Electronic Games Magazine Talks about the gaming crash 3/84

[bigfriendly]

I used to read Electronic Games back in the day. I thought it was a very good gaming magazine. Anyway if you like gaming history concerning the gaming crash of 1984 then you will probably find the article interesting:)

 

 

 

 

 

[Flojomojo]

I like this article. I missed it the first time around (I think I read most videogame magazines at the supermarket), but I remember catching it on Archive.org or similar and being impressed at how well it holds up.

 

Exceptions being these chestnuts

Atari 2600s are great, but home computers that can file Mom's recipes and keep track of Dad's checks as well as play games are the ever-increasing wave of the future.

Does anyone use a computer to track recipes? Did they ever? It was such a tedious lie, way less useful than "it will help me with my homework."

 

Also, this

Yet some equipment is getting a bad rap from the press because of unfair comparisons. Prime example is Coleco's Adam home computer. Even before it appeared, some critics were bouncing all over it, as though it were a problem child because it can't keep up with the likes of an Apple or the business computer systems. The answer is too obvious, you can't compare apples and Adams, even if Adam took a byte out of the you-know-what. Can a bicycle keep pace with an automobile? Can they be compared? Of course not. Yet that is exactly what is happening with the Adam. Problems? Probably. A dandy little home computer that will last a long time not only in the marketplace but in the home? Very probably.

Cute, punny, wrong.

 

Anyone know where the author David Lustig is today?

[bigfriendly]

Home computers were soooo overrated back then! The Macintosh with its GUI was a Godsend but what average family could afford the price tag? I had an Apple //c and many years later when I discovered what my parents spent on it I was floored! They could have gotten a Commodore 64 for a third of the price that would have been just as good. But at least my Dad didn't listen to me because I wanted an Adam computer! I don't even remember hearing anything about that computer good bad or otherwise. It was as if one day Coleco just disappeared and was gone forever. Yes, I do remember those ugly dolls they made afterwords. Anyway, I thought the article was good for when it was written. He definitely had the market saturation factor in there and I loved the comparison with the crash of 29. I'm sure that just three years earlier the home videogame market was something that most experts figured was too big to fail.

[high voltage]

some more of the crash of 1984

 

 

The EG cover of that year

 

 

Always amusing how the magazines got it right, and stupid Wikipedia and Nintendo freaks think it was 1983

Edited February 21, 2019 by high voltage

[Banquo]

Does anyone use a computer to track recipes? Did they ever? It was such a tedious lie, way less useful than "it will help me with my homework."

 

 

I don't know if anyone really did that back in the day, but now there are lots of popular recipe sites online so I guess it finally came true.

[jhd]

Anyone know where the author David Lustig is today?

 

I have found two books by what may be the same author:

 

David Lustig. Wondrous healings of the wise Kabbalists and the ancient physicians (1989)

https://www.worldcat.org/title/wondrous-healings-of-the-wise-kabbalists-and-the-ancient-physicians/oclc/35068639&referer=brief_results

 

David C. Lustig. Railroads (1990)

https://www.worldcat.org/title/railroads/oclc/1011615267&referer=brief_results

 

He was the "West Coast Editor" for Electronic Games in March 1984. I would not be shocked if he eventually moved into freelance writing after the market for video game magazine editors collapsed.

 

ETA: He is last credited in the February 1985 issue, so he presumably left the role in about December 1984.

Edited February 21, 2019 by jhd

[Flojomojo]

some more of the crash of 1984

 

 

The EG cover of that year

 

 

Always amusing how the magazines got it right, and stupid Wikipedia and Nintendo freaks think it was 1983

 

The 1929 stock crash happened over a period of days. The video game crash was more of a gradual slump -- you can't put an exact date on it. I don't see a problem with using 1983 as the starting point. The magazine you quote (available in full here, good read) has a cover date of March 1984 which means it was on newsstands in February or as early as January. The editorial content, which uses the past tense a lot, was probably prepared sometime in 1983. Note that they're going bimonthly for a while, starting with this issue ...

