ZX Spectrum 48K

CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 3.5 MHz

Memory: 48K RAM + 16K ROM

Sound: Beeper

Graphics: ULA (uncommitted logic array). 256×192 pixels, 15 colors

Made by: Sinclair

Released in: 1982

Manual: Introduction (English) | Basic Programming (English)

History: The Spectrum built on the success of the predecessor ZX81 machine, launching in April 1982, and within a year, it had sold close to a million units, despite early production problems and lengthy waiting lists. The hardware was largely devised by Richard Altwasser, with the software and manual provided by John Grant and Steve Vickers of the local company Nine Tiles. Read more

My story: My very first computer. My father brought it from London along with a few cassette tapes with games. Can't remember when exactly, but it must have been after 1987, when I was 7 years old. I grew up in Hungary and new tech reached the Eastern block with several years delay. My memories include crazy long loading times, watching the stripes running on the screen, waiting for Manic Miner, Glug Glug and AutoMania to load. I was absolutely captivated by it.

ZX Spectrum+ 48K

CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 3.5 MHz

Memory: 48K RAM + 16K ROM

Sound: Beeper

Graphics: ULA (uncommitted logic array). 256×192 pixels, 15 colors

Made by: Sinclair

Released in: 1984

Manual: User Guide (English)

History: A redesign of the original Spectrum by 1984 was long overdue, planning started in June of that year, and after a very short development spell it was released in October the same year. It introduced a new QL-style enclosure with a much needed injection-moulded keyboard and a reset button. Early on, the machine outsold the rubber-key model 2:1. Read more

My story: One of my closest friends in school had this model (Hi Peter, if you'll ever read this) and we've been spending many afternoons together after school playing various games on it. Much later in adulthood, when my rubber keyboard Speccy started to fail, I bought a Plus because of the improved keyboard.

Commodore 64C

CPU: MOS Technology 6510/8500 @ 1 MHz

Memory: 64K RAM + 20K ROM

Sound: MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device)

Graphics: MOS Technology VIC-II (Video Interface Chip), 320×200 pixels, 16 colors

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1982

Manual: User's Manual (English) | Programmer's Reference Guide (English)

History: The Commodore 64 was one of the most successful home computers in the world selling around 11-17 million units between 1982 to 1993. Part of its success was due to the fact that it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores, and that Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. Read more

My story: My father worked as a radio engineer and he bought a C64 a few years after the Speccy. Later I got my own setup with a 1541 and lots of games. This was the time when software swapping and copy-parties were at it's peak. I became interested in programming on the C64 and started writing BASIC programs, but couldn't really get too far with it. I clicked around in GEOS, but couldn't really understand what to use it for, so I played a lot of games instead. Giana Sisters, Street Rod, Holiday Games, and many great Hungarian games like Impossible Mission, Kastely/Castle (a dungeon crawler), Bburago Rally (top-down car racing ), Idoregesz/Time Explorer (text adventure). Last but not least one of the best movie adaptations ever: Aliens. I never tried Newcomer, probaby the greatest adventure game on C64 back then, so it's in my backlog.

Commodore 128

CPU: MOS 8502 @ 1–2 MHz, Zilog Z80A/B @ 4 MHz

Memory: 128K RAM + 640K ROM

Sound: MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device)

Graphics: MOS Technology VIC-IIE (Video Interface Chip), 320×200 pixels, 16 colors, MOS 8563, 640×200 16 colors

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1985

Manual: Introductory Guide (English) | System Guide (English) | Programmer's Reference Guide (English)

History: The last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines. It appeared three years after its predecessor, the bestselling Commodore 64. The C128 was a significantly expanded successor to the C64 and full compatibility with it was retained. It featured a 80-column display mode, dual CPU and was capable of running the CP/M operating system. Read more

My story: One of my friends got a C128 when I was already moving towards the Amiga. He was very much into programming it and was showing me some cool stuff on it. Later I managed to get a C128 myself when everybody was moving away from 8-bit machines and selling them, but already back then it was more as an interesting piece of harware to me, rather than something I would use as my main computer. The C64 mode was the one I used the most on it, and I guess it was not just me.

