Interesting reading

[+Steve Jones]

While researching to see if there are any other games that were planned for Intellivision but cancelled before release,

that I could potentially do boxes for, I found some interesting reading,

 

First this site has pdfs of all the old magazines I used to read,

 

http://www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/electronic_games/electronic_games.htm

 

It also has many other magazines but this is the one I remember reading the most back then,

it's quite interesting to see the transition throughout 1983 issues from the big 3 video game systems into more computer based stuff,

the video game market may have crashed but software companies who transitioned to computer software did ok.

 

And here is an article specifically about the crash, it's a bit Atari-centric but a fascinating summary of how it all went down.

 

http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=the-great-video-game-crash

 

 

 

 

 

[+cmart604]

Cool. One of my favourite memories from my youth was going down to 7-11 and getting a Slurpee and the latest Electronic Games magazine and reading it through cover to cover. I have enjoyed rereading all of the issues as I have collected them over the last decade or so. ??

[Jim Pez]

Great thanks for posting.

[mr_me]

Reading the old magazines is great, it gives you a sense when stuff came out. I think these guys often got early preview cartridges from the manufacturers.

 

The electronic games 1984 software encyclopedia has game reviews. Beamrider, Bomb Squad, Worm Whomper each got a 10. The highest rated sports cartridge was NASL Soccer at 9. Mazeatron, Vectron, Shark Shark, and the Atarisoft cartridges were missing; Super Cobra and White Water are there. The only 1983 Mattel cartridges in the list were Bumpnjump and MOTU.

 

The article on the crash is pretty good. They talk about retailers returning product to manufacturers e.g. Mattel and Atari. However, they don't mention that it was the third party stuff that they got stuck with clogging up their inventory that prevented new games getting out. The 1983 electronic games magazines has readers complaining about not finding the new games being promoted. Where I was the local department stores completely and suddenly removed their video games sections. The article mistakenly said the atari 7800 was briefly released in 1984. And Atari didn't lose it's court battle with Activision, they settled. And it suggests 1.5M colecovisions sold in 1982 when it was 550k. Colecovisions actually sold okay through the crash. The adam computer did hurt them but it was the cabbage patch dolls that did the most damage in the end for coleco.

 

The only company that survived the crash was really activision, somehow, after years of heavy losses. It's too bad about Mattel Electronics. They were all setup for IBM, Apple, and C64 development with an experienced group of game developers. It would have been interesting had they stuck it out.

Edited August 2, 2018 by mr_me

[wolfy62]

Thank you for sharing this great stuff!!!

[+Steve Jones]

BTW I did find an announcement of one other game that was going to be converted to Intellivision,

which may inspire another box, will decide later, maybe print some for PRGE.

Fully aware I'm in danger of replicating the crash with a glut of product haha.

[m-crew]

thanks for the links,

[GeekDragon]

Thanks for posting. Gonna be fun reads.