 

This move, coupled with some general belt-tightening, will enable EG to ride out the storm in good shape -- and give the magazine the basis for expansion once computer hardware and software sales begin to approach the volume once attained by videogames paraphenalia.

 

 

Perhaps it's a precursor to the "crowdfunding" of today, but doesn't this come across as a tiny bit needy?

You, the readers, can also help the magazine weather the current choppy seas. For instance, remember to ask for EG at your favorite newstand -- and make sure they know you're disappointed if it isn't there. And tell your friends about EG too, in case they aren't yet familiar with it.

 

I like how the next page after the "shakeout" article advertises "great arcade games of the past." Retro gaming is retro itself.

 

 

To say nothing of the dudes on the cover.

• Miner 2049er wearing a 1 on his overalls and splitting the tape -- ported to everything, largely forgotten now. Same thing for his mule. Probably didn't hurt that they bought the advertising space on the reverse side of the cover page and immediately after the editorial page.
• Donkey Kong with a 2 on his chest -- largely forgotten until 1994 when he returned to GameBoy, an eternity in game years
• Q*Bert -- beloved but never remade in a way that caught on. Good cameos in the Ralph movies
• Pink Panther -- was to be the Probe 2000 mascot. Sold home insulation for a time. Good Mancini theme. Forgotten.
• Dirk the Daring -- borderline unplayable "interactive cartoon" that keeps coming back because it must sell even though everyone hates Dragon's Lair.
• Indiana Jones -- inscrutable Atari VCS game and a wasted license, to be redeemed by Atari Games in the arcade and LucasArts on computers, as well as movie sequels. NOT a videogame icon worth mentioning in 1984
• E.T. -- what else needs to be said?

 

I don't know if anyone really did that back in the day, but now there are lots of popular recipe sites online so I guess it finally came true.

 

We don't even keep cookbooks anymore; we just look for something well-reviewed online when planning meals. I guess that qualifies as "tracking recipes" in a modern sense.

[Flojomojo]

 

I have found two books by what may be the same author:

 

David Lustig. Wondrous healings of the wise Kabbalists and the ancient physicians (1989)

https://www.worldcat.org/title/wondrous-healings-of-the-wise-kabbalists-and-the-ancient-physicians/oclc/35068639&referer=brief_results

 

David C. Lustig. Railroads (1990)

https://www.worldcat.org/title/railroads/oclc/1011615267&referer=brief_results

 

He was the "West Coast Editor" for Electronic Games in March 1984. I would not be shocked if he eventually moved into freelance writing after the market for video game magazine editors collapsed.

 

ETA: He is last credited in the February 1985 issue, so he presumably left the role in about December 1984.

 

I think the second one is a more likely fit, at least in terms of nerdy autist stereotypes. Trains and video games, two great tastes that taste great together.

[Cynicaster]

 

We don't even keep cookbooks anymore; we just look for something well-reviewed online when planning meals. I guess that qualifies as "tracking recipes" in a modern sense.

 

I actually use my computer for recipe tracking, believe it or not. I do it via a Onenote notebook. Most of the recipes in it are just screenshots of web pages, but the notebook aspect allows me to write notes, etc. Also, the software can copy text out of an image, so I can grab the ingredients list out of the screenshots and paste it as editable text. I do that for every "entry" in the notebook because then I can just copy and paste it to my "shopping" tab and delete the items I already have on hand. The automatic syncing across devices makes this system very useful.

 

Of course, not a single thing I just described could be done with an 80s home computer. Although, I do remember my mom handing me recipes to "type out" for her in Word Perfect on our Tandy 1000 SX, so we could print them on the ol' dot-matrix and she could file them in her scrapbook. In retrospect, it seems like a bit of a "make work" project, considering the source for the information was a paper copy of the recipe. Now that I think about it, my dad was probably pulling the strings on that one. "Get little Matt using that expensive computer!" Oh well, it may not have made any sense but I was glad to help.

[high voltage]

I love magazines, I used to have ~6000 mixed gaming magazines (UK and USA and a few German), mostly all a complete run, from 80's and 90's. They were stored in 36 cardboard boxes. Sold more than half, had a guy in Germany buying them by the boxload for digitizing for the net.