Commodore Amiga 500

CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 7 MHz

Memory: 512K (or 1024K) RAM

Sound: Paula/OCS (Original Chip Set), 4× 8-bit channels PCM at max. 28 kHz

Graphics: Denise/OCS (Original Chip Set), 32 colors or 4096 in HAM mode.

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1987

Manual: Introduction (English) | User's Manual (English) | Repair Training Material (English)

History: The Amiga 500 represented a return to Commodore's roots, being sold in the same mass retail outlets as the Commodore 64 to which it was a spiritual successor, as opposed to the computer store-only Amiga 1000. The original A500 proved to be Commodore's best-selling Amiga model, enjoying particular success in Europe. Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its advanced graphics and sound for the time were of significant benefit. Read more

My story: One of my best friends had an Amiga 500 in the early 90s and I was absolutely amazed by the graphics and sound. We've been playing games like Superfrog, Fire and Ice, Sleepwalker, listening to music disks like Andromeda's Mirror and fooling around in ProTracker, making music. Check out some of the modules we made here. It was why I decided to convince my parents to buy an Amiga after the C64, instead of a PC. We managed to buy an Amiga 1200 however (as a family friend was selling it) and it took a few years before I finally added the A500 to my collection. Now it's my main retro computer system.

Commodore Amiga 1200

CPU: Motorola MC68EC020 @ 14 MHz (expanded to 68060, then to PowerPC 603e)

Memory: 2MB RAM

Sound: Paula, 4× 8-bit channels PCM at max. 28 kHz

Graphics: Lisa/AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) 256 colors or 262.144 colors in HAM-8 mode. (expanded with Blizzard Vision)

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1992

Manual: User's guide (German) | Workbench 3.0 User Guide (English) | A1200 System Schematics

History: Similar to it's predecessor the Amiga 500, but also improving on it in many ways. More advanced graphics, built-in RF modulator, more memory and expansion options, internal 2.5" Hard Drive option, PCMCIA slot with easy networking add-on possibility. After Commodore's demise the A1200 almost disappeared off the market but the system was re-launched by Escom in 1995. Read more

My story: My very first Amiga computer (Commodore version) in around 1993. Back then I never had a hard drive, so I was mostly using it for games, trying making music, drawing some basic pixel art, learning Workbench 3.1, all from floppies. I've spent countless of nights with games like Walker, Chaos Engine, Alien Breed, etc. Competed against friends in Mortal Kombat, Street Figher, Shadow Fighter and Worms. Cannon Fodder was weirdly an experience of nature with it's lush jungles. Unfortunately a few years later, after Commodore's bankcruptcy, we decided to sell it and switch to PC as a family computer. Later in high school I got one again (first a very worn down Commodore version and later a brand new Escom Magic Pack) and this time I dived deeper into becoming a hard-core Amiga user, with CPU expansion boards, networking card, hard drive and of course a fully configured Workbench system. I've been an active member of the Hungarian Amiga Community, both online (IRC, mailing list and the Hungarian Amiga portal) and offline (Amiga clubs, demo parties, magazines).

Commodore Amiga 3000

CPU: Motorola 68030 @ 16 or 25 MHz

Memory: 2MB RAM

Sound: Paula, 4× 8-bit channels PCM at max. 28 kHz

Graphics: Denise/ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) 32, 64 (EHB mode) or 4096 colors (HAM mode)

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1990

Manual: User manual (English)

History: Regarded as probably the most advanced Amiga model of it's era by many. Entirely reworked to be a high-end workstation. New Motorola 68030 CPU, 68882 FPU, 32-bit system memory, new Zorro III expansion slots, DMA SCSI-II controller on board and the Enhanched Chip Set with a display enhancer to be used with a VGA monitor. The A3000UX variant came boundled with UNIX System V operating system.

My story: I managed to get an Amiga 3000 desktop computer when I was already deeply into everything Amiga. Sadly my unit had some stability issues and despite all my efforts to fix it, never worked reliably.

