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The History of Nintendo Game Consoles

  • The Atari 2600

    The Atari 2600
    The Atari 2600 was one of the very first home game consoles; it was created by Atari Inc. It was released on October 14th, 1977. It was extremely successful, and for a while it outlasted newer game consoles with better hardware. While it is not actually made by Nintendo, I feel it should be included.
  • The Nintendo Entertainment System

    The Nintendo Entertainment System
    The Nintendo Entertainment System was released on October 18th, 1985. It was the bestselling game console of all time. It helped revitalize the US gaming industry from the great video game crash of 1983, which put many game industries out of business.
  • The Super Nintendo Entertainment System

    The Super Nintendo Entertainment System
    The SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment system) was the first 16 bit game console. It was released on August 23rd, 1991. The SNES was the best selling console of the 16 bit era, even though it had fierce competition. It remained popular throughout the 16 bit era and well into the 32 bit era.
  • The Nintendo 64

    The Nintendo 64
    The Nintendo 64 was released on September 29th, 1996. It was the latest 5th generation console to be released, but It was the most technologically advanced. It was named the 9th greatest video game console by IGN in 2009. It competed with the Sony Playstation, and the Sega Saturn. It sold about 32.93 million units worldwide.
  • The Nintendo GameCube

    The Nintendo GameCube
    The Nintendo GameCube was released on November 18th, 2001. The Nintendo GameCube was the first Nintendo console to use optical disks, although it used mini DVD’s instead of full sized DVD’s. The GameCube had a few competitors including the Sony PlayStation 2, the Sega Dreamcast, and Microsoft’s Xbox. The Nintendo GameCube sold about 21.74 million copies worldwide.
  • The Nintendo Wii

    The Nintendo Wii
    The Nintendo Wii was released on November 19th, 2006. The Wii competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Sony’s PlayStation 3. The most distinguishing feature of the Wii is its wireless controller, the Wii remote. The Wii remote is used as a handheld pointing device that detects movement in three dimensions. In December 2009 the Wii broke the record for best-selling single console in a month in the United States. The Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales.