third generation of video game consoles part of a series on thehistory of video games general early history of video games early mainframe games golden age of arcade video games video game crash of 1983 consoles 1st generation 19721980 2nd generation 19761992 3rd generation 19832003 4th generation 19872004 5th generation 19932005 6th generation 19982013 7th generation 20052017 8th generation 2012 genres history of eastern roleplaying video games history of western roleplaying video games history of online games history of massively multiplayer online games lists list of video games in development timeline of arcade video game history vte in the history of computer and video games the third generation sometimes referred to as the 8bit era began on july 15 1983 with the japanese release of both the family computer referred to in japan in the abbreviated form famicom and later known as the nintendo entertainment system or nes in the rest of the world and sg1000 some features that distinguished third generation consoles from most second generation consoles include dpad game controllers screen modes with resolutions up to 256240 or 320200 2532 colors on screen from a palette of 53256 colors 64100 sprites on screen each with 416 colors and 88 to 1616 pixel sizes up to five channel primarily square wave mono psg audio the bestselling console of this generation was the nesfamicom followed by the master system and then the atari 7800 although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8bit processors it was at the end of this generation that home consoles were first labeled by their bits this also came into fashion as 16bit systems like the mega drivegenesis were marketed to differentiate between the generations of consoles in japan and north america this generation of gaming was primarily dominated by the famicomnes while the master system dominated the european and brazilian markets the end of the 3rd generation of video games comes as 8bit consoles become obsolete in graphics and processing power compared to 16bit consoles history the family computer commonly abbreviated the famicom became very popular in japan during this era crowding out the other consoles in this generation the famicoms western counterpart the nintendo entertainment system dominated the gaming market in north america thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers this marked a shift in the dominance of home video games from the united states to japan to the point that computer gaming world described the nintendo craze as a nonevent for american video game designers as virtually all the work to date has been done in japan the popularity of the japanese consoles grew so quickly that in 1988 epyx stated that in contrast to a video gamehardware industry in 1984 that the company had described as dead the market for nintendo cartridges was larger than for all homecomputer software nintendos market domination while overwhelming in sheer number of units sold was not global although the nes dominated the market in japan and north america segas master system made large inroads in europe oceania and brazil where the nes was never able to break its grip the atari 7800 also had a fairly successful life in the united states sega was nintendos main competitor during the era in terms of market share for console units sold in the following generation nintendo would also introduce the game boy which almost singlehandedly solidified and then proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years while the game boy product line was incrementally updated every few years until the game boy micro and nintendo ds and partially the game boy color all game boy products were backwards compatible with the original released in 1989 since the game boys release nintendo had dominated the handheld market additionally two popular 8bit computers the commodore 64 and amstrad cpc were repackaged as the commodore 64 games system and amstrad gx4000 respectively for entry into the console market this era contributed many influential aspects to the history of the development of video games the third generation saw the release of many of the first console roleplaying video games rpgs editing and censorship of video games was often used in localizing japanese games to north america during this era many of the most famous video game franchises of all time were founded that outlived the third generation and continued through releases on later consoles some examples are super mario bros final fantasy the legend of zelda dragon quest metroid mega man metal gear castlevania phantasy star megami tensei ninja gaiden and bomberman the third generation also saw the dawn of the childrens educational console market although consoles such as the videosmarts and computersmarts systems were stripped down to very primitive input systems designed for children their use of rom cartridges would establish this as the standard for later such consoles due to their reduced capacities these systems typically were not labeled by their bits and were not marketed in competition with traditional video game consoles market share the nintendo entertainment system nesfamily computer famicom sold by far the most units of any third generation console in north america and asia in north america in 1989 between nintendo and sega there was a 94 to 6 split between the two in market share between the nes and the master system in nintendos favor in north america the atari 7800 and master system were discontinued in 1992 while the nes continued to be produced for several more years in europe the master system was finally discontinued in the late 1990s however it has continued to sell in brazil through to the present day in japan nintendo co ltd continued to repair famicom systems until october 31 2007 consoles comparison name sg1000 famicomnintendo entertainment system nes sega mark iiimaster system atari 7800 manufacturer sega nintendo sega atari console launch prices 15000 equivalent to 17710 in 2018 14800 equivalent to 17473 in 2018us19999 equivalent to us455 in 2018ca240 equivalent to ca497 in 2018 24200 equivalent to 27376 in 2018us19999 equivalent to us446 in 20189999 equivalent to 258 in 2018 us140 equivalent to 313 in 2018 release date jp july 15 1983nz 1983 jp july 15 1983usa october 18 1985na september 1986eu september 1986ww 1987 jp october 20 1985na october 1986ww june 1987 na may 1986ww july 1987 media cartridge cassette with keyboard attachment data card card catcher required cartridge famicom disk system 3 floppy disk japan only cartridge data card first model only cartridge topselling games na super mario bros packin 4024 million as of 1999 hangon and safari hunt packinalex kidd in miracle world packinsonic the hedgehog packin pole position ii packin backward compatibility none none sega sg1000 japanese systems only atari 2600 accessories retail bike handle controller card catcher sega handle controller sega rapid fire unit sk1100 famicom disk system japan only nes advantage