Commodore Amiga 4000

CPU: Motorola 68040 @ 25 MHz (expanded to 68060 @ 50MHz)

Memory: 2-18MB RAM (expanded to 64MB with a CPU board)

Sound: Paula, 4× 8-bit channels PCM at max. 28 kHz

Graphics: Lisa/AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) 256 colors or 262.144 colors in HAM-8 mode. (expanded with a Zorro III graphics card)

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1992

Manual: User's guide (English)

History: Generally similar to the A3000, but introducing the AGA chipset, newer Kickstart ROMs and replacing the SCSI with a lower-cost Parallell ATA (IDE) controller. The CPU was located on a CPU card and very easily upgradable. The most advanced of all Amigas possible (especially the Tower version with it's superior expandability and cooling).

My story: My most high-end Amiga system, that I've been using as my main computer for many years in the late 90s, early 2000s, until the point I moved from home. It was expanded with a CyberStorm CPU card with a Motorola 68060 @ 50Mhz, CyberVision 3D graphics card, X-Surf networking card, MultiFace interface card and a Toccata sound card. I was using it for web development, music making with DigiBooster Pro and for pretty much every daily computing task.

Genesi/bPlan Pegasos II

CPU: Motorola PowerPC "G4" 7447 @ 1Ghz, active cooling

Memory: 512MB RAM

Sound: Sigmatel STAC 9766 Codec

Graphics: AGP, user selectable

Made by: Genesi/bplan

Released in: 2003

Manual: System Setup | Boot Options

History: A PowerPC motherboard based around the Marvell MV64361 "Discovery II" northbridge and VIA 8231 southbridge, in a microATX form factor. Designed by Gerald Carda, who designed several Blizzard and Cyberstorm expansion boards to the Amiga. The "main" operating system is MorphOS, which is mostly backwards compatible with system friendly AmigaOS 3.1 applications. Since 2009, AmigaOS 4.1 also supports the board.

My story: I decided to give next-gen Amiga systems a try, and as at that time AmigaOS4 and AmigaOne was not yet available (then was very difficult to get and had many issues), I opted for a Pegasos and MorphOS. I had been using a Pegasos II for a few years, mostly along with other computers. I never liked the fragmentation in the Amiga community however and by this time I lost my enthusiasm in next-gen Amiga hardware completely.

Apple Macintosh Classic II / Performa 200

CPU: Motorola 68030 @ 16 MHz

Memory: 2MB RAM

Sound: 8-bit mono 22 kHz

Graphics: 512 × 342, monochrome

Made by: Apple

Released in: 1991

Manual: Macintosh User's Guide (English)

History: Macintosh Classic II (also sold as the Performa 200) is the last black & white compact Mac. It's the successor of the Macintosh SE/30, but has a slower performance due to a cost-reduced 16-bit data bus. It's expandable to 10 MB of RAM and was supplied with either 40 or 80 MB hard disk. Architecturally it had more in common with the Macintosh LC, but lacked the internal Processor Direct Slot, making it the second slotless desktop Machintosh after the original Classic.

My story: As a kid my school had two computer labs, one with IBM PCs and another with compact Macs. I liked the Mac lab much more as the Macs had graphical user interface and most machines had Prince of Persia, ShufflePuck Cafe and other fun stuff installed, which we could play during the breaks. Macintosh Classic II was the first system I learned using productivity software (Word processing, Spreadsheets) on, drew with KidPix and learned programming with Logo. I got a Classic II / Performa 200 recently, recapped and renovated it.

Apple iBook G4

CPU: PowerPC G4 M9426LL/A @ 1 GHz

Memory: 256MB - 1.25GB

Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM

Made by: Apple

Released in: 2004

Manual: Getting Started User Guide (English)

History: Apple added a PowerPC G4 chip to the iBook Snow design on October 23, 2003, finally ending Apple's use of the PowerPC G3 chip. A slot-loading optical drive replaced the disc tray. The iBook G4 notebook also features an opaque white case finish and keyboard and a plastic display hinge. This is also the last iBook laptop released before MacBooks replaced the iBook line in 2006.

My story: It was my main laptop around 2006-2009. I've been using both MacOSX and MorphOS on it. The 12" screen is a nice form factor, it was a portable yet capable machine, but unfortunately the plastic at the hinge of the screen is a weak point.

