Home Gaming Consoles by the numbers – Part Deux

Consoles by the numbers – Part Deux

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What’s that? You folks want more, and are prepared to hurl verbal abuse at me until you’re satisfied? Well, lucky for you chaps, I’m a pacifistic practicing Buddhist pushover. So here you go, more consoles, more maths, more generations and more excuses on what to spend your fantasy Powerball winnings on. Now leave me alone already.

NES

nes

Most of you will have played a NES game in your lifetime, but on the infamous Golden China system instead of the real deal Ninty hardware. Still, TV games were a healthy obsessions back then, one that came on 64-in-1 cartridges and bootlegs titles that could be picked up at flea markets and small shops with ease. Ah, the good ol’ days of Tetris and Mappy.

 

  • 708 officially released games
  • Original console price: $199
  • Average cost per game: $49.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $35 392 

    Sega Master System

 

Sega-Master-System-Set

The first time that Sega hit our shores, it was in the form of the Master System,a  direct competitor to the NES. With games also being released in cartridge form, the original Master System was a strong contender for fugliest console ever, before Sega got their hands on it and gave it a slim redesign. Also, unlike other consoles at that time, the Master System also arrived with three built-in games of varying titles, something that no doubt helped to cement the initial success of the console.

 

  • 318 officially released games
  • Original console price: $199.99
  • Average cost per game: $49.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $15 896 

    TurboGrafX-16

 

TurboGrafx16-Console-Set

The TurboGrafX-16! No one even knew that it existed! Despite the fact that it was the smallest console at the time, the big hardware and ambitions of the device resulted in an outright failiure, thanks mostly to the fact that it only had one forever controller port and a complete lack of third party game support. Which is why the name of Johnny Turbo is now seen as verboten.

 

  • 94 officially released games
  • Original console price: $299
  • Average cost per game: $59.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $5639

    Gameboy

 

game boy

 

  • It was the size of a brick, consumed more batteries than a badly designed death-robot and was greener than the hulk. And by gum, this was the device that kicked off a whole generation of handheld gaming. The original Gameboy was a massive success for Nintendo, as it combined moderate visuals with portability, something that only terrible game-watches had been capable of at the time.

  • 814 officially released games
  • Original console price: $189.99
  • Average cost per game: $29.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $24,601.85

    Gameboy Colour

 

GBC

And then along came a slimmer, lighter Gameboy, that could output games…in colour! With a massive library of games to choose from, and attachments that included a printer and a camera at the time. this was the console to have as a kid. I had one. It was purple. I called it the Mace Windu edition.

 

  • 504 officially released games
  • Original console price: $79.95
  • Average cost per game: $29.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $15 114 

    Gameboy Advance

 

GBA

And then Nintendo knocked the handheld competition out of the park with an advanced version of their Gameboy. More colours, more connectivity and a kickass initial case design concept that was followed up by SP and Micro redesigns, the GBA is still one of the more revered consoles on the market today.

 

  • 755 officially released games
  • Original console price: $99.95
  • Average cost per game: $39.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $30 192 

    Sega Game Gear

 

GAME GEAR

If you thought that the original Gameboy was a battery-guzzler, then you obviously never played on a Sega Game Gear. Packing some serious punch in the visual department, and with some solid games ranging from Sonic through to Gunstar Heroes, this was the heavyweight handheld of it’s time, before it gave way to the Sega Nomad.

 

  • 363 officially released games
  • Original console price: $150
  • Average cost per game: $29.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $10 886 

    Nintendo DS

 

DS

Nintendo had wrung out as much cash as it possibly could with the Gameboy franchise, and in an age of console cycles, wi-fi and internet connectivity, it needed something new. The Nintendo DS was their answer, a console that had two screens, one of them being a touch screen. While it never really caught on with core gamers, key franchises such as Super Mario and Pokemon have kept it alive in the hearts of fans, before the 3DS and several new iterations took up the torch of the Nintendo handheld legacy.

 

  • 1150 officially released games (So far)
  • Original console price: $149.99
  • Average cost per game: $29.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $34 448 

    Playstation Portable

 

PSP

The Playstation one and two consoles were pretty much licenses to print cash for Sony, and they had their eyes set on the handheld market. With Nintendo their only real competition, Sony had a strategy going forward. Namely, creating a handheld that utilised the bleeding edge of portable technology, and putting that in the hands of consumers. And it worked. A solid library of games from key franchises, unreal visuals and the much maligned UMD format for watching movies proved to be a hit, with several hardware and software updates streamlining the process at the end of the day.

 

  • 802 officially released games (So far)
  • Original console price: $249.99
  • Average cost per game: $39.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $32 071 

    Atari Jaguar

 

JAGUAR

Atari had been a household brand for many years now, as the wood panelled consoles of yesteryear made gaming a beloved and acceptable hobby. But times were changing, and Atari was struggling to keep up. So in one massive gamble, they released their Atari Jaguar console. And it was one of the biggest failures in the history of the industry, surpassed only by one other device on the market.

 

  • 82 officially released games
  • Original console price: $249.99
  • Average cost per game: $59.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $4919

    Panasonic 3DO

 

3DO

And this is that failure. Panasonic, at the time, had a console that truly was a hardware monster. It was also a bank account leviathan with a $600 price tag that was seen as insane back then. It was simply just to expensive, had terrible games that looked great and was a generally unreliable piece of hardware.

 

  • 303 officially released games
  • Original console price: $599.99
  • Average cost per game: $49.99
  • Total estimated library cost: $15 146

 

That’s all for now. Yep, there are still plenty more consoles out there, but that’s for part three of the retrospective.

Last Updated: February 6, 2013

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