The best video game systems of the 80's

A prodigious decade in every way, in all artistic and technological facets.

Video game consoles such as the original NES launched in Japan in 1983, only to land in the United States in 1985, when its rival, the Sega Master System, was released in Japan.

Microcomputers like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64, two of the most commercially successful computers were released in '82, Windows, the original operating system, saw the light of day in '85, just a year after Apple released the Macintosh, the first personal computer to use a mouse and a graphical interface.

Outside the home, in arcades, the arcade machines reached their peak, only to begin their decline in the following decade, just the opposite of the personal computers where it all began in the 80s.

TRS-80

The TRS-80 was a very popular early microcomputer with standout features such as a full keyboard, included monitor, impressive floating point BASIC programming language, and a 0 pricepoint.

Atari 5200

The Atari 5200 Supersystem was released in 1982, as a followup to the successful VCS/Atari 2600.

TRS-80 CoCo

The Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer, affectionatly nicknamed CoCo, was a home computer launched in 1980. It had limited video and sound capabilites compared to its rivals, but was easy to program for and was produced in various incarnations until 1991.

Atari 7800

The third console released by Atari, and successor to the Atari 5200. It features backwards compatibility with the Atari 2600.

Vectrex

The Vectrex was a short lived home video game system that used Vector graphics. It is often considered as one of the first home video gaming systems.

Famicom Disk System

The Famicom Disk System was an add-on accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System's Japanese counterpart. With its games coming on a floppy disk-like medium, many of its releases saw conversions to cartridges both overseas and within Japan.

Adventure Vision

The Adventure Vision is a handheld video game console developed by Entex Industries in 1982.

Sharp X68000

The Sharp X68000 is a 16/32-bit Japanese computer platform that was originally released in 1987. It was the first home system to offer arcade-quality graphics, serving as the development machine for the Capcom CPS arcade system over the next several years. It was the most powerful home gaming system of the 1980s.

Arcadia 2001

Arcadia 2001 is an 8-bit console made by Emerson.

Aquarius

Aquarius is a home computer made by Mattel. Released in June 1983, it was discontinued only a few months later in October 1983.