Fifth Generation of Video Game Consoles (Dixie Forever)

The fifth-generation era (also known as the 32-bit era, the 64-bit era and the 3D era) refers to computer and video games, video game consoles and video game handhelds from approximately 1993 to 2001. For home consoles, the best-selling console was the Nintendo Playstation 64 by a wide margin, followed by the Sega Neptune, and then the Atari Jaguar. For handhelds, this era was characterized by significant fragmentation, because the first handheld of the generation, the Genesis Nomad, had a lifespan of just two years, and the Virtual Boy had a lifespan of less than one. Both were discontinued before the other handhelds made their debut. The Neo Geo Pocket was released in 1998, but was dropped by SNK in favor of the fully backwards compatible Neo Geo Pocket Color just a year later. Nintendo's Game Boy Color was the winner in handhelds by a large margin. There were also two updated versions of the original Game Boy: Game Boy Light (Japan only) and Game Boy Pocket.

Some features that distinguished fifth generation consoles from fourth generation consoles include:


 * 3D polygon graphics with texture mapping
 * Optical disc (CD-ROM) game storage, allowing much larger storage space (up to 650 MB) than ROM cartridges
 * CD quality audio recordings (music and speech), PCM audio with 16-bit depth and 44.1 kHz sampling rate
 * Wide adoption of full motion video, displaying pre-rendered computer animation or live action footage
 * Analog controllers
 * Display resolution from 480i to 576i
 * Color depth up to 16,777,216 colors (24-bit true color)
 * 3D graphical capabilities such as lighting, Gouraud shading, anti-aliasing, and texture filtering

The era is known for its pivotal role in the video game industry's leap from 2D computer graphics to 3D computer graphics, as well as the shift from home consoles using ROM cartridges to optical discs. The development of the Internet also made it possible to store and download tape and ROM images of older games, eventually leading 7th generation consoles (such as the Xbox 360, Revolution, and Nintendo DS) to make many older games available for purchase or download. There was considerable overlap between this and the sixth generation of consoles, which began with the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan on November 27, 1998. The fifth generation officially ended with the discontinuation of the Nintendo 64 (known in its re-engineered form as the "NPS64") in March 2005, a few months after the launch of the seventh generation.

Systems

 * Nintendo PlayStation 64
 * Sega Dreamcast
 * Atari Jaguar CD

Sales

 * Nintendo PS 64: 67 million
 * Sega Dreamcast: 45 million
 * Atari Jaguar CD: 25 million