Second Generation of Video Consoles

The very earliest console, the Magnavox Odyssey, used a removable cartridge that acted as a 'jumper' to close a break in part of the electrical circuit in order to activate the games already wired in to the console. In later games such as PONG, no cartridge was used and the computer code for one or more games was hardcoded into microchips using discrete logic, and no additional games could ever be added. However, by the mid 1970's, it was found that games could be burned onto ROM chips and mounted inside plastic cartridge casings which could then be plugged into slots on the console. This meant that second generation consoles were no longer confined to a small selection of games included in the hardcode, and consumers were able to collect libraries of game cartridges.

The first CPU based video game console that included game cartridges was the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES), released in August 1976. It was renamed the Fairchild Channel F the following year, after Atari released its CPU based console called the Video Computer System (VCS). This system was later renamed the Atari 2600, and along with its nine games, quickly became the most popular of all the early consoles.

However, in 1977, manufacturers of older obsolete consoles sold their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market. This caused the majority of manufacturers to abandon their game consoles, leaving only Atari and Magnavox in the home console market. The Atari VCS continued to be sold at a profit after the 1977 crash, and a revival of the market developed when Atari brought out a conversion of the arcade hit Space Invaders to the home console, with many consumers buying an Atari system purely for that one game. This started the trend of console manufacturers vying to get exclusive rights to arcade titles.

In 1978 Magnavox released its CPU based console, the Odyssey 2 (known as the Philips Videopac G7000 in Europe), and although it never became as popular as Atari, it managed to sell several million units through 1983.

Mattel introduced a system known as Intellivision in 1980, which had a unique processor with instructions that were 10 bits wide (allowing more instruction variety and potential speed), and registers 16 bits wide. The system became very popular and was the first to pose a serious threat to Atari's dominance. However, the Atari 2600 was priced more competitively and consequently sold more units than Intellivision, despite its inferior graphics.

In 1982, the Colecovision was introduced, an even more powerful machine than the Intellivision. It used 32 KB ROMs, along with a technique called 'bank switching', which enabled two different parts of the program to use the same memory addresses.

Although sales of the Colecovision took off, the presence of three major consoles in the marketplace, the growing popularity of the home computer (such as the Commodore 64) and a glut of poor quality console games began to diminish consumers' interest in video games, and by 1983, the market had once again crashed.

Find out more about the video game consoles released during this period by selecting a link from the list below.