49 Years Of Video Game Consoles in 10 Minutes

Believe it or not, the home video game console has been around for nearly 49 years. Yes, that’s almost half a century. Since 1972, we’ve seen over 30 consoles created and sold in North America, which is a ridiculous amount of consoles. That’s an average of more than one console released every two years. Back in the early ‘70s, Nintendo was still about half a decade away from making their first console and the PlayStation and Xbox weren’t even a thought yet. Gaming has come a very long way since then so I’ll be taking a look at every home console ever released in North America.

The first console ever released was the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. It was the only first generation console to be released in North America. In the second generation, we got the famous Atari 2600, best known for the legendary game, Space Invaders. The third generation was known as the 8-bit generation and introduced us to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System. The fourth generation had the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System doing battle. As for the fifth generation, it saw a major shakeup. The Sony PlayStation joined the battle alongside the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn.

There’s more consoles to get into than just those so enjoy the video, let me know what you think is the best console of all time in the comments section below and don’t forget to subscribe to TheGamer for more gaming tech content.

Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:37 1st Generation
1:22 2nd Generation
2:22 3rd Generation
3:16 4th Generation
4:28 5th Generation
5:59 6th Generation
7:27 7th Generation
8:38 8th Generation
9:56 9th Generation

Written by: Justin Pietrodarchi
Narrated by: Antony Watkins
Edited by: Umair G.

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[assmane]

You kept on showing the NES when you were talking about the SNES. You couldn’t find a picture? Lol. It’s one of the most iconic consoles ever

[Electrify]

Why are you showing NES games when talking about the SNES?

[cpltrickie]

As a middle aged man, all I can say is I've had the privilege seeing games involve from the pong era to today. I can almost see the day when Real Engine 5 will be the graphics used for mobile games.

[debbiesimmons]

I started gaming in 1972 when my dad brought home his knockoff version of the pong player. I still play at 55 years old cos TV is crap.

[shoolima]

The gamer didn't even show a single picture of the snes, they just talked about it while showing nes videos? Wtfrick? Show us the snes!

[diegofrgc]

Talks about SNES, shows NES.
Talks about Square Enix, shows random racing game.
Ok.

[PhantomJM]

You skipped over the numerous Pong consoles released in the first generation, which would bring the total number of consoles released in the US market WAY over thirty.

[hectorivanceballoslanda]

This channel have a big set of balls to call themselves The Gamer

[MrMac]

Missing the best console of the 2nd gen - the Colecovision.

[luismerida]

How time goes by... I remember the SEGA Saturn, N64 and PS1 as my first consoles, and that Gamecube was such a great thing, too. It is astonishing to see how far consoles have come throughout the years.

[jonniefast]

no mention of coleco, vectrex, xegs, AES, segaCD/32x, and slammed bally as a "flop"

the astrocade is a homerun comparatively to the 2600 or ody2 (albeit the price kept most consumers out) - bally has a library almost as stacked as the 2600

[MrFlamPlum]

Hes says wii and then shows the wii u.

[Bitchpleasegivemeafry]

Since you didn’t bother with it, I’ll cover Colecovision for you.
Coleco entered the console business with the Colecovision. It wound up with a 17% share in the market, making it a direct rival to the giant Atari 2600. It was the only company with the license to produce Donkey Kong, so it made sure that its competition had the worst possible version

[haloodst]

You forgot the colecovision and the CDI. Also dont just gloss over the saturn, its got some great games if you do more than 10 seconds of looking.

[DanFromMerdo]

Ps1 vs N64. One of if not the biggest rivalry of the 90s

[malcolmaaron]

its weird to think that video game consoles have been around for almost 50 years

[gld_]

Currently I have all 3 consoles from the 7th generation! They are the only consoles I have but I love them so much!

[amuzulo]

I started gaming as a kid in the 2nd Generation and I’m totally cool with that! 😎

[ndpan]

Ι do not think anyone will see this comment but xbox's velocity architecture makes it load games with the same or better speed than the ps5

[pika]

There is no damn way the 2600 and 5200 were in the same generation when Atari pitched the 5200 as the successor to the VCS and main competitor to the ColecoVision.