40-681: The Dina , also known in Taiwan as the Chuang Zao Zhe 50 (Chinese:創造者 50), is a home video game console of the third generation originally manufactured by Bit Corporation , later sold in the United States by Telegames as the Telegames Personal Arcade . It is a clone of both the ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 consoles, with one cartridge slot for each platform, and came bundled with
80-462: A DVD-ROM or CD-ROM . Techniques such as bank switching were employed to be able to use cartridges with a capacity higher than the amount of memory directly addressable by the processor. As video games became more complex (and the size of their code grew), software manufacturers began sacrificing the quick load times of ROM cartridges in favor of greater storage capacity and the lower cost of optical media. Another source of pressure in this direction
120-438: A consumer electronics device such as a home computer , video game console or, to a lesser extent, electronic musical instruments . ROM cartridges allow users to rapidly load and access programs and data alongside a floppy drive in a home computer; in a video game console, the cartridges are standalone. At the time around their release, ROM cartridges provided security against unauthorised copying of software. However,
160-511: A degree with personal computers , using similar component and system design, including standardization with main computer chip architecture. Consoles remain as fixed systems, lacking the customization options that personal computer components have, and most consoles include customized components to maximize space and reduce power consumption to provide the best performance for game playing, while lowering costs with reduced storage and memory configurations. Home video game consoles typically can play
200-598: A few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either through game cartridges , optical discs , or through digital distribution to internal storage. There have been numerous home video game consoles since the first commercial unit, the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Historically these consoles have been grouped into generations lasting each about six years based on common technical specifications. As of 2024, there have been nine console generations, with
240-429: A multitude of games, offered either as game cartridges (or ROM cartridges), on optical media like CD-ROM or DVD, or obtained by digital distribution . Early consoles, also considered dedicated consoles, had games that were fixed in the electronic circuitry of the hardware. Some facets may be controlled by switching external controls on the console but the games could not be changed themselves. Most home consoles require
280-506: A number of advantages over other methods of storage like floppy disks and optical media . As the ROM cartridge is memory mapped into the system's normal address space, software stored in the ROM can be read like normal memory; since the system does not have to transfer data from slower media, it allows for nearly instant load time and code execution. Software run directly from ROM typically uses less RAM, leaving memory free for other processes. While
320-603: A second numeric keypad; any ColecoVision game that requires two keypads cannot be used. A difference in the Dina's controller wiring prevents use of Coleco's Roller Controller and Super Action Controllers and games dependent on either one. Expansion modules for the ColecoVision are also incompatible, as the expansion port uses the pin configuration of the SG-1000. Subsequently, ColecoVision games that rely on expansion modules cannot be used, but
360-501: A separate game controller, and may support multiple controllers for multiplayer games. Some console games can only be played with special, unconventional game controllers, such as light guns for rail shooters and guitar controllers for music games . Some consoles also possess the ability to connect and interface with a particular handheld game system, which certain games can leverage to provide alternate control schemes, second screen gameplay elements, exclusive unlockable content or
400-522: A series of home video game consoles begins in a generation and lasts to another generation, it is listed in the generation the series began. This list does not claim to be complete. This list does not include other types of video game consoles such as handheld game consoles , which are usually of lower computational power than home consoles due to their smaller size; microconsoles , which are usually low-cost Android-based devices that rely on downloading; retro style consoles ; or dedicated consoles past
440-401: A single dedicated game, such as home Pong consoles. Documented consoles of this generation can be found at list of first generation home video game consoles . 128-bit (SIMD) 128-bit (SIMD) 128-bit extensions Game cartridge A ROM cartridge , usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge , cart , cassette , or card , is a replaceable part designed to be connected to
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#1732855483194480-494: A slot at the back of the calculator. The calculator came with a module that provides several standard mathematical functions including the solution of simultaneous equations. Other modules were specialized for financial calculations, or other subject areas, and even a "games" module. Modules were not user-programmable. The Hewlett-Packard HP-41C had expansion slots which could hold ROM memory as well as I/O expansion ports. Computers using cartridges in addition to magnetic media are
520-643: A special bus port for the insertion of cartridges containing software in ROM . In most cases the designs were fairly crude, with the entire address and data buses exposed by the port and attached via an edge connector ; the cartridge was memory mapped directly into the system's address space such that the CPU could execute the program in place without having to first copy it into expensive RAM. The Texas Instruments TI-59 family of programmable scientific calculators used interchangeable ROM cartridges that could be installed in
