With the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii in their prime, many gamers like to look forward into the future and guess what gaming console will be next. Well 1 user at N4G.com predicts the future by going into the past.

Now that we are almost to the historical halfway point of the current generation of consoles, Many gamers will wonder what's in store for the next generation. To get a better idea of what the future may hold, we can start by taking a look backward.

First came the "classic" era of consoles beginning in 1978. Phase one included the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. With the golden age of arcades in full bloom during this time, most games for these systems were ports of popular arcade games, or simple, pick-up-and-play type games. Most games were single screen, simplistic games that lacked any real depth. Phase two of this era brought us the ColecoVision and Atari 5200 systems. Most games for these systems were simply the same games with slightly updated graphics and sounds. Too many poor quality games eventually flooded the market, and the home video game market crashed in 1984.

The Don via n4g.com »