Generation 1
The first generation lasted from the 1960's to the mid 1970's. These were relatively simple devices that allowed simple home entertainment. The consoles in this generation , that were the most recognised, were the Magnavox Odyssey, the Atari Pong Consoles and the different versions of the Nintendo Colour TV.
Before the first generation consoles there were very few “consoles” to compare them to. One of these ideas would be Tennis for Two (1958) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Space War (1962). Firstly, main improvement is that they are relatively small consoles, both Space War and Tennis for Two had to be played on Computers (at the time (during the early 60's) computer took up half of a giant room). This also means that these were the first consoles that could be played at home, all previous systems had to be put on a site (such as Brookhaven National Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology). As a follow up, this also meant that they could be played on home TVs. The screens for the computer systems were tiny, especially considering the game Tennis for Two supported two players. One more advantage they had was that the consoles were able to hold more than one variation of the game that was being played.
This generation was however incredibly limited. These consoles were not capable of graphical game designs, each game the console could run would be installed on the console, some of the consoles (like the Odyssey) had graphical overlays to put in front of the screen to help the players see what game they are playing. Some of the consoles (like the Atari Pong) could only play one game, Pong. The main console that had different games was the Nintendo Colour TV, the way it did this was by releasing a new variation of the console, every time new forms of current games were created, even though it was called “Game 6”, “Game 15”, etc... . One more point is that these consoles had very simple controllers that came with he system, it was most likely a box with one button or switch; very few controllers had more than that in this generation.
There was no real standard of game design by this point. There was only one stage per every game, that was used again and again. Since there was no AI code in the system it was mainly a competitive system between family members. There was no addition of “game levels” this generation. All of the graphics in this generation were large square pixels.
Similar to the arcade version, several companies released clones to capitalize on the home console's success, many of which continued to produce new consoles and video games. Magnavox re-released their Odyssey system with simplified hardware and new features, and would later release updated versions. Coleco entered the video game market with their Telstar console which featured three Pong variants and was also succeeded by newer models.
Nintendo released the Colour TV Game 6 in 1977, which played six variations of electronic tennis. The next year, it was followed by an updated version, the Colour TV Game 15, which featured fifteen variations. The systems were Nintendo's entry into the home video game market and the first to produce themselves (they had previously licensed the Magnavox Odyssey).
Atari PONG was released in June 1972 and is the first commercially successful video game. This tennis sports game featuring two-dimensional graphics is one of the earliest arcade video games, which may be considered one of the most revolutionary games due to its success which led to development of ‘Home Pong’ which was marketed in 1975. This change in how video games were played could be seen as one of the most revolutionary of all, as this furthered the development of more home consoles which people could play all day in comparison to spending money to play for a few minutes at an arcade machine.
Audience at this point were families, they were advertised as more as electronics rather than home video game consoles. Considering that these were relatively simple games and ideas about sport and animals, it was easier to market the games to adults. Not to mention this generation existed when the rating system (by the ESRB) did not.
Generation 2
The second generation of computer and video games began in 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F and Radofin Electronics' 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System. It coincided with and was partly fuelled by the golden age of arcade video games, a peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium.
The early period saw the launch of several consoles as various companies decided to enter the market; later releases were in direct response to the earlier consoles. The Atari 2600 was the dominant console for much of the second generation, with other consoles such as Intellivision, the Odyssey², and ColecoVision also enjoying market share.
Each console had a different impact on the industry and varying amounts of success.
The Atari 2600 (or Atari VCS before 1982) was a home video game console released on September 11, 1977 by Atari. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F video game console in 1976. This format contrasts with the older model of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware, which could only play the games which were physically built into the unit.
The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, an abbreviation for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982, the VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600, after the unit's Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was bundled with two joystick controllers (the controllers had one button and one joystick), a pair of paddle controllers, and one game cartridge.
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word Intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Over 3 million Intellivision units were sold and a total of 125 games were released for the console.
It was the only video game console that Mattel made until the release of the HyperScan in 2006.
The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second-generation home video-game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered a much more powerful game machine system compared to competitors such as the Atari 2600, along with an ability to expand the system's basic hardware. One of these was a add on that allowed Atari 2600 games to be played on it.
