Other

Many important systems came from companies that only made one or two of them. This section collects them, along with Adobe Flash, which was not a console but was home to a huge library of browser games.

Magnavox Odyssey² Emulators and more ›

The Odyssey², from 1978, was made by Magnavox, by then part of Philips, and sold in Europe as the Philips Videopac. Its built-in keyboard set it apart from the Atari 2600.

Intellivision Emulators and more ›

Mattel’s Intellivision, from 1979, was the Atari 2600’s main rival, advertised for its better graphics. Its controller had a disc and a number pad with overlays for each game.

ColecoVision Emulators and more ›

Coleco’s ColecoVision, from 1982, brought near-arcade graphics home and came with a port of Donkey Kong. An adapter even let it play Atari 2600 games.

Vectrex Emulators and more ›

The Vectrex, from 1982, by GCE and later Milton Bradley, had its own built-in vector screen for sharp line graphics, with coloured overlays for each game.

ZX Spectrum Emulators and more ›

Sinclair Research’s ZX Spectrum, from 1982, was the cheap home computer that started the British games industry, with thousands of games from bedroom programmers.

Amstrad CPC Emulators and more ›

Amstrad’s CPC, from 1984, came with its own monitor and tape or disc drive, and was popular in the UK, France and Spain.

Sharp X68000 Emulators and more ›

Sharp’s X68000, from 1987, was a Japanese home computer powerful enough for near-perfect arcade ports, which made it a favourite for arcade ports such as Street Fighter II.

FM Towns Emulators and more ›

Fujitsu’s FM Towns, from 1989, was a Japanese PC with one of the first built-in CD-ROM drives, known for its multimedia games and enhanced ports.

Philips CD-i Emulators and more ›

Philips’ CD-i, from 1991, was a multimedia CD player that also played games, including three Zelda and one Mario game licensed from Nintendo.

3DO Emulators and more ›

The 3DO, from 1993, was a design licensed by The 3DO Company to makers such as Panasonic. Its high price held it back.

Adobe Flash Emulators and more ›

Flash, created by Macromedia and later owned by Adobe, ran a generation of browser games and animations until browsers dropped it in 2020. Ruffle and Flashpoint keep that content playable.

WonderSwan / Color Emulators and more ›

Bandai’s WonderSwan, from 1999, was a Japan-only handheld designed by Gunpei Yokoi’s company, Koto. The WonderSwan Color followed in 2000.

N-Gage Emulators and more ›

Nokia’s N-Gage, from 2003, was a phone and handheld console in one. Its awkward “side-talking” design and game-swapping under the battery made it a famous flop.