The machines herald a new chapter in the history of video games.

They created an air of excitement at the event, which drew record crowds.

Some 70,000 people attended the three-day show, according to the organisers.

"This year at E3 marks the beginning of the console war for the next-generation set top box," said Ankarino Lara, editorial director of the games websites, Gamespot.

The stakes are high. Analysts predict the console market could be worth $11.3bn (£6.1bn) in five years' time.

Pick a console

The next-generation consoles promise high-definition cinematic images in real time and the computing power to deliver sophisticated and complex gameplay.

Microsoft is going to be the early frontrunner, as it plans to release its Xbox 360 across the world in November.

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As part of an aggressive drive to dominate the next round of consoles, the software giant plans to have up to 40 games for the machine by the end of the year.

Sony's PlayStation 3 will come a few months later, in the spring of 2006, though details of where it will be available are not known.

While there were no playable games, Sony did blind everyone with talk of teraflops, gigaflops and floating point performance.

And later in the year will come Nintendo's Revolution.

In contrast to the technical specification provided by Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo kept most details about its console under wraps.

It was also the only one not to show any demos or trailers of next-generation games.

Instead, Nintendo surprised by many by revealing a sleek new version of its best-selling handheld GameBoy, called GameBoy Micro.

Games galore

While the new consoles grabbed the headlines, there were also enough games on show for current machines to keep thumbs busy until the next-generation machines arrive.

GameCube fans were thrilled by the prospect of a new Legend of Zelda game, Twilight Princess.

For many, it was one of the top titles of the show, borne out by the long queue at the Nintendo stand to see the game.

And there were signs that game makers have learnt how to get the best out of the PlayStation 2, a machine that is five years old.

Among these was the first-person shooter Black, shown behind closed doors, and due out early next year.

Another first-person shooter, Far Cry: Instincts Time for the Xbox, also showed promise.

Hand action

But it was not all about home consoles. Across the convention centre, people hunched over small devices, trying out the latest games for Sony's PSP or Nintendo's DS.

The PSP only launched recently in the US and will not reach European shores until September.

By contrast, the title garnering most attention for the DS was Nintendogs.

The cute virtual puppy simulator has proved a big hit for Nintendo in Japan, selling 400,000 copies in a month.

And in the originality stakes, there was little to beat another DS game, Electroplankton.

More a music creation tool than a game, players create sounds by interacting with tiny sea creatures which swirl to form animations.

It seems strange that in a week dominated by big announcements, the big surprises came in the smallest packages.