History of video game consoles (fourth generation)

The fourth generation of video game consoles began on October 30, 1987. The fourth generation (also called the 16-bit generation) began with the release of Nippon Electric Company's (NEC) PC Engine. Although NEC released the first fourth-generation console, this generation was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo became the largest worldwide market share in the fourth generation. Sega was also successful in this generation. It began a new franchise, "Sonic the Hedgehog". This was done so Sega could compete with Nintendo's "Mario" series of games. Many other companies released consoles in this generation. However, none of them were successful, except for Neo Geo from SNK.
The first handheld game console released in the fourth generation was the Game Boy, on April 21, 1989. The Game Boy became the most popular handheld game console. The Game Boy's screen had no color. However, many of its leading competitors did. Three major franchises were introduced for the Game Boy. These include: "Tetris", Pokemon and Kirby. Many of the popular games in this generation originally started in the 8-bit generations. These titles include "Mario", "Metroid", "Zelda", "Star Fox", "Kirby", "Dragon Quest", "Final Fantasy", "Seiken Densetsu" ("Secret of Mana"), "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Donkey Kong", "Street Fighter", "Mortal Kombat" and "Mega Man X".
The next generation would be the one that changed everything.
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