Handhelds continued, Sega Game Gear tries to compete with the Game Boy.

Sega took its own bid for the handheld gaming market with its own version, the Game Gear. It released in Japan in 1990, North America and Europe in 1991 and Australia in '92.

It used the same processor as the Sega Genesis, and unlike the Game Boy, the Game Gear was actually in color!

Despite this great advancement, the Game Gear didn't do so well. 

For starters, the price was much higher than the Game Boy, and Sega was behind Nintendo's release by 2 years.

Another downside to the Game Gear was that it ate batteries. Whereas the Game Boy ran on 4 AA batteries for upwards of 30 hours of life, the Game Gear took 6 batteries and would generally run out of charge within ~5 hours. All that processing power and color graphics came at a high power consumption cost.

Another set back was that Nintendo did not stagnate during this, and released their Game Boy Pocket, which was a smaller version of the original in order to further compete with their competition.

Sega's corporate tactics also signed the Game Gears failure. Sega was at the same time frame concentrating on its next-generation of consoles, the Sega CD and 32X consoles, and the Game Gear took a back-burner to this endeavor. Without the full support of corporate funding, the Game Gear couldn't keep up with the efforts of Nintendo.

Despite this early demise, Sega's Game Gear did have ~300 games produced for it, and sold 11 million units worldwide, however that wasn't even one-tenth the sales of their rival.

Nintendo returns to the console competition

After the Gamecube was released in 2002, and was relatively ineffective at wedging itself into the market shares of Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo took a second try at it with the Nintendo Wii.

The most unique part of the Wii was that it was more interactive than the systems prior to it. The controller can actually respond to being physically moved and allow players to swing the controller like a golf club, a baseball bat, a bowling ball or even a sword (in Dragon Quest Swords), granting a new sense of 'realism' to gaming. No more hitting the 'X' button to somehow kill the slime, now you actually are swinging at it and stabbing towards the screen with your controller!

Later in its timeframe, Nintendo realized that people were more conscious about getting fit and exercising, and with a  controller that responds to movement already, why not go the next step and make fitness related games, hence came Wii Fit.

The folks at Nintendo really put innovation on a pedestal with their ideas with the Wii, and keeping a tight hold on their staple icons of Zelda and Mario Bros. made it that if you wanted to have a go with these all-time favorites, you needed to return to the Nintendo franchise to have access to them.

Nintendo Wii actually beat both Xbox 360 and PS3 in sales numbers worldwide, and in Dec. 2009 broke the sales record for a single month in the U.S, with their DS handheld device coming in 2nd for the month.  (^ "Wii and DS thrash competition in US News". Eurogamer. January 14, 2010. Retrieved Nov. 24, 2013)

Wii has sold over 100.3 million units worldwide, with a game library consisting of over 1,200 games, but their network store also allows you to play games from older systems (NES, SNES and even Sega Genesis games) on the Wii, which brings it's totals to 1778 games (according to Nintendo Inc. Official Site) (http://www.nintendo.com/games/gameGuide accessed Nov. 24, 2013)

Sony answers with the release of the Playstation 3

After Microsoft released the Xbox 360, Sony needed to improve too. The 360 was released in 2005, and later that year, Sony announced their new system at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Although, Sony still was not able to release the PS3 until the end of 2006, which did give Microsoft a definite edge on the market for more than a year.

However, the PS3 quickly caught back up, despite another large setback when it came to price of their new system, which at its release was a staggering $600 per system!  Over time, they lowered their price and the system quickly caught on among their loyal fan-base.

The PS3 was the first gaming console to use Blu-Ray discs, which gave them an edge over the CD-Rom discs still widely used by the gaming industry. As well, it also had a fully built in hard drive to store and save games onto, where the Xbox 360 relied on an external hard drive, and all other systems prior to the PS3 relied on other various external memory capabilities.

As of today, the PS3 has sold over 80 million units worldwide, and had over 800 games released.

The Sixth Generation of Video Games draws to a close as Xbox 360 hits the scene.

Microsoft heralded the end of the "sixth generation" of video gaming as they released their upgraded Xbox 360 to the markets in 2005, which forced Sony to upgrade their own system shortly after.

The Xbox 360 was overall a very strong system, but there were quite a few bugs and problems with it, as anyone who ever fell victim to the dreaded "Red Lights of Doom" issue, denoted by the power switch flashing red instead of green like it was supposed to, usually because the processor going bad for any number of reasons.

