Video game console/talk

1) a reader shouldn't need to know what directx is to understand that the X-Box is a stripped down computer 2) Classifying generations by "n-bit" is tempting but demonstrably incorrect.

• chronologically this makes no sense. the dreamcast is 64 bit, yet comes after the jaguar, which came before the N64.
• does "n-bit console" mean CPU or graphics chip? traditionally, it means CPU, yet the turbografx/pc engine called itself 16 bit when the CPU was 8, and Neo Geo called itself 24 bit when they combined the 16 bit processor with the 8 bit sound chip. The CPU on the dreamcast is 64 bit, and people refer to it as a 128 bit console due to its graphics chip. The jaguar distributed "CPU" functionality between 7 distinct processor architectures for all tasks.

It would probably benefit from a chronology that marks where between consoles a generation was defined. But on the otehr hand, there is some dispute as to whether the dreamcast is a next-gen or not. While it doesn't quite stand up to the gamecube or PS2, it is certainly a massive step up from playstation and N64.

--Alan D

Your quite right, the definition of bitness is completley arbituary even outside of the scope of VGS systems (does bitness mean register size, data bus, address bus what?). What else is there apart from Generation?

--Alex

That shapes up a lot better now. Now all we need is for some more knowledgeable people to add the more obscure consoles (Japan had loads IIRC, was Neo-Geo a home colse?).

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I think that generations are sufficiently ill-defined that we might not want to use them. It's very odd to have a generation including the intellivision and its successor, isn't it?

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I remember quite clearly the generations defined by "bitness", so I think it is valid to include that information. However, from a historical point of view, retroactively labeling them this way could do more to obscure the history than help I think. However, for the time being it is the clearest I suppose. --Alan D BTW, Neo Geo was a console, I knew somebody who had one.