be done on a cartridge. CD-ROM drives were still quite expensive, despite rapidly declining prices. They were also quite slow compared to cartridges, with long loading times compared to the near instant access allowed by a cartridge.

References

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  The Atari Lynx handheld game console.
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  The later Atari Lynx II revision.

History

Atari Lynx logotype.

Development

The Lynx was originally developed by a company called Epyx in August 1987 as the Handy Project, with some members of the design team having previously worked on the Amiga series of computers. The system later piqued the interest of Atari, which acquired it and applied it's big cat naming scheme to the device.

Launch

The Atari Lynx was launched in fall of 1989. The launch price of the Lynx was $179.99 US Dollars. The Lynx received a positive reception, but struggled on the market due to issues Atari faced getting retailers to carry the console.A redesigned Lynx was launched in 1991 with a reduced price of $99, which made it much more price competitive with the Game Boy.

Legacy

Two to three million Lynx consoles were sold. The discontinuation date of the Lynx is disputed, with discontinuation years given of 1992, 1994, or 1995.

The Atari Lynx gained a dedicated fanbase, and saw multiple homebrew titles released as recently as 2019.

Technology

Custom chips on the Lynx.

Compared to its rivals, the Lynx had a powerful mobile computer. The handheld is powered by the Mikey CPU, a version of the 8-bit WDC 65SC02 CPU clocked at 4 megahertz and the Suzy GPU clocked at 16 megahertz. Games for the Lynx could leverage a powerful graphics system, supporting hundreds of sprites, and a software defined framerate. The Lynx has 64 kilobytes of RAM. Lynx game cartridges could store as much as 2 megabytes of ROM.

The Lynx had a color display, which was backlit, permitting handheld gaming in the dark. The screen can display 4,096 colors and has a resolution of 160 pixels by 102 pixels. Both a color screen and night time visibility were not universal at the time, which was a significant advantage for the Lynx.

The superior features of the Lynx required a very high power draw, and so the handheld used 6 AA batteries, a significant disadvantage compared to more efficient competitors such as the Game Boy. Battery life typically lasted under 4 hours, though the system could be powered by an AC adapter when near an outlet. At the time, most AA batteries were non rechargeable, making operating the console a significant expense. In contrast to other handhelds of the time which were typically constrained by processor power or their display, the power consumption of the Lynx its biggest technological Achilles' Heel.

The Atari Lynx has an ambidextrous design, a fairly unique choice among handheld game consoles. This made the system equally suitable for left handed or right handed gamers, though labeling does appear designed for right hand use.

Retail games for the system were packaged in cardboard boxes.

Notable games

Wikipedia has a list of Atari Lynx games.

Gallery

Atari Lynx I

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  The bottom of the unit, with battery and cartridge doors open.
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Atari Lynx II

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Accessories

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  The official Atari Lynx carrying case.
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  The Lynx Sun Visor. The visor could collapse and act as a screen protector.
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  The official cigarette lighter adapter for powering the Lynx in cars.

Lynx I Internals

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  The motherboard top with screen and speaker visible.
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  The screen used a small florescent tube as a backlight.
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  The front casing contains holes for the speakers, as well as holders for face buttons. Button contact pads are visible in this photo.
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  The rear casing features sturdy construction.
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Lynx II Internals

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  Motherboard shielding.
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  Motherboard with shielding removed.
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  The backlight
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Developers

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  R J Mical playing a Lynx, the system he co-designed.
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  Dave Needle, one of the co-designers of the Lynx.

External Resources

• iFixit - Atari Lynx page.

References

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  Sketch of the Atari Panther

History

The design of the Atari Panther was influenced by the Konix Multisystem.

The Atari Panther was supposed to release in 1991, but was ultimately scraped in favor of development on the Atari Jaguar. The decision to cancel the console was made just 6 months prior to launch.

A development system for the Atari Panther was produced, which shows significant investment from Atari in the concept.

Technology

The primary Panther CPU was a Motorola 68000 clocked at 16 megahertz. The Panther also used a 32-bit graphics processor clocked at 32 megahertz.

Audio was handled by an Ensoniq ES5505 OTIS sound processor clocked at 8 megahertz and with support for up to 32 channels of PCM audio.

Gallery

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  The die of a Motorola 68000.
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  An Ensoniq ES-5506, a similar chip to the ES5505.

External Resources

• Atari Museum - Panther page with design documents.

References

• 
  A Barcode Battler.

History

A Barcode Battler powered on.

The Barcode Battler was released by Epoch in 1991, and was very successful in Japan, but less successful in Europe.

The system was an early example of a game that attempted to leverage real world data in gameplay, and is notable for doing so in an era before widespread internet access, accurate and cheap public GPS access, or other common systems used in contemporary games that leverage real world conditions.

Technology

Little reliable information exists for the technological specifications of the Barcode Battler.

The Barcode Battler is said to be powered by a N2A03 CPU clocked at 1 megahertz.

The system supports a two player mode.

History

Capcom's headquarters in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. Capcom moved their headquarters here in 1994, around the time of the launch of the Capcom Power System Changer.

The Capcom Power System Changer was essentially an attempt by Capcom to mimic the success of the NEO•GEO home console produced by SNK.

The Capcom Power System Changer saw a limited Japanese release near the end of 1994, with a launch price of 39,800 yen. The system was on the market for a short time, and was only supported until 1995.

Technology

Compute

Games for the Capcom Power System Changer were based on CPS1 arcade boards, which are essentially self contained in cartridges.

The Capcom Power System Changer itself only includes a processor based on the Motorola 68000 clocked at 10 megahertz and a Sony CXA1645 chip to handle converting JAMMA arcade standards into home friendly IO.

Hardware

The system uses Super Famicom compatible controllers.

Games

11 games were released for the Capcom Power System Changer.

Gallery

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  The CPU used on the CPS1 arcade board.
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  A Motorola 6800 CPU die, similar to what would have been used in the Capcom Power System Changer.

External Resources

• Video Game Console Library - Capcom Power System Changer page.
• Video Game Kraken - Capcom Power System Changer page.

References

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  A Philips CD-i 220 with a controller attached.
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  A Phillips CD-i 400 with a controller attached.

History

The city of Ghent in Belgium. Many CDI consoles were made in Belgium.

Pre-launch

As early as December 1987 the CD-i and the ambitious concept behind it was highly anticipated by some media outlets.

Launch

The CD-i was launched in 1991. The platform was not marketed well early on, though a 1991 partnership with Nintendo on developing a CD-based add-on for the Super Nintendo gave Phillips the right to produce several games based on existing Nintendo game series.

From October 25^th, 1995 to sometime around 2000, the CD-i could access an online service known as CD-Online.

Legacy

System

Phillips stopped active development of the CD-i in 1996 and the system was discontinued in 1998, with between 570,000 and one million CD-i consoles sold worldwide.

Games

Eiji Aonuma in 2013. Note that Eiji Aonuma was not involved with the Zelda CD-i game production.

“	I don't know that those really fit in the Zelda franchise.	”
—Eiji Aonuma - 2013, MTV Interview regarding the Hyrule Historia.

Mention of the CD-i Zelda games would often be omitted from official Nintendo retrospectives.

Technology

Computation

The CD-i was powered by a Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 15.5 MHz. This was a very common processor for this generation of consoles.

The CD-i had one megabyte of RAM. A digital video add-on cartridge added an additional 1.5 megabytes of RAM, as well as allowing the CD-i to decode MPEG-1 video. Finally the CD-i had eight kilobytes of persistent storage based on RAM, powered by a lithium battery, which is prone to failure from age.

At the time of release, the CD-i was seen as a low performance system with a design that was relatively easy to develop for.

Hardware

The CD-i could read CD-ROM Green Book disks at 170 kilobits per second.

The CD-i runs a custom version of Microware OS9, a real-time operating system called CD-RTOS. The CD-i supported the CD-Online service, which required the use of an adapter cable, software disk, and a 14.4K dial-up modem.

Notable games

1993

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

An early counterpart game to Link: The Faces of Evil with a female protagonist, departing from Zelda-series norms to feature the titular Princess Zelda as the protagonist.

Read more about Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon on Wikipedia.

Link: The Faces of Evil

A counterpart game to Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.

The game attracted widespread internet notoriety again in early 2021, when an artist redrew the character Morshu using hyper realistic 3D Graphic techniques.

