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The resolutions of video game history
How many pixels did each classic console have? The table below gathers, system by system, the native resolution, the true pixel shape (PAR) and the debut year, from the 1977 Atari 2600 to the 1998 Dreamcast. Every row was verified against at least two emulation community sources.
Console by console, from the 2600 to the Dreamcast
| System | Year | Resolution | PAR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atari 2600 | 1977 | 160×192 (NTSC, typical) | ~12:7 | no framebuffer: games draw line by line, racing the beam |
| NES / Famicom | 1983 | 256×240 (TVs cropped to ~224) | 8:7 | the 240p that defined the 8 bit era |
| Master System | 1985 | 256×192 | 8:7 | same pixel clock as the NES |
| PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 | 1987 | 256, 336 or 512 wide × ~224-239 | varies with the clock | three pixel clocks selectable per game |
| Mega Drive / Genesis | 1988 | 320×224 (H40) and 256×224 (H32) | 32:35 / 8:7 | two modes, two widths, same 4:3 picture |
| Arcade Capcom CPS | 1988 | 384×224 | 7:9 | Street Fighter II: very narrow pixels stretched to 4:3 |
| Game Boy | 1989 | 160×144 | 1:1 | LCD: square pixels, 10:9 screen |
| Super Nintendo | 1990 | 256×224 (hi-res 512×448 interlaced) | 8:7 | hi-res shows up in menus and Seiken Densetsu 3 |
| Neo Geo | 1990 | 320×224 | 14:15 | 4:3 arcade monitor; many games use ~304 useful px |
| PlayStation | 1994 | from 256×240 to 640×480 (480 interlaced) | varies per mode | 320×240 on 4:3 gives nearly square pixels |
| Saturn | 1994 | 320×240 and 352×240 (hi-res 704×480) | varies per mode | two clocks inherited from the video standard |
| Nintendo 64 | 1996 | 320×240 (some games 640×480 interlaced) | ~1:1 | 320×240 is exactly 4:3: square pixels |
| Dreamcast | 1998 | 640×480 progressive via VGA cable | 1:1 | the console that closed the rectangular pixel era |
The era when resolution was negotiated with the TV
No console in this table chose its resolution freely. The NTSC standard delivered 480 interlaced lines at 60 Hz, and consoles used a trick now celebrated as 240p: always repeating the same field, giving up interlacing in exchange for a progressive, stable image with those visible scanlines that became an aesthetic. Height, therefore, was dictated by the TV: around 240 useful lines on NTSC (224 was the safe cut inside overscan) and up to 288 on PAL. Width was the engineering choice: changing the pixel clock was enough, which is why the same Mega Drive alternates 256 or 320 pixels per line and Capcom's CPS squeezes 384 into the same physical space.
From that negotiation come the rectangular pixels documented in the PAR column: every different width over the same 4:3 window produces a different pixel shape. The Atari 2600 is the extreme case, with pixels almost twice as wide as tall and not even a framebuffer: the processor drew each line in real time, racing the electron beam. At the other end, the Nintendo 64 at 320×240 and the Dreamcast at 640×480 through a VGA cable reach the square pixel, and LCD handhelds, with their fixed physical grid, never knew anything else.
Reading the table top to bottom is watching the whole transition: twenty years separate the 160 columns of the 2600 from the progressive 640×480 of the Dreamcast, the console that closed the CRT era and handed the world to fixed pixel screens, where the integer scale factor rules.
Sources: every row was checked against at least two community sources, among the NESdev wiki and forums (nesdev.org), the AtariAge forums (TIA behavior), Sega Retro, technical communities such as Sega-16 and shmups.system11.org, and the reference emulator documentation of each system.
More CRT era tools: integer scaling calculator, 4:3 aspect ratio correction, ms to frames lag converter and cartridge megabit converter. And if nostalgia strikes on another frequency, every pixel on these consoles was addressed in binary.
Last updated: · Methodology and sources