Essay On Video Game Crash Of 1982

The Video Game Crash of 1983, while rarely talked about, was a major influence on modern electronics in America as a whole. This goes far beyond video games. If we had not recovered from the electronics recession modern personal computers, laptops, smartphones, and many other devices would not be nearly as advanced as they currently are. Let’s take a step back and look at the worst time in the evolution of electronics. This mess starts with Atari. In 1972 the then small Atari Incorporated released it’s first video game, the arcade cabinet Pong. It was a success for the company and lead to the release of home versions of the unit in 1975. Sears approached Atari for this home version of Pong, it was branded as Sears TeleGames Pong and sold

With the success of Donkey Kong in 1981 and three sequels for it they sought to create their own hardware. In July of 1983 Nintendo released the “Nintendo Family Computer” later shortened to the “Famicom” in Japan. Upon release it saw massive success leading Nintendo to seek a global launch of the system. Nintendo had previously worked with Atari to create the home version of Donkey Kong and where negotiation releasing the “Famicom” under the Atari brand name due to its popularity. However this was delayed due to Atari’s financial problems and later canceled. A small american division of Nintendo made plans to continue with the U.S. release of the “Nintendo Family Computer”, but with plans to americanize the system. The Famicom saw an entire redesign in the west and was renamed the “Nintendo Entertainment System” like the it's Japanese counterpart the system's name was shortened to the “NES”. Rather than being marketed as a children's toy like Atari, Mattel, and Coleco had done with their systems the NES was marketed as a personal computer and an entertainment system. It was sold in stores like an electronic next to televisions and vcr’s to further distance itself from the children's toy sections of stores. “Introduced in 1985, the NES was an instant hit. Over the course of the next two years, it almost single-handedly revitalized the video game industry. Selling over 60 million units, people brought games like Mario and Zelda into their homes for the first time on the NES.” it was an overnight