Read more about Link: The Faces of Evil on Wikipedia.

1994

Zelda's Adventure

The lesser known of the three Zelda games for the CD-i, it features live action cutscenes, perhaps the only Zelda-series game to do so. It also featured the titular princess as the protagonist, another departure from the typical Zelda-series formula at the time.

Read more about Zelda's Adventure on Wikipedia.

Hotel Mario

Read more about Hotel Mario on Wikipedia.

1996

RAM Raid

A notable early online FPS.

1997

Brain Dead 13

Read more about Brain Dead 13 on Wikipedia.

Burger King CD-i

Early game-based training software.

2022

Nobelia

Commercial homebrew game and platform exclusive released long after the CD-i was discontinued from the market.

Cancelled

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

A planned sequel to the SNES game Super Mario World. An incomplete version of the game eventually surfaced.

Read more about Super Mario's Wacky Worlds on Wikipedia.

Mario Takes America

Another canceled Mario game for the CD-i, with this title using a combination of real life photography and filming and overlaid 2D artwork.

Gallery

Consoles

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  CDi 220 from the front right.
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  CDi 220 from the back left.
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  CDi 220 from the back right.
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  CDI 910 front with controller attached. The controller has its direction stick unscrewed.
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  CDI 910 rear showing IO and expansion socket. This console was made in Belgium.

Controllers

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  Paddle Controller
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  Gamepad
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  Roller Controller
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  The CDi Mouse

Remote controls

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References

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  A CDTV unit with controller, keyboard, and mouse.

History

CDTV logotype.

The system was announced in Summer of 1990. At CES 1990 the Commodore 64 Games System overshadowed the Commodore CDTV at the Commodore booth.

The CDTV was launched in 1991.

The system was discontinued in 1993. Sales for the CDTV were as low as 30,000 units, with the highest sales figures given is still under 60,000 units. Despite poor sales of the CDTV, Commodore would try again with a similar concept in the Amiga CD32.

Technology

The CDTV is based on a Amiga 500 computer equipped with 1 megabyte of RAM.

Gallery

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Notes

CDTV stands for "Commodore Dynamic Total Vision", rather then the commonly assumed "Compact Disk TeleVision".

References

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  A Gamate console and game cards.

History

Gamate logotype.

Not to be confused with the earlier, but unrelated VTech 3D Gamate.

Released by Bit Corp in 1990, Bit Corp folded in 1992 but UMC would continue production until around 1993, with the Gamate's biggest market only being a modest presence in Italy.

The Gamate was a failure in the market and it is speculated that the Gamate sold worse then the Watara Supervision.

Technology

The Gamate uses a clone of the 8-bit MOS 6502 processor, either a UMC UA6588F or an NCR 81489.

The Gamate probably has 16 kilobytes of RAM.

The monochrome Gamate screen tends to ghost badly.

Notable games

About 70 games were released for the system.

References

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  A GameBoy at the Nintendo World Store.

History

Development

Nintendo had previously made dedicated handheld consoles such as the Game & Watch series consoles as well as the Nintendo Computer Mah-Jong Yakuman, however the Game Boy would be their first handheld to play interchangeable cartridges

Launch

The GameBoy was released in 1989 on April 21st in Japan and July 31st in the United States of America.

Project Atlantis

Project Atlantis was a canceled Game Boy successor that used a 32 bit ARM 7 CPU that was in development by 1995. The system was canceled due to it's enormous size, high expense, and poor performance.

GameBoy Color

The GameBoy Color was released on November 18th, 1998.

A touch screen adapter for the GameBoy Color was developed, but never released.

Third party support for the system was large, with even a sewing machine supporting control over Game Boy link cable.

In 2001 the Mobile System GB released in Japan for 5800 yen. Though it allowed a Game Boy to connect to cell phones to access the internet on the go, it had a number of fees associated with using it, and sold under 100,000 units.

Legacy

In 2003 the original GameBoy was discontinued, having been succeeded by the Game Boy Advance line of consoles. The GameBoy and the GameBoy Color sold 118.69 million units collectively.

GameBoy emulation has proven to be a fairly common topic in programming education. In 2020 researchers made the Engage an unofficial ultra low power GameBoy hardware clone which required no battery power to operate, instead being powered by solar energy and energy captured from button presses.

An advanced example of chiptune made with a Game Boy. Most commercial games did not approach this level of audio complexity.

The Game Boy became would later become a popular musical instrument for Chiptune music creation.

Technology

In terms of technical capabilities, the Game Boy is often thought of as a portable Nintendo Entertainment System, though the internal architectures of these systems are radically different.

Original GameBoy

Compute

The Game Boy CPU die.

The GameBoy uses a 8 bit Z80 CPU clocked at 4.194304 megahertz.

The GameBoy has eight kilobytes of RAM and eight kilobytes of VRAM.

Display

The 1990 GameBoy version of Bubble Ghost, showing fairly typical graphics for the system.

The GameBoy has a 160 by 144 resolution LCD. The dot matrix display could display four shades from green to grey, making it monochrome.

Audio

The GameBoy has four channels of stereo sound. The system only had a single built in speaker, restricting the system to monophonic audio by default and requiring headphones for full stereo audio output.

Networking

The GameBoy has a link cable port.

Power

The original GameBoy uses four AA batteries and draws 70 to 80 mAh an hour, lasting about 30 hours.

GameBoy Color

The GameBoy color possessed significantly increased specs compared to the original monochrome models.

Compute

An 8-bit Z80 based CPU clocked at 8.388 megahertz powers the GameBoy Color.

The GameBoy color has 32 Kilobytes of RAM.

Display

The GameBoy color uses a color TFT LCD, with a resolution of 160 by 144 pixels, 32,000 colors displayable, and 56 simultaneous colors.

Networking

A link cable port and inferred port are present.

Power

The GameBoy color takes two AA batteries, and draws 70 to 80 mAh an hour, lasting for about 10 hours of runtime.

Accessories

Some Suzuki and Aprillia motorcycles are designed to hook up to a Game Boy Color through a special cable and cartridge combination for diagnostics access.

A work oriented accessory, the WorkBoy keyboard and cartridge combo was planned but not released.

Notable Games

1989

A GameBoy with Tetris.

• Super Mario Land
• Revenge of the 'Gator

Tetris

The rights to Tetris proved to be a contentious issue between those who claimed rights and the Soviet government.

Read more about Tetris on Wikipedia.

1991

• Metroid II: Return of Samus

1992

• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
• Kirby's Dream Land - The first Kirby game
• X - Early 3D Game on the GameBoy

1993

• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

1994

• Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

1996

Pokemon Red and Blue

The first Pokemon games were inspired by series creator Satoshi Tajiri's experience catching bugs as a youth in Machida, Japan.

At the last minute an additional Pokemon was added by the development team to make the total number of monsters catchable 151. This addition caused a number of urban legends and myths regarding an in game truck.

The spooky ambiance of the in game location Lavender Town sparked a number of urban legends and myths.

• A short documentary on Satoshi Tajiri and the creation of Pokemon by YouTube channel Video Game Story Time.
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  The Kanto region in pokemon loosely corresponds to the Kantō region in Japan.
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  A natural area in the now urbanized Machida, Japan. Natural areas similar to this served as the inspiration for the Pokemon games.

1997

• Harvest Moon GB

1998

• Pokémon Yellow

1999

Mario Golf

Mario Golf for the GBA mixed golf mechanics with a simple RPG, sparking a small genre of golf RPGs.

Read more about Mario Golf on Wikipedia.

Pokémon Gold and Silver

Then HAL Laboratory President Satoru Iwata was brought on to help with making compression tools for game graphics.

Read more about Pokémon Gold and Silver on Wikipedia.

• A short documentary on Satoru Iwata's involvement in Pokemon by YouTube channel Video Game Story Time.
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  The Hōryū-ji. In game locations were inspired by the Kansai region in Japan.
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  Pokemon Silver cartridge board. Note the coin cell battery.

2000

• Pokémon Crystal

Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel

The track "Ascent" is a particularly impressive piece of chiptune. Read more about Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel on Wikipedia.

2001

• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages

2002

• Shantae

Special edition GameBoys

• Yellow Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy Color.