Xbox 360 was the system I took with me to Iraq during my deployment, which gave me and my roommate multiple hours of zombie killing, monster killing mayhem to wind down after duty. It was while here that I first witnessed the aforementioned dilemma, probably in part due to the vast amounts of fine dust getting inside the system's processor.

Luckily, I had the extended warranty, and during leave got a replacement absolutely free! A recommendation I'd give to any who buy one of these systems as a precaution. GET THE SERVICE PLAN, the $20 is well-worth it for a console!

Granted the one I replaced the faulty one with has lasted about 3 years now and shows no signs of breaking anytime soon, but I wouldn't take the chance.

Again, X360 heralded the dawning of the 7th generation, forcing Sony's hand to upgrade beyond the PS2, leading to an overall, and rather vast upgrade to video game capabilities.

The PS2 and Xbox began dabbling in 3-D space, but the Xbox 360 and PS3 (Sony's answer to Microsoft's release) really pushed the envelope on the 3-D graphic spectrum, and really streamlined the over-the-net multiplayer capabilities more fully.

Xbox 360 is still having games released on it even today, until the new Xbox ONE fully phases out the old system, but as of date there have been around 960 games released on this platform, and has held strong to their market share for a good 8 years now, a rather long time when you compare it to most genres of the technology era, where things become generally obsolete within 2 years.

Video Game Consoles finally match the Arcade specs.

The emergence of the Sony Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, and Nintendo GameCube finally saw the in-home game console matching the superior processing power of Arcade games. This led to a rapid decline in Arcade goers, as the former patrons of the aforementioned group began to be able to get the same quality and gameplay value at home.

Why go out to the arcade if you can stay at home and play the same quality games on your own TV?

With this decline, Arcades were no longer viable social locations as they'd once been in the 70s and 80s. With fewer people going to arcade outlets, there's less reason to go to hang out with people, who aren't there.

Here is an article by Vancouver Video Games writer Jordan Rudek

I agree with him, I do miss the environment video arcades provided. The bells and whistles and 'otherworldly' feel is something that game consoles at home can never mimic, regardless of their graphics and gameplay.

Sure, there are a limited number of shops around most towns that are 'gathering places' for gamers to play on the shop's console, but its still not the same.  Las Vegas still has full-scale arcades, as do Japan, where the video arcade is still seen as a social gathering place for gamers to compete and hangout, but as in large, the video arcade in the U.S. is pretty much extinct.

ESRB instituted, the video game rating system is born

In 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was founded, in reaction mainly to the institution of violence in video games.

During this time, the arcade game Mortal Kombat grew very popular, and for the first time in mainstream video gaming and arcades, violence and blood shed had taken the spotlight, leading to a massive reaction among society.  This new craze led to many psychological studies conducted on if violence in video games leads children to commit violence in reality.

Many studies were done on this topic, but there was never a clearly-defined statistical correlation between the two. However, society was concerned enough about this new bloodshed in games, namely in Mortal Kombat that it paved the way for a rating system to develop on par with the already instituted system on movies. (such as PG, PG-13, R, etc.)

That ratings board became the ESRB, which still exists today, and is now prominently displayed on all packaged games on all current systems that are both for retail and rental.

There are currently 8 rating categories in the ESRB to guide consumers to age appropriateness of the games.

These ratings are Early Childhood (EC), Kids to Adults (K-A), Everyone (E), Everyone 10+ (E10), Teen (T), Mature (M), Adults Only (Ao) and Rating Pending (RP).

Also on the package is a more detailed description of certain criteria that was used to determine and classify the rating level. (ie. Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violent themes)

The ESRB serves as guidance for parents and consumers as to what games are appropriate for what age groups.

To this day, ESRB ratings are not used to censor games, or even legally limit sale of Mature or Adults Only rated games to minors, however, the ESRB does work closely with retailers and renters of software about informing their customers about the rating system. Many retailers have generated their own policies against sales of Mature ESRB rated or above games to minors.

ESRB website ,

Sony enters the scene of Video Gaming consoles

The PlayStation quickly entered the scene as Sony's debut into the gaming industry market, and just as rapidly snatched a huge share of the market.

What a lot of people probably didn't know was that Sony began its design for Nintendo, prior to the release of the Super Nintendo system. Nintendo began looking into CD-ROM capabilities and its vast superior memory capacity as an option, but due to contractual failings, Nintendo gave up on the idea.

