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Game Crash of 83
GeezerGamer
Member EpicPosts: 8,857
I've been hearing a lot of references to this lately So I did a little research on the event. I was in high school back then, and while I had the original Atari 2600, I was not really into Video Gaming at that time. That's when my gaming hobbies revolved around Table Top RPGs, so while I remember things like Atari struggling and the 2600 falling out of favor, I was not really paying a lot of attention to the industry.
Anyway,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
This is one of the links I was reading. One of the things that struck me as more than a little ironic is the reference to Atari and Activision. Activision was founded by developers who left Atari because of how they felt mistreated. That iteration of Atari which was largely blamed for that crash is out of business and Activision is now one of the companies people are looking at as a major contributor in the current state of things.
Makes me wonder. What would have happened if Atari had put just a little more emphasis on its employees at the time?
Comments
Thanks for the link and info.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Interest rates on the early 80's were huge. Doubling from 1979 then increasing further. Near 20%
I think this discussion is failing to include the simultaneous rise of C64, apple ii and the atari 8 bit 400 and 800, the rise of popularity of pc clones like amstrad cpc and tandy 1000, and the continued success of coin-op in the 82-85 era. The article focuses on consoles like Atari 2600 and Coleco and refers a "video gaming crash", but the interest was simply turned elsewhere, transitioning from consoles to home pcs. Somehow, then, with Nintendo and Sega, we went "backwards" again.
People were still "video gaming" alot. I was a grade-schooler in the earlier 80s, but I distinctly remember the popularity of friends' birthday parties at video game arcades like Aladdin's Castle, and going to friends' houses after school to check out the different games they had on their proprietary systems, like Bards Tale, Ultima and Castle Wolfenstein, than the ones I had on my pc clone, which amounted at the time to Sierra series quest games, but later games that would become very influential in my views of gaming in general, like Starflight, Sid Meier games (first Pirates, later Civ series), and Pool of Radiance.
Sure I had a Nintendo, and a Sega Genesis, too, for that matter, but by that time, pc games had spoiled me from platformers and other "simple" console games. You could do so much more with a pc program, the game could be so much larger, deeper and complex, to such an extent the consoles were left in a den for my parents' friends' younger children when they were over. Today I won't own a console, and why would I bother? PC gaming is what I enjoy.
I digressed. To call the Atari/Coleco/Intellivision fallout "a video gaming crash" is... a bit dramatic. Gaming on devices has been alive and well since its inception and will continue to be so, in one form or another.
its only getting better for mobile gaming and boardgame ports
http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/37948/best-2014-readers-choice-game-year#comments
EQ2 fan sites
The circumstances are certainly similar between today and back then.
I think the main difference is that most of the shovel ware is on mobile devices currently. There are definitely a decent amount of bad PC / Console games, but nowhere near the dollar bin piles that were seen back in the '80s. It was before my time, but I've actually done quite a lot of research on this topic.
There are certainly some indications that a similar thing might be happening in the game industry of today. However, games have diversified enough that if such a thing were to happen, I'm not sure if it would have the same domino effect that it did back then. What it would do is flood the market w/ a bunch of experienced unemployed workers. Which could be bad for a lot of devs.
To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.
I vaguely remember that, not because I'm too young, I'm not, but because I was already into playing games in computers not consoles at that point and while the consoles crashed, the computer games boomed.
I had an Intellivision system and some games I had been given as a Christmas gift but I hardly played it. By '83 I was already playing Ultimas 1-3, Chris Crawford's Eastern Front, a couple of Garry Grisby war games, M.U.L.E and the great side scrolling puzzler, Lode Runner all on my Atari 400.
I went on to the C64 from that and then the Atari ST... didn't start gaming on PCs until Windows 3 in 1990.
That crash just passed me buy... but I do remember the CRPG "crash" of the mid 90's... hard to believe that one now that every game is an RPG,
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
It was surprising to read board games experiencing a surge in sales in the past few years. I'm glad they're still doing well.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Ultima III - consumed me. What a great game in its day.
I played a lot of games in those days (tabletop died in '82 for me-- mainly due to parental influence and my growing focus on PCs, engineering and programming).
Similarities are right before our eyes. I think the only question really is will mobile platforms grow to the complexities of PCs or not.
I am also a boardgame geek (and a fan of that site). Boardgame playing never died for me, but boy did the boardgame industry (sort of). High prices, small shops, hard to find in my area.
My brother was born 5 years before me. He missed out on gaming, but once said something pretty insightful about generations. Generation before us was into drugs and music scene. His generation was into stereos and music at home and in cars. My generation was into Games (and portable music)-- they are the story of my generation really. Except for all the non-geeks at least, but that is for another forum.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I can't really see the same thing happening today, if that's what the point is here. You might be able to find some similarities, however the industry as a whole is way different than it was in 1983. IF anything I'd more expect the industry (including MMOs) to continue to grow outside of it's confines of PC's and consoles, but it will be a long time before it leaves them behind if it ever really does..
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
in the pittsburgh,pa area there's plenty of boardgame stores
Boston Globe article from 3 months ago
Board games are back, and Boston’s a player
A Golden Age of tabletop games, from nerdy to mainstream, is afoot.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/11/26/board-games-are-back-and-boston-player/tMzvNNO1BlGo8J598Q3PZI/story.html
EQ2 fan sites
Of course it wasn't a crash for you in the vinyard of La Barre (loved that episode
), same goes for Bladestorm in the UK with the Speccy / Commodore rising, and for us behind the Curtain.
I keep saying since when this "we're heading to an another crash" movement started a few weeks ago (prolly with the Francis video), it wasn't a game crash, the posted wiki in the OP says it correctly, it was a US market crash. Japan was somewhat affected, Eu was just barely affected. Not to mention, since then the market went much more global, so in the (slight) chance of US crashes again, the side-effect would be even more marginal... Asian market is massive, Eu (and Russia) is close to NA in numbers, SA and the pacific region is also pretty huge... all with different backgrounds and different tastes in games, to make a diverse market overall.
Richard Aioshi used to write here great colums about the eastern side of the market, those are nice read.
And yep, the Ultima series is awesome (except that cr*p UO
), just played through Akalabeth and the first 3 Ultimas (it was recently sold on gog too, for cheap)
For some similar fun reading, look up EA and see how/why they got started.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I bet Curt Schilling would feel little solace from your words.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
Yeah. I still remember their original ads in Computer Gaming World in the early 80's. They were very slick black and white ads that really stood out in stark contrast to the amateurish ads others used at the time...if they advertised at all
Trip Hawkins also had the (at the time) revolutionary idea of crediting the programmers in the games. It wasn't just M.U.L.E., it was "Dan Bunten's M.U.L.E." Something they later abandoned when they went mostly into publishing instead of developing. I played the hell out of M.U.L.E.
Good article about Trip and the early days here: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130129/we_see_farther__a_history_of_.php?print=1
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I see a picture for Archon in that ad. Such an awesome game! I wish someone would remake that !
Kind of the first MOBA really as I think about it !
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
A few here have pointed out some differences between now and then, but there are also a lot of similarities. Only time can say for certain, but I also cannot discount Churchill. "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Ultimately, I dunno. I'm not going to guess at this point.
I do recall "We see farther"