00:03they called it a fever
00:05in the early 1980s arcade games were
00:09huge a golden era kick-started by space
00:13invaders and held aloft by hits like
00:15pac-man Galaga and Donkey Kong hires
00:20were keen to fill coin boxes and the
00:22market obliged video games were big
00:25business Atari were the vanguard of the
00:30industry backed by the financial might
00:33of Warner and dominant in the home
00:34console market the VCS later known as
00:38the 2600 was the standard with the
00:42biggest games and aggressive marketing
00:44its sales performance was stellar Atari
00:50couldn't manufacture enough cartridges
00:52to meet demand a license to print money
00:54retailers committed to sales a year in
00:57advance the worth is gold there's a rush
01:03Atari had no shortage of rivals Mattel's
01:07in television the Fairchild channel F
01:10Bally Astor Kate ColecoVision Vectrex
01:13and the Magnavox Odyssey 2
01:16was still with no control of a cartridge
01:19publishing third party games started to
01:22appear on the market
01:24activision had the talent to deliver hit
01:26titles like pitfall river raid and
01:28kaboom but they were joined by a
01:31cavalcade of games a more questionable
01:33quality during 1982 the total number of
01:39games for the system doubled in 1983
01:43they doubled again shelf space was
01:47stretched thin and per game revenue
01:53Atari weren't concerned they were in the
01:56lead millions of dollars spent on
01:58exclusive licenses tie-ins and massive
02:01marketing budgets the more they spent
02:04the more they earned the games
02:07themselves didn't matter pac-man was the
02:12hottest coin up of the era and Atari at
02:15the exclusive console rights however
02:19with a cruel time budget and the limited
02:22hardware of the 2600 the final product
02:25was disappointing crude graphics grating
02:30sound and flickering ghosts the
02:33expectation of authentic arcade action
02:36fell short in the run-up to Christmas
02:411982 pac-man was joined by two other
02:44lackluster blockbusters Raiders of the
02:47Lost Ark written off as an inferior
02:49version of pitfall and et the
02:52extra-terrestrial et is often cited as a
02:57reason for the crash the worst game of
02:59all time but it was just a mediocre
03:02tie-in that was supposed to be an easy
03:04cash grab never the cause just a symptom
03:09a few disappointing games aren't enough
03:13to sink an industry though when
03:15marketing promise fails to deliver a
03:17creeping realization emerged everybody
03:21the Atari was obsolete
03:25a cold 1982 was coming to an end with no
03:30warning Warner announced earnings for
03:32the last quarter that it wasn't good
03:35news the system's just weren't selling
03:39unsold cartridges were being returned
03:42from stores in droves instead of meeting
03:45their ambitious growth predictions
03:47revenue had dropped 50 percent stock
03:50prices plunged and a panic hit Wall
03:53Street confidence in the innocent
03:56industry evaporated total losses for the
04:00year stacked up to half a billion
04:02dollars no amount of marketing could
04:05save Atari from the truth it was game
04:08over the upstart company originally
04:13driven by curiosity was torn apart by
04:16corporate greed rapid growth at any
04:20price where Atari led their rivals
04:25followed for better or for worse the
04:28Intellivision brand was liquidated
04:30Kalika and Magnavox both left the games
04:33industry and a plethora of clones were
04:35quietly discontinued Atari was sold for
04:40the Commodores Jack Tramiel games were
04:43consigned to clearance bins and shelf
04:45space reallocated in favor of hotter
04:47trends Cabbage Patch Kids
04:50transformers Care Bears he-man the video
04:58dead and buried gone but not forgotten
05:07America wasn't the only market for video
05:10nor were consoles the only option in
05:15Europe a theme microcomputers had taken
05:17hold the BBC micro commodore 64 and ZX
05:22Spectrum for those playing manic miner
05:25attic attack or elite it was like the
05:28crash never happened
05:30meanwhile in Japan their console market
05:33was just taking off with Nintendo and
05:36Sega releasing their first machines
05:39Atari were in talks with Nintendo to
05:42distribute their console in America but
05:45in light of their trouble Nintendo
05:47decided to take control in 1985 the NES
05:51arrived in the USA and defined the next
05:54generation and the years that followed
05:58video games saw a return to bestseller
06:01lists and it's mostly been plain sailing
06:03ever since but what about today could it
06:10perhaps it already has whatever happened
06:14to skateboarding games 3d platformers
06:17realtime strategy world war two shooters
06:20motion controls what's going to happen
06:24to block building games open world
06:26action-adventure early access survival
06:31what's popular today won't remain
06:34forever trend follows trend and while
06:38those who pin their hopes on a single
06:39success might suffer the industry is
06:42broader and more robust than ever the
06:46truth is video games never died in 1983
06:57thanks for watching and until next time
