Third Generation of Video Consoles

After the videogame crash of 1983, the market began to revive in 1985 with the release of Nintendo's 8-bit console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known as Famicom in Asia. It came bundled with the breakthrough platform game, Super Mario Bros. and became an instant success, dominating the North American market until the early 1990s. However, in Europe, the Sega Master System was also popular, where it continued to be produced until 1996. The Atari 7800 and Sharp X68000 were also major players during this era, although the Sharp was only released in Japan.

The new consoles included a gamepad as a controller, which took over from joysticks, paddles and keypads. The gamepad design of an 8 direction D-pad with 2 or more action buttons became the standard.

Games

Popular games during this period included the Legend of Zelda series for Nintendo, set in the fantasy land of Hyrule and centred around a young hero's quest to rescue Princess Zelda by collecting the eight fragments of a powerful artefact known as the Triforce of Wisdom. The gameplay consists of a mixture of action, adventure, role-playing and puzzle-solving, with occasional platforming elements. It is widely considered one of the most influential video game franchises ever created, with 13 games released as of 2006.

The Dragon Quest series made its debut in 1986 with Dragon Warrior, again on the Nintendo Entertainment System, which has gone on to become a hugely popular series, with later instalments appearing on Super NES, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 video game consoles, as well as on several models of mobile phone. It will also appear in 2007 on the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system.

Other notable games released during this period include the immensely popular Final Fantasy Series, a role-playing game (RPG) modelled after Dragon Quest and released in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The series has gone on to become the most successful RPG franchise, and the third biggest selling video game franchise of all time.

To find out more about the third generation of video consoles released during this period (1983-1987) select an item from the list below.