Microsha

CPU: KR580VM80A @ 1.777MHz (Intel 8080A clone)

Memory: 16-32KB RAM, 2KB ROM

Graphics: 64x25 monochrome

Made by: LEMZ

Released in: 1987

Manual: Manual (Russian) | Programs and documentation (Russian)

History: The Radio-86RK was a build-it-yourself home computer designed in the Soviet Union, by Ham Radio enthusiasts. The circuitry of the Radio-86RK contains only 29 chips and was relatively easy to assemble. However, finding the chips to buy was difficult, as they were scarce and sold in small volumes in major cities of the USSR. The first industrially produced version of the Radio-86RK was the computer named Microsha. Read more (English)

My story: It just found it's way to me from a friend and surprisingly it was still working just fine. As my friend used to say, just like the Hungarian Primo, "It's a miracle. It's a miracle that it works and can display white and not just black."

Commodore Amiga CD32

CPU: Motorola MC68EC020 @ 14 MHz

Memory: 2MB RAM

Sound: Paula, 4× 8-bit channels PCM at max. 28 kHz

Graphics: Lisa/AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture) 256 colors or 262.144 colors in HAM-8 mode.

Made by: Commodore

Released in: 1993

Manual: User's guide (English)

History: Commodore's second game console after the C64GS. It's based on the Amiga 1200 hardware with an added CD-ROM drive.

My story: It became part of my collection during my peak Amiga years and for some time I was collecting games for it. I even made a custom Workbench boot CD. Read my CD32 console review here.

Nintendo Game Boy

CPU: Sharp LR35902 core @ 4.19 MHz

Memory: 64 KB address space (8KB RAM, 8KB VRAM, 32KB Game Pack ROM)

Sound: Four sound channels: two square waves with adjustable duty, a programmable wave table, and a noise generator.

Graphics: 160 × 144 pixels, monochrome (4 shades)

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 1989

Manual: Owner's manual (English) | Programming manual (English)

History: Designed by the team of Game & Watch, Satoru Okada and Gunpei Yokoi, the Game Boy even though believed to be hopeless by many, started a revolution in portable gaming and became an absolute cult classic and an icon of the era. Bundling it together with Tetris was one of the best business decisions Nintendo ever made.

My story: I got a Game Boy as a kid during a summer vacation. It was ideal to kill time on long travels and also my mother was very much into Tetris. Unfortunately games were too expensive compared to our budget (and to an average Eastern European salary), so I only managed to get a few games during my Game Boy ownership of years. My absolute favourites were Kirby's Dream Land and Nemesis/Gradius II. I got a Game Boy again recently, so I'm in the process of catching up with the library.

Nintendo Game Boy Color (Pokemon Edition)

CPU: Sharp LR35902 core @ 4.19 / 8.38 MHz

Memory: 64 KB address space 32KB RAM, 16KB VRAM

Sound: Four sound channels: two square waves with adjustable duty, a programmable wave table, and a noise generator.

Graphics: 160 x 144 pixels, 10, 32 or 56 colors. 4 colors per sprite (one of which being transparent)

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 1998

Manual: Owner's manual (English)

History: Game Boy Color was the first major revision of the original Nintendo Game Boy. Released in the 3rd quarter of 1998, it was the first in the Game Boy series to introduce 8-bit color graphics, along with a faster processor and additional RAM/VRAM.

My story: I got a GBC in 2015, with the intention to explore Game Boy games again, especially the original Pokemon series that for some reason avoided me at the time.

Nintendo GameBoy Advance Micro

CPU: 32-bit ARM7TDMI @ 16.8 MHz

Memory: 32KB (CPU), 256KB (DRAM), Game Packs up to 32MB

Sound: Four sound channels: two square waves with adjustable duty, a programmable wave table, and a noise generator. Two new direct channels 8-bit digital, controlled by CPU. Most GBA games did software mixing on those two digital channels.

Graphics: 240 x 160 pixels, 512 (character cell mode) or 32,768 (bitmap mode)

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 2005

Manual: Instruction Booklet (English)

History: A smaller, lighter redesign of the Game Boy Advance, the smallest handheld Nintendo ever made and the last in the Game Boy series. It lacks backward compatibility for original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. It has a metallic casing, which is unusual for Nintendo. It has an excellent backlit screen (comparable to the later SP models), but it's tiny in size (2 inches). It also has removable front panels for peronalization, but also protection of the LCD screen.

