Console history
Five generations, told from behind a rental counter. Each era changed what we rented out on a Friday night — and what came back sticky on Monday.
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GEN 3 · 1983 – 1990
The 8-bit revival
After the early-80s crash, the 8-bit consoles rebuilt home gaming from the lounge-room floor up. Side-scrollers, chiptune soundtracks and passwords written on the back of envelopes. In Australia, the Master System was a surprise hit and stayed on shelves for years longer than anywhere else.
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GEN 4 · 1988 – 1996
The 16-bit console wars
Blast processing versus Mode 7. The 16-bit era gave us mascots with attitude, the golden age of the RPG and playground arguments that still haven’t been settled. It was also the peak of the rental shop: new releases went out every night of the week.
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GEN 5 · 1993 – 2002
The leap to 3D
Polygons arrived, memory cards became precious and CDs took over from cartridges — mostly. Analogue sticks, rumble packs and demo discs changed how we played. Rental cases got bigger and discs got scratched.
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GEN 6 · 1998 – 2008
Online, DVD and the living room
Consoles doubled as DVD players, hard drives appeared and online multiplayer found its feet. The biggest-selling console of all time lives here, along with a few brave machines that arrived too early for their own good.
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GEN 7 · 2004 – 2013
HD, motion and handheld heaven
Motion controls got the whole family off the couch, HD made old TVs obsolete and handhelds grew second screens. Now retro in its own right — and the first era many younger collectors remember from childhood.
In our catalogue
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