ask thread What was the crash of 1983 like?

[+Nathan Strum]

Arcades made a comeback in the early '90s due to fighting games, e.g., Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, both of which are among the top 10 highest grossing arcade games of all time (see here). SFII started a craze the likes of which hadn't been seen since Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Many of the larger arcades had multiple SFII machines just to keep up with demand.

Arcades that still existed saw a boost in business in the early 90's, but the countless arcades that went out of business in the mid-80's never returned. In the early 80's arcades (and locations that had mini-arcades within them) were everywhere. I never saw that in the early 90's. Some new arcades opened up to cash in on fighting games, but arcade games weren't as ubiquitous, numerous, or with the kind of variety that existed 10 years prior.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Nathan Strum

[BigO]

In the early 80's many convenience stores in the nearby city and one of the tiny Mom&Pop grocery stores in my small town had space dedicated to video and/or pinball machines.

I spent many a lunch hour playing pinball at the 7-11 near my high school with my friend Pat.

 

"Arcades" truly were pervasive in the early days.

[SoulBlazer]

BigO, on 25 Sept 2015 - 4:15 PM, said:

In the early 80's many convenience stores in the nearby city and one of the tiny Mom&Pop grocery stores in my small town had space dedicated to video and/or pinball machines.

I spent many a lunch hour playing pinball at the 7-11 near my high school with my friend Pat.

 

"Arcades" truly were pervasive in the early days.

 

Too pervasive. I've read several books and articles which argue that the arcade boom was so attractive that business that had no hope of making their money back would buy or lease a arcade machine or several for their location, places that didn't generate enough traffic to warrant it and got left on the hook for thousands of dollars. They were all over the place, but just too common at the peak. There really was no way that a doctor's or dentist's office, a car wash, a repair shop, a Chinese food place, or others could hope to make money. much less break even on these machines.

[Grig]

1981/1982 at the 7-11 was all about Defender ... oh yeah, and also about finding $20 in a Marlboro box in the parking lot.

[Chris++]

What I mostly remember in Albuquerque were game rooms. They couldn't really be called arcades. The local amusement park, Pizza Hut and Putt-Putt would each have five or six machines against a couple of perpendicular walls.

 

The only place with a huge amount of games was Chuck E. Cheese. Later in the '80s, Tilt opened in the mall, but...well, y'know...if you wanted to get in there, you had to go to the mall. Yick.

 

I actually played a lot more '70s and '80s coin-ops in the '90s. For instance, a bunch of machines, the likes of which were just beginning to be called "classics," still stood in the basement of my college's Student Union Building. I finally had quarters to spend, being an alleged adult, so I was able to play a lot of Elevator Action, Tron, Quantum, Super Breakout and others that I had never seemed to encounter in the '80s.

 

After a gig in '97 or '98, I took a girl who I'd just met to a local pool hall, and instead of playing eight-ball, we got distracted by a sit-down Ms. Pac-Man machine. I was impressed that she actually gave me a run for my money. I beat her, of course, but it was close. I wonder if she would have refused to come home with me afterward if she'd won!

 

So the machines didn't all suddenly vanish in the '90s. As long as they were still working and the occasional coin was still dropped in, proprieters felt that they might as well leave them plugged in.

[+save2600]

On the subject of arcade games stuffed anywhere and everywhere in the 80's and way after the "crash", just some flashbacks:

 

Xevious, Ikari Warriors and Bombjack in the vestibule in our local A&P grocery store.

 

Qix upright and a cocktail Arkanoid in our tiny 2-screen theater that did NOT have a separate room for games. They just sat along the wall of the main lobby.

 

Crazy Kong (DK ripoff) at the local Convenient store, aptly named: The Convenience Store or just Convenience.

 

Pac-Man machine near the entry of a deli - Irv's Deli in Mundelein, IL to be exact.

 

Roller Rink right down from Irv's in Mundelein had a huge selection of games then too of course.

 

Twin Drive-In in Wheeling, IL… you know how small *those* buildings typically were with the bathrooms and concessions… even they had a very small section set aside for the likes of Pac-Man, Battlezone, Space Invaders and Sea Wolf.

Fodrak's in Libertyville, IL had a cocktail (probably Ms. Pac) and later, an upright shoved in the corner of their small dining room.

