History of Games 1980's

I will go on to talk about video games in the 1980’s featuring the rise of the personal computer and consoles such as Commadore 64 and Sega genesis. The computer gaming industry experienced its first growth in the early 1980’s with a few businesses surviving at least 20 years such as Electronic Arts. This year is considered the golden age of video arcade games developed and released In the first early years of the decade. 

A significant game that I feel influenced the whole concept of games is an action adventure that goes by the name of The Legend of Zelda. Made in 1986 this game help establish the action adventure genre this included puzzles, an action component, level building and experience points. Dragon Slayer is similar action packed game made in 1985, this is considered the first fully fledged action role playing game (RPG) with character stats and large quests this further popularized emerging action RPG game. Also made in 198 0 an increasingly popular game that many people still recognise, Pac-Man the first maze game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first game character to be in popular in his own right, If I could afford one I would still buy a Pac-Man Arcade machine.

In 1984 computers offered equal gaming ability and since their simple design allowed games to take complete command of the hardware after power-on, they were nearly as simple to start playing with as consoles for this reason the computer market took over from the console market. The Commodore 64 was released to the public in August 1982. It found initial success because it was marketed and priced aggressively. It had a basic programming environment and advanced graphic and sound capabilities for its time, similar to the ColecoVision console. It also utilized the same game controller ports popularized by the Atari 2600, allowing gamers to use their old joysticks with the system. It would become the most popular home computer of its day in the USA and many other countries and the best-selling single computer model of all time internationally.

At the end of 1983, the industry experienced ‘The Crash’ of the video games as well as bankruptcy of several companies that produced home computers and games consoles in 1983-1984. The cause included the poor production, designs and extremely tight deadlines. I think most games developed around this time were probably a similar genre therefor having too much competition, I wonder if any companies benefited from this crash.

The later part of the 80’s new consoles offered gamepads which took over joysticks, paddles and keyboards, this is included with the system and an 8 directional-pad with 2 or more action buttons became standard. Consoles were back on the rise at this point but I’m not sure if they were affordable for the younger generation.