1980s in Video Gaming

Darron Tang

Intro• Video Games started to

grow largely in technological advancements, and popularity especially towards the end of the decade.

• The decade is seen as the peak of arcade games as household gaming rises.

1980

• Namco releases Pacman, the biggest selling arcade game of all time. It only became popular after it was shipped to America from Japan.

1981

• Donkey Kong is released by Nintendo and the game features the first ever appearance of Mario.

• It is seen as the first true platformer game as it introduced jumping over obstacles in the game

1982

• The commodore64 is released, the 8 bit home computer became hugely popular to play video games on. Sales totaled 17 million across it’s total lifespan.

1983

• The video game “Crash” occurs and thousands of people speculate that videogames are doomed to be a thing of the past.

• Due to the flood of poor quality games in the market and no-one willing to purchase them.

1984• The release of the Nintendo entertainment system (NES) put’s

speculator’s worries to rest.• Nintendo introduced the now standard practice of licensing third

party developers to make games.• Dubbed the single greatest video game console in history by

ign.com

1985• The NES comes to America

and sets the standard for video games worldwide.

• Super Mario Bros is released and becomes the best selling video game of all time, second only to Wii sports which was shipped with every Wii consol

• Atari ST is released, faster processing and graphics introduced.

1986• The legend of Zelda is

released, taking many RPG elements of games such as dungeons and dragons and putting them into a video game

• Metroid is also released• Tetris, considered all over

the world to be the best puzzle game in history, continuing to sell today.

1987• The first street fighter is

released. It was not very popular however it did start a genre of side scrolling fighting games. Innovative control system

• Metal gear is also released, first game to use stealth mechanics and has spawned many sequels, with more in the future.

• The Apple two is released, even further advances in technology.

1988

• Capcom releases a sequel to mega man, mega man 2. Sold 1.5 million copies and is the largest seller of the series.

• Nintendo releases sequels to super mario bros and legend of zelda

• Sega mega drive is released in Japan

1989• Prince of Persia is released

and inspires the opening sequence to Raiders of the Lost Ark with it’s action style of dodging obstacles and climbing.

• Capcom releases Sweet home and started the entire survival horror genre. Lays the groundwork for their hugely successful resident evil series.