Sony didn't, however, and continued development of CD technology with video gaming.

The original design of the "PlayStation" would have included both a slot for Nintendo's cartridges as well as a processor for CD-rendered game software. (How Stuff Works, How PlayStation Works by Jeff Tyson)

This new technology allowed for game storage on disks to climb to 650 megabytes, which was incredible at the time. The capacity was so great in fact that most games designed on the PlayStation never reached the full-capacity of the technology.

Sony released the PSX (PlayStation) in Japan Dec. 3, 1994, in North America Sept. 9, 1995 and Europe and Australia in Nov. 15, 1995.

Nintendo and Sega tried to answer with releases of the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast, which did provide some competition, the Dreamcast also utilizing CD-technology, which Nintendo continued using cartridges, but Sony kept the stranglehold.

Sony estimated throughout its lifespan that 1 in 4 households in the U.S. owned a PSX, I'd supposed including the 2 that I owned. (One stayed at home with my parents, and I bought another one for when I moved out)

That part that I find most amusing is Nintendo had the opportunity to work alongside Sony to develop this technology that pretty much knocked Nintendo out of the in-home video game console market for several years (after releasing another bid with the GameCube, then several years later with their current Wii system), but because of contract issues, they signed their own downfall, and allowed Sony to get involved in the industry and swallow Nintendo's market hold.

Sony PSX had a game library consists of over 2,400 games!

here's a link to the article by Jeff Tyson with in depth specifications of the system

Recap, and game library lists of the great systems we've covered so far!

As the title states, this is just a recap of the systems we've touched base on, as well as links to the vast libraries of games which came out on all of these systems during their multi-year reigns.

First off, we have the original Arcade games, there really are too many to include all of them, so I will just post the VAPS (Vintage Arcade Preservation Society) top-100 ranked games list URL:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/statistics/most-collected-videogames.php

Then came Magnavox Odyssey, which flopped before it really got started, but still should have a game library listed too. However, it was responsible for Pong's release to the masses, and the craze that followed:

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg70-odyssey.htm#page=games

The Odyssey only had 28 games released on it before it flopped.

Next we go to the Atari 2600:

http://www.listal.com/list/complete-atari-2600-game-library

This link also provides great little tidbits of information on a few of the games.

Next, to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (Famicom) I know this list is Wikipedia, but is a very complete list complete with release dates and developers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_games

Then under 16-bit revolution we had the Sega Genesis and Super NES:

Sega Genesis titles, which totaled a staggering 986 titles!

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Sega_Genesis_games

Super NES games, there are some overlaps as developers for the first time began developing games for two consoles at once, 725 SNES games released in North America, according to GameFAQs:

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Super_Nintendo_games

Female gamers in the video game industry.

As promised, here's a little tidbit about the female gamer, and how the video game industry is finally starting to see this sector that makes up slightly over half the U.S. population as a potential market share base.

The gaming industry even 6 years ago was seen predominantly as a male-based sector, but lately video game producers are beginning to finally target and be concerned with female gamers.  For the longest time, the female gamer did not "exist", although I am certain there were girls out there who did play and enjoy video games. Society as a whole did not fathom a girl playing video games, that would just be weird after all.

But lately, the emergence of the female gamer has been a very real and tangible thing, with girls and women openly starting to "come out of the box" so to speak, and embracing that which used to be hidden behind closed doors.

As far as me, being a guy, I think this new revelation is a very good thing for the industry.  It forces video game developers to broaden their spectrum when it comes to producing concepts to video games to try to capture this "new" market.

You are beginning to see stronger female protagonists, and, in certain cases, antagonists.  Another benefit women are tending to see is female characters which are a bit more clothed. There are not as many female characters who you'd be more likely to see in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar, but now they can be a character girls can look up to.  Also in some cases, they are characters even guy gamers can respect too.

I believe the video game industry has got their mind heading in the right direction, developing more games for girls to play with their significant other in multiplayer mode.  Not only shooters that have always been seen predominantly as a "guy thing", but now even RPGs (Role-Playing Games) are taking on more of a multiplayer aspect, and not simply in the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) spectrum, but on console games.  This is very successful, and was mostly apparent in the Tales series by Bandai Namco who has been developing 4-player potential RPGs for years now.

Even the recent release of Diablo III has a multiplayer function where you can play with your family or as a couple.  No more are the days where the girl is a spectator role as their male counterpart plays their way through a game.