Released in 1988 in Japan as the Mega Drive (MD) and in 1989 in North America as the Genesis, the Sega Mega Drive is a fourth-generation 16-bit console and the successor to the 8-bit Sega Master System. The console was originally launched to compete with the Nintendo NES and the NEC PC Engine, however, it ended up competing with the Nintendo SNES.
- Initially sold for $189 in the US (1989) something like $470 in today's money
- It is estimated that it sold more than 30.5 million units worldwide
- There was a Mega Drive 2 console (released in 1993), however, the Sega community considers the original Mega Drive as the best MD console ever built
Released in September 1989 in the US and the next year in Europe and Japan, the Atari Lynx is a fourth-generation handheld console and the first with a color LCD display. The system was discontinued in 1995.
- Initially sold for $179.99 ($440 in today's money)
- It is estimated that two (2) million units were sold worldwide
GameBoy and GameBoy Color
Released in April 1989, the GameBoy is an 8-bit handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The console was so successful that the production continued until the year 2003.
- Initially sold for $89.9 in the US ($212 in today's money)
- It is estimated that 118.5 million units of GameBoy (GB) and GameBoy Color (GBC) were sold worldwide
Released in November 1993 and discontinued in 1996, the Atari Jaguar is a 32-bit video game console. The system features 4 different processing units producing high-quality graphics and sound, but it was notoriously complex for programmers. Atari Games licensed the Atari Jaguar's chipset for use in its arcade games.
- Initially sold for $249.99 in the US ($530 in today's money)
- It is estimated that only 150,000 units were ever sold