Video Game Crash of 1983 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 Jul 1998

...
 > Video game crash of '83?  Would you please
explain? 
...
  In the early 80s there was a home video game boom
started by the home game
 PONG and all it's clones then Atari produced one of the first popular
 cartridge programmable games, the 2600.  Not soon after that there were
 probably a dozen competitors including Matell (Intellivisaion), Magnavox
 (Oddesy), Balley (Astrocade), etc.  By about 1983 there was a major glut of
 game machines and cartridges, too many to support the market... 
...
  Then the bottom fell out around 1983 with the avent of
cheaper home computers
 with just as good (if not better) game playing ability, which started
 capturing the attenetion of the masses and the gamers stopped buying video
 games in favor of computers, many of the game companies were hit REALLY hard
 and some folded.  Of course this was the start of the home computer wars.  :) 
 Some were able to 're-tool' for home computer games and did quite well. 
Oh, and don't forget all the lame me-to companies who started
bussines in 1983/84 and stoped even before the product was
final developen - And do you still remember the even more
lame cpmpanies who foget to cancel their product right
away, when anybody was yelling 'Video Dames are Dead - Long
Live the Home Computer' ? One of them I think was a smaal
playing card manufacturer called Nintendo.

Gruss
H.

--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK