Video Game Consoles Timeline

About this quiz

Every generation of gamers has a console that defined their childhood, and most people can remember the first time they plugged one into the family television. Over fifty years, home and handheld machines went from a few white squares bouncing across the screen to cinematic worlds you can carry in a bag, and along the way they turned video games into one of the biggest forms of entertainment on the planet.

This quiz lines up twelve landmark consoles from the biggest names in gaming, and asks you to put them in order of their first launch, oldest at the top and newest at the bottom. Each console is dated by its first release anywhere in the world, which is often Japan, so a machine you remember arriving in your country later may sit earlier than you expect. Every console launched in a different year, so there is exactly one right order.

Drag each console into place, then check your answer to see the launch date beside each one. You have three minutes, so start with the ones you are sure of and fit the rest around them. Launch dates follow each console's Wikipedia article.