My story: My son's first gaming system. I decided to buy him a GBA Micro due to several reasons. Because it's tiny and fits the smaller hands well, it's simplicity of controls (A/B and L/R buttons), simplicity of usage (no menu, just plug the game in and play), backlit screen and amazing game library. I also thought that it's good to start with an older system, to give some perspective on gaming history. He absolutely loves the Game Boy Advance Micro and is very much into pixel art and game making now. His dream is to make a GBA game one day.

Nintendo DS Lite

CPU: ARM9 @ 67 MHz and ARM7 @ 33 MHz

Memory: 4 MB RAM

Sound: Four sound channels: two square waves with adjustable duty, a programmable wave table, and a noise generator. Two new direct channels 8-bit digital, controlled by CPU. Most GBA games did software mixing on those two digital channels.

Graphics: 256 × 192 pixels, 262,144 colors

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 2006

Manual: Instruction Booklet (English)

History: The second iteration of the Nintendo DS, mainly a cosmetic upgrade to the original. It's slimmer, brighter, and more lightweight. The screens are slightly bigger (from 76mm to 79mm) and the weight dropped from 275 grams to 218. The DS Lite also had a dual cartridge system, with a Game Boy slot for Game Boy Advance games on the bottom and a DS card slot in the top.

My story: I got a DS Lite in 2011 and played through several titles on it, especially the Zelda games. We often played together with my wife late at night, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are shared memories. Bowser's Inside Story and Nanostray 2 were also among my personal favourites.

New Nintendo 3DS XL

CPU: ARM11 MPCore quad-core @ 804 MHz

Memory: 256 MB (64MB dedicated to the OS), 10 MB VRAM, 1GB internal storage.

Sound: Stereo speakers with surround. MP3 and AAC codec, 16kbps and 320 kbps. Sampling range rate is between 32 kHz and 48 kHz

Graphics: DMP PICA200 @ 268 MHz. 4.88" autostereoscopic (3D) LCD at 800 × 240 (400x240 per eye), and 4.18" resistive touchscreen LCD at 320 × 240.

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 2014

Manual: Operations Manual (English)

History: Improvements in the NN3DS upon the previous 3DS models include upgraded processors and increased RAM, an analog pointing stick (C-Stick), two additional shoulder triggers (ZR and ZL), face detection for optimizing the autostereoscopic 3D display, an included 4 GB microSD card and built-in NFC. The web browser also supports HTML5 now.

My story: My all time favourite handheld console with an absolutely amazing game library. I bought my first 3DS in Japan, then later I bought our current New 3DS XL, which is a European Animal Crossing Limited Edition model. As I had a few games I brought from Japan, I decided to mod it so I can play them. That's the only mod I did on it. It's still our family's main handheld console, with many great games including The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, Link Between Worlds, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion and Japanese titles like Hatsune Miku Project Mirai and Taiko no Tatsujin.

Nintendo GameCube

CPU: IBM PowerPC "Gekko" (based on 750CXe)) @ 487 MHz

Memory: 24 MB SRAM (system) + 3MB SRAM (GPU cache) + 16 MB SDRAM (DVD buffer and audio)

Sound: Integrated into Flipper, custom 81 MHz Macronix 16-bit DSP

Graphics: ArtX/ATI Flipper @ 167 MHz. Outputs: 480i, 576i, 480p

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 2001

History: It's codename was Dolphin (hence the emulator's name) and it was developed in partnership with IBM and ArtX, founded by former Silicon Graphics engineers, hoping to compete with 3DFX, but later acquired by ATI. The GameCube used its own format for optical disks (miniDVD based, 1.46 GB) and a memory cards. It also came with a new controller (supports 4 in parallel). It was mildly successful, but fall behind it's competitors likely due to the lack of support from third-party developers. Still, several new franchises were launched on it like Pikmin, Animal Crossing and Metroid Prime, along with such classics as Super Smash Bros Melee, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, Resident Evil 4 and Zero.

