Retro consoles: the classic video game consoles from yesteryear

Here you will find reviews of retro consoles ranging from as far back as the '70s to the '90s from various console manufacturers such as Nintendo, Sega and old manufacturers of the past, such as Sinclair and Magnavox. Each retro console as with todays, have their technical specs, top games, as well as a rating - the ratings are focused on how they performed at the time of release rather than comparing them to todays systems.

Below, the consoles are arranged in a timeline with ratings and the number of sales (where available) to guide you through the history of games consoles and compare each against others in their generation to find the best console of their time. All years of release are based on its first release date anywhere in the world - the UK release date, if different is shown in brackets.

List of Retro Consoles

Retro Atari
Atari 2600
Atari 2600 Junior
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Lynx
Jaguar

Retro Sony
PlayStation
PlayStation 2

Retro Sinclair / Amstrad
GX4000
ZX Spectrum 48K
ZX Spectrum +
ZX Spectrum 128K
ZX Spectrum +2
ZX Spectrum +3

Retro Nintendo
Game Boy
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance SP
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Micro
GameCube
N64
NES
SNES
Virtual Boy

Retro Microsoft
Xbox

Retro GCE
Vectrex

Retro Emerson
Arcadia 2001

Retro NEC
TurboGrafx.16
Turbo Duo
Turbo Express
PC-FX

Retro Coleco
ColecoVision

Retro Commodore / Amiga
Commodore 64
CD32
SX32

Retro Mattel
Intellivision

Retro Magnavox
Odyssey / Odyssey²

Retro Sega
32X
Dreamcast
Game Gear
Master System
Mega CD
Mega Drive
Nomad
Saturn

Retro SNK
NeoGeo
NeoGeo CD
NeoGeo Pocket

Retro Tiger
Game.Com

Retro Panasonic
3DO

Timeline: The history of the game console

1972	Odyssey Sold: 330,000 (UK release: 1973)
1973
1974	PONG
1975	Odyssey 100-200
1976	Odyssey 300-500
1977	Atari 2600 Sold: 30 million (UK release: 1978)	Apple II Sold: 5-6 million	Odyssey 2000-4000
1978	Odyssey² / Videopac Sold: 2 million
1979	Intellivision Sold: 3 million (UK release: 1982)
1980	ZX80
1981	ZX81 Sold: 1.5 million
1982	Commodore 64 Sold: 30 million	Atari 5200 Sold: 1 million	ColecoVision Sold: 500,000	ZX Spectrum 16/48K Sold: 60,000	Vectrex	Arcadia 2001
1983	Famicom (JP) see NES
1984	ZX Spectrum+	CPC	Atari 7800 (UK release: 1987)
1985	NES Sold: 62 million (UK release: 1986)	Atari 2600 Junior Sold: 40 million	Master System Sold: 13 million (UK release: 1987)	ZX Spectrum 128K
1986	ZX Spectrum+2
1987	ZX Spectrum+3	TurboGrafx-16 (UK release: 1990)
1988	Genesis (JP & US) see Mega Drive
1989	Game Boy Sold: 119 million (UK release: 1990)	Atari Lynx Sold: 2-5 million	GX4000
1990	Mega Drive Sold: ~50 million	Game Gear Sold: 11 million (UK release: 1991)	Neo Geo	Turbo Duo	Super Famicom (JP) see SNES
1991	SNES Sold: 49 million (UK release: 1992)	Mega CD Sold: 6 million (UK release: 1993)	Turbo Express Sold: 1.5 million
1992
1993	3DO (NA & JP) Sold: 2 million	Atari Jaguar Sold: ~250,000 (UK release: 1994)	CD32 Sold: ~100,000
1994	PlayStation Sold: 102 million (UK release: 1995)	Saturn Sold: 10 million (UK release: 1995)	32X Sold: 665,000	Neo Geo CD (JP)	PC-FX (JP)
1995	Nomad Sold: 1 million	Virtual Boy (JP & NA) Sold: 770,000
1996	Nintendo 64 Sold: 33 million (UK release: 1997)	SX32
1997	Game.Com Sold: ~300,000
1998	Dreamcast Sold: 11 million (UK release: 1999)	Neo Geo Pocket (JP) Sold: 2 million	Game Boy Color see Game Boy
1999
2000	PlayStation 2 Sold: 146 million
2001	GBA Sold: 82 million	Xbox Sold: 24 million (UK release: 2002)	GameCube Sold: 22 million (UK release: 2002)
2002
2003	GBA SP Sold: 44 million
2004	Nintendo DS Sold: 132 million (UK release: 2005)	PSP Sold: 60 million (UK release: 2005)	PlayStation 2 Slim see PlayStation 2	Game Boy Micro Sold: 2 million (UK release: 2005)
2005	Xbox 360 Sold: 42 million
2006	Wii Sold: 74 million	PlayStation 3 Sold: 38 million (UK release: 2007)	Nintendo DS Lite see Nintendo DS
2007
2008	DSi & DSi XL see DS (UK release: 2009)
2009	PS3 Slim see PlayStation 3	PSP Go see PSP
2010	Xbox 360 S see Xbox 360
2011	3DS Sold: TBA