47-586: The SG-1000 is a home video game console manufactured by Sega . It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nakayama , president of Sega's Japanese arm, and was released on July 15, 1983, the same day that Nintendo released the Family Computer in Japan. It also had
94-548: A brief period of popularity in Taiwan before the market was taken over by cheaper Famicom clones . Due in part to the SG-1000's steadier stream of releases (21 SG-1000 games by the end of 1983, as compared to only 9 Famicom games), and in part to a recall on Famicom units necessitated by a faulty circuit, the SG-1000 sold 160,000 units in 1983, far exceeding Sega's projection of 50,000. Former Sega consumer hardware development head Hideki Sato stated that because Sega had not predicted
141-511: 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
188-672: A limited release in Australia and New Zealand. The SG-1000 was released in several forms, including the SC-3000 computer and the redesigned SG-1000 II released in 1984. The SG-1000 and the SC-3000 both support a library of 51 ROM cartridge games and 29 Sega My Card games. A third iteration of the console, the Mark III, was released in 1985. It provided an improved custom video display processor over previous iterations and served as
235-429: 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
282-620: A release in Italy and Spain, but was not released in the larger video game markets of the United States, United Kingdom, or Germany. Despite this, an unauthorized clone system known as the Telegames Personal Arcade was produced and made available in the United States and Taiwan, and is able to play SG-1000 and ColecoVision games. An additional release of the SG-1000 in Taiwan was done by Aaronix. The console enjoyed
329-501: 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
376-522: 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
423-465: 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 List of Sega arcade system boards Sega is a video game developer , publisher , and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo , Japan , with multiple offices around
470-510: 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
517-475: Is sometimes referred to as the "SG-1000 Mark II". The SG-1000 II replaced the hardwired joystick with two detachable joypads. Sato disliked the original cartridges, saying they looked like "small black tombstones" when inserted in the console, and later remarked that his proudest achievement of the SG-1000 era was replacing them with the "cheerier", pocket-sized Sega My Cards. Sega also employed popular owarai comedy duo Tunnels to provide celebrity endorsement for
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#1732781179460564-747: Is the world's most prolific arcade game producer, having developed more than 500 games , 70 franchises , and 20 arcade system boards since 1981. It has been recognized by Guinness World Records for this achievement. The following list comprises the various arcade system boards developed and used by Sega in their arcade games. Before Lindbergh, Sega arcade hardware was either proprietary or built on gaming console architecture . Nowadays, arcade hardware closely resembles gaming PCs, with recent models even incorporating embedded versions of Microsoft Windows. Sega has developed and released additional arcade games that use technology other than their dedicated arcade system boards. The first arcade game manufactured by Sega
611-451: The arcade business starting in 1982 seriously hurt the company, leading Gulf and Western to sell its North American arcade manufacturing organization and the licensing rights for its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing . The company retained Sega's North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. With its arcade business in decline, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. president Hayao Nakayama advocated that
658-570: The SC-3000 that could only be played on the SG-1000 with the SK-1100 keyboard peripheral. Titles for the system include Flicky , Congo Bongo , Sega-Galaga , and Girl's Garden , the first video game programmed by Sonic the Hedgehog developer Yuji Naka . The library included licensed titles, such as Golgo 13 . Packaging and game manuals came with both Japanese and English text until 1984, when manuals were switched to Japanese only and
705-658: The SF-7000 expansion device which adds a floppy disk drive and additional memory. Sega's software library for the SG-1000 and SC-3000 consists of 51 game cartridges, which includes both licensed titles from Sega and also the titles released for the licensed console from Tsukuda Original Co., Ltd. called the Othello Multivision, as well as 29 Sega My Card releases that required the Card Catcher add-on. There were also 26 educational and programming cartridges for
752-403: The SG-1000 would sell so well, the company became more enamored with developing video game consoles. Despite this, the three launch games, all of which were ported from Sega's VIC dual-arcade board , lacked the name recognition of Famicom launch games Donkey Kong , Donkey Kong Jr. , and Popeye . Shortly after launch, Gulf and Western began to divest itself of its non-core businesses after
799-404: The SG-1000, and several playable titles. The SG-1000 is powered by an 8-bit Zilog Z80 central processing unit running at 3.58 MHz . Its video processor is a Texas Instruments TMS9918A , capable of displaying up to 15 colors, and its sound processor is a Texas Instruments SN76489 . The system includes 8 kbit (1 KB ) of RAM . The controller is hardwired to the system in
846-749: The SJ-200 joystick attached to the SG-1000, and the SJ-150 joypad, made for use with the SG-1000 II. A racing wheel known as the SH-400 was made for use with games such as Monaco GP . The C-1000 Card Catcher, sold at ¥1,000, allows players to play Sega My Card titles. Additional accessories existed solely for use with the SC-3000, including the SR-1000 cassette deck , the SP-400 4-color plotter printer , and
893-465: 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
940-617: The basis for the Master System in 1986, Sega's first internationally released console. All SG-1000 games are fully compatible with the Mark III and the Japanese version of the Master System. In the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc. , then a subsidiary of Gulf and Western Industries , was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues rose to $ 214 million. A downturn in
987-576: 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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#17327811794601034-570: 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
1081-432: The company into developing their own games. Sega released Pong-Tron , its first video-based game, in 1973. The company prospered from the arcade game boom of the late 1970s, with revenues climbing to over US$ 100 million by 1979. Nagai has stated that Hang-On and Out Run helped to pull the arcade game market out of the 1983 downturn and created new genres of video games. In terms of arcades, Sega
