Game On!

[Atarian7]

Did anyone else see this on CNBC last night at 8pm eastern?

[Albert]

I missed the beginning but did catch 45 minutes or so. It was interesting, but they really raced through quite a bit of history and only covered the major events and systems from Pong through the PS2 and Xbox. Many systems were ignored completely, and virtually no mention was made of Atari after the 2600. The 5200, 7800, Lynx and Jaguar were not mentioned at all, as well as other systems such as the Odyssey 2, Vectrex, TurboGrafx, Dreamcast, Super Nintendo (although it was pictured), N64, GameCube, and so on. There were also mistakes, such as stating that the PlayStation add-on that Sony was creating with Nintendo was for the NES (as opposed to the Super Nintendo). Again, they just raced through a ton of history.

 

It looks like this show was first shown in 2006 right before the release of the PS3. There probably is at least one previous discussion here on it.

 

..Al

[Atarian7]

Also they said the industry tanked in 82. I thought it was 1984. And even then I remember

video games still being a big thing. I know I had a few birthday parties at Showtime around that time.

[Gigabyte]

There was definitely no crash in 1982. It happened in 1983 and 1984.

 

However, the "crash" is exaggerated to a certain extent. Stores still sold games and people still bought games. My theory on the crash is that because so many games were made, people could get them for dirt cheap. You didn't have to buy games from the store, because you could buy them used in giant boxes for cheap.

 

Also, though a much smaller market, many gamers were probably turned on to the BBS scene at this point and spending would-be video game money on PCs.

 

The arcades crashed because of home consoles,(Just watch the Berzerk 2600 commercial) a lot of the marketing was directly geared toward convincing people to "stay home and save quarters."

 

A large part of the crash, I think, can be blamed on retailers refusing to sell games or picking terrible games to sell. We see this same thing today with stores like Wal-Mart (although they are much better these days) without dedicated video game stores, retailers could not provide a decent selection to consumers, thus, consumers stopped buying from retailers and instead moved into the used market to complete their collections. From a retail standpoint, it appears that no one is buy games and that video games are a dead market, but, in actuality, people are spending just as much on games as always, they just aren't buying from stores. That's enough rambling for now.

[+save2600]

However, the "crash" is exaggerated to a certain extent. Stores still sold games and people still bought games. My theory on the crash is that because so many games were made, people could get them for dirt cheap.

 

 

I agree 100% and witnessed the very same thing. Can't remember if I ever posted these thoughts(forgive them for not being "popular"), but a very large societal reason gaming seemed to drop off there for a little while were for generational reasons. In other words, those that originally were attracted to gaming since the beginning, developed a very natural and evolutional attitude toward gaming as we matured. We put down our joysticks and concentrated on more important or responsible things (such as school, dating, career). But people as a whole, are maturing at a much slower pace today than 30 years ago. AND to compound this is the fact more and more people have found ways (albeit, not always healthy) to integrate gaming into their lives while still pursuing (or not) all the things mentioned above. For those that love to deny or argue, proof is all around - not the least of which is the mainstreams acceptance of all things video. You think there were a lot of bad 2600 games and that was the sole reason for this "crash"? Ha! Much of the crap that's been released since the NES days would have never sold as well before said crash as it has since.

 

 

[tetrode kink]

...But people as a whole, are maturing at a much slower pace today than 30 years ago. AND to compound this is the fact more and more people have found ways (albeit, not always healthy) to integrate gaming into their lives while still pursuing (or not) all the things mentioned above...

Agree on this point. The demographic for marketing of video games now is as much to young adult males, if not more, than to children. Largely due, IMHO, to the fact that that demo never knew a time without video games.

 

[edit]Oops, on the original topic, anyone who thinks they can produce one hourlong (or two-hour, for that matter) show on the history of video games, and have it be remotely complete and comprehensive, is kidding themselves. I like watching such programs, but I won't even consider watching it if it isn't multi-part, several episodes. There have been such programs made.[/edit]

 

-tet

Edited January 8, 2010 by tetrode kink