Gallery

Original GameBoy

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  The original GameBoy
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  The original GameBoy
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  The original GameBoy
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  The original GameBoy
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  The battery compartment opened.
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  GameBoy Play it Loud! edition

GameBoy Pocket

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  Game Boy Pocket
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  Game Boy Pocket
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  Game Boy Pocket
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  Game Boy Pocket
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  Black Game Boy Pocket

GameBoy Light

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  GameBoy Light
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  GameBoy Light
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  GameBoy Light
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  GameBoy Light

GameBoy Color

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  GameBoy Color
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  GameBoy Color
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  GameBoy Color
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  GameBoy Color
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  Purple Game Boy Color
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  Yellow Game Boy Color

GameBoy Accessories

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  Two GameBoys connected by link cable
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  A GameBoy camera
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  A Photo taken by the GameBoy camera.
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  A GameBoy printer
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  Game Boy four player adapter
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  Game Boy Link Cable
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  A Game Boy Pocket link cable connector.
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  Third party accessories, such as illuminated magnifying glasses or stereo speakers were common.
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  A add on lamp such as this, or a carefully placed flashlight, was required to play the GameBoy in the dark.
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  A standard Game Boy cartridge
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  Game Boy pocket sonar.
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  A singer Sewing Machine which supported GameBoy.

Game Genie

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  A Game Genie for the Game Boy
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  A Game Genie attached to a Game Boy.

GameBoy Internals

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  The motherboard for the original Game Boy.
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  The bottom of the original Game Boy motherboard.
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  An original Game Boy circuit board.
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  The top of the Game Boy pocket motherboard.
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  The bottom of the Game Boy pocket motherboard.
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  A Game Boy Pocket circuit board.
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  The top of the Game Boy color motherboard.
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  The bottom of the Game Boy color motherboard.
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  Game Boy Printer internals
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  Annotated photo of the Game Boy printer board.

Color palettes

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  Simulated colors of the original Game Boy.
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  Simulated colors of the Game Boy Pocket.
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  Simulated colors of the Game Boy Color.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.
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  One of the color palettes used by the Game Boy Color when using an monochrome original Game Boy cartridges.

Marketing

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  Game Boy logotype.
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  Game Boy Pocket logotype.
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  Game Boy Light logotype.
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  Game Boy Color logotype.

Other

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  A GameBoy perpetually playing Tetris at the Nintendo World Store, having survived bombing during the Gulf War.
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  A Japanese Warranty included with a Game Boy.
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  Prototype Lemmings cartridge
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  Then first lady Hillary Clinton, plays a GameBoy on a flight in 1993.
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  The audio characteristics of the Game Boy would later be widely used by the Chiptune community, shown here.
• The Ultimate Game Boy talk at CCC.

External Resources

Archived web materials

• Game Boy website
• Game Boy hardware website

References

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  The Sega Game Gear handheld.

History

Game Gear logotype.

Development

While in development the Game Gear was known as Project Mercury.

The Game Gear was made domestically in Japan.

Launch

The Game Gear was launched in October of 1990 costing 19,800 yen.

Discontinuation

Sega discontinued the Game Gear in 1997, with 11 million consoles sold. During the 30th anniversary of the system in 2020, Sega produced the Game Gear Micro a miniature reproduction of the Game Gear.

Technology

The internal architecture of the Game Gear is very similar to Sega's earlier home console, the Master System.

Compute

The Game Gear uses an 8-bit Zilog Z80 based processor clocked at 3.58 megahertz.

The Game Gear has eight kilobytes of RAM, and 16 kilobytes of video RAM.

Hardware

The Game Gear has a 3.2 inch color screen with a resolution of 160 pixels by 144 pixels.

The Game Gear uses a Texas Instruments SN76489 chip for sound.

The Game Gear required the use of 6 AA batteries.

Notable games

1991

• Eternal Legend
• Factory Panic
• Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe
• House of Tarot
• Ninja Gaiden
• Head Buster
• Popils

1992

• The Majors: Pro Baseball
• The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury
• Sega Game Pack 4 in 1

1993

• Power Strike II

1994

• Fred Couples Golf
• Coca-Cola Kid
• Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible
• Poker Face Paul
• Popeye: Beach Volleyball
• X-Men
• X-Men: Gamesmaster's Legacy

1995

• Mega Man
• Chicago Syndicate
• Godzilla: Kaijuu no Daishingeki
• Ristar
• Super Columns
• Sylvan Tale

1996

• Arena: Maze of Death
• Pet Club: Inu Daisuki!
• Pet Club: Neko Daisuki!

Special Edition Game Gear Consoles

• Enjoy Coca-Cola Game Gear

Gallery

Console

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  The Sega Game Gear with a Television Tuner attached. This allowed for gamers to catch over-the-air television on the go, a novelty during the 1990's.
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  A special edition red Coca-Cola Game Gear.
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  A standard Game Gear cartridge

Internals

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  The Game Gear CPU.

References

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Logotype for the Hartung Game Master

History

The Hartung Game Master was a handheld game console that was released in 1990. The system saw release in a number of western European countries, as well as Hong Kong.

Technology

The Hartung Game Master uses an NEC upd7810 CPU.

The Game Master has a monochrome LCD with a resolution of 64 by 64 pixels.

History

Original Picno

The first Konami Picno educational console was released in Japan in 1992 for ¥29,800 yen.

Picno 2

The Picno 2 was launched in 1993 for ¥15,800 yen as a much cheaper followup console.

Legacy

The Picno was discontinued around 1994.

Technology

The Konami Picno uses a HD6435328F, a HN62334BP, a HM538121JP, a M514256B, and a custom chip.

The Picno uses a touchpad built into the system for most of it's input.

Notable games

A small number of educational titles and simple games were released for the Konami Picno.

History

Development

The canceled system was planned for a August 1989 release at a cost 200 British pounds. Funding issues caused the system to be shuttered shortly afterwards.

A new version of the system focused on using only CDs in conjunction with a 32 bit processor clocked at 30 megahertz was announced in 1993.

Legacy

Ultimately the controller would see a release by a different company as a PC game controller.

The design of the Konnix Multisystem would later influence the Atari Panther, and from that the Atari Jaguar.

Technology

Compute

The Konix Multisystem was powered by an 16-bit Intel 8086 processor clocked at 6 megahertz. The system also had a 12 megahertz custom co-processor.

The system started with 128 kilobytes of RAM, but later had 256 kilobytes of RAM which could be expanded to a total of 768 kilobytes of RAM with a proposed 512 kilobyte add on.

Hardware

The system used special 880 kilobyte capacity 3.5 inch floppy disks.

A morphing controller was planned.

A number of unique accessories were planned, including a power chair that used hydraulics.

References

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  The Pioneer LaserActive with a Sega Genesis module and branded Genesis controller.

History

The Pioneer LaserActive was a LaserDisk based multimedia entertainment device with game console capabilities that was released on August 20th, 1993 at a cost of $970. Unlike most multimedia platforms at the time, the LaserActive primarily played games released for other systems through PAC expansion modules, which contained a LaserActive compatible version of that console.

The Sega PAC add on was released in 1993 for $600 and allowed the LaserActive to play Genesis games.

Another PAC was released to play NEC CD-ROM2 games. However it was not compatible with the Arcade Card Pro.

Technology

Not much information is known about the technology used by the Pioneer LaserActive itself, with most accounts focusing on the capabilities of individual PACs, which are themselves very close in capabilities to the systems they are based on.

Games

31 games were released for the LaserActive. Games for the LaserActive are not region locked.

Gallery

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  The Pioneer LaserActive featured a design that put it at home in a home theater.
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  A Sega Genesis module is installed on the bottom left.
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  This unit was made in Japan in September 1993.
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  The unit is held together with Phillips screws.
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  A Japanese LaserActive with accessories including Sega and NEC pacs.

External Resources

• Nicole Express - Article describing the LaserActive in detail.
• Video Game Console Library - LaserActive page with in depth information.

References

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  The Mega Duck, Cougar Boy, and games.

History

Made in Hong Kong, the Mega Duck was released in 1993.

A toy laptop version of the Mega Duck was released, containing both a normal keyboard and a music keyboard, a mouse, and a printer predating the GameBoy Printer.

Technology

Compute

These Mega Duck is powered by an 8-bit MOS Z80 CPU clocked at 4.19 megahertz. This was a common choice at the time, and is similar to the CPU used in the original Game Boy.

