Usually 1st gen is stuff like pong (largely single-purpose systems, not general purpose), 2nd gen is pre-crash stuff like Atari and colecovision, 3rd is nes/sms, 4th is snes/genesis/tg16, 5th is ps1/n64/saturn, 6th is ps2/xbox/dreamcast, 7th is ps3/360/wii, 8th is ps4/xbone/wiiu, 9th is current gen ps5/xsx/switch. Obviously stuff like arcade, pc/microcomputer stuff, and handhelds blur the lines so it’s not perfect but I believe Wikipedia follows this classification.
Is there a definitive authority on the generation numbers? I’d have classified the N64 as third generation.
Usually 1st gen is stuff like pong (largely single-purpose systems, not general purpose), 2nd gen is pre-crash stuff like Atari and colecovision, 3rd is nes/sms, 4th is snes/genesis/tg16, 5th is ps1/n64/saturn, 6th is ps2/xbox/dreamcast, 7th is ps3/360/wii, 8th is ps4/xbone/wiiu, 9th is current gen ps5/xsx/switch. Obviously stuff like arcade, pc/microcomputer stuff, and handhelds blur the lines so it’s not perfect but I believe Wikipedia follows this classification.
That makes sense–I figured Atari would be a generation behind NES, but I hadn’t considered single-game machines as a distinct thing. Thanks!
Maybe OP is talking video-game-technology generations, rather than company-specific?
Even that doesn’t make sense, would Atari be Gen 1, then Coleco Vision Gen 2?
There’s no universe where PS1 and N64 are fifth generation. It’s a weird title.
It seems our current universe disagrees with you
TIL, hardwired consoles existed before cartridge consoles. Turns out I was just ignorant.
Wikipedia has a good timeline of them, it’s been what I’ve been using when categorizing my ROMs.