this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Sorry, only Zoomers and younger refer to console generations by number. I don't make the rules, it's just because they learned all this stuff from Wikipedia rather than experience
The console generation numbers always weird me out, because the start of time - console gen that was out when I was born - is considered "third gen" instead of first.
I don't even know what separates the first two generations of home consoles - it's just an amorphous blob of Ataris and Collecovisons, and other shit I've vaguely heard about but never played.
Second Gen was mostly defined by swappable cartridges instead of built in games
So the old Pong and video pinball games were first gen, and the Atari consoles are second - makes sense!
Yep! The big advancement was general purpose cpus instead of purpose built logic that allowed swappable program roms
8 bit -> 16 bit - idk more bits -> CDs
32 -> 64 (CDs is N64 erasure!)
It's some nerd binary shit, so it doubles each time!
"bits" were largely marketing nonsense in the fifth and later gens. Though the N64 actually had a 64 bit cpu (unlike the Jaguar) but the Dreamcast in the following gen used a 32 bit cpu. 32/64 bit isn't as meaningful a distinction as it was in earlier gens
I never remember the console gen numbers unless you're talking about the bit numbers like 16bit or 32bit.