560-510: A television screen or computer monitor, and to an external power source, to play video games on using one or more video game controllers . This differs from a handheld game console which will have a built-in screen, controller buttons/features, and a power supply like a battery or battery pack. Earlier home consoles were typically built from a selection of standard and highly customized integrated computer chips, packaged onto circuit boards and cases. Over time, home console design has converged to
600-585: Is the only major company to exclusively use cartridges for their consoles and handhelds, as others such as Sony and Microsoft continue to use optical disc -based media for their consoles. In 1976 , 310,000 home video game cartridges were sold in the United States. Between 1983 and 2013, a total of 2,910.72 million software cartridges had been sold for Nintendo consoles . ROM cartridges can not only carry software, but additional hardware expansions as well. Examples include various cartridge-based chips on
640-477: The Atari 2600 released the following year. From the late 1970s to mid-1990s, the majority of home video game systems were cartridge-based. As compact disc technology came to be widely used for data storage, most hardware companies moved from cartridges to CD-based game systems. Nintendo remained the lone hold-out, using cartridges for their Nintendo 64 system; the company did not transition to optical media until
680-621: The VIC-20 and Commodore 64 , MSX , Atari 8-bit computers , TI-99/4A (where they were called Solid State Command Modules and were not directly mapped to the system bus) and IBM PCjr (where the cartridge was mapped into BIOS space). Some arcade system boards , such as Capcom 's CP System and SNK 's Neo Geo , also used ROM cartridges. Cassettes and floppy disks cost less than ROM cartridges and some memory cards were sold as an inexpensive alternative to ROM cartridges. A precursor to modern game cartridges of second generation video consoles
720-564: The 1980s, such as the DX1 , DX5 and DX7 and their PSR keyboard lineup in the mid-1990s, namely the PSR-320, PSR-420, PSR-520, PSR-620, PSR-330, PSR-530 and the PSR-6000 . These keyboards use specialized cards known as Music Cartridges , a ROM cartridge simply containing MIDI data to be played on the keyboard as MIDI sequence or song data. Casio has also used similar cartridges known as ROM Pack in
760-741: The Super NES , the SVP chip in the Sega Genesis version of Virtua Racing , and a chess module in the Magnavox Odyssey² . Micro Machines 2 on the Genesis/Mega Drive used a custom " J-Cart " cartridge design by Codemasters which incorporated two additional gamepad ports. This allowed players to have up to four gamepads connected to the console without the need for an additional multi-controller adapter . Storing software on ROM cartridges has
800-399: The ability to transfer certain game data. The first commercial video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey , developed by a team led by Ralph H. Baer and released commercially in 1972. It was shortly followed by the release of the home version of Pong by Atari Inc. in 1975 based on the arcade game. A number of clones of both systems rushed to fill the nascent home console market and
840-570: The best-selling console to date with over 155 million units sold. Microsoft, fearing that the PlayStation 2 was threatening the competitive edge of the personal computer, entered the console space with its Xbox line in 2001. Internet connectivity had become commonplace by the mid-2000s, and nearly all home consoles supported digital distribution and online service offerings by the 2010s. With Sony and Microsoft's dominance in hardware capabilities, most other major manufacturers have since dropped out of
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#1732855483194880-618: The company and founded Activision , becoming the first third-party developer. Activision's success led to a rush of new developers creating games without any publishing controls for these systems. The market became flooded with games, and combined with the rising popularity of the personal computer and the economic recession of the early 1980s, led to the video game crash of 1983 in the U.S. market. Nintendo , which had released its Family Computer console in Japan that year, took several cautionary steps to limit game production to only licensed games, and
920-533: The company's shift away from their own proprietary optical disc -based media after last using them in the Wii U in favor of small cartridge-based media. These cartridges are known as Game Cards like previous Nintendo handhelds, and are much smaller and thinner than previous cartridges for consoles as well as Nintendo's own Game Cards for their DS/3DS handhelds. It uses a form of flash memory technology similar to that of SD cards with larger storage space. As of 2024 , Nintendo
960-419: The contacts with an isopropyl alcohol solution typically resolves the problems without risk of corrosion. ROM cartridges typically have less capacity than other media. The PCjr-compatible version of Lotus 1-2-3 comes on two cartridges and a floppy disk. ROM cartridges are typically more expensive to manufacture than discs, and storage space available on a cartridge is less than that of an optical disc like
1000-401: The current leading manufacturers being Sony , Microsoft , and Nintendo , colloquially known as the "Big 3." Past console manufacturers have included Atari , Fairchild , Mattel , Coleco , Sega , NEC , 3DO , Fujitsu and SNK . A home video game console is a predesigned piece of electronic hardware that is meant to be placed at a fixed location at one's home, connected to a display like
1040-511: The dominant console type of the era, though not all consoles of those eras are of the same type. Some eras are referred to based on how many bits a major console could process. The "128-bit era" ( sixth generation ) was the final era in which this practice was widespread. This list only counts the first iteration of each console's hardware, because several systems have had slim, enhanced or other hardware revisions, but they are not individually listed here. The list also includes unreleased systems. If