My story: While working as a videogame journalist, I got provided with a GameCube and tested mostly kids friendly games on it, but completely missed out on the best of it's library. I had a GC controller for my Wii and recently wanted to compete against my son in Super Smash Bros Brawl, so thought I'll buy another. But the prices for GC controllers went up so much, that it was actually cheaper to buy a whole system that came with one. So now there is this and the opportunity to catch up with it's library. Resident Evil 4, James Bond 007: Nightfire, Ikaruga, SoulCalibur II are among the first ones I got for it. Oh, and I think the GC controller is the most comfortable controller ever made.

Nintendo Wii

CPU: IBM PowerPC Broadway @ 729 MHz

Memory: 24 MB PSRAM + 64 MB GDDR3 SDRAM

Sound: Stereo speakers with surround. MP3 and AAC codec, 16kbps and 320 kbps. Sampling range rate is between 32 kHz and 48 kHz

Graphics: ATI Hollywood @ 243 MHz. Outputs: 480i, 576i, 480p

Made by: Nintendo

Released in: 2006

Manual: Operations Manual (English)

History: It's codename was Revolution and it indeed started a revolution in motion control in gaming, which led to the development of Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation Move. It broadened the demographics of gaming and attracted many casual gamers and appealed to a younger audience. Technically it's an upgraded GameCube hardware with backwards compatibility.

My story: The game console we had for the longest and still do. It's the perfect family game system with many fun local multiplayer games, cute games for kids, along with more serious titles for single player gaming. We bought our first Wii around 2008. We actually owned a few of them over the years as with a 12V adapter and a 12V TV it can be used even on a boat or weekend house. We still play Wii games and love them. The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess are among the best of the series, Muramasa Demon Blade is a gem and Super Smash Bros Brawl is still one of the best local multiplayer beat'em ups. I'm also a big fan of the Metroid series and I consider the Metrod Prime Trilogy on the Wii as the best FPS game with motion controls. Another great advantage of the Wii is that collecting games is still cheap compared to other systems.

Sega Mega Drive

CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 7.6 MHz, Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz (for audio control and Master System compatibility mode)

Memory: 64 KB RAM, 64 KB VRAM, 8 KB audio RAM

Sound: Yamaha YM2612 synthesizer, Texas Instruments SN76489 sound generator

Graphics: PAL 320×240, 256×240 pixels, 512 color palette, 61 colors on-screen

Made by: Sega

Released in: 1990 (Europe)

Manual: Instruction Manual (English)

History: Also known as the Sega Genesis in North America, Sega's third and most successful console, selling over 30 million units worldwide. The 16-bit Mega Drive was the biggest competitor of SNES and it's game library has quite a few games that were also present on the Amiga. Maybe due to the the same CPU porting games were easier between the two systems. Read more

My story: I got my very first Mega Drive (a Mega Drive II) in the middle of the 90s, along the Amiga. I'm not embarrassed to admit that the main reason was Mortal Kombat II, which was not coming out on the Amiga at that time (and it was uncertain if it ever would). I was completely into Mortal Kombat I and II as a kid, spending all my pocket money in arcades with my friends, so it kind of made sense. The Mega Drive came with Sonic 2 included though, so I've been playing those two games until I completed them several times and fell in love with the 2D Sonic games. I still think it's the best platform game ever. I couldn't afford any other games back then. Later I added a Mega Drive (I) to my collection, with the intention of exploring the very best of the game library I missed out on.

Sony Playstation (DevKit edition)

CPU: MIPS R3000 @ 33.8688 MHz

Memory: 2 MB RAM, 1 MB VRAM

Sound: Sony's custom 16-bit sound chip, 24 channel ADPCM, sampling rate up to 44.1 kHz and MIDI sequencing

Graphics: 256×224 to 640×480 pixels, 16.7 million true colours

Made by: Sony

Released in: 1995 (Europe)

Manual: Instruction Manual (English)

History: Sony began developing the PlayStation after a failed venture with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM peripheral for the SNES in the early 1990s. The console was primarily designed by Ken Kutaragi and Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan and put an emphasis on 3D polygon graphics. Sony's inclusive approach to game production attracted many third party developers, which resulted in an excessive game library and many new franchises being born, including Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo, Spyro, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Metal Gear, etc.

My story: I started working at the country's leading gaming magazine from the mid 90s and got to try out and work with most of the console systems of the time. The PSX was my favourite due to it's game library and presentation. My unit was a developer edition in blue color with an added debug parallel port.