The 80's arcade crash

[ncf1]

I was just watching Chasing Ghosts again and realised the crash they mentioned that occurred throughout 1983/1984 didn't happen here (Australia) at all, in fact arcades flourished and more and more popped up, until around the advent of the PlayStation. Now my question is, was the arcade crash limited to the US? Did it happen at all in the UK? And actually why did it happen at all? Chasing Ghosts doesn't really give an answer, or maybe I missed it. Because games were just become more interesting, more exciting, rapidly improved technically, so why was there the very sudden closing down of arcades, did it stem from Atari? But as I said, I didn't see anything like that at all here.. arcades just got bigger and brighter, and there were more of them.

It was strictly a US thing, although it's amazing how many people thing it was a worldwide thing due to revisionist history and the arrogance of Americans calling it a "Worldwide crash"

Their baseball is 'World Series' too though

Yeah, we never felt the impact in NZ at all, except some of our US publications stopped turning up. Here it was business as usual, and ticked along, the Sega machines (Nintendo wasn't big in NZ at that time all that much in comparison) just taking over seamlessly from the previous gen which kept going without hitch. Of course, our market was a mix- US, UK, and Hong Kong clones all intermixed. Arcades still ticked along until the 90s when home games pretty much made them redundant sadly.

I believe the answer lies with Miss Teen USA South Carolina, things suddenly become much clearer.

I do miss the arcades though. The documentary with Richie Knuckles documentary was good, in fact I have to watch it again, I thought he could have been on to something there but alas it too was short lived.

[kiwimike]

For sure, I really miss them. The sanitised ones of today, these Time Zone things with gimmicks for tickets to cash in for crappy junk...they are cool enough for little kiddies or first dates before the movies, but that's about it

Would love to take a pilgrimage to Funspot, or some of the Arcades still in Japan...

[lavalyte]

For sure, I really miss them. The sanitised ones of today, these Time Zone things with gimmicks for tickets to cash in for crappy junk...they are cool enough for little kiddies or first dates before the movies, but that's about it

Would love to take a pilgrimage to Funspot, or some of the Arcades still in Japan...

Some of those places don't even have sticky carpets or cigarette burns on the control panels.

[ulala]

The main effect of the 'crash' in the uk was that it saw the beginning of the end of the VCS (and some incredibly cheap carts) and the emergence of 8 bit computers.

The VCS wasn't that popular in the UK, certainly not with my peer group.

All i remember are the pong clones that were called "tv games" made by grandstand and the like being popular in the 70s and early 80s, and the BBC micro being introduced into schools. ZX spectrums then took over from 1982 onward.

There was no crash in the UK as far as i knew.

The nes came out here in 1987, and it was seen as a toy to my peer group, who were still deliriously happy copying their spectrum and c64 tapes.

[Mayhem]

We had a VCS, we definitely saw the effects, the local video shop stopped doing game rentals, and the cartridges dropped sharply in price to buy.

[Ryan GH]

I really miss the arcades.
I would hang out there all day long just watching people make it to the next level of Final Fight. I remember this one kid's dad owned a beach arcade and he invited me there one day and we spent the whole day on free-play on all the classics. I became his best friend.

[oldtimer]

We had a VCS, we definitely saw the effects, the local video shop stopped doing game rentals, and the cartridges dropped sharply in price to buy.

We also saw the effects with the Atari VCS , I worked in a shop that sold reams of them back in the day and as Mayhem says when it all happened the prices of the carts dropped like a stone , which is where I got a lot of my original carts from , and I also got staff discount too so I amassed a really good collection for peanuts.

[fredghostmaster]

[/quote]

The VCS wasn't that popular in the UK, certainly not with my peer group.

All i remember are the pong clones that were called "tv games" made by grandstand and the like being popular in the 70s and early 80s, and the BBC micro being introduced into schools. ZX spectrums then took over from 1982 onward.

There was no crash in the UK as far as i knew.

The nes came out here in 1987, and it was seen as a toy to my peer group, who were still deliriously happy copying their spectrum and c64 tapes.
[/quote]

Not that popular? Nearly every kid I knew had a VCS round my way!

