| Ka-pi96 said: PS1 being able to play CDs? The Eye Toy? Backwards compatibility? |
CDs could be played on every CD consoles since the NEC PC engine CD back in 1989 in Japan (88 maybe...) so no, if you absolutely want a console with CD built-in, it would probably have to be the TurboDuo.
The gameboy color was backward compatible to the original gameboy.
The fun thing with these lists of "innovations" is that they make me realise every time that this is rarely why we buy a console, not the only thing...
NES
- Modern controller format(no analog stick, that was an advance back then)
- Business model of locking third party in and charging them to release games on your hardware
Genesis, TG-16, SNES
- CD format (TG-16)
- RAM upgrades (TG CD System cards)
- Bumper buttons (SNES)
3DO
- Licensed hardware design to third parties (that did not stick.. unless you count the Steam machines that were not released, or are they?)
- Hardware accelerated 3D
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
- VMU (2nd screen gaming)
- Emphasis on online gaming, first console "MMO" in Phantasy Star online
PS1
- The controller was pretty neat for the time
- Later they introduced the dualshock with dual analog sticks (you literally cannot release a console that does not have two of those today, the only arguments are how they should be placed)
n64
- funky controller
The PS2's main advances were:
- DVD (however counting this as innovation is pushing it, bigger storage it really the result of technology development)
- The first device to have video hardware that permitted something similar to modern shaders! (even before 3D video cards on PCs enabled that kind of thing)
The OG xbox
- it had a single big pool of relatively fast memory (for the target SD displays 64MB was amazing at the time)
- Built-in hard drive (all, or at least most games benefited from it
- It introduced a unified online service with one central account (yay they invented pay to play online!) no need to login into each games separately
gamecube
Wii
- system wide avatars
- Motion sensor based controls
xb360
ps3
- Blue-Ray drive (you can say what you want, those 25+GB games will not happen on DVD)
Most everything is continuations from what happened before, depending how you classify things, some points may be added or taken out... I did not put down the aspects that were just more of the same, etc. or did not put too much emphasis on peripherals (eyetoy, voice command, kinect, etc.) in the end they become irrelevant, unless they catch on, like the original dualchock.
