Platforms

Every console, handheld, home computer, arcade system, and cloud service in gaming history — 139 and counting.

3DO Interactive MultiplayerThe ambitious licensed-standard console that tried to sell hardware like VCRs and priced itself into oblivion (1993-1996).
Amazon LunaAmazon's cloud service built around a cable-TV-style bundle of game channels, leaning on its retail muscle and Twitch connection (2020-present).
Amiga CD32Commodore's CD-based console, the first 32-bit CD machine in Europe, cut down in its infancy by the company's own collapse (1993-1994).
Amstrad CPCAlan Sugar's all-in-one home computer that bundled a monitor in the box and carved out a loyal gaming following across Britain, France, and Spain (1984-1990).
Amstrad GX4000A British 8-bit console that launched in 1990 into a 16-bit world and vanished almost before anyone noticed (1990-1991).
AndroidThe open, everywhere phone operating system that carried touchscreen gaming to the far corners of the planet, from flagship handsets to five-dollar budget phones (2008-present).
APF-MP1000An obscure cartridge console with a clever trick up its sleeve: it could grow into a full home computer (1978-1981).
Apple IIThe machine that launched Apple and, with its floppy drive and color graphics, hosted the birth of the American computer game industry (1977-1993).
Apple iOSThe iPhone's operating system that put a touchscreen game store in a billion pockets and rewrote the economics of the entire industry (2007-present).
Apple MacintoshThe elegant graphical computer that gave games a mouse and a window but spent decades as PC gaming's overlooked second cousin (1984-present).
Atari 2600The cartridge console that turned video games from a fad into an industry and defined home play for a generation (1977-1992).
Atari 5200Atari's powerful but troubled successor to the 2600, undone by a notorious joystick and terrible timing (1982-1984).
Atari 7800The capable 8-bit console that corporate turmoil left on a shelf for two years, arriving too late to matter in a market Nintendo had already seized (1986-1992).
Atari 8-bit familyAtari's console-derived home computers whose custom chips delivered arcade-grade graphics and sound years before rivals caught up (1979-1992).
Atari JaguarAtari's misleadingly marketed 'first 64-bit console,' a confusing machine that became the company's final, fatal roll of the dice (1993-1996).
Atari LynxThe world's first color, backlit handheld, a technical marvel launched the same year as the Game Boy and steamrolled by it (1989-1995).
Atari PongThe home version of the arcade phenomenon that made video games a household word and launched Atari's living-room empire (1975-1977).
Atari STJack Tramiel's rushed-to-market 16-bit rival to the Amiga, built cheap and fast, that became the machine of choice for musicians thanks to built-in MIDI (1985-1993).
Atari System 1Atari's convertible, ROM-swappable board that let operators change games instead of cabinets, home to the trackball classic Marble Madness (1984-1987).
Atari VCS (2021)A crowdfunded modern box wrapped in retro wood-grain nostalgia, unsure whether it wanted to be a console or a small PC (2021-present).
Bally AstrocadeThe arcade maker's graphically gifted console that punched above its weight and quietly nurtured a homebrew scene ahead of its time (1978-1985).
Bandai PlaydiaBandai's gentle, anime-stuffed multimedia console for children, an interactive-video machine that leaned entirely on the company's mighty catalog of licensed characters (1994-1996).
Bandai WonderSwanGunpei Yokoi's final creation, a clever, marathon-battery handheld that briefly cracked Nintendo's armor in Japan alone (1999-2003).
BBC MicroAcorn's rock-solid educational computer, backed by a national broadcaster, that became a fixture of British classrooms and the birthplace of the seminal space epic Elite (1981-1994).
Capcom CPS-1Capcom's first in-house arcade board, home to the single game that reinvented the coin-op business overnight: Street Fighter II (1988-1995).
Capcom CPS-2Capcom's fortified sequel board, an anti-piracy vault that housed the golden age of crossover fighters and the beloved beat-em-up (1993-2004).
Capcom CPS-3Capcom's rare, ferociously encrypted final 2D board, a costly showcase for the most fluidly animated sprite art the arcade ever produced (1996-1999).
Casio LoopyThe only major console ever marketed squarely at girls, a Japan-only oddity whose killer feature was a built-in sticker printer (1995-1998).
ColecoVisionThe console that brought the arcade home with startling fidelity, only to be cut down at its peak by the great crash (1982-1985).