The initial catalogue of twelve games included Nintendo's Donkey Kong as the pack-in cartridge, and some lesser known arcade titles that found a larger audience on the console, such as Lady Bug, Cosmic Avenger, and Venture. Around 145 titles in total were published as full cartridge games for the system between 1982 and 1984.
Coleco withdrew from the video game market in 1985, and ColecoVision was discontinued that same year. A company known as River West Brands currently owns the ColecoVision brand name.
The second generation had a mixed legacy affected by the video game crash of 1983 two years before the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States. The Atari 2600 was discontinued on January 1, 1992, ending the second generation. The duration between the start of the 2nd generation in 1976 and the start of the 3rd generation in 1983 was seven years. Due the long lifespan of the Atari 2600, which was available from 1977 to 1992, the second generation is the longest generation so far. The consoles themselves were a step up in quality compared to the previous generation,
The video game crash existed because, major companies all wanted to take advantage of this new market, however this lead to an overblown market, that alienated consumers and thousands of games on the home consoles that were seen as bad quality.
Generation 3
Generation 3 (1983) marked the end of the ‘North American Videogame Crash’, and helped bring Japan out as the dominant in the industry, thanks to the Famicom, or NES in America. The three best-selling consoles of that era where the NES, Master System, and Atari 7800. It also gave birth to the rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo. It's in this generation that franchises like Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear, Metroid and Castlevania were found.
The things that distinguished the Gen 3 from its predecessor included D-Pads, detailed sprite graphics with enhanced colour palettes (with up to 100 sprites on screen, 16 colours per sprite, and 32x32 sprite sizes), and advanced hardware scrolling.
The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), or Famicon in Japan, was the best selling console of its time, and was the main contributing factor to helping North America recover from the Videogame Crash. One of the things that caused the crash was low quality games continuing to disappoint the public. Nintendo put a stop to that by introducing a new business model that made games more polished - licensing 3rd party developers restricting developers from publishing and distributing software without licensed approval. The main appeal of the NES was being able to play games from home, rather than having to go out and pay at the arcade. It allowed for more long lasting, story driven games to come through.
The NES sold over 61.9 million copies, with the market for Nintendo cartridges outshining all the previous demand for home computer systems. The success of the NES was so strong it caused
competitors serious financial trouble come Christmas. In total, there were 713
licensed games released on the NES.
The NES also had an unnecessary eject lever on its cartridge slot, as the
creator Masayuki Uemura thought children would have fun playing with it.
In the later part of the third generation, Nintendo also introduced the Game Boy, which almost single-handedly solidified and then proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years. While the Game Boy product line was incrementally updated every few years, until the Game Boy Micro and Nintendo DS, and partially the Game Boy Colour, all Game Boy products were backwards compatible with the original released in 1989. Since the Game Boy's release, Nintendo had dominated the handheld market.
The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990. Upon its release in the United States, it sold its entire shipment of one million units within a few weeks.
In its first two weeks in Japan, from its release on April 21, 1989, the entire stock consisting of 300,000 units was sold; a few months later, the Game Boy's release in the United States on July 31, 1989 saw 40,000 units sold on its first day. The Game Boy and Game Boy Colour combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide, with 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions. By Japanese fiscal year 1997, before Game Boy Colour's release in late-1998, the Game Boy alone had sold 64.42 million units worldwide.
Sega’s first foray into the third generation of games consoles came in the form of the SG-1000.
This gaming system was both a sales and cultural failure, providing little influence on the north american and European gaming scenes, with only slightly wider spread in Japan. It’s failure is largely due to a small range of available, recognizable games and a release date within the same month as the
However in 1986 Sega released the second of its Gen 3 consoles was more successful, though still not as widely remembered as their Nintendo counterpart, the Sega Master system.
Generation 4
Nintendo’s SNES was originally released in 1990 in Japan, making its way to N. America in 1991 and finally Europe in 1992. The SNES was, for it’s time, quite a powerful advancement in terms of video games and consoles, boasting advanced graphics and sound capabilities; combined with the 6-bit and range of enhancement chips integrated within the console, it made it’s mark in gaming history.
From launch the SNES was a global success, out selling all of it’s competition (consisting mostly of Sega’s consoles: The Genesis and Mega Drive) in the 16-bit era and even staying popular when the next generation of consoles came about.
