WEBVTT - The Great Video Game Crash 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.880 tech style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.840 welcome to check stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.680 I am an editor here at how stuff works dot Com. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.040 Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.680 Strickland on the other side of the screen. It all 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:34.720 looks so easy. That's a quote. Never mind, I said, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.720 I wasn't gonna say where it was farm anymore, so 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.839 people have to tell me where it's from. Uh. So, 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.360 today we're gonna talk about the great video game crash, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.440 which really we should specify happened in North America. Yes, 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.960 and we're not talking about the video game crash that 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.800 we of arcade games. We're talking specifically of the home market. Yes. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.600 So in order to understand this, we really have to 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.759 uh to think back to the origin of the video 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.040 game market the home market. Um, because it doesn't really 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:09.920 make sense to talk about the crash until you find 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:11.440 out how you got to where you were in the 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.959 first place. Right, True enough, and honestly, the the arcade 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.520 game market and the home market started roughly the same 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.600 time they were growing out of um you know some 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.119 work that different computer programmers were doing in the nineteen sixties, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:27.880 even a little bit earlier. But it's kind of hard 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.640 to say that it was really becoming a video game 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:32.440 of any kind of sort until it got to the 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.479 late sixties and the early seventies is when you saw 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.600 the first arcade games and first home video games, and 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:43.119 I'm talking early seventies nine. Nineteen seventy two is when 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:47.760 we saw the very first home video game console in 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:53.480 the North American market, and it was a Magna Vox Odyssey. Man, 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.520 what a machine that was. Yeah, the original Odyssey. Now 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.480 there were lots and lots of future Odyssey consoles, which well, 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.160 I'll chat about briefly. I've got a kind of timeline 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.400 where i can talk about some of the consoles that 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.560 came out and the big years in video game the 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.000 home video game market. But nineteen seventy two is probably 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.080 the biggest year because it's the first one. Um So 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.359 you had the Odyssey, which was designed by an engineer 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.720 named Ralph Bear, and he had been working on the 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.359 prototype for this since the late sixties, like you had mentioned, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:29.560 and uh, it's interesting. It was um it was powered 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.240 by batteries. It was not something that you plugged into 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.960 a wall at that point, and it was analog not digital, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.480 so pretty lot. Also, no sound in the earliest console 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.480 there was no You didn't get audio. You just had 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.320 a video output. And the video output, of course, was 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:48.960 your television. You had to hook it up to a TV. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.640 It didn't have its own screen or anything like that. 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:54.639 You know what I have to say about that? What's that? 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.880 Because there was no sounds really funny. So in nineteen seventy, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.880 thank you for the pity there, You're welcome. In ninety three, 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.480 the the Pong coin operated game was starting to make 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.080 a splash. That's right. So Pong is like the first 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:17.440 like major breakthrough arcade game, uh to hit the arcades, 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.679 well not even arcades at that point, but bars and 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.120 and things like that. Yeah. Computer Space was the very 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.239 first coin operated game. Yeah but uh, and and that 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.480 was done Nolan Bushnell. Those of you longtime listeners or 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.320 computer game fans probably know who Nolan Bushnell was. But yeah, 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.320 Pong was actually the second of those games. Yeah. So 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:43.000 in nineteen Sears began to sell a Pong home console. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.600 I remember that now I should point out I should 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:48.720 have said this for the Odyssey as well. These home 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.800 consoles had games hard coded into them. Yeah, we're talking 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.680 the chips actually very similar to arcade games. Yes, the 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.400 chips inside them would tell you what they would do. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:04.120 So I mean you're not removing a cartridge, right, you know, 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:08.080 a CD or DVD which hadn't been invented yet. You 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.240 couldn't even switch a chip out like with with some 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.560 arcade machines you can switch out rams, so a RAM 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.320 would be what essentially has the game's programming on it, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.360 And some arcade consoles, you know, you can switch one 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.160 ROM out for another and use the same cabinet to 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.119 house different games. So if one game is not getting 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.440 a lot of traffic in an arcade, you could swap 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.000 out the ROM for and put in a new game. Uh, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.320 you couldn't do that with these home consoles. You're stuck 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.520 with whatever games they were able to put on there. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.159 And so a lot of them were variations of pong um. 