List of home video game consoles

A chronological catalog of video game consoles designed primarily for home use, from early dedicated systems to modern platforms.

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Magnavox Odyssey: A home video game console released in 1972, using removable circuit cards and overlays on a television. It inaugurated the commercial home-console era represented in the catalog.
Video game console: A dedicated electronic system that runs video games and displays them on a screen. This is the broader device category that the catalog narrows to home use.
Handheld game console: A portable electronic device designed primarily to play video games on an integrated screen. Portable-only systems are excluded from a catalog focused on home use.
Video game crash of 1983: A severe contraction of the North American video game industry, especially its home-console market, in 1983 and 1984. The crash disrupted console releases and altered how later systems were marketed.
Pong consoles: Dedicated home systems that played built-in Pong-style games, chiefly during the mid-1970s. These inexpensive systems made home consoles a mass-market product after the Odyssey.
Home video game console generation: A period in which competing home consoles share broadly similar technology and market conditions. Generation labels organize the catalog, though their boundaries are approximate.
Microconsole: A compact, usually low-cost game system that relies heavily on downloadable software or streaming. Its boundary with home consoles is unclear when hardware is designed around television play.
Sega Genesis: Sega's 16-bit home console, released as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988 and as Genesis in North America in 1989. Its rivalry with Nintendo helped define the 16-bit generation.
Fairchild Channel F: A 1976 home console that introduced interchangeable ROM game cartridges to the market. It marks the transition from fixed games to cartridge-based catalogs.
ROM cartridge: A removable circuit board containing read-only memory used to store software for older consoles. Cartridges shaped how many listed systems delivered and expanded their games.