The original price for a SNES was $199 and it sold 49.10 million units with a total of 1676 total games.
The SNES had online capabilities by way of the Satellaview add-on. It connected to satellite via a modem and was released in 1995 in Japan only. It allowed the user to download and play games in weekly or daily installments, and only broadcast at certain times. It was pioneering in both downloadable game media and episodic content on consoles and is viewed as a precursor to services such as the Wii's Shop Channel and Xbox Live Marketplace.
The 16-bit design of the SNES incorporates graphics and sound co-processors that allow tiling and simulated 3D effects, a palette of 32,768 colors, and 8-channel ADPCM audio. These base platform features, plus the ability to dramatically extend them all through substantial chip upgrades inside of each cartridge, represent a leap over the 8-bit NES generation and some supposed significant advantages over the higher bit-rate competition such as the Genesis.
Regional Lockout
CPU: Custom 65c816 based Ricoh 5A22 running at a selectable 3.58 MHz, 2.66 Mhz or 1.77 Mhz.
Memory: 128 Kb main RAM, 64 Kb video RAM, 64 Kb audio RAM
Video: 256 x 224 or 512 x 224 or 256 x 239 or 512 x 239 progressive resolutions, 512 x 448 or 512 x 478 interlaced resolutions, 32,768 colors with 256 colors maximum on screen. (128 sprites max on screen)
Audio: 2 Sony audio processors (1 8-bit, and 1 16-bit DSP) 8 channels, Sample Rate 32KHz, 16-bit stereo output
The SNES can also take advantage of custom chips provided by the individual game cartridges, like the "Super FX" co-processor chip that ran at either 10.5Mhz or 21Mhz depending on the game. Examples include Star Fox, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Stunt Race FX.
What were the major strengths of the hardware in terms of graphics?
MI: I think its strength was in having multiple displays. We were able to have two scrolling windows — with both vertical and horizontal line scrolling — and the sprite size could be changed to fill the whole display. It could also display the background screen behind the scrolling window and could change the color of each line. The number of available colors was limited compared to comparable arcade systems, but it could create shadows that matched each character's shape and was also capable of semi-transparency. The biggest hurdle was the size of the chip. We wanted to include enlarging and minimizing capabilities as well as sprite-spinning functionality, but the circuit design was becoming too large to fit on one chip, which would have lowered the production yield rate and hiked up costs, so we had to remove it from the spec. The number of available colors was also limited by the size of the circuit structure.
What were your priorities with the Genesis architecture?
MI: We wanted the Mega Drive to have the basic performance of the preceding system boards — the System I, System II and System 16 — and we wanted to preserve compatibility with the Mark III. In fact, even SG-1000 II titles were playable on the Mega Drive. The top priority was the Mark III compatibility — in order to retain gamers who owned older systems — while at the same time maximising the graphic performance. The crux was how to optimise the efficiency of the memory access cycle with the graphic memory. We also separated the CPU into a graphic component and sound component to lessen the stress on the game program. The Mark III compatibility meant that it also had a Zilog Z80 CPU. When the Mega Drive was in Mark III mode, it was mainly running on the Z80, but when it was in Mega Drive mode, the Z80 was used only for sound.
Model Number: MK-1601 (r1), MK-1631 (r2).
CPU: Motorola 68000 at 7.61 MHz
Co-Processor: Z80 @ 4 MHz (Not Present in MK-1631)
Graphics:
64 simultaneous colors of 512 colour palette.
Pixel resolution: 320 x 224
VDP (Video Display Processor)
Dedicated video display processor
Controls playfield & sprites
64 KBytes of dedicated VRAM (Video Ram)
64 x 9-bits of CRAM (Color RAM)
3 Planes: 2 scrolling playfields, 1 sprite plane
Sound:
PSG (TI 76489 chip)
FM chip (Yamaha YM 2612)
6-channel stereo
8 KBytes RAM
Signal/Noise Ratio: 14dB
Combined with the SNES it elevated console gaming from being a rather niche activity to a mass consumer activity, it was major shift, maybe it was price thing, because suddenly everyone had a SNES or Genesis/Megadrive. To make it seem cooler than its main rival, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega's Marketing Department came up with the term "Blast Processing" to imply that the Genesis/Mega Drive had more power and was more capable of rendering sprites on screen faster than the SNES. While "Blast Processing" was purely a marketing term, the Genesis/Mega Drive did in actuality run at a higher clock speed than the SNES, enabling many games to feature fast scrolling (often with many background layers in parallax) and a large number of sprites on screen.