Commodore 64The best-selling computer of all time and the beige workhorse that turned bedroom coders into an industry, powered by a sound chip that still gets sampled today (1982-1994).
Commodore AmigaThe multimedia powerhouse a decade ahead of its time, whose custom chips made it the definitive gaming and demoscene machine of the late 1980s (1985-1996).
Commodore CDTVAn Amiga in disguise as a stereo component, sold as a multimedia appliance to a public that never asked for one (1991-1993).
Commodore VIC-20The first computer to sell a million units, a friendly low-cost machine that put programming and gaming within reach of ordinary families before its own successor eclipsed it (1980-1985).
Emerson Arcadia 2001A modest console that arrived too late at home but lived a strange second life as the ancestor of a dozen rebadged clones worldwide (1982-1984).
Epoch Super Cassette VisionA Japanese toymaker's colorful, capable console that had the bad luck to face the Famicom head-on and fought a losing battle for third place (1984-1987).
Fairchild Channel FThe overlooked pioneer that invented the interchangeable game cartridge a full year before the Atari 2600 (1976-1983).
Famicom Disk SystemNintendo's Japan-only floppy-disk add-on that debuted Zelda and Metroid, then was quietly overtaken by the very cartridges it was meant to replace (1986-2003).
FM TownsFujitsu's forward-looking Japanese multimedia computer that made a built-in CD-ROM drive standard years before rivals, pioneering full-color CD gaming at home (1989-1997).
FM Towns MartyFujitsu's pioneering CD-based machine, widely regarded as the first 32-bit home console, sold only in Japan and quickly forgotten (1993-1995).
GaikaiThe cloud-streaming startup whose technology Sony bought to become the beating heart of PlayStation's streaming future (2011-2015).
Game Boy AdvanceNintendo's 32-bit handheld that put a Super Nintendo in your pocket and closed out the classic 2D era in style (2001-2010).
Game Boy ColorThe pocket-sized upgrade that finally gave the Game Boy color and bridged the empire from Tetris to Pokemon's peak (1998-2003).
Game Boy MicroA jewel-like miniature that shrank the Game Boy Advance to pocket-lint size, a gorgeous epilogue arriving after the party had moved on (2005-2008).
GizmondoThe most infamous handheld ever made, a doomed gadget wrapped in a lurid true-crime saga of fraud, Ferraris and organized crime that overshadowed the console entirely (2005-2006).
Google StadiaGoogle's audacious bet that the future of gaming lived in the browser, undone by thin content, a confused business model, and its maker's short attention span (2019-2023).
HTC ViveThe Valve-engineered headset that gave early VR its defining superpower: walking freely around a room inside the game (2016-present).
Intellivision AmicoThe family-friendly console that promised to revive a fallen 1980s brand and instead became gaming's most infamous vaporware (2020-never released).
J2ME Feature PhonesThe tiny Java games sold on numbered keypads that quietly taught the whole world to play on a phone, one Snake and one WAP download at a time (1999-2012).
Konami System 573The PlayStation-based board that turned the arcade into a dance floor and a concert stage, powering the Bemani rhythm-game explosion (1997-2004).
LinuxThe free, community-built operating system long dismissed by gamers that Valve quietly turned into the future of portable PC play (1991-present).
Magnavox OdysseyThe world's first home video game console, a battery-powered box of light and imagination that invented an entire medium (1972-1975).
Magnavox Odyssey 2The keyboard-equipped console that blended games and education and became a European sensation as the Videopac (1978-1984).
Mattel IntellivisionThe toymaker's cerebral answer to Atari, wielding sharper graphics and a keypad controller to wage the first great console war (1980-1990).
Meta QuestThe standalone headset that cut virtual reality free from the PC and finally sold it to a mass audience (2019-present).
Microsoft WindowsThe operating system that swallowed PC gaming whole, turning the chaos of DOS into the world's largest and most enduring games platform (1985-present).
Microsoft XboxMicrosoft's brute-force debut, a PC in a black box that muscled a software titan into the console business and laid the foundation for online gaming (2001-2006).
Midway Y-Unit / T-UnitThe American board family whose digitized actors and blood-red spectacle made Mortal Kombat a national controversy and NBA Jam a sensation (1990-1994).
