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Gaming in 1982 - An Overview
Arcade
The arcade industry was certainly not slowing down at this point in time. Games like Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, BurgerTime, and Joust proved that arcades were still going strong. So much so that ex-Disney animator Don Bluth would turn towards arcades as a profitable industry, planning two Laserdisc games to be released next year.
Atari VCS
In minor news, the VCS's casing switched from woodgrain to black plastic this year. In other news, the VCS was doomed not only by stiff competition, but sleazy scandals regarding quality control. Unauthorized, poor-quality porn games such as Custer's Revenge came incredibly close to tainting Atari's reception. As a result, Atari decided to cut back on game development for the VCS and focus on its upcoming successor. Controversially, moving projects from the VCS to the upcoming home arcade meant recoding the project from scratch on the new system. As a result, a tie-in game for the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial would not be released by the end of the year as originally planned. The VCS did have one saving grace in the form of Pitfall!, but that would eventually be ported to other platforms.
Intellivision
The Mattel Keyboard Component sales figures peaked this year. Another component saw a release this year - the Intellivoice, which allowed certain games to "speak" in a synthesized voice. Games like B-17 Bomber would be remembered for hammy voice direction, which was hilarious even for a computer to manage.
RCA Studio 2
After Quest for the Rings struck gold, the next logical step would be to emulate that success. Two Master Strategy games saw release this year. The first game, Conquest of the World, was functionally similar to Risk except battles were settled by competitions on the screen instead of rolling dice. The second, The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, simulated a stock market, with news events affecting stock prices. The goal of the game is to have more money than your opponents by the end of the year. Both games sold incredibly well, and as a result, the Studio 2 was the hottest gift of the holiday season.
ColecoVision
After the short-lived success of the Telstar line, Coleco would eventually make a comeback to the public eye with the ColecoVision. Thanks to a deal with Nintendo, the ColecoVision was launched with Donkey Kong as a pack-in cartridge, and things could not be better for Coleco. Sales were strong enough that ColecoVision sold more units than the Intellivision this year.
Atari SuperSystem
Atari was determined not to give up the ghost. The SuperSystem, released in November 1982, boasted better graphical capabilities than the VCS, but was still capable of playing VCS games via backwards compatibility. The launch titles were mainly arcade ports, but Pitfall! was quickly ported to the home arcade in early December, allowing Atari to have a successful year in the end. All a good move - at the cost of their computer division.
With the rise of the IBM PC and MS-DOS, the computer industry was beginning to change. The rise of IBM PC clones contributed to IBM's rise to the top, much to the dismay of other computer firms. Apple dedicated themselves to improving the Apple II line after the failure of the Apple III. Tandy would spend the next few years trying to catch up only to leave the computer industry by the end of the decade. Commodore would keep themselves afloat with the Vic-20 and its eventual successor. As for Atari, the computer industry's new direction plus the decline of the VCS would force them to cut costs. The final decision was to focus solely on the home arcade industry, which meant that they would sell off their computer division. It eventually made its way into the hands of emergent computer firm Compaq, who would spend the next few years building upon the Atari 8-bit line.
Oh, and speaking of computers...
Commodore 64
While computer gaming proved possible in the '70s, it wasn't until the Commodore 64 era where things really heated up. The Commodore 64 had a humble start with clones of arcade games and ports of other computer games (like Choplifter and Fort Apocalypse), but things looked strong for this computer.
The arcade industry was certainly not slowing down at this point in time. Games like Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, BurgerTime, and Joust proved that arcades were still going strong. So much so that ex-Disney animator Don Bluth would turn towards arcades as a profitable industry, planning two Laserdisc games to be released next year.
Atari VCS
In minor news, the VCS's casing switched from woodgrain to black plastic this year. In other news, the VCS was doomed not only by stiff competition, but sleazy scandals regarding quality control. Unauthorized, poor-quality porn games such as Custer's Revenge came incredibly close to tainting Atari's reception. As a result, Atari decided to cut back on game development for the VCS and focus on its upcoming successor. Controversially, moving projects from the VCS to the upcoming home arcade meant recoding the project from scratch on the new system. As a result, a tie-in game for the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial would not be released by the end of the year as originally planned. The VCS did have one saving grace in the form of Pitfall!, but that would eventually be ported to other platforms.
Intellivision
The Mattel Keyboard Component sales figures peaked this year. Another component saw a release this year - the Intellivoice, which allowed certain games to "speak" in a synthesized voice. Games like B-17 Bomber would be remembered for hammy voice direction, which was hilarious even for a computer to manage.
RCA Studio 2
After Quest for the Rings struck gold, the next logical step would be to emulate that success. Two Master Strategy games saw release this year. The first game, Conquest of the World, was functionally similar to Risk except battles were settled by competitions on the screen instead of rolling dice. The second, The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, simulated a stock market, with news events affecting stock prices. The goal of the game is to have more money than your opponents by the end of the year. Both games sold incredibly well, and as a result, the Studio 2 was the hottest gift of the holiday season.
ColecoVision
After the short-lived success of the Telstar line, Coleco would eventually make a comeback to the public eye with the ColecoVision. Thanks to a deal with Nintendo, the ColecoVision was launched with Donkey Kong as a pack-in cartridge, and things could not be better for Coleco. Sales were strong enough that ColecoVision sold more units than the Intellivision this year.
Atari SuperSystem
Atari was determined not to give up the ghost. The SuperSystem, released in November 1982, boasted better graphical capabilities than the VCS, but was still capable of playing VCS games via backwards compatibility. The launch titles were mainly arcade ports, but Pitfall! was quickly ported to the home arcade in early December, allowing Atari to have a successful year in the end. All a good move - at the cost of their computer division.
With the rise of the IBM PC and MS-DOS, the computer industry was beginning to change. The rise of IBM PC clones contributed to IBM's rise to the top, much to the dismay of other computer firms. Apple dedicated themselves to improving the Apple II line after the failure of the Apple III. Tandy would spend the next few years trying to catch up only to leave the computer industry by the end of the decade. Commodore would keep themselves afloat with the Vic-20 and its eventual successor. As for Atari, the computer industry's new direction plus the decline of the VCS would force them to cut costs. The final decision was to focus solely on the home arcade industry, which meant that they would sell off their computer division. It eventually made its way into the hands of emergent computer firm Compaq, who would spend the next few years building upon the Atari 8-bit line.
Oh, and speaking of computers...
Commodore 64
While computer gaming proved possible in the '70s, it wasn't until the Commodore 64 era where things really heated up. The Commodore 64 had a humble start with clones of arcade games and ports of other computer games (like Choplifter and Fort Apocalypse), but things looked strong for this computer.
- StomperYoshi
- Word Count: 710