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:38.840 You know, like you might have pong and then you 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.600 might have handball, which is really just a slightly the 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.760 paddles are slightly smaller and it moves faster. Um and basketball, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.640 in which case everything was was um horizontally oriented rather 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.160 than vertically oriented, but it was still using the same 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.479 sort of mechanics as pong. Uh. It was really just 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.400 variations on that for a while. So se you get 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.400 the Odyssey one and two hundred. Uh, this one was 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:08.680 kind of funny and that um the the PALNK system 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.839 that Sears put out in had an on screen scoring system. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.560 It would keep track of your score. The Magnavox Odyssey 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.560 on two hundred did not have an on screen scoring system. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.960 It had little plastic markers on the console itself, and 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.200 you would move your marker up a notch every time 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.839 you scored a point until whoever reached the you know, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.080 whatever the limit was that you had decided, whether that 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.680 was the top of the notches or all right, we'll 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.400 play to whoever it gets to five points first. So 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:39.960 it's kind of like playing a game of pool. You 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.240 actually had to physically notate what your score was on 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.600 the console system. Do I get to throw in a 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.040 plug for my very first video game system? Go for it? 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.560 Because it was a clone of all these There were 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.440 lots and lots of Palm clones, but mine, which I 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.040 still have is colicos tells to our system that came 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.960 out in Yes, lots of them did. The fair Child 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.799 Channel F was out about that same time, which actually 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.760 that was one of the first ones to ever use cartridges. Yes, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.960 in seventy six, you've got the Odyssey three hundred, four hundred, 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.560 five hundred, Super Pong, Wonder Wizard, and the Calico tell Star. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:21.560 And like you said, the tell Star was one that 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.600 had hard coded games on it, right, the tell Star, 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.000 yes did, and it had three So this this is 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.560 before Kalika Vision. This is not that's not what we're 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.400 talking about. We're talking about earlier system than that. Yeah, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.120 that's the that's the whole thing. When you were talking 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.880 about the cartridges, Um, we're talking about the rams again, 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.480 which are hard coded inside. But at least these newer 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.440 machines gave you a slot from which you could remove 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.680 a RAM and put a new cartridge in, so then 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.240 you could play. It was extensible, You could play lots 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.440 of different games on it. Yeah, So the fair Child 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.760 Channel F never really took off, but it was the 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.520 first one to actually start using a cartridge based system. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.280 So the next year and seventy seven, uh well started 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.680 seeing things like the Atari Video Pinball Machine, the Atari 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.240 Stunt cycle machine. But also there were a couple more 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.000 to tell Star models that came out, and of course 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:14.119 more Odyssey games. What about the r C A Studio series. Uh, 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.040 there's that as well. But the but in seventy seven 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.480 a big one hit, probably the big one for the 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:26.680 earliest video game market story, which is the Atari VCS, 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.280 the video computer system, which was actually my very first. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.360 The other one was technically my brothers, but you know, 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.040 I just wanted to plug the tell Star Yeah I 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.040 had as well. Now this was of course a cartridge 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.880 based system again, so there were no games pre programmed 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.000 on the console. Yeah, there was a game packaged with 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.760 the system though for mine it was Combat, Yes it 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.320 was mine. For Combat was mine as well. And I'll 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:56.800 never forget playing jet versus airplane. Yeah, fun times anyway. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.200 So actually that that's going back to you, I'm sorry, 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.480 I didn't mean going back to your scoring thing. For 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.360 those of you who have never played an Atari. Um 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.440 the games and about which we were talking, they came 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.280 with an instruction book, and and most of the instruction 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.000 books that at Chari published. There the last couple of 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:17.680 pages or last page had a note field so that 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.880 you could write down your high scores because of course 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.200 at that point, well maybe not of course, but at 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.720 that point they didn't have any kind of onboard storage, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.400 So so I didn't remember your high scores and you 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.800 wanted to keep it, keep track of it, you needed 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.480 to write it down. Yeah. This is also before like 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.440 at this point, the the video games that you would 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.080 get in the home market were a lot like the 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.600 ones in the arcade and that they were usually you know, 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.000 usually would only play them for short burst because uh, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.480 there's no way to save your progress. So there was 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.640 no point in writing a longer game that would require 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.839 multiple sessions of play because there was no way to 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.839 to save and pick up where you left off. I mean, 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.320 why would you come back and and and just basically 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.000 leave the machine on for day is as you worked 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.839 your way through a game because there wasn't any way 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.679 to store that. There are a lot of people who 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.800 did that with later systems in particular. Um, well we'll 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.920 get to those. But so then let's go ahead to 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.440 seventy eight. We get some more tell Stars because you know, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.040 every year has to pass with another tell Star getting Uh, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.280 that's when the Odyssey Squared came out or Odyssely to 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:25.000 um that actually was a computer and it had basic programming. Uh. