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||[[wikipedia:MicroVision|Milton Bradley MicroVision]]
→First Generation (Discrete Circuitry-Based & Pong)
{{Consoles}}
{{outdated}}
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the video game market experienced an explosion of products hoping to capitalize on the success of the Odyssey and Atari. From the nigh-infinite Pong clones to the suspiciously similar consoles, consumers had far more options than they do today. This is a list of those first and second generation machines. Not all of them can be emulated or preserved, though some that can't be emulated have simulations instead. See also [[Strange and Forgotten Console emulators]], a similar page but for later generations. Amazingly, over 900 first-generation home video game consoles are known to exist. More than 200 different companies were involved in the first generation, and while more than half only released one console, it's still a large number of companies compared to the 20 that partook on the second generation.
==First Generation '''(Discrete Circuitry-Based & Pong)'''==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"|Name
! scope="col"|[[MAME]] support
! scope="col"|No-intro collection Other emulators
! Internet Archive
! scope="col"|Description
|[[Magnavox Odyssey emulators|Magnavox Odyssey]]
|style="background:gainsboro;"|None
|Nostyle="background:gainsboro;"|None|No
|
|-
| [https://www.pong-story.com/spiel.htm Philips <br> Tele-Spiel]|style="background:gainsboro;"|None
|style="background:gainsboro;"|None
|
|Only sold in Europe, The Tele-Spiel console was released by Philips in 1975 and had hardware very similar to Odyssey's. It sold poorly and wasn't on the market for vary long. <br> Only 5 games were released.
|-
| [[POS (Pong Consoles (Pong In A Chip)CPUs and Other Chips#Pong_Consoles_.28Pong_In_A_Chip.29| Pong Consoles]]|style="background:gainsboro;"|NA
|style="background:gainsboro;"|NA
|
|}
==Second Generation '''(Cartridge Consoles)'''==
Best-selling game consoles: Atari 2600, Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey², ColecoVision.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
|Yes
|[https://archive.org/details/atari_2600_library Yes]
|[http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html ROM Hunter v15 v18 Collection]
|-
|[[Atari 5200 emulators|Atari 5200]]
|[https://archive.org/details/Atari5200_201602 No-intro]
|-
|[[gametech:Bally Astrocade|Bally Astrocade]]<ref group=N name=mame>Emulated by [[MAME]] only.</ref>|style="background: Orangepalegreen;"|ImperfectGood
|No
|[https://archive.org/details/bally_astrocade_library Yes]
|[https://ia801700ia803208.us.archive.org/zipviewview_archive.php?ziparchive=/1722/items/Bally_Professional_Arcade_and_Astrocade_TOSEC_2012_04_23/Bally_Professional_Arcade_and_Astrocade_TOSEC_2012_04_23.zip TOSEC]
|-
|[[wikipedia:Bandai Super Vision 8000|Bandai Super Vision 8000]]<ref group=N name=mame >Emulated by [[MAME]] only.</ref>
|style="background:palegreen;"|Good
|No
|No
|
|Released in 1977, Coleco's first attempt at making a video game console was an odd one, a triangle console with triangle cartridges and each side of system had a different controller type. The console itself dose not have a CPU built-in, instead, each cartridge contained a custom chip based on the [[POS (Pong Consoles (Pong In A Chip)CPUs and Other Chips| MPS-7600 POC series.]]
|Yes
|[https://archive.org/details/emerson_arcadia_library Yes]
|[http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=arcadia&search_id= Over 50 games] made for it. The graphic quality is similar to that of the [[Intellivision emulators|Intellivision]] and the [[Magnavox Odyssey Odyssey² emulators|OdysseyOdyssey²]]. Sound still imperfect in games. [https://archive.org/details/Emerson_Arcadia_2001_TOSEC_2012_04_23 TOSEC]
|-
|[[wikipedia:Cassette Vision|Epoch Cassette Vision]]
|No
|
|Designed by Soundic and Released by many different companies, the PC-50x is a series of consoles is similar to Telstar Arcade, these systems has no built-in CPU and use cartridges that have a [[POS (Pong Consoles (Pong In A Chip)CPUs and Other Chips| POC]] inside. These system were first released in 1977 with only around 8 games were released in its lifetime.
|-
|[[Vectrex emulators|Vectrex]]<ref group=N name="vectrex">Clone: Spectrum I+ (1984. Roy Abel & Associates.).</ref>
|Only 5 games exist for this handheld (Released in 1984). All can be found [http://www.theoldcomputer.com/roms/index.php?folder=Epoch/Game-Pocket-Computer/Cartridges here].
|-
|style="background:palegreen;"|Good
|
</br>A Windows emulator that is front-end friendly can be found [https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/05/07/microvision-emulator-release/ here], with all known games included.
|-
||[[wikipedia:OMNI Entertainment System|Milton Bradley OMNI]]
|style="background:gainsboro;"|None
|
|No
|Released in 1980, The OMNI was a weird hybrid of a portable console, Mono 8-track player and a Tabletop game, graphics were limited to four 2-character seven segment displays, 8-track tapes were used to store the games instead of cartridges and because of its massive limitations, most of the games for it were trivia games, it's unknown how many units were sold or when it was discontinued, only 13 games are known to be released for it.
|-
|[[wikipedia:Palmtex Portable Videogame System|Palmtex PVS / Super Micro]]
|Another extremely rare console released from VTech in 1983, like the 3D Gamate. It's unknown how many units were sold and was also likely discontinued shortly after released. Only six games are known to have been released for it.
|}
----{{NEL}}
==Encyclopedia==
* [[wikipedia:List of first generation home video game consoles|List of first generation home video game consoles]] (Amazingly exhaustive wiki list. 888 listed consoles, but over 900 existed.)
* [https://gamebroscentral.com/first-generation/ 1972-1977: The Home Gaming Revolution] at Game Bros Central ([https://web.archive.org/web/20200722010641/https://gamebroscentral.com/first-generation/ Web Archive] on July 22, 2020. Brief history of 7 major companies behind the first generation, plus a small list of other first-gen home consoles)
[[Category:Consoles|*]]
[[Category:First-generation consoles|*]]
[[Category:Second-generation consoles|*]]
[[Category:Various Emulation]]