Got approx 1500 gaming mags left nowadays, and a 500GB HDD full of US and UK magazines PDFs, including all EG.

Wasn't the great now defunct download site from way back called Underground Gamer? They had complete issues for d/l.

I am working in a museum, my workday consists of reading magazines.

 

Still buy Retro Gamer.

Edited February 21, 2019 by high voltage

[youxia]

You can still find these collections, and more: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/287258-massive-collection-of-old-game-mags-books-and-manuals/

 

Years before I had my first machine, growing up behind the Iron Curtain, I had access to a few English mags (some Your Sinclairs, ACE, CVG). They were my substitute gaming world. I revere them to this day, and it's mindblowing to have entire magazine runs on my HDD and all the games for all the platforms. I often open a mag, read it and play the games described/mentioned. I'd say a dream come true, only back then I was never crazy enough to dream about such thing being possible.

[+Random Terrain]

I used to read Electronic Games back in the day. I thought it was a very good gaming magazine. Anyway if you like gaming history concerning the gaming crash of 1984 then you will probably find the article interesting:)

For people who don't know, that Electronic Games article (along with the full magazine) is also at archive.org:

 

archive.org/stream/Electronic_Games_Volume_02_Number_12_1984-03_Reese_Communications_US#page/n21/mode/2up

 

Can Electronic Gaming Survive

THE BIG SHAKE-OUT?

Some Game-makers Thrive; Others Are Barely Alive

 

By DAVID LUSTIG

 

 

 

You can still find these collections, and more: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/287258-massive-collection-of-old-game-mags-books-and-manuals/

 

Years before I had my first machine, growing up behind the Iron Curtain, I had access to a few English mags (some Your Sinclairs, ACE, CVG). They were my substitute gaming world. I revere them to this day, and it's mindblowing to have entire magazine runs on my HDD and all the games for all the platforms. I often open a mag, read it and play the games described/mentioned. I'd say a dream come true, only back then I was never crazy enough to dream about such thing being possible.

 

I don't use that torrent stuff. Are any of those scans not at archive.org? If they aren't, maybe someone could upload them.

[maiki]

Home computers were soooo overrated back then! The Macintosh with its GUI was a Godsend but what average family could afford the price tag? I had an Apple //c and many years later when I discovered what my parents spent on it I was floored! They could have gotten a Commodore 64 for a third of the price that would have been just as good.

 

Seems to me as America was kinda ahead of Europe as for what people considered to be the right amount of money to spent on a home computer. For instance the C-64 mentioned above - its disk drive unit was not that common in Europe as behind the waters, yet its cost was perhaps more than the C-64 system on its own!!! More or less I think it was mainly the C-64 that took away the market share of Atari (2600)...

[high voltage]

For people who don't know, that Electronic Games article (along with the full magazine) is also at archive.org:

 

archive.org/stream/Electronic_Games_Volume_02_Number_12_1984-03_Reese_Communications_US#page/n21/mode/2up

 

Can Electronic Gaming Survive

THE BIG SHAKE-OUT?

Some Game-makers Thrive; Others Are Barely Alive

 

By DAVID LUSTIG

 

 

 

 

I don't use that torrent stuff. Are any of those scans not at archive.org? If they aren't, maybe someone could upload them.

 

All EGs (except last issue) are also on DP, under the heading 'Library'

 

.

[high voltage]

 

Seems to me as America was kinda ahead of Europe as for what people considered to be the right amount of money to spent on a home computer. For instance the C-64 mentioned above - its disk drive unit was not that common in Europe as behind the waters, yet its cost was perhaps more than the C-64 system on its own!!! More or less I think it was mainly the C-64 that took away the market share of Atari (2600)...

 

Very true

[+Random Terrain]

All EGs (except last issue) are also on DP, under the heading 'Library'

Yep, I link to many of them from my Atari 2600 history pages.

[high voltage]

Yep, I link to many of them from my Atari 2600 history pages.

 

Your site is very good too