 

Park Place/La Hacienda, Downings, DeLorenzo's, Tap in Tote, Tavern in the Town, Dog Ear Records, Burt's Deli, The Silo, Bowling Alley, Northern Chalet and more… all in LIB… hardly was a place that DIDN'T have arcade or pinball games!

 

Jewel/Osco had an entire display case and rear peg-board behind the counter devoted to Atari 2600 games. And the Eagle grocery store sold Data Age and Apollo games in cardboard standees.

[WildBillTX]

What I mostly remember in Albuquerque were game rooms. They couldn't really be called arcades.

 

I remember when they called them "Family Amusement Centers", almost as if Arcade had become a bad word like Pool Hall. Mall arcades like Bally's Le Man's or Aladdin's Castle. I think every mall in Oklahoma City and Tulsa had one of them in the 80's to the mid 2000's but by then they were mostly little kid skill games.

 

I went to Jr College in Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa OK in the early 80's. Our student union had 4-5 machines, some classics like Asteroids, Ms. Pac Man and Defender, plus a obscure game like Tatio's Zarzon or Stern's Astro Invaders. And some of the mom & pop convenience stores had converted kit games like Crazy Kong, a Space Invaders copy or a Galaxian machine converted to play Pac Man (with the weird colors and bad sounds).

Edited September 27, 2015 by WildBillTX

[MaximRecoil]

There was no change at all throughout the '80s with regard to arcade machines in my small town. Pick any year from the 1980s and the arcade situation was pretty much the same. The main two places with arcade machines were the laundromat (3 video games and 2 pinball machines on rotation) and Fossa's general store (5 or 6 video games on rotation). I never got the sense during the '80s that arcade games were in any sort of trouble. In '87 kids waited in line every day after school to play Double Dragon at Fossa's.

[BigO]

In the early 80's many convenience stores in the nearby city and one of the tiny Mom&Pop grocery stores in my small town had space dedicated to video and/or pinball machines.

I spent many a lunch hour playing pinball at the 7-11 near my high school with my friend Pat.

 

"Arcades" truly were pervasive in the early days.

I was reminded just last night of one of these little stuffed-in-the-corner mini arcades that exists today, not too far from my house. Burger King has, for some reason, a small room adjacent to the dining area. It has three video games.

 

If it had pinball, I'd have remembered without seeing it again.

Edited October 7, 2015 by BigO

[+sramirez2008]

There was a game room just a block away from where I grew up. It had 15-20 cabinets. This is where I first played Asteroids and my other favorites...Battlezone, Lunar Lander, Night Driver and Sea Wolf. I thought the periscope in Sea Wolf was one of the coolest things I had ever seen in a video game. I also loved Battlezone with its vector graphics, erupting volcanoes, viewfinder and duel joysticks. Ahh, the memories...

[Nebulon]

There were about ten notable arcades in the city where I grew up. From 1984 to 1988 I watched them disappear one by one until only two were left.

 

It was pretty sad.

 

I recall making trips to the mega-mall in the neighboring city to play games at that arcade (the main arcade in that mall ultimately disappeared in the 90s, leaving just the satellite arcade).

[Grig]

Came across these at the Round Table Pizza in Quincy, CA

 

 

 

[Ransom]

Yeah, arcade machines were everywhere in the early 80s. It seemed like every store had one or more. Just a few examples from my home town with a population of less than 10,000 people at time:

 

Ben Franklin 5 and 10 Cent Store: Had an Asteroids and one other.

Mountain View Foods (little, independent grocery store with an awesome butcher dept.): Galaga, Pac-Man

Longs Drugs: Popeye, Donkey Kong

 

My local 7-11 had 2 arcade games at the beginning of the 80s, and expanded to 4 at the height as I recall.

 

We also had Earth Station 1, a local arcade that had row after row of the latest games and classics. There was some uproar from some parents who were worried about juvenile delinquency before it opened. They didn't want Earth Station 1 to open, and then when it did they wanted it shut down. Once it was running for a while and there wasn't any problem, people seemed to simmer down about it. I used to ride my bike down there and put my $5 into the token machine. $1 got you 4 tokens, but $5 got you 25. I remember walking around Earth Station 1 with all those tokens in my pocket, carefully deciding which machines were worth spending a precious token on. At various times, Tron, Kangaroo, Dig-Dug, Lady Bug, and Ms. Pac-Man were the ones I spent the most tokens on. But there were so many cabs in that place that it was great to spead them around and play games like Looping that were fun and different but not terribly compelling to me.

