The Rise of Video Games

Sarah Bradshaw

In The Beginning...• Thomas Goldman Jr. and Estle Mann

created the “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device” in 1947.

• From the late 1940’s-1960’s, video games were becoming more popular and more widely known.

Game Types• One of the original game types had the

user use knobs and buttons to manipulate a cathode ray tube beam to simulate firing at "airplane" targets. A printed overlay on the CRT screen helps to define the playing field.

• The majority of the early games were run on university mainframe computers used in the United States

First Crash• Pong was released in 1972 by Atari Inc., and

became very popular, very quickly.

• Other companies copied Atari’s Pong game, and since there were so many clones of the game and other Atari products, companies such as Fairchild and RCA crashed in 1977 due to overstock and other similar factors.

• Only Atari and Magnavox survived, but still suffered greatly financially between 1977 and 1978.

Space Invaders to the Rescue!

• In 1978, Space Invaders was created, and nearly quadrupled Atari’s income, which resulted in a quick recovery from the crash the previous year.

• This lasted until 1983, when the North American Video Game Crash took place.

Changes in the 1980’s• Games were put into ROM chips and mounted into

cartridges, then were able to be inserted into the rapidly developing gaming consoles.

• More games could be played because of the cartridges than what was previously installed in the console.

• Mattel began, which had a unique processor with instructions that were 10 bits wide (allowing more instruction variety and potential speed).

• By 1982, around 8 million homes owned gaming consoles, and the game companies were earning approximately 3.8 billion dollars every year.

The Golden Age (1980’s)• Malls, convenience stores, restaurants and other

locations owned traditional arcade game machines.

• By 1981, Space Invaders had generated over $1 billion dollars through the quarters put into the machines.

• More widely popular games such as Pac-man, Galaxian, and Asteroids were released.

• The total sales of arcade video game machines in North America increased significantly during this period, from $50 million in 1978 to $900 million by 1981.

The North American Video Game Crash of 1983

• There were several reasons why this crash occurred, but the main cause was because of supersaturation of the market with hundreds of mostly low-quality games, which resulted in the loss of consumer confidence.

• The release of so many new games in 1982 flooded the market. Stores had insufficient space to carry new games and consoles. As they tried to return the games to the new publishers, the publishers did not have new products nor cash to issue refunds to the retailers. Many companies quickly folded. By June 1983, the market for the more expensive games had lessened dramatically and was replaced by a new market of low budget games.

Effects of the Crash• Businesses such as Magnavox and Coleco left the

video game business completely.

• Video games became less popular and hardly anyone bought the consoles or games.

• The sales of home video games had dropped during this period, from $3 billion in 1982 to as low as $100 million in 1985, leading to bankruptcy for many game companies at the time.

• Fortunately, Following the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, the industry began recovering, with annual sales exceeding $2.3 billion by 1988, with 70% of the market dominated by Nintendo.

Developing Genres

• Between 1980 and 1988, several different genres of games had been published.

• Some were: Action/Adventure, Shooting, Fighting, Stealth, Survival, Maze, Platform, Racing, Rhythm, and Vehicle Simulation.

New Consoles• In 1985 Nintendo released a new console,

the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It instantly became a success, and one of the most played games on it was Super Mario Bros.

• Gamepads (controllers) replaced joysticks, paddles, and keypads previously used.

• The gamepad design of an 8 direction Directional-pad (or D-pad for short) with 2 or more action buttons became the standard.

New Items For Sale

• The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest instantly became hits when they went on the market in 1986.

• The first issue of Nintendo’s magazine, Nintendo Power was published in 1988.

Afterwards...• When the 1990’s came about, the NES

discontinued, therefore ending the Golden Age

• American families continued to buy more products from Atari, Nintendo, and other gaming companies, and those companies are still continuing to grow and create bigger and better products today.

So now you know...

• All about video games in the 1980’s!

• Thank’s for watching