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| Video Game crash of 1983 |
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| RandyT:
--- Quote from: pinballjim on August 29, 2012, 09:49:04 pm ---I don't know... I've heard an awful lot of griping from oldsters about how Atari kept releasing the same games every 2 years on a new system and abandoning the old one. Factual or not, it was a popular sentiment. --- End quote --- I guess I am technically an "oldster", and never had that particular gripe. I had plenty of gripes, just not that one. Technology was advancing rapidly at that time. Once market demand was established, and the example of what a successful home gaming console looked and acted like was easily observed, the big corporate players of the time tried to outdo one another. Every new technological advancement led to advances in the games for the systems, and eventually, new systems. It was all about jockeying for market position. Companies like Atari had a rough time of it. Consumers were not ready to accept that investments in expensive gaming systems, and the games, would so quickly dwindle in value. They expected the games to get better for the systems they already owned, not realizing the technical limitations. Enterprising 3rd party developers learned ways to squeeze more from the 2600 than even the designers realized was possible. Eventually, 1st party titles caught up and this kept consumers happy...and the system alive longer. But there was a downside. Games which pushed the system required more development time, and the bean counters didn't like that one bit. Focus was placed on selling games through marketing techniques (E.T. anyone?), and getting them on the shelves quickly. 3rd party developers started crawling out of the woodwork, and the consumers, hungry for new games, bought a lot of really poor ones, which lead to a loss of faith in the marketplace. They couldn't even rely on 1st party titles to be safe bets, because they had been burned a number of times by them as well. Even those who had moved on to other systems saw poor support in the way of new titles, poorly performing control implementations, short system life and high costs. The loss of faith and consumer uncertainty was responsible for a large percentage of the mainstream market giving up on the idea entirely. With the 7800, Atari sought to bring those consumers back into the fold through backward compatibility with the 2600, but it was too late. The hardcore gamers of the time welcomed every new version of the arcade classics, as each one brought them closer to the true arcade experience. But there just weren't enough of those folks to sustain the market. Most of those folks eventually turned to computer gaming, with primarily the C-64 and eventually Amiga computers filling the void until Nintendo and Sega made console gaming attractive to a new mainstream gaming market. Honestly, I could see it all when it was happening, and happily bought discounted systems and games when the bottom fell out. I paid attention to magazines (the only real source of information at the time) and knew which to avoid. The aftermath was a great time for true enthusiasts with little money to spend. It's a different world today, and developers who put out garbage aren't able to get away with it as easily as they could back then. An educated and informed marketplace, which holds developers and system makers to higher standards, and an ingrained acceptance of eventual obsolescence as a condition of participating in, what is now, a very common pastime, is what is responsible for keeping a crash of the same magnitude from occurring today. |
| chiLLbiLLy:
Like most others, I didn't realize at the time when games were being marked down, that it was a "crash". In fact, I've always pinned the crash more as 1984, rather than 1983. I don't recall seeing the extreme markdowns on home console cartridges until at least a few months into 1984. But I was thrilled at the time to be able to pick up Colecovision games for $5 bucks a pop, rather than the usual $30 to $40. And, I don't really recall seeing much difference in the arcades at all. Sure, a few of the lessers ones folded up eventually by 1985, but most of the ones in my area, at that time (Arlington, Texas) were going strong, well into the late 80's and early 90's. Now if you want to talk quality of the arcade games, that's another story, but that's probably more personal preference than anything. Needless to say, pinball certainly kept going strong throughout the 80's and well into the 90's, once the arcades really started to falter. But honestly, I never knew there was really a "video game crash", until many years after the fact. |
| alfonzotan:
It didn't really look like a crash if you were a teenager... the arcades stayed open for many years afterwards (there was still a well-stocked Alladin's Castle at the mall when I started college in 1987, and plenty of games in pool halls, student unions, etc.). As for console games, they got a lot cheaper, which was great from a kid's perspective. I remember buying a Starpath Supercharger and most of the games available for it for a total of maybe $15--at a retail store, not a garage sale. In the business, I'm sure it looked like a real crash that happened all at once. Out in the sticks, it was slow-motion. Atari just fell out of favor thanks to being old technology with a stuffed supply of redundant games (from Atari and the other software vendors as well). Intellivision and ColecoVision software died on the vine (sadly) pretty quickly, though. But lots of people just shifted over to computers for their games in the interim between Atari and Nintendo. |
| vanrose72:
I was 7 in '83 and I didn't even realize that E.T. for the 2600 sucked. I had a deep collection of other Atari carts to dig through, too, so I stayed fairly occupied. |
| Haze:
I guess it was a very american thing, growing up in the 80s over here in the UK I'd say if anything it was the best / most exciting period for games and computing I've known. Had my classic 8-bit computer systems as a kid, massive selection of cheap but good games from a large range of publishers, machines where if you tinkered enough with them and were willing to put in the effort you could create stuff on par with what was in the shops etc. (which is exactly what people were doing) There was strong competition and you lived or died by the quality of your games. I'm sure there was a crash, but IMHO the reasons given are bogus, and were simply used to force stuff like the NES lockout chips upon us which weren't about 'protecting the consumer from crap games to avoid another crash' but more about locking out cheap competition and keeping prices high so that money could be squandered on big budget projects with no consequence. You're seeing the same now tho, the medium to big studios are struggling, and trying to sell games for £40 on a mobile gaming device when you can pick up just as playable, just as fun and twice as original indie games / apps for £2 on a phone just doesn't work so I kinda expect another 'crash' any day now. |
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