1080-399: The first generation, which have games built in and do not use any form of physical media. Consoles have been redesigned from time to time to improve their market appeal. Redesigned models are not listed on their own. The list omits the more than 900 home video game consoles known to have been released in the first generation of video game consoles , those that were generally game consoles for
1120-449: The game Meteoric Shower built into the unit. The ColecoVision's boot screen is replaced with Japanese writing and the words "1986 BIT CORPORATION" on a green background. Home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television , and an external power source as to play video games . While initial consoles were dedicated units with only
1160-564: The game Meteoric Shower , which was built into the system. Telegames never advertised its compatibility with the SG-1000. The Dina's controllers are modeled after the D-pad style made famous by the Nintendo Entertainment System . Since the controllers are too small to possess numeric keypads, a single numeric keypad is present on the console itself. The console is not compatible with all ColecoVision cartridges, partly from its lack of
1200-497: The hardware business, but maintain a presence in the game development and licensing space. Nintendo remains the only competitor having taken a blue ocean strategy by offering more original console concepts such as motion sensing in the Wii and the hybrid design of the Nintendo Switch . Within the home video game console market, the leading consoles have often been grouped into generations, consoles that were major competitors in
1240-557: The machine is compatible with the SG-1000 keyboard. The Telegames Personal Arcade was advertised as an alternative to the ColecoVision, leaving the function of the Sega SG-1000 cartridge port unexplained. Despite this, SG-1000 games are completely functional. The console does not have a port for the Sega My Card games, but the "Sega Card Catcher" peripheral is compatible and allows for Sega My Card games to be played. The Dina came with
Dina (console) - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-414: The manufacturing of ROM cartridges was more expensive than floppy disks, and the storage capacity was smaller. ROM cartridges and slots were also used for various hardware accessories and enhancements. The widespread usage of the ROM cartridge in video gaming applications has led it to be often colloquially called a game cartridge . ROM cartridges were popularized by early home computers which featured
1320-460: The marketplace. There have been nine generations of consoles since the 1970s, with a new generation appearing about every five years. There are more than 1000 home video game consoles known to exist, the vast majority of which were released during the first generation: only 103 home video game consoles were released between the second and current generation, 15 were canceled. This list is divided into console generations which are named based on
1360-462: The notion of " bits " as a major selling point for consumers. The consumer adoption of optical discs with larger storage capacity in the mid-1995 led many console manufactures to move away from cartridges to CD-ROMs and later to DVDs and other formats, with Sony's PlayStation line introducing even more features that gave it an advantage in the market; the PlayStation 2 , released in 2000, remains
1400-500: The release of the GameCube in 2001. Cartridges were also used for their handheld consoles, which are known as Game Cards in the DS/3DS line of handhelds. These cartridges are much smaller and thinner than previous cartridges, and use the more modern flash memory for game data rather than built-in ROM chips on PCBs for the same purpose. The release of the Nintendo Switch in 2017 marked
1440-405: The standard size of optical media dictates a minimum size for devices which can read discs, ROM cartridges can be manufactured in different sizes, allowing for smaller devices like handheld game systems . ROM cartridges can be damaged, but they are generally more robust and resistant to damage than optical media; accumulation of dirt and dust on the cartridge contacts can cause problems, but cleaning
1480-503: The video game industry suffered a small recession in 1977 due to this. The Fairchild Channel F , released in 1976, was the first console to use game cartridges , which was then used by the Atari VCS and several other consoles of the second generation and led to a second boom in the video game industry in the United States and around the globe. During this time, Atari Inc. had been sold to Warner Communications , and several programmers left
1520-549: Was able to introduce it, rebranded as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 into the U.S. market. The NES helped to revive the console market and gave Nintendo dominance during the late 1980s. Sega took advantage of the newfound U.S. growth to market its Sega Genesis against the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s in the so-called "console wars" and emphasized
1560-489: Was introduced with the first generation video game console Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, using jumper cards to turn on and off certain electronics inside the console. A modern take on game cartridges was invented by Wallace Kirschner, Lawrence Haskel and Jerry Lawson of Alpex Computer Corporation, first unveiled as part of the Fairchild Channel F home console in 1976. The cartridge approach gained more popularity with
1600-476: Was that optical media could be manufactured in much smaller batches than cartridges; releasing a cartridge video game on the other hand inevitably includes the risk of producing thousands of unsold cartridges. Besides their prominent usage on video game consoles, ROM cartridges have also been used on a small number of electronic musical instruments, particularly electronic keyboards . Yamaha has made several models with such features, with their DX synthesizer in
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