Video Game Crash of '83

[SpikeyWikey07 58]

First off,this is on General Discussion, so from what this means... anything can be spoken here, even bronyism.This is something that I've wanted to tell my friends, one of them(forgot his username here) agreed with this.Within 1983, the video game market was hitting up badly due to two of the biggest failures of video gaming, PacMan and E.T.Pacman originally was to be fully ported to the Atari 2600, but the guy* who was to make it had never finished and Atari sought the need to sell it already. Mind you that during the time, over 10 million atari 2600s were sold, they wanted to sell over 12 million copies of PacMan. WTF? But due to the timeframe for the game's development, Atari released the beta to the public.Derp. About 7 million sold well, but many of those consumers had asked for refunds due to its lack of proper development. Along with this, many game developers had their own individual companies to support the 2600, causing the market to flood in games. Heck, most of them were even bargain bin deals. See how that can be problematic? No. How about this then? Nowadays, there are only 3 consoles competing at each other; back then we had many of them seeking out for our parents' and/or our lunch money for purchasing their games and/or consoles.So after all this rather unorganized status in the gaming world, the market came to a halt. Note that this is only effected the companies, we as the consumers had nothing, to a certain degree, to do with it at all.T he crash had lasted for 2 years till in '85, when Nintendo came out with the NES, (Nintendo Entertain System) decided to license games authorized by the company to be played on the system and also by installing a lockout chip within the system to do so. In other words, it wasn't licensed by Nintendo themselves, it will not play. Unless you had the Top Loader (NES 2), which can play everything expect famicom cartridges. Nowadays, the gaming market is a vast market in the business.Yet, one thing I never understand to most of the generation today is that they constantly believe that gaming would always exist without Nintendo anyways. Folks and bronies, if Nintendo did not resolve the problems by atari, say goodbye to the Gameboy, PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii... the list of consoles then can go on. Heck, want to make it better? PC Gaming was also being introduced during the time, most of the crash also came from that as well.There, a long yet clear explanation of the video game crash of '83.To end this now, I have a question that I would like to hear an answer from anyone.How would you feel if another video game crash occurred and it had a grand effect upon the consumers itself?* -> I'm uncertain for the name of person/things in question.

Edited September 11, 2012 by SpikeyWikey07

[Lightning Fluttershy 1,844]

Were you perhaps thinking of my username? I chatted with you on Skype last night... Anyway I loved Pac-Man so I can see easily how it sold so many copies. I never actually played E.T.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

There was, but there were many more things that did the market in, Like the fact that cartridges were no longer an exclusive right, and everyone was allowed to make them without needing to give profits to the creator of the console.

 

Secondly it was the wild west in terms of quality, and with no demo's available, games were literally a closed bag before you could play them. A game could be complete and utter shit and you couldn't know before buying, glitches and bugs in releases was common place. Secondly, there wasn't a manual on how to create video games either so making proper new games wasn't commonplace, literally treading new ground.

 

So, that is why consoles now have a screening process and Nintendo has their "Seal of Quality". Because they are ways to ensure quality and a level of standard within video games. Yes, games still have bugs and glitches, but not as bad as back in '83. Games are playable, if not they won't see releases.

 

In retrospect, when Angry Video game Nerd "reviews" releases prior to and near 1983, the fact that so many games were this bad are merely a byproduct of a very young industry and all the things I mentioned. Things were different back then.

Edited September 11, 2012 by Tich

[Nilkad_Naqadah 144]

Tich brings up excellent points. Adding on to their point about the industry being young, that's very true, there was no real method for designing games. Designers essentially had to take ideas that the thought might go over well, and toss the in however worked. There were no standards or benchmarks for design, playability, or how the game teaches you to play. This is why games like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and Megaman were so popular; They were easily playable, they had well thought-out and clever design (especially in the case of Castlevania) and, in the case of Megaman, did a good job of teaching you about the mechanics as you play, without really having to slow you down or throw out any sort of tutorial. In the days of the Atari 2600, this wasn't prevalent due to a combination of lack of available background knowledge, hardware limitations, and the fact that games were usually made entirely by a single person.

[SpikeyWikey07 58]

I just re-updated my post to this topic. Mind that you all can now understand what is going upon this topic and allow yourselves to answer the question provided at the end. Thank you for your time and good day.

[Nilkad_Naqadah 144]

Well, there would be both upsides and downsides to another game industry crash; firstly, the downsides. Obviously, this would result in none of us getting any new games for a good long while, which I personally wouldn't be particularly happy about. Then there's the issue of established current developers going out of business; such talented developers as Retro Studios, Hal Laboratories, Naughty Dog, etc. etc. etc. Beyond that, it would more than likely result in feul for those who argue that games aren't art; something along the lines of "Have you ever heard of the painting market crashing? How about the book market? Or the movie market?" These arguments would of course be irrational and illogical, but there would still be people who make them, and there would still be people who believe the people who make them. Now, the upsides; it would more than likely result in another golden age of gaming, in which great competing companies would replace Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, in much the same way that Nintendo and Sega replaced Atari, Magnavox, etc. I.E., they would be willing to take necessary risks to make bigger and better games and consoles in order to control the market, because they have nothing to lose. They would end up locked in constant struggle to make higher quality hardware and software, in the hopes of winning enough of an advantage in funding to finally overwhelm the other, much as Nintendo and Sega did during the early 90s. That's essentially the one major upside, but I think you'll agree it's quite a doozy of an upside. While I don't consider myself fit to pass a concrete judgment on whether it would be bad, I think we can all agree that another gaming market crash would have significant upsides and downsides, especially considering how much the industry is currently stagnating.

 

Also, an addendum to your point about Nintendo saving the gaming industry; this was only the case in America, where people viewed video games as a dying fad; over in Japan, the Nintendo Family Computer, Famicom for short, was selling quite well. When Nintendo decided to bring the Famicom to America, they were very smart about it; They knew that if they marketed the hardware as a game system, people would dismiss it and Nintendo would net an overall loss, by a lot. So, they packaged it with a little robot accessory called the Robotic Operating Buddy, or just R.O.B., as well as a light gun called the Nintendo Zapper, and marketed it as a toy. American families ate it up, buying at the time record numbers of the console over the holiday. Then, come January, when they've all had a chance to try out their NES and find out that it's pretty awesome, SURPRISE! It's a game console. And that's how Nintendo saved gaming in America through a clever marketing scheme and quality hardware.