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.599 Then you also had Colico tell Star Gemini, which was 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.840 an attenty sud clone that came out in Sight, and 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.319 the one and only entrigue from uh Bally the Ballet 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.080 Professional Arcade came out in that year. I remember that too, 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.520 And do you guys if you listen to our Midway podcast, 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.560 you know that Bally had purchased Midway. This was the 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.520 result of Bally Midway working together to create a home 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.959 arcade system use bitmap graphics. Did not succeed those that one. 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:59.199 You know, you may not have ever heard of it 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.160 because it never really well anywhere. Um, did you want 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.080 to have anything else to add? For seventy eight before 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.360 I go to see Okay? Seventy nine you had the 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.599 Zircon Channel F system to Wow, which was like the 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.960 fair Child is going back, and then um, the Atari 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.440 four hundred, yes, which also was really kind of a computer. Yeah. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.760 It actually had its own keyboard built into that console 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:25.400 and uh, yeah it was. It was meant to be 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.520 like a kid's computer. Like my first computer was the 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.520 Atari four hundred and it was also cartridge based. It 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.920 did have an onboard program which was essentially a notepad program. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.840 It was kind of like a very very basic word processor. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.920 You should, uh, if you're an old if you're a 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.920 fan of old computers, I didn't want to say old 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.360 computer fan. If you're a fan of old computers, you 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.040 should definitely check out the Atari four and, as Jonathan 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.240 will mention shortly, the eight hundred, which looked very much 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.800 like it because they were kind of cool. They had 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.280 a big door and the top of them to remove 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.120 and insert cartridges from, so you can actually you know, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.600 open it up and plug it in and then close 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.600 the door back again. Very kind of old school computer style, 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:12.640 and had a membrane keyboard, which is real pain and 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.920 neck to type on. It's not entirely differed from the 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.960 way the Nintendo had a door where she would flip 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.120 open and take a cartridge out in a way, no, 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.079 but it kind of reminds me of the old mainframe 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.079 style things where we had to open it up to 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:27.800 actually mess with it, rather than you know, like the 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.560 hr vcs, which the slot was just on the top 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.160 right where dust could get in it. Yes, where you 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.640 got into the hole let's blow into the cartridge before 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.360 we put it into the machine, because if dust got 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.319 in there, if enough dust got in there, it wouldn't 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:45.280 work anymore. Another big player hits the scene, which is 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.120 Mattel's in television. I believe you had one of these. 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.640 I did have an intelevision, and I had an intelevision 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:55.240 long after the heyday of intelevision games had had passed. Well, 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.839 people are still playing the games now, yeah, but there 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.160 was no way there were no new games coming out 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.520 by the time I had. I came into possession of one. 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.880 I inherited it essentially from a cousin, And yeah, it 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.559 was a It was a really neat game system. It 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.360 was I would call it more advanced than the Atari 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:16.760 twenty hundred. It still wasn't you know, it wouldn't blow 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.640 you away or anything, but but the games were a 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.640 little more sophisticated than the ones you would get on 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:26.479 the twenty. Well, I think it directly resulted in Atari's 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:28.440 next move, which we'll get into in a moment. Yeah, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.679 so that's when we start seeing some more some more 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.480 interesting machines. We see the Clico vision, another big heavy 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.720 hitter in television and click a vision kind of battled 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.800 it out in the early eighties to see who would 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.720 have video game supremacy, and Attari had a leg up 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.959 just because it'd been around a little longer than the 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.400 other two, even though the other two had slightly better 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:58.680 graphics and and arguably a better controller, depending on whether 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.360 or not you felt like you got a couple tunnel 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.559 from it. Well, it's funny because at this point in 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.040 home video gaming there was sort of this weird crossover 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:13.240 between home computers and home video game systems. Um. Like 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.960 today you see stuff like the WE and the PlayStation 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.199 series and the the Xbox series, and they can do 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.840 things that computers do. But uh, some of these systems, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.800 you know, um getting into the Colico Vision, and then 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.920 Colico also started a system called the Atom, which was 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:33.640 supposed to be a computer system, but they were sort 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.920 of compatible with one another, and you know the R 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:41.400 four eight hundred UM and uh, you know they're they're 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.840 things like that, and having the opportunity to use a keypad, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.400 because the Colliquo Vision and the in Television both had 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:51.400 a Numeriic keypad on their their controllers, as did the 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.719 R and so for a while there, I think the 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.360 manufacturers were all sort of flirting with this idea that 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.720 you know, maybe creating a system that could do all 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:04.360 of the stuff. Um. Unfortunately, uh, that didn't come out 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.000 in the way I think that they really intended, or 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:08.960 you know, none of them, none of these companies were 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:10.640 able to capitalize on it. Yeah, a lot of the 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.240 a lot of the consumers seem to think that these games, 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.720 these systems were more game systems than computer systems. There 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.800 was more of a division of the two products in 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.480 the mind of the average consumer, and it was really 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.120 hard to bridge that gap. I think because I think 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.120 what they may have been trying to do, and this 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.760 is just speculation on my part, is that perhaps they 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.680 thought if they could embed some computer ability in it, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.240 that it might encourage more moms and dads to fork 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.320 over the cash for a video game system that they 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.080 could do their taxes on. Yeah, you know, later on 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.400 it's like, well, you know, and like Kate video game 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.920 system exactly. But um, but yeah, I mean also, Atari 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.000 had a leg up on Colico because Atari was a, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.440 if you will, a pure play h video game company, 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:01.600 whereas Colico stood for Kinnectic Get Leather company. They actually 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.720 had their roots in a completely different business. Yeah, the 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.040 games that you play with leather. I've made this joke. 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.280 I made this exact same joke, so I'm not gonna 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.600 several times I believe. Yeah, well, I mean on the 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.920 podcast specifically, I make the joke all the time. In 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.600 the office. Actually, HR will probably talk to me, no, no, 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:18.480 but but yeah, I mean they were they were doing 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.560 something else for a long time and then got into 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.200 two Electronics and uh, Colico bet hard and the Callico Vision, right, 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.320 and getting back to two. So Collico Vision comes out. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.320 Also the at comes out, which is essentially the Atari 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.640 four hundred but without the keyboard. Right. You had the 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.560 vet trex come out. Look like a little console. I 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.560 had a little cabinet game. Yeah it actually it actually 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:44.800 had its own dedicated screen, so it looked like a 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.080 miniature arcade machine Kaid Cabinet Sorry, go ahead. And it's 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.880 also vector based and monochromatic. It was vector based on 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.840 the Grand Fields better but it was monochromatic. So what 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:02.080 they they shipped the game system and the games with overlays. Nice. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.160 You put an overlay on the screen and that would 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:10.160 simulate color. Very nice. Yeah, groovy. Also, the Emmerson Arcadia 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.160 two thousand one came out in two as well as 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.720 the in television two. And uh, we're gonna we're gonna 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.560 pause the timeline there in two because now we're getting 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.080 up to the point where the actual crash began to 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.280 take place. And uh, and there are a lot of 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.880 different reasons for the crash. One of them we've already 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.960 established just by doing the timeline. There were lots and 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.120 lots of competing video game systems out there. Yeah, now 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:41.480 we've we've basically been going from two up through the 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.960 mid eighties, early eighties, about eight five, we're sort of 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.480 getting this thing and um, that's the whole thing that 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:55.600 we're in the third generation of consoles in you know, years, 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.800 ten years really, I mean because because if you look 0:16:57.800 --> 0:16:59.920 at the crash, the crash is pretty much eighty three, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.520 so you think of as the eleventh year. So home 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.639 video game market had ten amazing years. But as you 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:12.720 were pointing out, three generations within ten years, gets, especially 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.040 for a new kind of product, is hard for consumers 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.240 to swallow. Ye, I mean it's at that time it 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.280 was very difficult to think I need to I'm going 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.600 to make a two or more investment two hundred dollars 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.240 in those dollars those years, dollars which more than what 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.520 you would spend today. So you know, you look at 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.560 an arcade or a video game console as it comes 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.560 out today and you're thinking, wow, five hundred dollars, it's 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.680 a lot of money. Well, if you look at the 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.800 consoles that first came out in the seventies, uh, they 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.359 were priced around two hundred dollars, including the twenty hundred 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.560 um when adjusted for inflation, they might be the same 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.440 or more than what you will pay for a and 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.239 like a brand new console in today's market. Yeah, as 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.159 a matter of fact, I'm trying to look that up 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.880 as we speak, but while the computer is percolating, since 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.920 we have weird WiFi in this room. Um yeah, and 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.160 something else too. I mean, at this point, the home 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.040 video game industry was just huge, and other people were 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.320 trying to get into it. A little company starting up 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.680 you may have heard of, Activision, was fighting desperately to 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.600 get on the Yeah, let's talk about this. This is 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.200 where you can lay a lot of the blame for 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:29.000 the video game crash on Atari's shoulders. Oh yeah, and 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.520 here's here's what it boils down to. Ultimately is credit. 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.040 Video game developers wanted to start getting credit for their work. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.760 They were designing these games, and they wanted to be 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.480 able to have their names attached to the games that 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:47.119 they were building. Atari meanwhile, wasn't too keen on that idea. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.040 They didn't see any need to do that. They wanted 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.160 the games to look more like they all essentially were, 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.119 you know, just from Atari. They didn't want to to 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.320 differentiate that at all. Yeah, and uh, as a result 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.639 that that did, I would say that ultimately four is 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.520 the basis of what formed Activision. Yeah, it was game 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.800 developers who wanted to be able to create games that 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.280 they would get credit for, you know, they wouldn't remain anonymous. Um. 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.320 By the way, according to Will from Alpha, at an 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.639 average rate of inflation of two point nine one per year, 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.639 two hundred dollars would be approximately four d four dollars 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.600 and thirty four cents. So that's three. And remember that 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.840 the came out in the late seventies, So yeah, we're 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:36.560 talking about the early video game systems cost then in 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.639 purchasing power essentially what they cost today. Yep, and uh, 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.560 Woll from Alpha was working on that Toy seven debut 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.000 at the tred two hundred dollars at an average rate 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.399 of inflation of three point nine three percent per years, 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.760 seven dollars seventy six cents, so actually more expensive than 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.520 either the PlayStation three or the Xbox three sixty when 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:02.480 they debuted. Yes, and in relative terms. But um, but yeah, 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:04.920 I mean there was we talked about I think Warren 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.560 Robinett in an earlier podcast. Probably he was one of 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.200 the if I think he was the developer behind the 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.119 game Adventure, and one of the big things to do 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.200 back when that game was released was to find what 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.320 was called a micro dot, which is not a micro 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.600 dot in a classic sense, um in the spy terms, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.320 if you will, but a micro dot. There was a 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.080 little glowing dot, a couple of pixels. I'm not sure 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.360 exactly how big it was in terms of pickles pixels 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:41.159 pickles pickles. It was about three gherkins wide. Anyway, I know, 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.240 I know it's right before lunchtime. So anyway, if you 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.600 could find this dot, you could take your character, which 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.280 was a square through a wall that normally you wouldn't 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.520 be able to go through. It was just basically cordoning 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.600 off part of the game. Yes, this was Easter Eggs podcast. Yes, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.960 and you could see the name of the designer, Warren Robinett, 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.879 and uh, because otherwise you never would have seen it 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.000 at all. Yeah, it wasn't It wasn't listed down. There 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.159 weren't credits like like you see when you finish one 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.159 of these, uh, one of the newer video games, you 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.159 get a whole listing of all the animators and the 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.320 story developers and the story boarders anybody else who's worked 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.080 on the game. And it wasn't just a question of credit, 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.160 although that was definitely important, big it was also royalties. Yeah, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.040 because I mean, without being credited for their work, these 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.480 developers weren't going to be able to claim royalties on 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.880 any sales. And uh, that's the that's probably the It's 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:31.639 hard for me to say because I wasn't there, but 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.080 I would guess that that was the main reason why 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:37.920 Atari resisted this whole credit thing. They didn't want to 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.080 pay out royalties to the developers, and um, so it 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:45.479 boils down to money. So that ended up make having Uh, 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.160 these these developers found activision, whether they're developing their own 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.240 game company. Uh, there's a there was essentially a big 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.080 restraining order that Atari put on on other game developers 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:02.040