Coleco caused more damage to the games industry then Atari.

[NIAD]

It happens to all of us at one time or another. So....

 

[SoulBlazer]

Computers had a little to do with it. Not the major cause of the crash by any means, but just helped the crash along a little bit.

 

Really? I thought it was widely accepted that el-cheapo home computers had quite a bit to do with the console crash. Please share vetted sources of information (not Wikipedia) to the contrary so that I may be edjumacated.

 

I actually agree. I overstated there, myself. I have always thought computers had a lot to do with it as well, as evidenced by my saying that I had dumped the VCS as soon as I got a computer and sold the VCS to buy another computer peripheral. I got a little carried away there in trying to argue against the, in my opinion, ridiculous claim that pong-style consoles had anything to do with anything.

 

I have seen others downplay computers' role in the crash, stating that the glut of crappy games etc had more to do with it. I actually agree that the glut had more to do with it than computers, but I should not have downplayed the role of computers as gaming machines as much as I did in the above post. What exact % of the cause each was? That's impossible to quantify definitely, but obviously both were significant.

 

Yeah, cripes, looking at what I wrote there again, I was out of my mind for a minute. Then I directly contradict myself in the same paragraph. Doh! Sorry...

 

Agree with you fully. Of the five factors contributing to the crash that I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'd argue the glut of bad games was the biggest factor, with the rise of the computer market right beind it. The other factors I mentioned played a part but were overshadowed by the main two. (Those factors being the decline of the arcade market, too many game console choices on the market, and a shift in how videogaming was perceived by the public and teens.)

 

What's important to remember, as has been mentioned in several top notch gaming history books, is that overall sales of video games actually ROSE in 1983. It was the glut of product in the pipeline combined with all the crappy unlcened gamers that kept anyone from making proft.