The performance of seismic exploration instruments directly affects the quality of acquired seismic data as well as the efficiency of seismic survey operation. Consequently, they play a pivotal role in oil/gas and mineral resource exploration. Compared with traditional cabled seismic acquisition systems, nodal seismic acquisition systems have the advantages of light weight, small size, low capital and operational cost, reduced health safety and environment risk and strong adaptability to complex terrain environment. Therefore, they have been widely used in seismic exploration and have shown a trend of accelerated development. The major manufacturers have carried out research and development of nodal instruments, and various types of nodal seismographs have appeared. Based on the investigation of influential nodal seismographs, we summarize the research status of nodal seismographs. Based on different wireless monitoring capabilities and data harvesting modes, we classify the nodal seismographs into a shoot-blind system, semi-blind system, real-time system and enhanced real-time system. We discuss structural principles and key technologies of the four types of nodal seismographs, analyze their characteristics and predict their future development directions. Focusing on node data quality monitoring, we discuss the application of communication technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Long Term Evolution, and satellites in nodal seismographs in detail. Furthermore, we analyze and evaluate three main networking architectures including planar multi-hop networks, hierarchical cluster networks and hybrid networks, and sum up the research progress of wireless routing algorithms and large-scale seismic data real-time harvesting methods. Finally, the latest applications of nodal seismographs in energy and mineral resource exploration, geological environment monitoring, urban subsurface space survey and novel seismic technologies are covered. As research on the application of micro-electro-mechanical systems technology, cloud computing, 5G, Internet of Things, edge computing, machine learning and robotics in nodal systems deepens, the performance of nodal seismographs will be greatly promoted.