Console History
A database page of the machines that mattered, in the order they arrived on shop shelves. Prices are launch prices in their home market, not adjusted for what your parents would tell you they're worth now.
| Console | Year | Maker | Launch price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Entertainment System | 1983 | Nintendo | ¥14,800 |
| Sega Genesis / Mega Drive | 1988 | Sega | ¥21,000 |
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System | 1990 | Nintendo | ¥25,000 |
| Sony PlayStation | 1994 | Sony | ¥39,800 |
Why the list stops in 1994
Every console on this page shipped with a cartridge or disc slot, a controller with a cable, and absolutely no expectation that it would ever talk to another computer. That's the era this whole service is set in. What came after — online play, patches, storefronts — is a different service's problem.
The PlayStation closes the list because its disc drive is where the format war quietly ended: cartridges kept the loading screens short but lost on price and storage, and every console after this one followed Sony's lead rather than Nintendo's.