History of the video game. Part 3
Hi, haven’t heard for a long time! Since the beginning of this year, much has managed to happen, both good and bad, and it was extremely not enough to go through games and scour information for the history of video games. So after as much as 4 months (!), in view of the vacation at the university and the work that has not yet been found, I wanted to return and continue to improve in the craft of written. I hope that at least someone will be interested again, well, thanks for the warm responses to past work: 3
Well, okay, we return to the 80s, when the industry first died, before my birth was for another twenty years, and the Japanese decided that it was time to show them to the world what they were capable of in the game arena.
The consequences of the crisis
In a developed market economy there is one very useful and important plus for business – self -regulation. No matter how severe the collapse and no matter how magnificent the rise would be – forever nothing to fall or grow, change, sooner or later, will come. Thus, the crisis of 1983, against which the games began to bury, even one foot was already put in the grave, when lightning struck him, he turned into Godzil and went to ruin everything in his path in revenge for the fact that people decided to bury him so early. But before following the actions of Godzili, we briefly recall what the industry remained by 1985.
Although the companies tried to create the appearance of relative stability, they did it bad. Sales of games fell inexorably, the consoles bought more and fewer people, but computers began to become more attractive for users, which is why their sales began to grow. It has also become, to develop games for consoles, let’s say softly, not very profitable, because of which thousands of studios closed, and the largest lost money and barely kept afloat.
Slot machines did not stand aside either. Living its https://tgcasino.org/ “Golden Age” due to the growth of the popularity of home consoles. It seemed that the decline in sales would spur the Arkad market, but he began to sink along with the consoles. So, the crisis led to a loss of up to 40% profit and thousands closed gaming halls.
Companies that created game consoles also experienced far from the best times. If last time I could not list 10% of all companies, then by 1985 there were even less left. Magnavox and Coleco, Fairchild and Mattel – they all left the market. And even the largest companies were waiting for a sad fate. So, the giant of the second generation, Atari, lost millions almost daily. Sales of consoles fell, more and more employees were reduced, and the games were simply “buried”. Similar processes have become a certain symbol of the crisis. All non-delayed copies of PAC-Man, E. T and other “famous” projects were simply thrown out and buried in the ground. In 2014, when historians gathered the material, exploring this period in the history of computer games, they interviewed one of the directors of Atari. According to him, more than 700 were buried in 1982.000 cartridges. These burials have become a symbol, an imprint of the era, which clearly did not benefit the company itself. In 1984, the company was sold to Commodore, and Atari began a new life, creating table PC instead of game consoles. And so, the market lost the last player, and what awaited him further … And then people heard the sounds coming from the east.
Japan
What do we know about the Land of the Rising Sun? Interested in the topic – very, even too much. The rest are basic facts. An island state, it was in isolation for a long time, there they blew up a nuclear bomb and there they came up with anime. The last two facts are not interconnected, although they tried to argue with me more than once. But the fact of isolation is important, and so much that this should be devoted to a whole paragraph!
Isolation today is a less serious concept than 400 years ago. Now we have all the advantages of the technological process that allow the inhabitants of this planet to hik and, more than ever. But Japan overtook everyone in this matter – it went into the recluse of the very first and for a very long time did not want to go out with others. For more than 200 years they limited themselves from the outside world, engaged in establishing and developing internal structures, rose spiritually … and also spied on how to make guns, watches and icons from the Dutch. And the inhabitants of the Netherlands, in turn, took away rare artifacts from Japan, which became truly popular among lovers of unusual trinkets. How is it related to video games? Very simple. After almost 150 years, the story repeated. And thank you should say Nintendo.
Nintendo is probably the first most important company in the history of industry. Not only did she find almost all generations, went through the crisis and to this day continues to surprise.
The company appeared, scary to even think, in 1889, and initially engaged, of course, not prefixes and computer games. Initially, the company was engaged in the production of Hanafuda playing card, somewhere in the middle of the 20th century it grew into toys, and only in the late 70s reached electronic entertainment.
No one expected that almost a hundred -year -old old man would be able to change the industry, but, as everyone knows, he was in vain underestimated. So what was the case in NES that she not only revived the whole industry, but also became the real face of the video game for many years?
Nintendo Entertainment System
Like most products from Japan, initially there was no NES, it was Famicom, and this console was intended only for the native Japanese market. Before the release of Famicom, the company has already managed to distinguish in the first generation of consoles with its Color TV Game line, which distinguished it from competitors. But the product was purely local, and officially did not go beyond Japan.
In addition, Nintendo also actively worked in the field of arcade machines. So, in the early 80s they put on the market of the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr machine guns., And a little later – Mario Bros.