The console has 16 kilobytes of RAM.

Hardware

The console has a four shade monochrome LCD with a resolution of 160 by 144 pixels.

The console has a six pin link port for connecting to another console over a link cable.

The console is powered either by four AA batteries or a 6V DC from an AC adapter.

Gallery

MegaDuck

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Interior

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Display

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Motherboard

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  The Motherboard back, showing the cartridge slot.
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References

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  The Neo Geo AES with controller.

History

NEO•GEO logotype.

Launch

The Neo Geo AES (Arcade Entertainment System) was launched in 1990, costing the equivalent of $650 at launch. In the United States of America, the Neo Geo was launched in 1991.

Legacy

Samurai Shodown V Special, the last official Neo Geo cartridge, was released on April 22nd, 2004.

Technology

A Neo Geo hotel unit

Compared to most home consoles of the fourth generation, the Neo Geo AES was technically superior in many aspects.

Compute

The SNK Neo Geo AES is powered by a primary 16 bit Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 12 megahertz, and a secondary 8 bit Zilog Z80-A processor clocked at 4 megahertz.

The Neo Geo AES has 64 kilobytes of RAM, 2 kilobytes of sound RAM, and 68 kilobytes of Video RAM.

Hardware

The Neo Geo uses a custom graphics chipset which can draw 380 simultaneous sprites and three background planes simultaneously.

A Yamaha 2610 chip is used for audio, and is capable of 15 channels of audio.

The Neo Geo CDZ features a somewhat faster CD drive then a standard Neo Geo CD, though specific drive differences are not known.

Notable games

1991

• Fatal Fury: King of Fighters

1994

• Windjammers

1996

• Metal Slug

2010

• Bang Bang Busters

Gallery

Neo Geo AES

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Neo Geo CD Top loader

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  Top loader Neo Geo CD with controller.
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  Top loader Neo Geo CD
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  Top loader Neo Geo CD
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  Top loader Neo Geo CD
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  Top loader Neo Geo CD
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  Top loader Neo Geo CD ports.

Neo Geo CD Front loader

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  Front loader Neo Geo CD with controller.
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  Front loader Neo Geo CD
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  Front loader Neo Geo CD
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  Front loader Neo Geo CD
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  Front loader Neo Geo CD
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  Front loader Neo Geo CD ports.

Neo Geo CDZ

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  Neo Geo CDZ with controller.
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  Neo Geo CDZ rear ports.

Controllers

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  AES Controller
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  AES Controller
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  AES Controller
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  AES Controller
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  Neo Geo Advanced Controller
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  Neo Geo CD Controller
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  Neo Geo CD Controller
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  Neo Geo CD Controller
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  Neo Geo CD Controller

Accessories

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  Neo Geo Memory Card
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  Cartridge front
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  Cartridge bottom
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  Neo Geo composite cable.
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  AES Power Supply
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  Neo Geo CD Japanese Power Supply

AES Internals

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  An AES opened
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  An AES opened
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  An AES opened
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  An AES opened

Neo Geo CD Top loader Internals

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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  Top loader daughterboard.

Neo Geo CD Front loader Internals

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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.

Neo Geo CDZ Internals

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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.
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  A front loader Neo Geo CD opened.

External Resources

• Video Game Console Library - SNK NEO Geo AES \ MVS Page with history, specs, and related media.

References

• 
  Nintendo Mini Classics Console in packaging
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  A Nintendo Mini Classic from the side, showing stand and Keychain support.
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  The back of a Mario's Cement Factory Nintendo Mini Classic, showing collapsed stand.

History

The Nintendo Mini Classics was a 1998 revival of Nintendo's prior Game & Watch concept, using much improved contemporary technology and hardware designs. Some Nintendo Mini Classics games were ports of existing Game & Watch games.

In 2009 the systems cost between $5 and $20.

As the console did not rely on cutting edge technology, production continued until at least 2014, making this console line among the few to be on the market for well over a decade. The Nintendo Mini Classics would later be succeeded by the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.

Technology

Little is known about the exact technical specs of the Nintendo Mini Classics consoles, other than that the system is capable of gameplay roughly comparable to the Game and Watch.

The production of the Nintendo Mini Classics was outsourced to external companies.

The system is powered by dual LR44/AG13 batteries.

Notable Games

• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Mario's Cement Factory
• Super Mario Bros

External Resources

• FANDOM Nintendo wiki - Nintendo Mini Classics page.

References

• 
  The PC Engine SuperGrafx console and controller.

History

SuperGrafx logotype.

The PC Engine SuperGrafx was released in Japan on December 8th, 1989 - just two years after the original PC Engine released in 1987. The system was said to be released in France in May 1990.

The SuperGrafx did not do well commercially, and only 75,000 consoles were sold. A CD Add on was planned, but not released.

Technology

An HuC6280A processor, similar to the one used in the PC Engine SuperGrafx.

The PC Engine SuperGrafx uses an 8-bit HuC6280A processor clocked at 7.16 megahertz.

The system has 32 kilobytes of RAM and 128 kilobytes of VRAM.

The SuperGrafx has an extra video processor compared to the original PC Engine though bottlenecking limited performance.

SuperGrafx specific games

• Aldynes
• 1941: Counter Attack
• Ghouls 'n Ghosts
• Madö King Granzört
• Battle Ace
• Darius Plus (Standard PC engine compatible game, with SuperGrafx enhancements)

Gallery

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  The SuperGrafx controller, model number NEC Pi-PD6.
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  The SuperGrafx console by itself.
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  The back of the SuperGrafx with expansion port.
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  The SuperGrafx with a Super CD-ROM2 drive attached.

References

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  Japanese Mega Drive with controller.
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  Sega Genesis with controller.

History

Development

The system was preceded by the Sega Master System.

Sega approached Atari about bringing the MegaDrive to the American market. After negotiations broke down Sega decided to launch the console in the United States on their own.

Following development of the base console a number of add on devices were developed. Development of the Sega CD was particularly problematic, with drive motors occasionally catching on fire in pre production units.

Launch

People playing a Sega Mega Drive in 1993.

Japan

In October of 1988 the Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan at a cost of 21,000 yen.

On May 31st, 1991 the TerraDrive computer and Mega Drive hybrid system was released in Japan.

North America

The Sega Genesis was launched in North America in 1989. Notably, future president of the United States Donald Trump attended the 1989 Genesis launch in Manhattan.

The Genesis did very well in North American gaming market. This is especially impressive, as at launch time rival Nintendo held over 80% of the market for home video games in the United States of America, and by 1990 would control over 90% of the American game market. By launching quality first party exclusive games, courting unique third party developers with fewer artistic restrictions, listening to consumer feedback, and launching aggressive marketing campaigns, Sega was able to take on an entrenched industry titan and become one itself by briefly taking over half of the market for itself, An event widely considered to be one of the gaming industry's most important upsets.

Worldwide

The Mega Drive saw a European release in 1990.

Refresh

To make the platform more competitive, Sega would release two major add ons to expand the system's capabilities. The Sega CD was released in 1992, and gave the system a CD drive with massively improved storage capacity as a result. The Sega 32x was released in November 1994 for $160, and massively increased the system's raw power, though not nearly enough to be competitive with the new consoles it was meant to fend off. Both add ons would have exclusive games that could not be played on a standard Genesis or Mega Drive.

Legacy

The Genesis influenced a number of contemporary systems. The Sega Genesis was directly followed by the ill fated Sega Saturn. A portable Genesis was also made as the Nomad. A Mega Drive module was also produced for the Pioneer LaserActive.

The Sega Genesis was discontinued in 1997 outside of Brazil. However the console continued to be a popular choice in certain markets after this date. Sega partner Tectoy was still selling 150,000 consoles annually as of 2016. In 2016 Tectoy began taking preorders for a 2017 revision of the console for the Brazilian market at a cost of 399 Brazilian real. In 2010 Mega Drive gaming was still popular in Egypt. 29 million Sega Genesis consoles were sold.

Technology

Compute

The Genesis is powered by a primary 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 7.6 megahertz. A secondary 8-bit Z80 coprocessor was clocked at 3.5 megahertz.

The Genesis has 64 kilobytes of RAM dedicated to the primary processor, and 8 kilobytes dedicated to the Z80 coprocessor.

Some games used cartridge based chips to allow for 3D graphics.

