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Video Games
Consoles, Classics & Code
The games and machines that built the biggest entertainment industry.
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Which company created the character Mario?
Consoles and Their Generations
Four decades of home hardware, from cartridge slots to discs to downloads.
About this topic
Console history is usually told as a series of rivalries, but the more useful way to read it is as a sequence of storage formats. Cartridges were fast and expensive. Discs were cheap and capacious but slow, which shaped how games streamed their worlds. Hard drives made patching possible, and with it the modern practice of shipping a game and finishing it later. These questions cover the machines and the companies behind them, roughly in order, with the change each generation actually introduced.
Questions & answers
Consoles and Their Generations: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1Which company released the Nintendo Entertainment System?
- A Sony
- B Nintendo Correct
- C Sega
- D Atari
Answer: B. Nintendo
Why: Released as the Famicom in Japan in 1983, it reached North America in 1985 and revived a collapsed market.
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2The Sega Mega Drive was known by which name in North America?
- A Genesis Correct
- B Master System
- C Saturn
- D Dreamcast
Answer: A. Genesis
Why: A trademark conflict forced the change. It was Sega's most successful console.
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3Which console introduced Sony to the games market in 1994?
- A PlayStation 2
- B Saturn
- C Xbox
- D PlayStation Correct
Answer: D. PlayStation
Why: It began as a CD add-on developed with Nintendo; when that deal collapsed Sony released it alone.
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4Microsoft entered the console market with which machine?
- A Surface
- B Kinect
- C Xbox Correct
- D Zune
Answer: C. Xbox
Why: Released in 2001, it included a hard drive as standard, which was unusual at the time.
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5Which handheld did Nintendo release in 1989?
- A Virtual Boy
- B Game Boy Correct
- C DS
- D Switch
Answer: B. Game Boy
Why: Its monochrome screen and long battery life beat more advanced colour rivals commercially.
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6The Wii was best known for introducing what?
- A Motion controls as standard Correct
- B Online multiplayer
- C Optical discs
- D Downloadable games
Answer: A. Motion controls as standard
Why: The controller detected movement and pointing, which widened the audience well beyond existing players.
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7Which storage format did the original PlayStation use?
- A Cartridges
- B Floppy disks
- C Mini discs
- D CD-ROM Correct
Answer: D. CD-ROM
Why: Discs were far cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, which helped attract third-party publishers.
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8The Nintendo Switch is unusual because it does what?
- A Uses only cloud streaming
- B Has no controllers
- C Works as both a home and handheld console Correct
- D Requires a permanent internet connection
Answer: C. Works as both a home and handheld console
Why: The same hardware docks to a television or detaches for portable play, merging two product lines Nintendo previously kept separate.
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9The video game crash of 1983 mainly affected which market?
- A Australia
- B North America Correct
- C Japan
- D Western Europe
Answer: B. North America
Why: Oversupply and poor quality control collapsed retail confidence. Japan's market was largely unaffected.
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10What does "backward compatibility" mean for a console?
- A It can run games made for an earlier model Correct
- B It can be traded in for the next model
- C It works without a television
- D It plays films as well as games
Answer: A. It can run games made for an earlier model
Why: It usually requires either the old hardware inside or software emulation of it.
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