MS-DOSThe bare command line that turned the IBM PC clone into gaming's most fertile frontier, where id and Sierra invented modern genres from scratch (1981-2000).
MSXThe unifying Japanese home-computer standard that gave the world Metal Gear and Konami's finest 8-bit work while dozens of manufacturers built to a single spec (1983-1993).
Namco System 22Namco's texture-mapped 3D workhorse that launched the drift-happy Ridge Racer and, in its uprated form, the cover-based Time Crisis (1993-2000).
Namco System 246The PlayStation 2-based board that kept Namco's fighters and shooters current while making the leap between arcade and home nearly seamless (2001-2007).
NEC PC-FXNEC's tower-shaped, anime-obsessed 32-bit console that bet on full-motion video just as the industry turned to polygons (1994-1998).
Neo Geo MiniSNK's quirky mini shaped like a tiny arcade cabinet, complete with its own built-in screen and joystick (2018-present).
NES Classic EditionThe palm-sized replica that ignited the entire retro mini-console craze and became the impossible-to-find gadget of its holiday season (2016-2019).
Nintendo 3DSThe dual-screen handheld that added glasses-free 3D, stumbled at launch, and recovered into a beloved nine-year run (2011-2020).
Nintendo 64Nintendo's cartridge-bound holdout that reinvented how games are played in three dimensions even as it lost the console war it helped define (1996-2002).
Nintendo 64DDNintendo's ill-fated magnetic-disk expansion for the N64, delayed for years and released to almost no one (1999-2001).
Nintendo DSA twin-screened, touch-driven gamble that became the best-selling handheld in history and dragged gaming into the mainstream (2004-2014).
Nintendo Entertainment System / FamicomThe 8-bit machine that resurrected a collapsed industry, put a plumber in every living room, and wrote the rulebook for what a home console could be (1983-2003).
Nintendo Game BoyThe dumpy grey brick that made portable gaming a global habit and buried every flashier rival under a mountain of Tetris (1989-2003).
Nintendo GameCubeNintendo's compact purple powerhouse, beloved by those who owned it and overlooked by nearly everyone else (2001-2007).
Nintendo SwitchThe console that erased the line between the living room and the handheld, becoming a global phenomenon and one of the best-selling gaming machines ever made (2017-present).
Nintendo Switch 2The rare Nintendo sequel that plays it straight, a bigger, sharper, far more powerful evolution of the hybrid formula that redefined the company's fortunes (2025-present).
Nintendo Switch LiteThe stripped-down, handheld-only Switch that ditched the TV trick for a cheaper, sturdier, pocket-friendly return to Nintendo's portable roots (2019-present).
Nintendo Virtual BoyNintendo's headache-inducing red-tinted 3D experiment, the most infamous flop in the company's history and a cautionary tale in one (1995-1996).
Nintendo VS. SystemNintendo's swappable-ROM arcade standard that mirrored the Famicom in the coin-op world and pioneered convertible, dual-screen cabinets (1984-1990).
Nintendo WiiThe little white box that swung a controller like a tennis racket and pulled grandparents onto the couch, outselling its rivals by refusing to fight them on horsepower (2006-2013).
Nintendo Wii UThe misunderstood tablet console whose commercial collapse nearly broke Nintendo, yet whose ideas and orphaned masterpieces quietly seeded the Switch's triumph (2012-2017).
Nokia N-GageNokia's ungainly phone-and-console mashup, mocked as the taco phone and remembered as a masterclass in how not to build a handheld (2003-2006).
Nokia N-Gage QDNokia's damage-control redesign of its taco-shaped gaming phone, fixing the jokes but not the fundamental problem of a device that was a mediocre phone and a mediocre handheld at once (2004-2006).
NVIDIA GeForce NowThe cloud service that streams the games you already own, turning any thin laptop into a high-end gaming PC (2020-present).
Oculus RiftThe crowdfunded headset that reignited virtual reality after decades of failure and dragged the entire industry into the modern VR era (2016-2021).
OnLiveThe pioneering cloud-gaming service that promised console-quality play over the internet years before the world's bandwidth was ready for it (2010-2015).
PC Engine CD-ROM² / TurboGrafx-CDThe world's first CD-ROM game system, an add-on that beat every rival to optical media and quietly began the disc era (1988-1994).
Philips CD-iThe interactive-multimedia appliance that wanted to be everything, mostly failed, and is remembered chiefly for the strangest Zelda games ever made (1991-1998).
