>The author says that the 3rd gen of consoles really begins with the NES, and so these early 1980s consoles can't belong to the 3rd generation.
Rather than the author, I would say that it's everybody else - a general consensus - making that claim.
>So I think it makes more sense to say that the 3rd generation begins in 1982/1983 with the Colecovision and Atari 5200.
I think is precisely the premise of this article - to show that those systems, had it not been for a crash of 1983, would have been categorized as early 3rd gens instead of late 2nd gens and to give a way to somewhat correct the mistake by calling them "generation 2.5"
>The author says that the 3rd gen of consoles really begins with the NES, and so these early 1980s consoles can't belong to the 3rd generation.
Rather than the author, I would say that it's everybody else - a general consensus - making that claim.
>So I think it makes more sense to say that the 3rd generation begins in 1982/1983 with the Colecovision and Atari 5200.
I think is precisely the premise of this article - to show that those systems, had it not been for a crash of 1983, would have been categorized as early 3rd gens instead of late 2nd gens and to give a way to somewhat correct the mistake by calling them "generation 2.5"