Glossary

No idea what a 2600 is? What the hell is a SNES?
Well this page is for you. Some brief explanations of the Video Game formats
follow...

Arcade	Basically super powerful games consoles that you pay to play on. You'll find these in public amusement arcades.
Atari 2600	This was one of the first ever home videogame consoles, you know the sort that played 'Pong'. It was released in the mid to late 70's and ran until the mid to late eighties. As you would imagine from a console of this vintage the graphics and sound are a little less than state of the art. The games came on cartridge and were controlled by a one button joystick, which also limits the depth of gameplay.
Collecovision	Released in the early 80s from oil company Colleco as a main rival to the Atari 2600. Very popular in the USA where it constantly out performed the Atari console. Played games from cartridge and had very good graphics for the time. Unfortunately not in the same league as the NES or Master System and died out in the mid-late 80s.
BBC	A home computer made by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to play educational games based on their TV programs. Most schools in England, during the eighties, had one and some people had them at home. They played games off disks but the graphics really weren't that good. Made in the early eighties.
Spectrum 48K	This was one of the first, and most affordable, home computers. Originally designed as a 'serious' machine until someone realized that you could make games for it and, single-handedly, started the videogame craze of the eighties. It was made around 1982 and was the least powerful of the home computers with only 48k of RAM (the computer you are using now probably has more than 1000 times the amount) which means the graphics and sound (if there are any) are pretty poor. Games came, primarily on ordinary cassette tapes although there were later versions with disk drives. Games were played with either the keyboard or a one button joystick. Lasted until the early 90s.
Amstrad CPC	Made as Amstrad Boss Alan Sugar's entry into the lucrative home computer market. I had one of these. The Amstrad could produce better graphics than the Spectrum but not as good as the Commodore 64. As with the other two 8-bit computers games came on tapes and were played either with the keyboard or a one button joystick. Later versions had a disk drive. Made 1982 and lasted until around 1993.
Commodore 64	The most powerful out of the three 8-bit home computers (Amstrad and Spectrum being the other two). Once again games came primarily on cassette tapes although the Commodore disk drive was the most popular. Used keyboard or joystick. Made in the early 80s and lasted until the early 90s.
MSX	A pretty unknown home computer from Japan. Ran games from tape, disk and later cartridge. Didn't produce particularly good graphics. Made in the eighties.
Amiga	This was a 16-bit home computer running games off of disk. Because it was 16-bit the graphics were far better than the Amstrad, Spectrum and Commodore games. In fact most games were made first for the Amiga and then downsized to fit the other formats. You could play games on keyboard or two button joystick. This was a very popular computer in it's time. Made mid-late eighties and lasted until the mid nineties.
Atari ST	Another 16-bit computer. Major rival to the Amiga but never as popular. The graphics and sound output was pretty much the same as the Amiga. Once again ran games from disk and used keyboard or joystick. Made mid-late eighties lasted until the early-mid nineties.
Nintendo NES	N.E.S. stood for Nintendo Entertainment System. Made in 1985 this was Nintendo's first console. It was 8-bit and the games came on big cartridges making the graphics and sound more refined than the 8-bit computers of the time. The games were controlled using two button joypads. Lasted until roughly 1994.
Sega Master System	Sega's 8-bit home console. Made after the NES and as a result the graphics and sound in it's games are generally better than Nintendo's machine. The games came on cartridge and used two button joypads. Released 1986/7 and lasted until 1994.
PC Engine	A little known 16-bit console not widely released outside of Japan and the USA. Played games on credit card sized cards via two button joypads. Had impressive graphics considering the age and game cards. First released roughly 1987 and lasted until around 1994.
Sega Game Gear	Sega's handheld console. Basically a portable Master System. It had a full colour, backlight screen which meant the six batteries it took to power it ran out in no time. Released roughly 1988 and lasted until roughly 1994. Games came on cartridge.
Sega Megadrive /Genesis	Sega's 16-bit console. Made in 1989. Games came on cartridge and were played via a three button joypad. Due to it's age the later released Super Nintendo looked and sounded better. Known as the Genesis in the USA. Lasted until roughly 1996.