The Sega Genesis was initially considered easier for developers to use then the competing SNES due to it's straightforward design instead of reliance on support hardware.

Graphics

The Genesis uses a custom chip called the Video Display Processor (VDP) clocked at 13 megahertz for rendering graphics. The VDP has 64 kilobytes of RAM, 128 bytes of color RAM, and 80 bytes of vertical scroll RAM. The Genesis could render 80 sprites and 64 simultaneous colors from 512 total colors.

Blast Processing was technically a feature supported by the Genesis VDP, though it was simply a technique used to generate images with more colors and was never widely used on official Genesis games.

Storage

Genesis cartridges typically maxed out at 4 megabytes, though a few 5 megabyte cartridges exist.

Cartridges were region locked through a combination of software and hardware methods, with mixed results and variations on usage while the console was on the market.

Networking

The Sega Channel was an expensive service that allowed games to be temporarily downloaded over a cable connection.

The third party X-Band service allowed some games to be played online.

Notable Games

Mega Drive games being sold in a retro games store in 2016.

1991

Sonic the Hedgehog

The flagship fast paced mascot platformer and system seller for the console.

Read more about Sonic the Hedgehog on Wikipedia.

Zero Wing

A reference to Zero Wing on the side of a highway in 2004.

Originally released as an arcade game in 1989.

The Japanese version of Zero Wing had 35 different endings, a notable feat for the time.

The poor English translation of Zero Wing sparked the early 2000's internet meme "All your base are belong to us".

Read more about Zero Wing and All your base are belong to us on Wikipedia.

Art Alive!

An early art program for the console.

Read more about Art Alive! on Wikipedia.

1992

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Ecco the Dolphin

Game creator Ed Annunziata was a prolific reader of the works of scientist John C. Lilly, who closely studied dolphins. Annunziata is also said to have been influenced by the work of musician Pink Floyd.

Read more about the original Ecco the Dolphin game on Wikipedia.

1993

• Disney's Aladdin
• NBA Jam
• Mortal Kombat II - Retained the gore effects from the Arcade version.

Sonic CD

The intro movie to Sonic CD is considered by many to be iconic.

Read more about Sonic CD on Wikipedia.

1994

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3
• Sonic & Knuckles

Wacky Worlds

An indirect successor to Art Alive!. It featured Sonic the Hedgehog and competed against Nintendo's Mario Paint.

2004

CrazyBus

An infamous homebrew title.

Special edition consoles

• HeartBeat Personal Trainer- A rare North America variant of the Sega Genesis equipped with motion sensors. Just 1,000 versions of this were produced, with a small number of accompanying exclusive games reliant on motion controls.
• CSD-GM1 - CD Player with integrated Mega Drive.

Gallery

Genesis Consoles

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  The front of the Sega Genesis Model 2, showing two controller ports.
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  The rear of the Sega Genesis Model 2, showing rear ports.
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  The bottom of a Sega Genesis Model 2. This console was made in Japan.
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  The Sega Genesis Model 2 with no ad ons.
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  Sega Genesis Model 2 with Sega CD & Sega 32X add on units.
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  European Mega Drive with controller.
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  The Sega Genesis 3 with two controller ports.
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  The Sega Genesis 3 keeps its ports on the side of the unit in a notch, rather then in the rear.
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  The Sega Genesis 3 cartridge slot is protected by a cover when not in use.
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  Unlike most consoles, the rear panel of the Sega Genesis 3 contains no ports, since they are located on the side.
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  The Sega Genesis 3 is quite small compared to earlier units, only slightly bigger then the controller.
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  The ports of the Sega Genesis model 3 are on the side of the console, as seen here.
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  The Genesis CDX with controller attached.
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  The CDX acts as a portable CD player, as well as a combo Genesis and Sega CD game console.
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  Additional jacks highlight the importance of audio on the CDX.
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  The CDX also features the same ports as the Genesis.
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  The CDX takes two AA batteries or AC power.
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  The CDX with the disk tray open.
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  Victor WonderMega
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  JVC Wondermega
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  The Sega Mega Jet, an early portable Mega Drive.
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  The AtGames Sega firecore, a 2009 re-release.
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  Mega Drive Demo System
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  Sega CD Development Hardware

Controllers & Accessories

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  3 button controller
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  6 button controller
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  Sega Genesis Arcade Stick
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  Single Konami Justifiers
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  Konami Justifiers Set
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  Sega Mouse and Sega Mega Mouse
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  Mouse undersides.
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  Power Base Converter
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  Power Base Converter
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  Power Base Converter
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  Power Base Converter
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Model 1
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  Sega CD Joining Plate
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  Sega CD Joining Plate
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega CD Model 2
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  Sega 32X
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  Sega 32X
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  Sega 32X
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  Sega 32X
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  Sega 32X
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  A Sega Genesis with a 32X and Sega CD attached.
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  A Game Genie for the Sega Genesis
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  Sega mega modem
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  The Xband modem
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  VictorMaxx StuntMaster, a monitor styled as a faux VR headset.
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  EA 4 way play multitap.
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  Various multiplayer adapters for the Mega Drive.

Games

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  Box art for the Legend of Wukong.
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  Box art for The Beggar Prince.
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  The specialty Sonic & Knuckles Genesis Cartridge, which would "Lock On" other cartridges on top to unlock additional features.
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  Codemasters J-Carts were special cartridges with integrated multitaps. Pictured are all 6 released J-Carts.
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  A close up of the Micromachines 2 J-Cart, showing it's two multitap controller ports.

Genesis Internals

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  Genesis Model II internals.
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  Genesis Model II internals.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Genesis Model II motherboard.
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  Virtual Racing cartridge PCB with Sega Virtua Processor.
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  Sega 32x casing
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  Sega 32x internals
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  Sega 32x internals
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  Sega 32x internals
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  Sega 32x motherboard top
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  Sega 32x motherboard bottom
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 laser
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 1 laser
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 motherboard
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 laser
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  Sega CD Model 2 Mark 2 laser
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  JVC Sega XEYE Motherboard
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  JVC Sega XEYE Motherboard
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  JVC Sega XEYE Motherboard
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  JVC Sega XEYE Motherboard

Development

There is a WikiBook on Genesis Programming.

References

• 
  An opened Sega Pico, showing a book cartridge installed.

History

The Sega Pico was initially released in June of 1993.

The Sega Pico was released in the USA in 1994.

In 1995 the Sega Pri Fun printer was released for the Pico and Saturn.

The Pico sold poorly in North America, but was better received elsewhere with 3.4 million consoles sold by 2005.

On August 5th, 2005 the Advanced Pico Beena was released in Japan.

Technology

A closed Sega Pico. The system was relatively portable in this mode.

Aside from lacking a Z80 processor and a Yamaha sound chip, and adding a DMA chip for audio, the Pico has similar specifications to the Mega Drive or Genesis.

The pen uses a microswitch to detect presses.

Special Editions

• Sega Pico Pikachu Edition

Notable games (Storyware)

For more listings see the List of Sega Pico games on Wikipedia.

2002

• Pokémon: Catch the Numbers!

2003

• Pokémon Advanced Generation: I've Begun Hiragana and Katakana!

2004

• Pokémon Advanced Generation: Pico for Everyone Pokémon Loud Battle!

External Resources

• Game Medium - Advanced Pico Beena page.

References

• 
  The SuperA'Can console with controller attached.

History

The console was developed by the Taiwanese company FunTech.

The Super A'Can was released on October 25th, 1995 only in Taiwan. The system did not sell well, cost it's maker Funtech 6 million dollars, and unsold units were scrapped for parts.

Technology

The die of a Motorola 68000 CPU, similar to the one used in the Super A'Can.

The Super A'Can used a 16 bit Motorola 68000 as its primary processor clocked at 10.6 megahertz. Some sources list an 8 bit Motorola 6502 as a secondary processor clocked at 3.58 megahertz, though a discrete official Motorola version of this chip is absent from the board, meaning it is integrated in another chip if present.

The Super A'Can has 64 kilobytes of RAM and 128 kilobytes of video RAM.

The system sports a dedicated support chips that were manufactured by UMC, including the UM6618 graphics chip, and the UM6619 audio chip.

The Super A'Can outputs 16 track PCM audio in stereo.

Design

Console

The Super A'Can is a boxy grey console featuring both angular and smooth arching accents. Cartridges are loaded from the top of the device, which also features a power toggle, an eject button, and a reset button. The front of the console has two controller ports, which appear to be D-Sub 9 ports, similar to those used on the Atari 2600 and the Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis. Appropriately, on the port side of the console there is an expansion port. The console rear features vents, as well as IO including red, white, and yellow coded RCA jacks for high quality video output, an RF port for lower quality video output to older or lower end televisions, and a power input jack.

Controller

The official wired controllers sport a design similar to the controllers used by the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but with more curves. The controller sports a somewhat unique light purple direction pad on the left side, with a inner shield that does not quite reach the outer edges of the primary directions. The primary face buttons are on the right side of the controller are arranged in a diamond pattern, and include a red "Y" button on the top, a yellow "B" button on the right, a blue "A" button on the bottom, and a green "X" button on the left of the controller. The center of the controller features two oblong grey buttons, select on the left, and start on the right. The console logo and text "A'Can" are embossed on the upper center of the controller, just over where the cable connects on the back. The back of the controller features light purple L & R buttons, lightly labeled in the same color on the button itself, rather then in white next to the button as on the rest of the controller. On the bottom of the controller there is a turbo switch, as well as 6 screw holes screw holes. The back of the controller also features slight angles near the end, likely intended to offer an ergonomic grip.

Notable games

12 games exist for the Super A'Can.

1995

• Sango Fighter

Gallery

Console

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  The two controller ports and side expansion are visible on the side.
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  The console top has a cartridge port, power toggle, eject button, and reset button.
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  The Super A'Can in packaging.

Accessories

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  The bottom of the controller contains a turbo switch.
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  The Super A'Can power supply takes 110 volt 60 hertz AC in, and converts it into 8.5 volt 1.2 amp DC Power. The DC power barrel carries positive current on the barrel exterior, and negative current on the interior.

Motherboard

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  The motherboard features a clean, organized design.
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  The expansion port is directly integrated on the motherboard.
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  A heatsink is mounted on the rear of the board, likely for dissipating heat from power regulation.
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  The cartridge slot is mounted directly on the board.
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  A top down view of the board. The system uses many UMC branded chips. Used chips are a mix of dual in line packages, or quad flat packages.

Internals

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References

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  The Super NES with controller.
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  The Super Famicom with controller.

History

Development

Proceeded by the highly successful NES and Famicom, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Famicom were highly anticipated followup systems. Technical design of the system was lead by engineer Masayuki Uemura, who began working on the system by 1988.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Famicom both featured much improved hardware over their proceeding systems. Ken Kutaragi, a talented engineer at Sony, was responsable for the design of the SNES sound chip.

Initially featuring radically different designs for both systems, the system design was greatly simplified to more conventional form factors as development progressed. Lance Barr, the designer of the previous NES, was brought back to work on the SNES. Designer Lance Barr added curved surfaces to the top of the SNES to stop gamers from placing drinks on top of the console, a relatively common risk people had taken with the original NES and a common reason for destroyed consoles when some drinks were inevitably spilled.

The controller design was also significantly different from the NES. Shoulder buttons were added to the controller accommodate fighting games while keeping face buttons minimal for simplicity. This allowed for improved control schemes for games to be developed.

Launch

The Super Famicom was launched on November 21st, 1990 in Japan. To prevent robberies before launch, Nintendo shipped the Super Famicom to Japanese retailers during the night. The much anticipated of the Super Famicom was still chaotic enough for the Japanese Government to recommend console launches be restricted to weekends. The SNES was released in North America almost a year later, in August 1991.

System life

A 1996 Mariners game in Seattle. Without the intervention of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Mariners may have moved to Florida.

In 1992 Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi purchased the Seattle Mariners, stopping them from moving to Florida as a sign of appreciation to the city of Seattle where Nintendo of America is based. Nintendo would later use the Mariners for an easter egg in their game Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run.

Legacy

Production of the SNES ended in 1999 and production of the Super Famicom ended in 2003. 49.1 million SNES consoles were sold.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was directly succeeded by the Nintendo 64. Nintendo partnerships with Phillips and Sony to attempt to develop an CD ROM add on for the SNES would indirectly result in competing systems including the original PlayStation and Nintendo IP for the Phillips CD-i.

Notably the designer of the SNES sound chip, Ken Kutaragi, was instrumental in the development of the Sony Playstation. Despite developing a competing system, Ken Kutaragi would remain gregarious with his old partners.

The ARC processor architecture got its start in the SuperFX enhancement chip used by some SNES games..

In 2020 the prototype for the Nintendo PlayStation sold for $300,000 at auction.

Technology

A demo of the Mode 7 effect

Compute

A 16 bit Rioch 5A22 CPU powers the SNES and is variably clocked from 1.79 megahertz to 3.58 megahertz depending on the operation being performed. The CPU is capable of executing about 1.7 million instructions per second.

The console has 128 kilobytes of RAM, a fairly sizable amount for a console at the time of launch.

While compared to it's primary competitor in the Sega Genesis or MegaDrive, the SNES CPU is clocked significantly slower, but makes up for this in efficiency of what is accomplished in a clock cycle, being able to accomplish many more instructions per second. Still, other factors could give still give the Genesis or Megadrive the edge over the SNES, and comparing the two competing consoles is not easy.

Hardware

The SNES has two different Picture Processing Units with access to 64 kilobytes of dedicated video RAM. This allowed the SNES to display up to 128 sprites and 256 simultaneous colors from 32,768 total colors.

The SNES has an Sony S-SMP Audio CPU, DSP, and 64 kilobytes of dedicated audio RAM. The SNES has eight audio channels.

Storage

SNES cartridges typically ranged from 0.23MB to 4.0MB, maxing out at 6.0MB. This allowed the SNES to hold large amounts of 2D graphical content, and significant amounts of music instructions.

While most consoles this generation still used cartridges as the SNES and Super Famicom did, some emerging competitors used CD-ROM technology, which gave them vastly more storage, allowing orchestral soundtracks and full motion video to be used. Furthermore, an individual CD was much cheaper to press than it was to make a high capacity cartridge.

Nintendo would try and fail to bring a CD-ROM add on for the SNES and Super Famicom to market. However the inability of developers to really capitalize on the advantages of the CD-ROM format this generation allowed the SNES and Super Famicom to still perform well against CD-ROM equipped systems, while avoiding the slow access times and high upfront drive cost of the format at the time.

Expansion

Co-processors

A demo of 3D Wireframe rendering using a Cx4 chip, an enhancement co-processor used by Capcom games like Megaman X.

The SNES cold make use of co-processors included on game cartridges, and this was often used to add 3D effects. Inspired by SuperFX chips, in December of 2020 an unofficial expansion cartridge containing a SuperRT system with three execution cores clocked at 50 megahertz was made to allow raytracing on the SNES. This shows that the cartridge based co-processor model could be taken quite far, had it been needed.

Accessories

The Japanese Satellaview satellite download service allowed gamers to receive content over the air temporarily.

The third party X-Band service allowed some games to be played online.

The LifeCycle Exertainment Bike was an exercise bicycle for the SNES, a version of the LifeCycle exercise bicycle which received an endorsement from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Notable Games

Qualities

• Platformers, especially mascot platformers, were quite popular for the system.
• Major JRPGs released on the system, and so the system was quite notable for the development of the genre.
• Many games incorporated elements to demonstrate the cutting technological capabilities of the system. In particular use of "Mode-7", enhancement chips, and pre-rendered CGI were highly regarded as a mark of technical superiority at the time.

1990

Super Mario World

Read more about Super Mario World on Wikipedia.

F-Zero

The first game in a series of high speed futuristic racing games. This game used mode 7 pseudo 3D environments to great effect.

Read more about F-Zero on Wikipedia.

1991

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Read more about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on Wikipedia.

Final Fantasy IV

Released as Final Fantasy II in America, as previous entries in the series had not been released there.

Read more about Final Fantasy IV on Wikipedia.

1992

Super Mario Kart

Development

Early in development Super Mario Kart was originally intended to be a two player version of F-Zero.

Launch

The first Mario Kart game. At the time of release Super Mario Kart was critically acclaimed for it's two player multiplayer and tight gameplay. Decades later, the game continued to receive high marks by reviewers.