The Genesis delivered an arcade experience, which differentiated it from that other classic gaming titan, the SNES. What differentiates the Genesis for me is the way its FM synthesizer sounds. Much credit is due to Yuzo Koshiro, of course -- particularly his '80s Detroit House-flavored Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack. It's rare that sound designers look to the music and sounds of a particular geographical location in order to build mise en scene. More than that though, the wheezy rattle of the Genesis sound chip had a futuristic feel to it -- the first gasps of the future of gaming technology
Release
Also known as PC Engine was developed by Hudson Soft and NEC. First it was launched in Japan on October 30, 1987, and latter in America in August 1989. It was successful in Japan due to in part that it used the new CD-ROM format. The console failed to keep up sales or make a strong impact in the American market and therefore ceased manufacture in America in 1994.
Some of the top games on the TurboGrafx-16 includes Soldier Blade, Bonks Adventure and Blazing Lazers. In Soldier Blade you pilot a Soldier Blade fighter and fight against the Zeograd Army, aliens that want to conquer Earth.
The tech
The console used an advanced graphics chip that Hudson Soft failed to sell to Nintendo. It was also the first console to have a CD-ROM peripheral and the use of CD-ROM’s to store games.
The price at launch was $399.99 and did not include any bundled games.
The target audience was a 16 to 24 year old male.
Generation 5
The fifth generation of video game consoles, often referred to as the '3D era' refers to consoles released between approximately 1993 and 2001. Notable examples from this generation include the Sony PlayStation (which to this day holds the world record for most shipped), Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64.
The fifth generation is particularly notable for bringing proper 3D graphics into the mainstream. Huge advances in processing power during the 90's allowed for higher resolutions (480i and 576i), full 24-bit true colour graphics, 3D polygon graphics with texture mapping and higher quality 16 bit audio.
Notable games from this generation include Crash Bandicoot (PlayStation, see background) and Final Fantasy XII (PlayStation), the latter being notable for pushing the industry towards using CDs (and later DVDs and Blu-ray) due to storage issues on the Nintendo 64's cartridges, despite all previous Final Fantasy releases being Nintendo only.
The ‘3D Era’
Higher quality 3D graphics
Higher resolutions (480i and 576i)
CD-ROM storage, meaning bigger, more complex games
High quality 16 bit PCM audio
Analog controllers (analog sticks)
24 bit colour
This generation was introduced in the mid to late 90s, with the main home consoles being the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, both released 1994, followed by the Nintendo 64, released in 1996. The consoles are most notable for their 3D capabilities. Although this was possible before with the likes of the Super Nintendo’s Super FX chip, these consoles were released with more processing power and the rendering capabilities to make fully 3D games, a revolutionary step that definitely left its mark and changed the future of gaming and completely changed how games were designed.
Thanks to the Playstation, this era also marked the end of cartridges as far as home consoles go. Despite the Playstation being 32-bit as opposed to 64-bit, its use of compact discs allowed the games to be much, much bigger. A notable effect of this is that development of Final Fantasy VII was shifted from Nintendo to Playstation due to its size. The game went on to become the second best selling Playstation game, a devastating blow to Nintendo. As the sixth generation was ushered in, all of its home consoles utilised CDs.
The ride was slightly bumpy however, as many companies had trouble perfecting the use of a 3D plane. An example of this is the Saturn’s Sonic R, a game from a well known and loved franchise that suffered from lackluster controls due to the new 3D setting. The Saturn in particular failed and marked the beginning of the end for Sega’s home consoles.
The 3D genre was mastered by other companies however - games such as Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot redefined their own genres and hold up to this day.
Final Fantasy XII ( - Demonstrated the need for a shift to higher capacity storage mediums. All previous Final Fantasy titles had seen releases exclusive to Nintendo, but the small size of the Nintendo 64’s 64MB GamePak was trumped by the PlayStation’s CD-ROM, which offered up to 650MB of storage, albeit on a more fragile medium.
