History of video game consoles (fourth generation)

The **fourth generation** of video game consoles began on October 30, 1987. The fourth generation (also called the 16-bit generation) began with the release of Nippon Electric Company's (NEC) PC Engine. Although NEC released the first fourth-generation console, this generation was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo became the largest worldwide market share in the fourth generation. Sega was also successful in this generation. It began a new franchise, _Sonic the Hedgehog_. This was done so Sega could compete with Nintendo's _Mario_ series of games. Many other companies released consoles in this generation. However, none of them were successful, except for Neo Geo from SNK.

The first handheld game console released in the fourth generation was the Game Boy, on April 21, 1989. The Game Boy became the most popular handheld game console. The Game Boy's screen had no color. However, many of its leading competitors did. Three major franchises were introduced for the Game Boy. These include: _Tetris_, Pokemon and Kirby. Many of the popular games in this generation originally started in the 8-bit generations. These titles include _Mario_, _Metroid_, _Zelda_, _Star Fox_, _Kirby_, _Dragon Quest_, _Final Fantasy_, _Seiken Densetsu_ (_Secret of Mana_), _Sonic the Hedgehog_, _Donkey Kong_, _Street Fighter_, _Mortal Kombat_ and _Mega Man X_.

The next generation would be the one that changed everything.

### Comparison

|style="width: 7.5%"|Name|style="width: 18.5%;"|PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16|style="width: 18.5%;"|Mega Drive/Genesis|style="width: 18.5%;"|Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System|style="width: 18.5%;"|Neo Geo AES|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|NEC/Hudson Soft|Sega|Nintendo|SNK|||||||
|US$199.99|US$189.99|US$199.99|US$649.99 <small>(Gold version)</small> US$399.99 <small>(Silver version)</small>|||||||
|HuCard (card-shaped cartridge) CD-ROM (Turbo CD add-on)|Cartridge CD-ROM (Mega-CD add-on) Data card (Power Base Converter add-on)|Cartridge Magnetic disc (Japan only)|Cartridge Data card (Europe/Japan)|||||||
|Bonk's Adventure|_Sonic the Hedgehog_ (15 million)|_Super Mario World_, 20 million <small>(as of June 25, 2007)</small>|Samurai Shodown|||||||
||Sega Master System (using Power Base Converter)|Game Boy (using Super Game Boy)||||||||
|* TurboGrafx-CD * TurboTap * TurboStick * Super System Card * TurboBooster * TurboBooster Plus|* Sega Mega-CD * Sega 32X * Mouse * Menacer * Power Base Converter * Sega Activator * Multitap|* Super Scope * Multitap * Super Game Boy * SNES Mouse * Super Advantage|* Neo Geo Controller Pro * Neo Geo Memory Card|||||||
|HuC6280A (modified 65SC02) 1.79 or 7.16 MHz|Motorola 68000 7.67 MHz (7.61 MHz PAL) Zilog Z80 3.58 MHz|Nintendo-custom 5A22 (based on 65C816) 3.58 MHz (3.55 MHz PAL)|Motorola 68000 12 MHz Zilog Z80 4 MHz|||||||
|8 KiB work RAM 64 KiB video RAM|64 KiB main RAM 64 KiB video RAM 8 KiB audio RAM|128 KiB main RAM 64 KiB video RAM 64 KiB audio RAM|64 KiB main RAM 74 KiB video RAM 2 KiB audio RAM|||||||

### Other

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### Worldwide sales

|Console|Units sold|
| --- | --- |
|Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System|49.10 million|
|Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis|40 million|
|PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16|10 million|
|CD-i|570,000|

## List of handheld consoles

|style="width: 10%"|Console|style="width: 22.5%;"|Game Boy|style="width: 22.5%;"|Atari Lynx|style="width: 22.5%;"|Sega Game Gear|style="width: 22.5%;"|TurboExpress|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Nintendo|Atari|Sega|NEC|||||||
|¥12,500 US$89.95|US$189.99|¥14,500 US$149.99 A$155|US$299.99|||||||
|April 21, 1989 August 1989 1990|September 1989 1990|October 6, 1990 April 26, 1991 April 26, 1991 1992|November 16, 1990 1991|||||||
|118.69 million <small>(as of December 31, 2009)</small>, including Game Boy Color units|5 million <small>(as of July 30, 2007)</small>|15 million <small>(as of July 30, 2007)</small>|1.5 million|||||||
|Cartridge|Cartridge|Cartridge|Datacard|||||||
|_Tetris_, 35 million <small>(pack-in / separately)</small>. _Pokémon Red_, _Blue_, and _Green_, approximately 20.08 million combined <small>(in Japan and the US) (details).</small>|Unknown|Sonic the Hedgehog 2|Bonk's Adventure|||||||
|(Original Cartridges compatible with later models)||Sega Master System (using Cartridge Adapter)||||||||

### Other

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## Popular games

- _Sonic the Hedgehog_
- _Metroid II_
- _The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past_
- _Dragon Quest V_ and _VI_
- _Star Fox_
- _Final Fantasy V_
- _Secret of Mana_
- _Street Fighter II_
- _Phantasy Star_
- _Thunder Force II_, _III_ and _IV_
- Super Metroid

## References

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