 

(Incidentally, I remember tabletop role-playing games like D&D being nearly as ubiquitous around the same time. Even the sporting goods store sold some TSR games like D&D, Boot Hill, and Gamma World.)

[Bryan]

There are a few childhood memories I'd love to go back and revisit. One is walking down the video game aisle of Sears prior to the crash. There were several systems hooked up with demo games running and it was a magical place.

 

When you consider what a great position Warner was in at that time, it's a crime how greedy and short-sighted they were.

[bretthorror]

I've enjoyed reading all of the posts in this thread because I feel like so many people in the gaming community don't really try and think about what actually happened vs. just saying "no one liked video games anymore and the market was flooded with crap" and then "Nintendo saved the world" because most of these players are NES era (I myself wasn't even born until '85). I clicked on this thread because I can't imagine not having video games - basically by the time I was 7 or 8 I didn't even really get toys because I wanted games so I wanted to try to figure out how they could just fall off the map and through this thread it all makes perfect sense. Video games really didn't even have a chance by 1984/85 because there was no new "it" system to play it on since the 2600 was so outdated and gamers who didn't have it would own one of 7 or so other consoles, making it hard for even one major non-Atari player to carry on.

 

I consider a crash something that actually crashed, not a new industry that ate itself up for a few years only to spring back up exponentially for the next 30 years. Does anyone know if home computer game sales are included in the widely publicized $100 million year of 1985? If it doesn't, then that number is severely flawed. This link seems to make the most sense, showing how gaming wasn't in THAT bad of shape in its crash years if it is accurate. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_States. From what I've read, I stand by my original idea that there was no way gamers just fell off the map, the revenues just dropped because it got too huge and ate itself and lacked a decent future plan. It's not like it took years, it only took one attempt with the NES and everything was well again. Not to say what they did wasn't amazing, I just think the market for video games is a no brainer. It would make no sense for people to drop Asteroids and go back to board games. But it also makes little sense for masses to buy a 2600 game when the measuring stick in the arcade was just so far advanced.

 

I guess my bottom line is if even in the lowest of lows 1985, the 8 year old 2600 sold a million consoles, so I would venture to say there was still a major hunger for video games in the home, there was just nothing relevant to sell to consumers because of bad decision making. Hollywood and music genres change in popularity year by year and the lack of quality games hurt the sales for a few years, but I don't think gamers were abandoning anything. Someone else used the term 'Atari Crash' and I think that'd be right, the revenue loss just seemed to be growing pains combined with the unthinkable demise of your #1 star. If anyone says "people didn't want video games" from '84-'86 I'd say they were wrong because arcade revenue was still nothing to scoff at.

[empsolo]

I've enjoyed reading all of the posts in this thread because I feel like so many people in the gaming community don't really try and think about what actually happened vs. just saying "no one liked video games anymore and the market was flooded with crap" and then "Nintendo saved the world" because most of these players are NES era (I myself wasn't even born until '85). I clicked on this thread because I can't imagine not having video games - basically by the time I was 7 or 8 I didn't even really get toys because I wanted games so I wanted to try to figure out how they could just fall off the map and through this thread it all makes perfect sense. Video games really didn't even have a chance by 1984/85 because there was no new "it" system to play it on since the 2600 was so outdated and gamers who didn't have it would own one of 7 or so other consoles, making it hard for even one major non-Atari player to carry on.

 

I consider a crash something that actually crashed, not a new industry that ate itself up for a few years only to spring back up exponentially for the next 30 years. Does anyone know if home computer game sales are included in the widely publicized $100 million year of 1985? If it doesn't, then that number is severely flawed. This link seems to make the most sense, showing how gaming wasn't in THAT bad of shape in its crash years if it is accurate. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_games_in_the_United_States. From what I've read, I stand by my original idea that there was no way gamers just fell off the map, the revenues just dropped because it got too huge and ate itself and lacked a decent future plan. It's not like it took years, it only took one attempt with the NES and everything was well again. Not to say what they did wasn't amazing, I just think the market for video games is a no brainer. It would make no sense for people to drop Asteroids and go back to board games. But it also makes little sense for masses to buy a 2600 game when the measuring stick in the arcade was just so far advanced.