Gran Turismo (1997) first published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1997 for the PlayStation videogame console. It was well-received publicly and critically, shipping a total of 10.85 million copies worldwide as of April 30, 2008 and scoring an average of 95% in GameRankings' aggregate. The game has started a series, and to date has spawned over 10 spin-offs and sequels.
Generation 6
The sixth-generation era includes Xbox, Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Sega Dreamcast. Game Boy Advanced and N-Gage were the handhelds released in this era. The era began on November 27, 1998 and ended in November 2006 as the next generation of consoles were being released. The sixth generation of video games sold a record-breaking 180+ million consoles and 85 million handheld systems.
Xbox
Microsoft’s use of PC technology when making the Xbox allow for a greater performance when compared to other 128-bit consoles. However, sales remain behind that of the Playstation 2. The greatest success for Xbox proves to be Hab: Combat Evolved, one of the most popular titles in video game history.
24.0 million (as of May 10, 2006)
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 was the first 128-bit system that featured backwards compatibility, the ability to older 32-bit PlayStation games and functioned as a DVD player. This aided the Playstation’s sales as the system was being purchased by many people who did not necessarily care about the vast library of games, but wanted a DVD player they could justify spending money on.
With the strength of titles like Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear and Final Fantasy, the Playstation 2 became the most popular console of the 128-bit era. 127 million units (as of December 31, 2007) were sold.
The Playstation 2 also marks the rise in popularity of console games played over high-speed internet connection.
Nintendo Game Cube
Nintendo’s GameCube was their first system to use optical discs instead of cartridges and one-upped the gameplay and graphics of the Nintendo 64.
May 1999, the console was first publicly announced as "Project Dolphin", the successor to the Nintendo 64.
At the conference, Nintendo's Howard Lincoln said of ArtX, "This company is headed up by Dr. Wei Yen, the man who was primarily responsible for the N64 graphics chip. Dr. Yen has assembled at ArtX one of the best teams of 3D graphics engineers on the planet."
Subsequently Nintendo began providing development kits to game developers. Nintendo also formed a strategic partnership with IBM for the production of Dolphin's CPU, code-named "Gekko".
21.74 million(as of March 31, 2008) units
The Dreamcast
The release of the Dreamcast also included reviving the Sonic the Hedgehog series that seemed to be on hiatus during the 5th generation. The Dreamcast is notable for being the first major console to have online support built in, as well as MMO gaming. The Dreamcast is the starting point for many influential titles, e.g. Shenmue and Soul Caliber.
10.6 million (as of September 6, 2005)
The Gameboy Advance
The GameBoy Advance is a backwards compatible, portable system that plays games from both the GameBoy and the GameBoy Colour. The LCD screen can display over 32,000 colours.
81.06 million (including 43M for SP and 2M for Micro version) units sold
The N-gage
In the late 1990s, gamers increasingly carried both mobile phones and handheld game consoles. Nokia spotted an opportunity to combine these devices into one unit. Nokia announced in November 2002 that they would develop the N-Gage, a device that integrated these two devices. Instead of using cables, multiplayer gaming was accomplished with Bluetooth or the Internet (via the N-Gage Arena service). The N-Gage also included MP3 and Real Audio/Video playback and PDA-like features into the system.
With a launch price of US $299, the N-Gage was not commercially popular. In its first weeks of availability in the United States, it was outsold by the Game Boy Advance 100 to 1. Within 17 days of the deck's release, popular retailers GameStop and Electronics Boutique began offering $100 rebates on the deck's price.
3 million units sold
Generation 7
Plenty, if not all Xbox 360 games were given frequent patches and attention
Payed and free downloadable conntent
Plenty of indie games
Major introductions of high profile game franchises
Introduced blu-ray and cell microprocessors
New titles such as cran turism, ico and god of war
Unlimited music services
Project and show photos using the system
Features a downloadable game service
New controlling schemes
Encourages fitness
Unique and popular titles such as Mario and Zelda
Exclusive Titles
Generation 8
The Xbox one is Microsoft's latest Xbox and was released in late 2013. The Xbox one suffered a disastrous launch which was plagued with bad ideas from the offset. These included DRM and always online connectivity which was not helped by the way Microsoft's marketing department delivering an E3 conference based mostly on the things the console could do not relating to games. This all lead to the console being out sold by both the Wii u and ps4 at launch. This only changed when new head of Xbox Phil Spencer made welcome changes to the console causing it to leapfrog the Wii U in sales, however the PS4 had already had an unreachable gap.