Legacy

Mario Kart would also have influences on individuals who would later join the industry. A major example of this is Shuntaro Furukawa, who's interaction with the game inspired him to get involved with the family company, and as a result would lead him to later become the 6th president of Nintendo.

Read more about Super Mario Kart on Wikipedia.

Mario Paint

Mario Paint would influence a number of creatives, including future game developers.

Read more about Mario Paint on Wikipedia.

Dragon Quest V

Widely considered to be among the best games in the Dragon Quest series, and highly ranked among Japanese role playing games in general.

Read more about Dragon Quest V on Wikipedia.

Final Fantasy V

Read more about Final Fantasy V on Wikipedia.

Romancing SaGa

Read more about Romancing SaGa on Wikipedia.

1993

Super Mario All-Stars

An enhanced remake compilation of the NES Mario games. Among the first major series to receive such an enhanced remake compilation.

Read more about Super Mario All-Stars on Wikipedia.

Star Fox

An on rails shooter, which leveraged the power of the SuperFX chip for polygonal 3D graphics.

Read more about Star Fox on Wikipedia.

Mega Man X

A new Mega Man series that leveraged improved system capabilities over the NES to improve gameplay, graphics, and sound as well as a deeper story.

Read more about Mega Man X on Wikipedia.

1994

• Donkey Kong Country - Used pre rendered 3D graphics to great effect.
• Final Fantasy VI - Marketed as Final Fantasy III in North America.
• Killer Instinct
• Kirby's Dream Course

Super Metroid

Super Metroid influenced a number of gamers and developers with it's unique and complex gameplay, level design, and environmental storytelling.

Read more about Super Metroid on Wikipedia.

EarthBound

EarthBound influenced a number of creative works from different creators following it, such as the television series South Park and the video game Undertale.

Read about EarthBound on Wikipedia.

• A short documentary on Satoru Iwata's involvement in Earthbound by YouTube channel Video Game Story Time.
• 
  Shigesato Itoi in 2015, the director and writer for Earthbound.
• 
  The Beach Boys in 1967. Their music was strongly influential on the music of Earthbound.

1995

• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
• Yoshi's Island
• Dragon Quest VI
• Chrono Trigger
• Kirby's Avalanche
• Tetris Attack / Panel De Pon
• Front Mission

Clock Tower

A cult horror game about surviving the Scissorman in a mansion.

Read more about Clock Tower on Wikipedia.

1996

• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
• Super Mario RPG
• Harvest Moon
• Kirby Super Star
• Bahamut Lagoon

1997

• Kirby's Dream Land 3

2000

• Metal Slader Glory: Directors Cut

2010's

Star Fox 2

After being shelved for over two decades, Star Fox 2 was officially released in 2017 on the SNES classic.

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill

The real life Socks the Cat sitting in the Oval Office in 1994.

The game featured a protagonist based on President Bill Clinton's real life cat.

In fall 2016 a campaign was started to release the game fully after a prototype cartridge was discovered. The game was released in early 2018.

Read more about Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill on Wikipedia.

Special Editions

Special editions and versions of the console.

• Starlight Gaming Station - Super Nintendo Entertainment System kiosk for hospital use.
• Nintendo Gateway System - In flight entertainment version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
• Bandai HET - Unreleased portable SNES with additional functions demoed at E3 1993.

Gallery

Console Models

• 
  The front of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• 
  The front of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• 
  The rear of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• 
  The rear of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
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  The front of the Super Famicom
• 
  The front of the Super Famicom
• 
  The rear of the Super Famicom
• 
  The rear of the Super Famicom
• 
  The front of the SNES 101
• 
  The front of the SNES 101
• 
  The rear of the SNES 101
• 
  The rear of the SNES 101
• 
  The Super Famicom Jr.
• 
  Super Famicom Naizou TV SF1
• 
  Super Famicom Naizou TV SF1
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  Super Famicom Naizou TV SF1 with a Secret of Mana game cartridge inserted.
• 
  The Super Famicom Box, a system used in hotels.
• 
  An SNES counter Tester (right), next to an NES Test Station (left). These systems were not meant for home use.

SNES controllers

• 
  SNES controller.
• 
  SNES controller from the front.
• 
  An SNES controller being held.
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  Super advantage controller.
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  Asciiware AsciiPad controller.
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  A LodgeNet controller, used in hotels.
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  The Super Scope from the left.
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  The Super Scope from the right.
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  Super Scope Bisected.
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  Super Scope Receiver.
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  1992 SN Programpad Macro Controller.
• 
  1992 SN Programpad Macro Controller.
• 
  1992 SN Programpad Macro Controller.

SNES Accessories

• 
  The Super Game Boy allowed Game Boy games to be played on the SNES
• 
  The Japanese Super Game Boy
• 
  The second revision of the Super Game Boy offered minor improvements.
• 
  The SNES Mouse and Pad
• 
  A Game Genie for the SNES, a common cheat device.
• 
  Unreleased Game Genie 2 prototype for the SNES.
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  A Super Famicom Flash Writer in a convenience store. This is an example of an official use of rewritable media for the system.
• 
  The Bung Game Partners Classic. Some gamers used unofficial devices such as these to make game backups.
• 
  The Professor SF front. This was an unofficial backup device.
• 
  The Professor SF rear, showing IO. This was an unofficial backup device.
• 
  A Super Famicom with a Satellaview installed
• 
  The Satellaview Power Transfer Bracket
• 
  The Super 8 SNES accessory.
• 
  Xband modem, hardware that supported an early cross platform console gaming network.
• 
  The VictorMaxx StuntMaster, a faux VR headset compatible with the SNES and Genesis.

Technology

• 
  The plastic used in early run SENS units is prone to oxidization.
• 
  An SNES motherboard
• 
  A reduced cost SNES motherboard
• 
  Packaged MARIO (SuperFX) chip
• 
  Epoxied MARIO (SuperFX) chip
• 
  GSU-1 SuperFX chip.
• 
  GSU-2 SuperFX chip.
• 
  GSU-2 SP1 SuperFX chip.
• 
  A diagram showing how Mode 7 works

Marketing

• 
  SNES logotype.
• 
  Standalone Super Famicom logo.
• 
  Super Famicom logotype.

Homebrew

There is a WikiBook on SNES programming.

External Resources

Archived websites

• SNES website
• SNES hardware website

History

Launch

The Tandy Video Information System (VIS) was released in Fall of 1992, and was sold at RadioShack under the Tandy brand at a cost of $699. The system was intended to compete with other home entertainment devices such as the CD-i and the Commodore CDTV. However the system was uncompetitive, and among sales staff, the VIS had the nickname "Virtually Impossible to Sell".

Legacy

The Tandy Video Information System was discontinued in Spring of 1994 after a price cut to $399, a drastic move which pushed the price $45 below the cost to manufacture the system, failed increase sales. Remaining units were liquidated. This amount of time on the market was rather short, and the desperate measures taken to increase sales demonstrates the difficulties the system found on the market.

The VIS ultimately lost Tandy between 50 and 75 million dollars. About 11,000 systems were likely sold, which was a paltry number for any console, and was especially bad for Tandy given compared to the massive resources they invested in the system.

Technology

The system was effectively built on a PC architecture, and was among the first gaming devices to run a locked down version of Windows as an operating system.

The Tandy Video Information System uses an 16 bit Intel 80286 CPU clocked at 12.5 megahertz. The system has 1 megabyte of RAM.

Software was based on Modular Windows, a modified version of Windows 3.1. Some software for Modular Windows did not run correctly on the VIS.

Notable games

Over 60 titles were released for the VIS, most of which were edutainment software.

Gallery

• 
  VIS logotype.
• 
  Modular Windows Logotype.

External Resources

• Video Game Kraken - VIS page with detailed history, photo, and software list.

History

The Bandai Terebikko was launched in 1988. The system was branded as the See 'N Say Video Phone in the United States.

The system was discontinued in 1994.

Technology

A VHS tape cassette, similar to that used by the Terebikko.

The Terebikko required a VCR to operate.

Notable games

• Dragon Ball Z: Gather Together! Goku's World
• Moomin no Sutekina Present
• Sailor Moon S: Kotaete Moon Call
• Soreike! Anpanman: Karada no Naka no Dai Bōken
• Soreike! Anpanman: Yukai nao Tanjōe
• Super Mario World Mario to Yoshi no Bōken Land - A rare example of a licenced Nintendo property on a non-Nintendo system.