 

I guess my bottom line is if even in the lowest of lows 1985, the 8 year old 2600 sold a million consoles, so I would venture to say there was still a major hunger for video games in the home, there was just nothing relevant to sell to consumers because of bad decision making. Hollywood and music genres change in popularity year by year and the lack of quality games hurt the sales for a few years, but I don't think gamers were abandoning anything. Someone else used the term 'Atari Crash' and I think that'd be right, the revenue loss just seemed to be growing pains combined with the unthinkable demise of your #1 star. If anyone says "people didn't want video games" from '84-'86 I'd say they were wrong because arcade revenue was still nothing to scoff at.

The problem is this is mostly a huge strawmen that's erected to defeat arguments that nobody ever really or seriously uses when talking about the Crash. I mean, we are talking about an industry crash that saw the demise of roughly 90% of the big name american console manufacturers and software producers, very nearly over night. None of the big hardware names survived the crash. Mattel? It ended divesting itself of the Intellivision and selling off the rights to INTV corp. Coleco? It self imploded. Atari? The company is broken up and sold in pieces. And this extended to the myriad of third parties that made games for all systems. Barely any the big name or small name software developers continued to make games for newer computer systems let alone consoles that were being sold at firesale prices for pennies on the dollar. Many simply went bankrupt and had long since ceased development by the time Nintendo's new console reached the Eastern Seaboard in October of 1985.

 

I don't see how any body can not look at the state of affairs for the Video Game console industry in the United States and Canada and say that the market is alive and kicking.

Edited October 25, 2015 by empsolo

[Bryan]

It's a crash because an industry that had been wildly profitable found itself hemorrhaging money as people stopped buying product. To the consumer, it just appeared that video games no longer had the retail presence they once had. But, on the other side, people were being fired, investors were screaming, and management was consuming Maalox by the gallon. Considering the impact it had on the industry, I think it's safe to call it a crash.

[empsolo]

It's a crash because an industry that had been wildly profitable found itself hemorrhaging money as people stopped buying product. To the consumer, it just appeared that video games no longer had the retail presence they once had. But, on the other side, people were being fired, investors were screaming, and management was consuming Maalox by the gallon. Considering the impact it had on the industry, I think it's safe to call it a crash.

That's the other thing that people tend to forget about the crash. The massive layoffs conducted by all of the companies as they try to stop hemorrhaging money. Jobs that would become forever lost as companies began to shutter thier doors one after another.

Edited October 25, 2015 by empsolo

[AtarinDave]

I was completely oblivious to the crash. I didn't learn of it until I discovered this website in 2008.

 

All I know is that games were super cheap. And I was in heaven, building up my collection to just over 150 games.

Yeah, that's is partly why I love the 2600, because not only are there hundreds of games to get, but they mainly range from $1 to $5 each at a reasonable game store or garage sale. Now that's gaming.

[Flojomojo]

In 1983, I was 13. I always loved games, but now thanks to all these blowout sales, I could actually buy the cartridges I had read about in magazines. It was great.

 

We have always had bargain bins, it's not like they stopped after the 2600. In the 80s, Toys r Us and KayBee would blow out Atari, Intellivison, and Coleco cartridges. Later on, NES and Genesis. I remember making frequent runs to Egghead Software and CompUSA in the early 1990s to raid their PC bargain bins.

 

Finding game cartridges at yard sales and thrift shops built the retro game hobby. I haven't "scored" in a long time, but I know many people who frequent this site are big fans of the hunt. I think that all started around 1983, when investors' losses became our gains.

 

The App Store, Humble Bundle, and Steam Sales are the modern equivalent. There has always been more supply of games to play than dollar demand to make everyone rich. If anything, the "crash" bubble bursting made playing games better for the average consumer.

 

It's just shocking to consider the original retail pricing for what we would call "minigames" today. Thirty 1982 bucks for a crude arcade port. I was never going to be able to afford that pre-bubble pricing. It seems that mobile gaming might experience a similar "correction" as developers figure out that competition for free-to-play money and attention is tough. I'm hoping that we will see a shakeout of the modern equivalent of the junky Atari VCS third party shovelware makers.

[Yosikuma]

I was fairly young when it happened, so from my perspective:

 

My family was not so well off, and suddenly we were able to buy a 2600, and most of my games were a dollar! Neighbours were pretty keen on getting rid of their stuff, so I had quite the collection for a while, even if some of it was just loose carts (Indiana Jones was a game I never learned to play because of this, for example!).