[mrmessy]

Not that popular? Nearly every kid I knew had a VCS round my way!
[/quote]

I knew a couple of kids who had Atari VCSs, when I had a "TV Game". There were a fair few VCSs about, but it seems nowhere near as popular as home computers, when they took off.

I knew kids who had Spectrums, C64s, Atari 800s, Atari 400s, Amstrads, Orics, BBC Bs, An Atmos, Electrons, Intellivisions, VIC 20s, ZX81s, Master Systems, Phillips Videopacs. Even a C16!

But I'll tell you this. I never knew of a single kid who had a NES. Not one!

But, whenever some sort of - I dunno - mini version of a NES comes out, there are soooo many people who become soooo nostalgic for a machine that sold all of 17 units* in the U.K.

IT'S THE MANDELA EFFECT !!

*to be confirmed

[ncf1]

Here in Oz the most popular systems were the C64, Apple II, and Amiga. There were also Atari 5200, I knew one kid who had a Spectrum, just one that had a Nintendo master system, one that had a Atari ST, a few who had Vic-20, one who had a cheap TV game thing. But by far C64 and Amiga ruled the roost.

Which is why I am surprised the mini Nintendo and SNES were sold out here within 24 hours, maybe retro has hit here bigger than I thought, I dunno.

[kiwimike]

Here in Oz the most popular systems were the C64, Apple II, and Amiga. There were also Atari 5200, I knew one kid who had a Spectrum, just one that had a Nintendo master system, one that had a Atari ST, a few who had Vic-20, one who had a cheap TV game thing. But by far C64 and Amiga ruled the roost.

Which is why I am surprised the mini Nintendo and SNES were sold out here within 24 hours, maybe retro has hit here bigger than I thought, I dunno.

Did you guys get Atari 5200 in Aussie? Pretty rare in PAL! We had VCS then 7800 but 5200 was elusive in NZ. I liked the look of the D1ck Smith Wizzard (Vtech Creativision) but it never really took off. One that was quite big for a while was the Sega computer range, the repackaged first Sega console. Think it was quite a hit in Aussie too for a while wasn't it? Distributed by John Sands in Australasia I think. Had some ripper games, and loved having Lode Runner on cartridge

[Matt_B]

I'm pretty sure the 5200 was never officially released in Aus; the only ones I've ever seen were imported NTSC units. He might have seen some of those or have been thinking of one of the other Atari consoles.

[The Laird]

Correct 5200 was never released outside of America. He could be thinking of the XEGS?

The Sega console you are talking about is the SG1000. Australasia was the only place outside of Asia to get the console.

[ncf1]

Here in Oz the most popular systems were the C64, Apple II, and Amiga. There were also Atari 5200, I knew one kid who had a Spectrum, just one that had a Nintendo master system, one that had a Atari ST, a few who had Vic-20, one who had a cheap TV game thing. But by far C64 and Amiga ruled the roost.

Which is why I am surprised the mini Nintendo and SNES were sold out here within 24 hours, maybe retro has hit here bigger than I thought, I dunno.

Did you guys get Atari 5200 in Aussie? Pretty rare in PAL! We had VCS then 7800 but 5200 was elusive in NZ. I liked the look of the D1ck Smith Wizzard (Vtech Creativision) but it never really took off. One that was quite big for a while was the Sega computer range, the repackaged first Sega console. Think it was quite a hit in Aussie too for a while wasn't it? Distributed by John Sands in Australasia I think. Had some ripper games, and loved having Lode Runner on cartridge

That's a good question, I thought the Atari console available here at the time was 5200 but certainly don't know what model the kid had. All I know is that family was rich and had a VCR and Atari system way before anyone else so I just don't know what Atari it was, I just remember thinking you LUCKY B*STARD, you get to play arcade-like versions of Frogger and Space Invaders when nobody else can. So it likely wants a 5200 then because of course the TV's are PAL here, so.. I don't know! But I do know they could have had anything, and did.. so I wonder if they were able to import one at the time? Ive no idea.

[ncf1]

why the frig did I say 5200, I meant 2600!