1128-460: The company leverage its hardware expertise to move into the home console market in Japan, which was in its infancy at the time. Nakayama received permission to proceed. The first model to be developed was the SC-3000 , a computer with a built-in keyboard, but when Sega learned of Nintendo's plans to release a games-only console, they began developing the SG-1000 alongside the SC-3000. The "SG" in
1175-424: The console's name is an abbreviation for "Sega Game", and the console is also sometimes referred to as the "Mark I". To keep costs down while ensuring sufficient longevity, Sega opted to create the platform from popular off-the-shelf components. The SG-1000 was first released in Japan on July 15, 1983, at ¥ 15,000. It was released on the same day as Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. It
1222-466: The console. Japanese company created the Othello Multivision, based around the SC-3000 and SG-1000 hardware. By 1984, the Famicom's success began to outpace the SG-1000. The Famicom had more advanced hardware, allowing it to perform smoother scrolling and more colorful sprites, and Nintendo boosted its games library by courting third-party developers , whereas Sega was less than eager to collaborate with
1269-401: 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
1316-476: The death of company founder Charles Bluhdorn , so Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen arranged a management buyout of the Japanese subsidiary in 1984 with financial backing from CSK Corporation , a prominent Japanese software company. Nakayama was then installed as CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Following the buyout, Sega released another console, the SG-1000 II , on July 31, 1984 at ¥15,000. It
1363-447: The development of Sega's home console business." Hideki Sato reflected positively on the innovations in the development of the SG-1000, but admitted that the console had limitations because of how new the market was and that Sega was inexperienced in developing for a video game console at the time. According to Sato, "The problem was, while we knew how to make arcade games, we didn’t really know anything about console development. In fact,
1410-511: 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
1457-517: 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
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1504-399: 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
1551-552: 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
1598-460: 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
1645-468: 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
1692-435: The original model, and detachable in the SG-1000 II. Video and audio output are supplied through an RF switch . Power is supplied through a 9 V DC connector connected to an AC adapter . Several peripherals exist for the SG-1000 series. Available at ¥13,800 at its time of release, the SK-1100 keyboard connects through the expansion slot and is compatible with all models. Multiple controllers were created, including
1739-544: The same companies they were competing with in arcades. The SG-1000 was also coming up against game consoles from companies including Tomy and Bandai . This would result in the release of the Sega Mark III in Japan in 1985, which later became the Master System worldwide. The last cartridge released was Portrait of Loretta on February 18, 1987. In 2006, the GameTap subscription gaming service added an emulator of
1786-416: The same month as Nintendo's world-changing Famicom, which had killer apps like Donkey Kong and could run circles around Sega's hardware." Of its legacy, Kohler said, "Few have heard of it, even fewer have played it, and the games weren't that great anyway." By contrast, Luke Plunkett of Kotaku recognized that "while all this makes it sound like the SG-1000 was a bit of a misfire, it was still important in
1833-473: The size of the cartridge box was reduced. Hideki Sato stated that Sega lacked adequate staff to develop games for the console at the time. SC-3000/SG-1000 games were continued to be produced after the launch of the Mark III in 1985. The last two SC-3000/SG-1000 cartridge games were The Castle in 1986 and Loretta no Shōzō: Sherlock Holmes in 1987. The final Sega My Card game for the SC-3000/SG-1000
1880-419: The very idea of a “consumer” market for video games was unheard of then: back then it was just a 'new business' idea." 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 a few games fixed into
1927-508: 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
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1974-412: The world. The company's involvement in the arcade game industry began as a Japan-based distributor of coin-operated machines, including pinball games and jukeboxes . Sega imported second-hand machines that required frequent maintenance. This necessitated the construction of replacement guns, flippers, and other parts for the machines. According to former Sega director Akira Nagai, this is what led to
2021-403: Was Periscope , an electromechanical game. This was followed by Missile in 1969. Subsequent video-based games such as Pong-Tron (1973), Fonz (1976), and Monaco GP (1979) used discrete logic boards without a CPU microprocessor. Frogger (1981) used a system powered by two Z80 CPU microprocessors. Some titles, such as Zaxxon (1982) were developed externally from Sega,
2068-514: Was The Black Onyx , also in 1987. The SG-1000 console series (including the Mark III) sold over 1.4 million units in Japan as of 1988, with the original SG-1000 model having sold 400,000 units in Japan. The SC-3000 home computer model sold 120,000 units in Japan during 1983. The SG-1000 made little impact on the video game industry, but has been recognized for being Sega's first video game console. Retro Gamer writer Damien McFerran said it
2115-575: 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
2162-399: Was an "abject failure", but called it and the SG-1000 II "the Japanese forefathers of the Master System". Writing for Wired , Chris Kohler criticized the poor response of the controller's joystick and the lack of an RCA output. He said the release timing hurt its success; "[al]though its graphics were of better quality than most consoles on the market, it had the bad luck to be released in
2209-459: Was released simultaneously with the SC-3000 , as well as the upgraded SC-3000H . Though Sega themselves only released the SG-1000 in Japan, rebranded versions were released in several other markets worldwide. In November that same year as the Japanese version, the SG-1000 was released in Australia through John Sands Electronics and in New Zealand by Grandstand Leisure . The console also saw
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