We have been asked many questions about the consoles that were showcased in the Classic Consoles Area at PAX AUS 2013. In response, we have put together a collection of interesting facts and figures for each system that we had on display (28 in total!).
In part 1 we will start from 1982 with the Intellivision II and continue to October 1987 with the Amiga 500. Part 2 and 3 to follow soon!
- The Intellivision II was released by Mattel in 1982 (the original Intellivision was released in 1979).
- Intellivision can be considered the first 16-bit game console.
- Over 3 million Intellivision units were sold.
- A total of 125 games were released for the console.
- Discontinued in January 1984.
- Media: ROM cartridge.
- Best selling game: Major League Baseball (1 million).
- The Intellivision controller featured: 12-button numeric keypad (0-9, Clear, and Enter). Four side-located action buttons (where the top two are actually electronically the same, giving three distinct buttons). A directional disk, capable of detecting 16 directions of movement. Laminated overlays that would slide into place as an extra layer on the keypad to show game-specific key functions.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Arcadia 2001 is an 8-bit console released by Emerson Radio Corp in 1982.
- Media: ROM cartridge.
- The Emerson version of the console was essentially considered dead on arrival in the USA. The system came out at nearly the same time as the Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision were released. In addition, Atari’s use of exclusive rights to many games made it virtually impossible for Emerson to get popular games to the console.
- The Arcadia 2001 was licensed to many different companies and sold under different names.
- The system came with two Intellivision-style control pads. The control pads have screw holes in their centres, so that one could transform them into a joystick. Most games came with overlays which could be applied to the controllers. The console itself had five buttons: power, start, reset, option, and select.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Commodore 64 (C64) is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1982 by Commodore International.
- For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year.
- Part of its success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost.
- Discontinued: April 1994.
- Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and games.
- Aggressive pricing of the C64 is considered to be one reason behind the North American video game crash of 1983.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The ColecoVision was released by Coleco Industries in August 1982.
- The ColecoVision offered near-arcade-quality graphics and gaming style.
- Approximately 145 titles in total were published between 1982 and 1984.
- Discontinued by October 1985.
- Media: ROM cartridge.
- Best selling game: Donkey Kong.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Amstrad CPC (short for Colour Personal Computer) is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990.
- Amstrad CPC units sold: 3 million Worldwide.
- Media: Cassette tape, 3-inch floppy disks.
- The CPC464 featured 64 kB RAM and an internal cassette tape deck. It was introduced in June 1984 in the UK. In 1990, the 464plus replaced the CPC464 in the model line-up, and production of the CPC464 was discontinued.
- List of Amstrad CPC games.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Sega Mark III was released in Japan in October 1985.
- The Mark III was only released in Japan. A redesigned version, the ‘Sega Master System’, was released in other countries (1986 in North America, 1987 in Europe and 1989 in Brazil).
- The difference between the Mark III and the Master System was mainly cosmetic, internal components remained largely the same, although the cartridge ports had different pinouts and games cannot be exchanged without an adapter.
- Discontinued: 1989 in Japan, 1991 in North America, and 1996 in Europe.
- 10-14.8 million units sold Worldwide.
- Media: ROM cartridge and card.
- Best selling game: Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
- Developer: Hideki Sato, Head of Sega Away Team (also called Sega Hardware Team R&D) (1985–2001).
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Atari 7800 was released by Atari Corporation in January 1986 (the 7800 was initially released in southern California in 1984, but legal issues kept it on the shelf until 1986).
- Discontinued: January 1, 1992.
- Units sold 3.77 million (North America).
- Unlike the previous Atari 5200, the Atari 7800 could play almost all Atari 2600 games out of the box, without the need for an adapter.
- List of Atari 7800 games.
- Interestingly, in 2004, Atari (now owned by Infogrames) released the Atari Flashback console. This system resembled a miniature Atari 7800 and joysticks and had 20 built in games (five 7800 and fifteen 2600 titles). While the unit sold well, it was controversial among Atari fans.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Famicom Disk System was released on February 21, 1986 by Nintendo as a peripheral for the Nintendo Family Computer console in Japan.
- It was a unit that used proprietary floppy disks (called “Disk Cards”) for data storage.
- It was announced, but not released, for the North American/PAL Nintendo Entertainment System.
- Through its entire production span, 1986–2003, 4.44 million units were sold.
- Best selling game: Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels).
- List of Family Computer Disk System games.
- Trivia: the background music of the Nintendo GameCube‘s system menu is a highly slowed-down version of the FDS startup jingle.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Sharp Twin Famicom was released only in Japan by the Sharp Corporation in July 1986. It is a licensed Nintendo product, and is basically the Family Computer (Famicom) and the Family Computer Disk System (FDS) combined into a single piece of hardware.
- Media: ROM cassette and Famicom Disk Card.
- Reference: Wikipedia
- The Amiga 500 (a.k.a. A500) was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer.
- The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model.
- Release date: October 1987.
- Discontinued: 1991.
- Media: 880 kB floppy disks.
- Creators: Jay Glenn Miner and Robert J. “RJ” Mical.
- Reference: Wikipedia
Stay tuned for part 2 in which we will cover the PC Engine (1987) to the Atari Jaguar (1993).
Classic Consoles supplied by: ausretrogamer, Retrospekt, Retro Domination and Retro Gaming Australia
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Ms. ausretrogamer
Editor and Researcher at ausretrogamer – The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine. Lover of science fiction, fashion, books, movies and TV. Player of games, old and new.
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