Browse by Platform

The GameCube (2001–2007) was Nintendo's first disc-based home console. Its compact cubic design, unique handle, and iconic mini-DVD format set it apart. Despite modest sales, it be…

Owner's note: "Of all the consoles that pass through our hands, the GameCube is the one that makes people stop and …"

Explore Nintendo GameCube →

The Super Famicom launched in Japan on November 21, 1990, as the successor to the world-conquering Famicom. Marketed in North America and Europe as the Super Nintendo Entertainment…

Owner's note: "The Super Famicom had a feature called Mode 7. It could take an entire background and rotate it, sca…"

Explore Super Famicom / SNES →

The Family Computer Disk System launched in Japan on February 21, 1986. An expansion unit that clipped beneath the Famicom, it introduced rewritable magnetic disks, expanded storag…

Owner's note: "What I remember is the price. A disk cost 2,600 yen, but you could carry it to the rewriting kiosk i…"

Explore Family Computer Disk System →

The Sharp Twin Famicom (AN-500/AN-505) was a Nintendo-licensed machine that combined Famicom cartridge playback with the Famicom Disk System in a single unit. Released in Japan on …

Owner's note: "I studied art and worked in architecture before I sold consoles, and the first thing I will tell you…"

Explore Sharp Twin Famicom →

The Nintendo 64 launched in Japan on June 23, 1996, arriving two years after both the PlayStation (1994) and the Sega Saturn (1994). In an industry moving decisively toward CD-ROM,…

Owner's note: "So many Nintendo 64 controllers are brought to me broken. Or rather — to put it precisely — it isn't…"

Explore Nintendo 64 →

The original Game Boy launched in Japan on April 21, 1989, and reached North America on July 31, 1989. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Okada under Nintendo's R&D1 division, it …

Owner's note: "My fondest memory of the Game Boy is playing out on the laundry deck, basking in the sun. The warmth…"

Explore Game Boy →

The Family Computer — Famicom — launched in Japan on July 15, 1983. As the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) it reached North America in 1985 and Europe in 1986. It rescued a col…

Owner's note: "I first met the Famicom at a friend's house. It sat there on the kotatsu table, and somehow it felt …"

Explore Family Computer (Famicom) / NES →

The New Famicom — officially the AV Family Computer, model HVC-101 — launched in Japan on December 1, 1993, ten years after the original. Priced at ¥6,800, less than half the origi…

Explore New Famicom (AV Famicom) →

The Sega Mega Drive launched in Japan on October 29, 1988, and reached North America in 1989 as the Genesis. A 16-bit console built around the Motorola 68000 — the same processor p…

Explore Sega Mega Drive / Genesis →

The PC Engine launched in Japan on October 30, 1987 — and nothing about it looked like it should work. A near-perfect 14 × 14 cm white cube, smaller than any home console before or…

Owner's note: "I studied art and worked in architecture before I sold consoles, so I look at a machine the way I lo…"

Explore PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 →

The PlayStation launched in Japan on 3 December 1994, sold 100,000 units on its first day, and went on to sell over 102 million units worldwide — becoming the first console to cros…

Owner's note: "The PlayStation was one astonishment after another. 3D games ran with a perfectly straight face, as …"

Explore PlayStation →

The PlayStation 2 launched in Japan on 4 March 2000 and went on to become the best-selling video game console of all time, with more than 160 million units sold. Built around a cus…

Explore PlayStation 2 →

The PocketStation (SCPH-4000) launched in Japan on 23 January 1999 for ¥3,000. It was a PlayStation memory card with a 32-bit processor, a 32×32 monochrome screen, five buttons, an…

Explore PocketStation →

The Sega Saturn launched in Japan on November 22, 1994 — the same holiday season as the PlayStation. It carried the weight of Sega's arcade legacy on its shoulders: Virtua Fighter,…

Explore Sega Saturn →

The Dreamcast launched in Japan on November 27, 1998 — Sega's last home console and their most ambitious. A built-in modem made it the world's first internet-ready home console. It…

Explore Dreamcast →

The Game Boy Color launched in Japan on 21 October 1998 — a colour display upgrade to the nine-year-old Game Boy that kept Nintendo's entire handheld library alive. Its Sharp SM83 …

Explore Game Boy Color →

The Game Boy Advance launched in Japan on 21 March 2001 at ¥9,800. Built around a 32-bit ARM processor, it delivered roughly Super Famicom-class 2D graphics on a 240×160 screen — a…

Explore Game Boy Advance →

The Neo Geo AES launched in Japan on April 26, 1990, at ¥58,000 — the most expensive home console ever sold at retail. Its hardware was identical to the Neo Geo MVS arcade system: …

Owner's note: "The Neo Geo lands on my bench heavier than any home console should be, its cartridges so thick they …"

Explore Neo Geo →

Virtual Boy launched in Japan on July 21, 1995 and in North America three weeks later, showing every image in monochrome red. Nintendo discontinued it in Japan within five months, …

Explore Virtual Boy →

WonderSwan was the last handheld Gunpei Yokoi — the engineer behind the Game Boy and the Game & Watch — helped design. He died in October 1997; Bandai released the console, built b…

Explore WonderSwan →

The 3DO was not one company's machine but a licensed standard: Panasonic, Sanyo and GoldStar each built their own version, and all of them played the same discs. It launched in Nor…

Explore 3DO →

MSX was a home computer standard announced in June 1983 by ASCII and Microsoft, and built to the same specification by Sony, Panasonic and over a dozen other manufacturers. It neve…

Explore MSX →

Sega's Game Gear was an 8-bit handheld launched in Japan in October 1990, built as a portable Master System with a backlit, 32-colour screen. It sold roughly 14 million units befor…

Explore Game Gear →

Sega's 8-bit machine had four times the memory of the Famicom and lost Japan anyway. It found six point eight million buyers in Western Europe, and more than eight million in Brazi…

Explore Master System →

The Neo Geo Pocket Color made exactly the same screen choice as the machine that beat it, and it reached American shops with six games to play on it.…

Explore Neo Geo Pocket Color →

The PC-FX is remembered as the console that lost the race to 3D. The engineer who built its chips says it was never running in that race, and the record disagrees with him to this …

Explore PC-FX →

Epoch put Japan's first home video game console into living rooms in 1975, and in 1981 built a machine whose processor lived inside the cartridge rather than the console. When the …

Explore Super Cassette Vision →