Second generation of video game consoles

[7] The first system of the generation and some others, such as the RCA Studio II, still came with built-in games[8] while also having the capability of utilizing cartridges.

From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, most home video game systems used cartridges until the technology was replaced by optical discs.

[10] Other technology such as screen resolution, color graphics, audio, and AI simulation was also improved during this era.

The generation also saw the first handheld game cartridge system, the Microvision, which was released by toy company Milton Bradley in 1979.

Beginning in December 1982 and stretching through all of 1984, the crash of 1983 caused major disruption to the North American market.

As Atari, Inc. recognized, spending from $100,000 to 250,000 and several months of development time on a hardware unit with a single dedicated game with only three-month shelf life before it was outdated by other competitors' offerings was not a practical business model, and instead some type of programmable console would be preferred.

[17] Intel introduced the first microprocessor, the 4004, in 1971, a special computer chip that could be sent a simple instruction and provide its result.

This allowed the ability to create software programs around the microprocessor rather than fix the logic into circuits and ICs.

The Channel F also established the use of ROM cartridges to provide the software for the programmable console, consisting of a ROM chip mounted on a circuit board within a hard casing that can withstand the physical insertion into the console and potential static electricity buildup.

It also established a working model for other third-party developers, and several such companies followed in Activision's wake, partially contributing to the video game crash of 1983 due to oversaturation.

Many of them were increasingly licensed from Japanese video game companies by 1980, which led to Jonathan Greenberg of Forbes predicting in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry later in the decade.

[26] It was the world's first CPU-based video game console, introducing the cartridge-based game-code storage format.

This allowed them to take a break without the need to reset or turn off the console so they did not lose their current game progress.

The System II streamlined some of the initial Channel F to reduce cost and improve consumer usage compared to the Atari 2600, such as improved controller connections and using the television speakers for audio output, but by the time it was released, the Atari 2600 had too much market advantage for Fairchild to overcome.

Atari held exclusive rights to most of the popular arcade game conversions of the day.

This game advantage and the difference in price between the machines meant that each year, Atari sold more units than Intellivision, lengthening its lead despite inferior graphics.

While superior to the 2600, poor sales and lack of new games meant Atari only supported it for two years before it was discontinued.

Bank switching, a technique that allows two or more different parts of the program to use the same memory addresses, was required for the larger cartridges to work.

[48] The Intellivision was the first console with a thumb-pad directional controller and tile-based playfields with vertical and horizontal scrolling.

They used side-by-side game comparisons to show the improved graphics and sound compared with those of the Atari 2600.

[52] The console launched with several arcade ports, including Sega's Zaxxon, and later saw third-party support from many developers such as Activision and even their competitor Atari.

Through a licensing deal with Cinematronics, GCE was able to produce high-quality versions of arcade games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack.

Despite a strong library of games and good reviews, the Vectrex was ultimately a commercial failure.

[77][47][51] This is around 1 million higher than the Odyssey² and ColecoVision sales[78][79] and eight times the number of purchases for the Fairchild Channel F, which was 350,000 units.

It had a small game library which was prone to damage from static electricity and the LCD screen could also rot.

[citation needed] Entex released two handheld systems in the second generation, the Select-A-Game and the Adventure Vision.

[88] It was unique among the consoles as it used a spinning mirror system for its built-in display and had to be used set down on a surface due to its size and shape.

Due to financial problems between Palmtex and Home Computer Software, only three games were released for the system despite more being planned.