One of the positives about this console and this generation is that they are able to be used for many more things other than games making them entertainment centre this has allowed them to be accessible to more people expanding the game's audience in general. Another major change is the option to buy your games digitals and have a larger hard drive space. This has allowed game to be much bigger in scope (GTA 5) and it meant that smaller developers could more easily get there games onto console with the help of the ID@XBOX program.
Another technological advancement is the integration on Directx 12 which allows a systems hardware to be ran more efficiently, as well of this the introduction of windows 10 is allowing more Xbox exclusives to be sold on pc and for cross platform play.
As well as this there was an advancement in controllers with the new vibrations motors. There was also the elite controllers which allows you to customise your D pad and add paddles to the controller if you wish as well as map out your own controls.
The intended target audience of the Xbox one is people aged between 16-32 as it is a fairly expensive console and not the cheapest of the generation so people will require a steady income to be able to afford. There is also a monthly subscription fee so you will need to pay out and have enough money to do so.
The ps4 (playstation 4) is sony’s games console for the 8th generation. It follows the Ps3.
Release dates around the world were 15th november 2013 in north america, and november 29th in Europe, south america and australia and 22nd february 2014 in japan.
Some of it’s new features included share play and live broadcasting.which allowed you to share a screenshot or clip of gameplay to facebook/youtube etc. at the touch of a button
The PS4 is the first to include a WebKit-based web browser
Smartphones and tablets can interact with the PlayStation 4 as second screen devices, and can also wake the console from sleep mode. A Sony Xperia smartphone, tablet or the PlayStation Vita can be used for streaming gameplay from the console to handheld, allowing supported games to be played remotely from around a household or away from home.
Sony has ambitions to make all PS4 games playable on PlayStation Vita. Developers can add Vita-specific controls for use via Remote Play.
PlayStation 4 games are distributed at retail on Blu-ray Disc, and digitally as downloads through the PlayStation Store.
The New Nintendo 3ds is the fourth system in the Nintendo 3DS line of handheld consoles following the 3ds 3dsxl and 2ds. Release dates include 11/10/14 in Japan, 21/11/14 in Australia and New Zealand, 13/2/15 in Europe.
Improvements upon the previous models include upgraded processors and increased ram an analog pointing stick (C-Stick), two additional shoulder triggers (ZR and ZL), face detection for optimizing the auto stereoscopic 3D display, an included 4 GB micro sd card and built-in NFC, as well as minor design changes (such as colored face buttons, and the availability of face plates for the smaller-size model) Like the original 3DS, the New Nintendo 3DS also has a larger variant, the New Nintendo 3DS XL
The Wii U was a console developed by Nintendo and was the follow up to the Wii. This certain console was released in the November of 2012 and was Nintendo’s first addition to the eighth generation, not including handhelds. The eighth generation began with the release of the Wii U but if we were to include handhelds, the Nintendo 3DS takes the spot, with it being released in February 2011.
The Wii U’s controller, the Wii U GamePad, features an embedded touchscreen, and combines directional buttons and analog sticks but not forgetting the action buttons: A,B,X,Y. The touchscreen can also be used as a way to play the game handheld or a form of local multiplayer without resorting to having to use split-screen, which to many, is a huge relief. The Wii U GamePad gave way to new gameplay opportunities, ZombiU was a launch game for the Wii U in which the player assumes the role of a random survivor in a zombie apocalypse. The game utilizes the features of the GamePad, during normal gameplay, the touchscreen is used to manage the player’s inventory and shows a minimap, while also being used for context-sensitive actions, such as barricading doors or hacking locks.This console is the first Nintendo console to support HD graphics.
The last thing was the models that I was creating for "Quacky Racers". The other model I was making was the scrubber. As you can see it has a cartoon style texture on the wood. It maybe more obvious than the tap I featured in a previous blog post. Although, in all opinion, how can you make steel appear to be cartoonish.