nes four score nes max nes satellite nes zapper nes power pad nes rob famicom 3d system japan only more light phaser segascope 3d glasses sega control stick sega handle controller sega paddle control sega pro action replay sega remote control system sega rapid fire unit sega sg commander sega sports pad atari xg1 light gun cpu nec 780c based on 816bit zilog z80358mhz ntsc 355mhz pal ricoh 2a032a07 based on 8bit mos technology 6502179mhz 166mhz pal zilog z80a4mhz custom 6502c based on 8bit mos technology 6502119mhz or 179mhz gpu texas instruments tms9918 ricoh ppu picture processing unit yamaha ym2602 vdp video display processor atari maria atari tia television interface adaptor sound chips texas instruments sn76489 ricoh 2a032a07 famicom disk system nintendo 2c33 japan only yamaha vdp psg sn76496 japan only yamaha ym2413 atari tia optional cartridge chip atari pokey memory 3 kb ram 1 kb main ram 2 kb video ram 4277344 kb 4380 bytes ram 2 kb main ram 2 kb video ram 256 bytes sprite attribute ram 28 bytes palette ram upgrades mmc chips up to 8kb work ram and 12kb video ram famicom disk system 32kb work ram 8kb video ram 2403125 kb 24608 bytes ram 8 kb main xram 16 kb video xram256 bytes sprite attribute table 32 bytes palette ram 4 kb ram 4 kb main ram200 bytes line buffer video resolution 256192 sprites 32 on screen 4 per scanline 88 or 816 pixels integer sprite zooming up to 1632 pixels colors on screen 16 simultaneous 1 color per sprite palette 21 colors background tilemap playfield 88 tiles resolution 256224 or 256240 sprites 64 on screen 8 per scanline 88 or 816 pixels sprite flipping colors on screen 25 simultaneous 4 colors per sprite palette 53 colors background tilemap playfield 88 tiles scrolling smooth hardware scrolling verticalhorizontal directions mmc chips irq interrupt diagonal scrolling line scrolling splitscreen scrolling resolution 256192 256224 256240 sprites 64 on screen 8 per scanline 88 to 1616 pixels integer sprite zooming up to 3232 pixels colors on screen 32 simultaneous 16 colors per sprite palette 64 colors background tilemap playfield 88 tiles tile flipping scrolling smooth hardware scrolling verticalhorizontaldiagonal directions resolution 160200 or 320200 sprites display list 30 per scanline without background colors on screen 25 simultaneous 1 4 or 12 colors per sprite palette 256 colors 16 hues 16 luma scrolling coarse scrolling verticalhorizontal directions audio mono audio with three square wave channelsvoices one noise generator mono audio with two square wave channels one triangle wave channel one noise generator one dpcm channel 6bit audio 42 to 335khz sampling rate japan only upgrades capability to extend audio capacity via cartridge chip one wavetable synthesizer famicom disk system mono audio with three square wave channels one noise generator japan only two operator fm synthesizer nine fm synthesis channels mono audio with two square waves optional cartridge chip four square wave channels one noise generator other consoles casio pv1000released in 1983 nichibutsu my visionreleased in 1983 philips videopac g7400released in 1983 super cassette visionreleased in 1984 ljn video artreleased in 1985 zemmixreleased in 1985 dina telegames personal arcadereleased in 1986 atari xegsreleased in 1987 action maxreleased in 1987 viewmaster interactive visionreleased in 1988 vtech socratesreleased in 1988 amstrad gx4000released in 1990 commodore 64 games systemreleased in 1990 sales comparison see also list of bestselling game consoles console units sold worldwide japan americas elsewhere nintendo entertainment system 6191 million december 2009 1935 million december 2009 34 million december 2009 856 million december 2009 sega master system 178 million 2016 1 million 1986 united states 2 million 1992 western europe 68 million 1993 atari 7800 na software milestone titles alex kidd in miracle world sms by sega featured segas original mascot alex kidd castlevania nes by konami is based on bram stokers dracula featuring count dracula as main antagonist of series this game initiated the castlevania series dragon ball dragon daihiky scv by epoch was the first game based upon the now longrunning manga and anime series dragon ball dragon quest nes by chunsoft and enix introduced the dragon quest series in 1986 and has created a phenomenon in japanese culture ever since final fantasy nes by square started the final fantasy series in 1987 the legend of zelda nes by nintendo ead and nintendo initiated the legend of zelda series in 1986 mega man 2 nes by capcom was the breakthrough title in capcoms mega man series the series would have a number of additional hits on the nes and would later spawn several successful spinoff series metal gear msx2 by konami initiated the metal gear series in 1987 it was released for the msx2 computer and remade on the nes shortly after metroid nes by rd1 and nintendo initiated the metroid series in 1986 phantasy star sms by sega consumer development division 2 and sega is considered one of the benchmark roleplaying video games super mario bros nes by nintendo ead and nintendo was bundled with the nes and became the bestselling video game of all time a title it would hold until 2009 countless imitations of the game would appear for the course of the console generation super mario bros 3 nes by nintendo is widely considered the best sidescrolling platform game of the generation as well as topping many best game lists for the nes its jumping physics world map segments where player can choose path served as formula for later mario 2d games fourth generation of video game consoles second generation of video game consoles history of the nintendo entertainment system home computer video games portal vtevideo game consoles third generationtypes home video game console list handheld game console list microconsole list dedicated console list generations first 197280 second 197692 third 19832003 fourth 19872004 fifth 19932005 sixth 19982013 seventh 200517 eighth 2012present thirdgenerationhome action max amstrad gx4000 atari 7800 atari xe games system casio pv1000 commodore 64 games system nintendo entertainment system nes101 rdi halcyon sega master system sega sg1000 super cassette vision vtech socrates second generation fourth generation emulator game history list manufacturer vtehistory of video gamesby system golden age of arcade video games timeline of arcade video game history video game crash of 1983 early mainframe games by yearearly history 19471972 1970s 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020s 2020 near future by console generation first 19721980 second 19761992 third 19832003 fourth 19872003 fifth 19932005 sixth 19982013 seventh 20052017 eighth 2012 by region australia bangladesh belgium brazil canada china czech republic colombia finland france germany ghana india indonesia ireland lithuania japan kenya malaysia netherlands new zealand nigeria philippines russia south africa south korea thailand turkey ukraine united kingdom united states 