References

• 
  PC Engine Duo with controller.
• 
  TurboDuo with controller.

History

Launch

The PC Engine Duo saw a Japanese launch in September of 1991 for 59,800 yen.

The TurboDuo was launched in the United States in October of 1992 for $299. To advertise the system the mascot Johnny Turbo was created, who battled FEKA, a thinly veiled copy of SEGA.

Legacy

The TurboDuo was discontinued in 1995.

Johnny Turbo was brought back as a character in the 2019 game Crystal Crisis.

Technology

The TurboDuo is powered by twin 8-bit HuC6280A processors clocked at 7.16 Megahertz.

The TurboDuo has 256 kilobytes (2 Megabits) of RAM and 64 kilobytes of Video RAM.

The TurboDuo has 192 kilobytes of internal storage for saving games.

Games

The TurboDuo runs PC Engine games, being a PC Engine with the CD and RAM expansions built in.

Gallery

Console Hardware

• 
• 
• 
• 
  The TurboDuo
• 
  The TurboDuo
• 
  The TurboDuo Rear
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  The Rear of the PC Engine Duo
• 

Controllers and Accessories

• 
  The TurboDuo Controller.
• 
  The TurboDuo Controller.
• 
  The TurboDuo Controller.
• 
  The TurboDuo Controller Adapter.

Internals

• 
  TurboDuo motherboard from the front left.
• 
  TurboDuo motherboard from the front right.
• 
  TurboDuo motherboard from the back left.
• 
  TurboDuo motherboard from the top.
• 
  TurboDuo motherboard from the bottom.

References

• 
  The PC Engine GT.

History

TurboExpress logotype.

Launch

Launched in 1990, the TurboExpress cost $250.

In 1992 the price of the Turbo Express was dropped to $199 and players were given four free games with a purchase of the system.

Legacy

In 1994 TurboGrafx products were discontinued in North America.

1.5 million TurboExpress consoles were sold.

Technology

The TurboExpress was essentially a portable TurboGrafx-16.

Compute

The TurboExpress uses a customized NEC 6820 clocked at 7.6 megahertz.

The TurboExpress has eight kilobytes of RAM.

Hardware

The resolution of the TurboExpress color LCD Active Matrix screen is 400 by 270 pixels.

The system is either powered by six AA batteries or an optional AC adapter.

Notable games

The TurboExpress ran existing TurboGrafx-16 games released on Hu-Card.

Gallery

Console

• 
• 
• 
  The back of the TurboExpress, showing its 6 AA battery bay.
• 
  The back of the TurboExpres, with its ergonomic battery cover installed.

TurboVision

• 
• 
• 
• 
  The Turbovision side, showing option buttons.

Cables

• 
  Link Cable

Internals

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

References

• 
  A Japanese PC Engine console with controller.
• 
  A significantly larger North American TurboGrafx-16 console with controller.

History

TurboGrafx-16 logo.

Launch

The PC Engine was launched in 1987 in Japan, and saw a North American release as the TurboGrafx-16 in Fall of 1989. The TurboGrafx-16 cost $200 at launch in the United States of America.

The console saw two major contemporary variations in the PC Engine SuperGrafx and the TurboDuo. A portable version of this console would later be released as the TurboExpress.

Legacy

Global sales of TurboGrafx-16 consoles totaled 10 million. The system was never released in Europe, and sold only 2.5 million consoles in North America.

NEC would later attempt to enter the home console market again with the PC-FX.

Technology

The PC Engine / TurboGrafix-16 uses an 8-bit Hudson Soft HuC6280A processor clocked at 3.6 Megahertz.

The PC Engine has eight kilobytes of RAM.

Notable games

1987

• J.J. & Jeff

1988

• Space Harrier

Gallery

Consoles

• 
  The PC Engine from the front left.
• 
  The PC Engine from the front right.
• 
  The PC Engine from the back left.
• 
  The PC Engine from the back right.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx Console from the front left.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx Console from the front right.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx Console from the back left.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx Console from the back right.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx II Console from the front left.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx II Console from the front right.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx II Console from the back left.
• 
  The PC Engine Core Grafx II Console from the back right.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 from the front left.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 from the front right.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 from the back left.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 from the back right.

Controllers

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  CoreGrafx II controller.
• 
  CoreGrafx II controller.
• 
  TurboGrafx-16 TurboStick
• 
  The PC Engine TurboStick
• 
  The PC Engine Controller plug.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 controller plug.

TurboGrafx CD

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD Base.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD Base.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD Base.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD Base.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD installed.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 CD installed.

Accessories

• 
  The TurboBooster add on gave the system RCA ports to allow for stereo audio and composite video output.
• 
  The TurboBooster attached to the rear of the console.
• 
  The TurboTap was a multitap that expanded one controller port to five controller ports.
• 
  The PC Engine RF Adapter
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 RF Adapter
• 
  The NEC PC Engine AC Adapter, meant for use in Japan.
• 
  The NEC TurboGrafx-16 AC Adapter, meant for use in North America.
• 
  The NEC TurboGrafx-16 CD AC Adapter, meant for use in North America.
• 
  dbGrafx front, a post production unofficial add on.
• 
  dbGrafx back, a post production unofficial add on.
• 
  Everdrive front, a post production unofficial add on.
• 
  Everdrive back, a post production unofficial add on.

Official Internals

• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 motherboard top contains most components.
• 
  The TurboGrafx-16 motherboard bottom is sparse, sporting traces and a socket.
• 
  The TurboBooster board is compact.

References

• 
  The Watara supervision in a tilted position.
• 
  A different version of the Supervision.

History

Not to be confused with the earlier, but unrelated Bandai Super Vision 8000.

The Watara Supervision launched in 1992 at a cost of $49.95. Despite product placement on Nickelodeon shows, the system did not sell well. Hartung also made a version of the Supervision.

Technology

Compute

The Watara Supervision used a Western Design Center (WDC) 65C02 8 bit CPU clocked at four megahertz.

The Watara Supervision has eight kilobytes of RAM.

Hardware

The screen of the Watara Supervision has a resolution of 160 by 160 pixels, a size of 61 by 61 millimeters and could display four shades of grey. The screen of the Watara Supervision is described as low quality. A display cable allowed the Watara Supervision to use a television instead.

The Watara Supervision has a communications port.

The system is powered by four AA batteries.

Notable games

68 games were released for the Watara Supervision.

Gallery

• 
  The Supervision bent.
• 
  The Supervision while flat.
• 
  The Supervision side.
• 
  Internals of the Supervision.
• 
  Variants of the Supervision side by side.

External Resources

• Video Game Kraken - Supervision by Watara page.

History

JSB operated the Japanese WoWoW satellite broadcasting company.

The WOWOW was a canceled console that would have streamed arcade games to the home over a satellite connection. This could be seen as an early example of cloud gaming.

The console was co-developed by companies Taito, JSB and ASCII. Taito engineer and director of Darius Yukiharu Sambe spearheaded the project.

At the Tokyo Toy Show in 1992 Taito announced the WOWOW. Functional demo systems were shown to the public.

However the system was never released due to issues with the technology of the time. The project was shuttered early on in development, though it did lead to a successful venture into a telecommunication karaoke service.

Planned games

• Bubble Bobble
• Darius
• Parasol Stars
• Rastan

Technology

Compute

The WOWOW was powered by a 32 bit / 16 bit Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 12 megahertz.

The system did not have enough RAM for downloaded games to be easily stored.

Hardware

The WOWOW would play games streamed over a satellite connection, and also had an RJ-45 jack. Uniquely for the time, games would be charged by time used.

The WOWOW had a CD drive.

Gallery

• 
  A Motorola 6800 CPU die, similar to what would have been used in the WOWOW.
• 
  A communications satellite being deployed from space shuttle Atlantis during STS-61-B in 1985. Technological innovations in telecommunications technology made concepts like the WOWOW feasible.
• 
  Aside from streamed games, the WOWOW was intended to have the capability to play compact disks, similar to this one.
• 
  An RJ45 (8P8C) Jack, similar to what would have been used in the WOWOW. It is unknown if the jack would have been keyed, as shown here.
• 
  The building which housed the former ASCII cooperation headquarters.
• 
  A TAITO development center.