But the golden age was destined to be a very short one. Walter Day told writer Tristan Donovan, author of the book Replay: The History of Video Games, that the industry was "off the rails by" 1981, opening more arcades and ordering more machines than its players could ever support. By early 1982, cracks were already starting to show in the newly flourishing industry: that $400 a day machine, Time Magazine reported, was often "sucker bait, dangled to obscure the dreary truths that markets are becoming saturated and that dud games... bring in no money at all."
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Jan 16, 2013 -
42 comments
Atari, the first successful arcade video game company, would have been 40 years old today. The blog Arcade Heroes takes the opportunity to look back over 40 years of arcade gaming (from Atari and other companies) with flyers and video.
Part 1 (1970s & 80s) -
Part 2 (1990s to present).
(WARNING: huge pages ahead with lots of flash videos.)
posted by JHarris
on Jun 28, 2012 -
24 comments
Trash cans, landfills, and incinerators. Erasure, deletion, and obsolescence. These words could describe what has happened to the various building blocks of the video game industry in countries around the world. These building blocks consist of video game source code, the actual computer hardware used to create a particular video game, level layout diagrams, character designs, production documents, marketing material, and more.
These are just some elements of game creation that are gone -- never to be seen again. These elements make up the home console, handheld, PC and arcade games we've played. The only remnant of a particular game may be its name, or its final published version, since the possibility exists that no other physical copy of its creation remains.
As a community of video game developers, publishers, and players, we must begin asking ourselves some difficult but inevitable questions. Some believe there is no point in preserving a video game, arguing that games are short-term entertainment, while others disagree with this statement entirely, believing the industry is in a preservation crisis.
Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis [more inside]
posted by timshel
on Feb 9, 2011 -
44 comments
(NSFW)
The Angry Video Game Nerd (taking a cue from seanbaby's
lead) has been producing video reviews of some of the most notoriously awful NES games, from
Top Gun to
Bible Games. (Can't miss:
The Power Glove.) Not content to go after one system, he's upgraded his range to take on other colossal failures like the
Atari Jaguar,
Superman 64, and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (the movie). His newest series of videos,
You Know What's Bullshit?, takes on everyday nuances like
DVD box sets. He may be vulgar and his vignettes silly, but damn straight he's got a
point. Enjoy all his archived videos
here, spanning five years of obscenity-laced love/hate for his greatest passions.
posted by Christ, what an asshole
on Jun 23, 2009 -
18 comments
"So I hit up a garage sale over the weekend and bought a genuine, working-condition Atari 2600, with a huge stack of games nearly mint in their boxes, for a song. I thought I’d scan the box covers and give you all
a look back into the fun of yesteryear."
posted by sveskemus
on Apr 21, 2008 -
74 comments
Steem is an
Atari ST emulator for Windows and Linux that is very simple and user-friendly. More details on installing are in a helpful
beginner's guide, but you're probably most interested in the
games, of which there are lots [more inside].
posted by greycap
on Apr 1, 2007 -
22 comments
The Dot Eaters. A dauntingly comprehensive history of video games, beginning with
proto-PONG and Spacewar!. If it's difficult to navigate through Captain O's prize matrix,
use the handy timeline/scape (the dates don't work, so don't try). It's an interesting site, for sure, but if it doesn't pique your interest maybe the
links page will,
since it's the largest I've ever seen. In just minutes I found the
First Church of Pac-Man,
Super Mario Bros fanfiction (
@), and a great
Robotron shrine. Plus,
this noise (wav).
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Apr 27, 2006 -
16 comments
8-bit gaming forever! I've been thinking about the old days lately; back to when I was a young lad sitting in front of our families
huge 19 inch TV and spending a good 10 hours or more with my trusty Atari 2600 playing Pong, Combat, Pac Man, and whatnot. I'd say I had a good 50 or more games for my 2600, and I played that thing until it just fried to death, begging for mercy as I whipped the joystick to and fro trying to find the chalice in Adventure.
So imagine my surprise when I head over to
ThinkGeek and see a swanky little controller with
10 Atari games harcoded into it. Just, um, "Plug and Play". Heh heh... anyhow, they also have an
Activision version as well. I love the idea of one of these. I think it'd be great if it could be upgraded to handle more games as well. I wouldn't mind playing some "
E.T., the Extraterrestrial" right about now.
posted by crankydoodle
on Mar 25, 2003 -
18 comments