PC-CD/ IBM PC Aka PC	Basically a game on CD made for use on a PC like the one you are using now. IBM PC means games made for PC during the eighties-early nineties before PC technology had caught up with that of dedicated games playing systems. IBM PC games came on floppy disks; either 3 1/2 inch or the older 5 1/4 inch variety and had little or no sound and primitive graphics.
Atari Lynx	Atari's hand held console. The first ever 16-bit handheld and, until the Gameboy Advance release, was the most powerful handheld console. It had some clever features such as being able to flip the image on the screen 180 degrees so it would suit left handed players. It boasted and full colour, back-lit screen. In spite of it's technical superiority it never caught on, possibly due to it's lack of decent games. Released in two versions, the first in 1987 and the second 1991, it played games from small cards. Lasted until roughly 1993/4.
Nintendo Gameboy	The first of the many incarnations of the portable Gameboy. Made in 1989 it was hugely popular due to the fact it was cheap and it had the game 'Tetris'. The graphics were pretty shoddy as they were produced using a 'dot matrix' green screen so the images are all made of little black dots stuck on a green filter. Games came on cartridge.
Nintendo Gameboy Colour	An updated version of the Gameboy. This one uses a large number of colours for far better graphics. It also features better sound too. Games were on cartridge. Released 1997 and lasted until the release of the Gameboy Advance.
Super Nintendo (Aka SNES)	Nintendo's 16-bit console. Released in 1992 and, as a result, had largely better graphics and sound than it's main rival the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. Played games on cartridge via six button joypads. Lasted until 1995/6.
Mega/Sega CD	Sega's CD add-on for the Megadrive/Genesis. Simply plugged into the Megadrive/Genesis and used the same, three button, joypads. Games were made on CD and, as a result, could feature better graphics and sound including film footage. Not very popular. Made 1993. Died 1994/5.
Sega 32X	An add-on for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. Played 32-bit games from cartridge. Very unpopular and really only made as a stop gap between the Megadrive/Genesis and the Saturn. Made roughly 1993/4. Died roughly 1995 with only a handful of games.
Atari Jaguar	Atari's 64-bit console. Made in 1993, died around 1995. Very unpopular due to it's graphics being far more 16-bit than 64. Games, in a similar way to the N64, came on cartridge which probably didn't help matters. Games were controlled via a joypad that had three main buttons and around 13 option buttons. As you can imagine the pads were massive. Also had an even less popular CD add-on.
3DO	An unpopular 32-bit CD console from 1993. Originally made by Panasonic but other companies like Goldstar made them too. Graphics weren't too good. Didn't last long, roughly 1994/5.
CDI	The 32-bit CD console from Philips. Didn't last very long due to the fact nearly all the games were made of film footage. Made in 1992 and lasted only a couple of years.
Sega Saturn	Sega's ill fated 32-bit CD console. Released in 1995. Played games via eight button joypads. Ended around 1997-98.
Sony Playstation	Sony's highly popular 32-bit CD console. Originally released in 1995 against the Sega Saturn. Uses eight button joypads.
Nintendo 64 (Aka N64)	Nintendo's disappointing and largely ignored 64-bit console. Games came on cartridge which meant the graphics weren't all that good compared to the CD consoles that were half as powerful. Had a good joypad though. Made 1996 ended 2001.
Tiger Game.Com	Extremely short lived and obscure 16-bit handheld from electronics giant Tiger. Basically an electronic organiser which could also play games. It's other features included touch screen display and ability to connect to the internet and send/receive emails. The screen was black and white and the games came on tiny cartridges. Released in 1997 and lasted roughly a year.
Gameboy Advance	Nintendo's 32-bit handheld. Despite the games being on cartridge the graphics and sound are very impressive for a handheld console. Released 2001.
Sega Dreamcast	Again, Sega lost out with this, the world's first, 128-bit console. Games came on high capacity CDs. Released 1999/2000. Died 2001
Playstation 2	A 128-bit console with games coming on CD or DVD. Released 2000.
GameCube	Nintendo's 128-bit console. The first console they have made that plays high capacity CDs. Released in the USA and Japan 2001 and UK and Europe 2002.
Xbox	Microsoft's 128-bit games console. It plays games on CDs or DVDs. Released in the USA 2001 and Europe and Japan 2002.