Now the 80s! Before we looked at very early computers and how the more computers developed the more there was a need for computer games. Now we are going to be looking at more video game console which only purpose is to play games. The 80s can be considered a major period in gaming in terms of the evolution of production and genre.

Of course we begin with the Atari 2600, It was one of the first consoles of the 80s and was one of the first console to use removable cartridges just like the Fairchild Channel F which i talked about in my Jerry Lawson Post, it was designed to directly compete with the Fairchild Channel F. One of the reasons for Ataris success was the game Space Invaders, which had the perfect mix of progressive difficulty and the competitiveness of trying to beat a friends high score. Space invaders improve the sales of the atari 2600 to over 2 million units. 

Space invaders wasn't atari's only success they had a lot of very good games in the library most of which had become legends in their respected genres. Such as Frogger and Ataris best selling game Pacman which sold 7 million copies. 

Another Console for this generation was the Telstar Game console series, mostly known for its many variations of the pong game: Hockey, Handball, Tennis etc. Arcadia 2001 (Emerson) 1982, which looked a bit like a telephone and had a total of 35 games, which was discontinued 18 months later. This really shows how unstable the video game industry was at this point, not everything was a success there was some big failures. The Intellivision had a very similar design to the Arcadia but this  time you could slip paper sheets into the controller to show the different game's controller layout. 
Next up is the Atari 5200, you can start to see a trend here of what dominated the industry during the generation. although this did not get the same success as it predecessor even though it had better graphics it was unable to play the 2600 large library of games, which intellivision could do. Most of the games on the system were just updated versions of the 2600 and so the audience lost interest. There was a 69 games for the 5200, with Space invaders being a launch title. 


With slow death of Atari, Two new companies begin to move in, Sega and nintendo. Sega releasing its SG-1000 which looked pretty awesome and is the first game console by Sega. Nintendo releasing its Famicom which later became the NES, the best selling gaming console of its time. This marks the beginning of nintendo's reign over the video game industry and the end of atari. 

NES 1983, now i think its fair to say that we have a console that people are taking seriously, not just a gimmick with only a few games, this is a fully fledge video game console, and one of the first to authorise third party developers. Opening a gateway to companies that want to make games but don't have to develop a whole machine to run it first. The NES had a lot of important titles such as Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Also films were starting to use NES for merchandise purposes such as Ghostbusters. I even own a NES which i think shows its popularity. 1989 The Gameboy, an awesome console that let you play NES game on the go, was a huge success and is one of the reasons i love nintendo, for really pushing the industry to make more with the technology. 
And of course lets not forget SEGA. Sega became the company to rival nintendo, which i think was the best thing for the industry, when one company doesn't have a monopoly over the products it forces them to do better in order to not be beaten. And Sega put up a fight! Releasing the Sega Genesis 1988 with there own very strong mascot Sonic. Selling around 29 million units and boasting 16 bit graphics it was a great console. Another competitor was the Commodore 64, was one of the first PC that was primary use was for gaming, it sold around 17 million units. I think thats about it for another brief overview of a whole generation of gaming. Commodore is a good end to the 80s, as we can see how this generation was mostly dominated by consoles, even tho we began with PC and you can see how they are now beginning to rise again. 

References

Sites
http://www.fabtintoys.com/colecovision/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar_(game_console)
http://thedoteaters.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_2001
http://www.atariage.com/software_search.html?SystemID=5200
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_5200
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/24/business/what-s-new-in-video-games-taking-the-zing-out-of-the-arcade-boom.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SG-1000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

Books 
The Ultimate History of Video Game - Steven Kent

Pheonix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames - Leonard Herman





-Michael Ollerton