PlayStation 2The best-selling console ever made, a Trojan-horse DVD player that swallowed the living room whole and never let go (2000-2013).
PlayStation 3An exotic, overpriced supercomputer that won the format war for Blu-ray, nearly lost the console war, then clawed back respect on the strength of its exclusives (2006-2017).
PlayStation 4Sony's comeback machine, a developer-friendly powerhouse that turned a rival's stumbles into a runaway generational victory built on cinematic single-player epics (2013-present).
PlayStation 4 ProThe mid-generation upgrade that split a console cycle in two, chasing the arrival of 4K televisions with extra graphical muscle (2016-2021).
PlayStation 5A hulking, white-shelled powerhouse whose lightning-fast storage and rumbling adaptive controller redefined the feel of console gaming, if you could find one to buy (2020-present).
PlayStation ClassicSony's miniature tribute to its genre-defining first console, undercut by a lazy library and sluggish emulation (2018-present).
PlayStation NowSony's long-running streaming service that quietly kept cloud gaming alive for eight years before dissolving into PlayStation Plus (2014-2022).
PlayStation VitaA gorgeous, powerful handheld that arrived just as the market it was built for evaporated, becoming gaming's most beloved beautiful failure (2011-2019).
PlayStation VRSony's clever, affordable headset that plugged into a game console and became the best-selling VR device of the early modern era (2016-2023).
RCA Studio IIAn electronics giant's black-and-white, keypad-controlled misfire that was obsolete almost the moment it arrived (1977-1979).
RDI HalcyonA $2,500 laserdisc console that promised a talking artificial-intelligence companion and full-motion adventures, then collapsed almost the instant it appeared (1985-1985).
Sega 32XA stopgap 32-bit mushroom Sega bolted onto the Genesis, orphaned within months by the very company that made it (1994-1996).
Sega CD / Mega-CDThe CD add-on that promised the future in full-motion video and delivered a few gems, a lot of grainy FMV, and a Congressional hearing (1991-1996).
Sega DreamcastSega's brilliant, doomed swan song that launched the sixth generation years ahead of its time before the company walked away from hardware forever (1998-2001).
Sega Game GearSega's bright, backlit, battery-devouring answer to the Game Boy that won on specs and lost on stamina (1990-1997).
Sega Genesis / Mega DriveThe blast-processed challenger that gave Nintendo its first real fight, weaponized attitude, and made a blue hedgehog the face of the console war (1988-1997).
Sega Genesis MiniThe best-reviewed retro mini of them all, a lovingly emulated shrine to Sega's 16-bit glory days (2019-present).
Sega Master SystemTechnically superior to the NES yet crushed by it at home, this 8-bit underdog found a second life as a beloved icon on the far side of the world (1985-1996).
Sega Model 1The pioneering board that dragged the arcade into real-time 3D and, with the first Virtua Fighter, invented the polygonal fighting game (1992-1994).
Sega Model 2The board that draped textures over Sega's polygons and turned the early 3D arcade into a glittering showroom of racers, shooters, and fighters (1993-1998).
Sega Model 3The overwhelming peak of 1990s arcade horsepower, a board so far beyond home hardware that its racers and fighters looked like the future itself (1996-1999).
Sega NAOMIThe Dreamcast-derived board that made cutting-edge 3D cheap, portable, and effortless to port home, becoming the last great haven of the 2D and 3D fighter (1998-2007).
Sega NomadA full Sega Genesis crammed into a handheld, a thirsty, gorgeous curiosity released just as Sega's fortunes were unraveling (1995-1999).
Sega PicoSega's storybook-with-a-stylus for preschoolers, the rare 'failed' oddity that actually succeeded — a quietly long-lived educational console that outlasted many of Sega's 'real' machines (1993-2005).
Sega SaturnSega's complex, dual-brained 32-bit machine that ruled in Japan, floundered in the West, and helped hand the future to Sony (1994-2000).
Sega SG-1000Sega's overlooked first home console, launched the very same day as the Famicom and instantly buried by it, yet the seed from which the Master System and Genesis grew (1983-1985).
Sharp X68000Sharp's high-end Japanese home computer, so powerful it delivered arcade-perfect ports years before consoles could and served as the development machine for Street Fighter II (1987-1993).
Sinclair ZX SpectrumThe cheap, rubber-keyed British underdog that democratized programming and effectively founded the UK games industry from a million bedrooms (1982-1992).
SNES Classic EditionNintendo's follow-up mini that refined the formula and finally let players finish a long-lost Star Fox sequel from the 16-bit era (2017-2019).
SNK Neo Geo AESThe unapologetic luxury console that put a literal arcade board in your living room at a price only the wealthy could stomach (1990-2004).
SNK Neo Geo MVSThe cartridge-swapping arcade juggernaut that let one cabinet hold six games and outlived nearly every rival, becoming the last great citadel of 2D fighting (1990-2004).
SNK Neo Geo Pocket ColorSNK's short-lived cult handheld with a magnificent clicky stick, beloved by fighting-game fans and doomed by a corporate collapse (1999-2001).
Sony PlayStationThe disc-based upstart that dragged gaming out of the schoolyard and into dorm rooms, launching Sony's console empire on a wave of polygons and attitude (1994-2006).
Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)Sony's sleek, media-hungry handheld that was the first machine to seriously threaten Nintendo's grip on portable gaming (2004-2014).
Steam DeckValve's handheld PC that put a player's entire Steam library in their hands and proved Linux could go mainstream (2022-present).
Super Nintendo Entertainment System / Super FamicomNintendo's 16-bit masterwork, where the cartridge era reached its artistic peak and the golden age of the console role-playing game was born (1990-2003).
Taito Type XTaito's off-the-shelf PC in an arcade box, a standardized platform that hosted the fighting-game revival led by Street Fighter IV (2004-present).
Tapwave ZodiacAn ambitious PDA-and-game-machine hybrid that was arguably ahead of its time, a sleek Palm-powered handheld crushed between two industry giants weeks after launch (2003-2005).
TI-99/4ATexas Instruments' 16-bit-CPU home computer, undone by a brutal price war it started but could not survive, that nonetheless left a cult library of cartridge games (1981-1984).
TRS-80Radio Shack's pioneering 1977 microcomputer, sold in thousands of storefronts, that reached early hobbyists and hosted the primordial roots of the adventure and dungeon-crawl genres (1977-1991).
TurboExpressA portable TurboGrafx-16 with a stunning screen and a punishing price, the most powerful handheld of its era and one of the least seen (1990-1994).
TurboGrafx-16 / PC EngineA tiny, trend-setting console that briefly outsold Nintendo in Japan and pioneered the CD-ROM game, only to be an afterthought in America (1987-1994).
TurboGrafx-16 MiniA miniature tribute to the underdog console that lost the 16-bit wars in the West but was a giant in Japan (2020-present).
Valve IndexValve's premium enthusiast headset, home to the finger-tracking controllers and the game that finally justified high-end VR (2019-present).
VectrexThe singular console with its own built-in vector screen, delivering crisp arcade glow in an all-in-one package like nothing before or since (1982-1984).
VM Labs NuonNot a console but a chip smuggled inside DVD players, promising to turn every home theater into a game machine — a clever idea that fell into the gap between markets (2000-2001).
Watara SupervisionA cut-price Game Boy challenger from the fringes of the industry, a monochrome handheld that competed on price and lost on everything else (1992-1996).
Web Browser (Flash & HTML5)The games you played without installing anything, an anarchic golden age of Flash portals that HTML5 later inherited and legitimized (1996-present).
Worlds of Wonder Action MaxA light-gun console with no processor of its own, playing pre-recorded VHS movies you couldn't win or lose, gone within a year of its maker's bankruptcy (1987-1988).
Xbox 360The console that made online multiplayer and downloadable games the beating heart of living-room gaming, hobbled only by a ring of red light (2005-2016).
Xbox Cloud GamingMicrosoft's cloud service that succeeded where Stadia failed by hiding streaming inside a subscription people already loved (2020-present).
Xbox OneMicrosoft's all-in-one entertainment box that stumbled out of the gate with a muddled message, then spent a generation quietly rebuilding trust through services (2013-2020).
Xbox One XThe most powerful console of its generation, a compact engineering flex built to deliver true 4K gaming and reclaim the performance crown (2017-2020).
Xbox Series X/SMicrosoft's two-pronged, subscription-first vision of the future, pairing a monolithic 4K powerhouse with a tiny budget box, and betting the platform on access over ownership (2020-present).