1983 - The history of computer games

Это продолжение увлекательной статьи про история компьютерных игр.

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number of slot machines became classic. This can be called the game Q * bert from the corporation Gottlieb. A very successful gaming machine has become an attempt to create a completely new gaming process that does not exist until that moment. Similarly, the creators of Pac-Man, the creators of Q * bert, tried to invent a new game genre, offering players new game experience and winning the attention of new people, which they eventually succeeded. Q * bert became another classic arcade (and the first successful arcade in isometric projection), and its characters became one of the most recognizable video game heroes. The game was widely spread outside the halls of arcade machines - it was released for almost every home gaming system, and the heroes of the game even became heroes of the animated series.

An attempt to create a new gameplay became Dig Dug games from Namco and Mr. Do! from Azure (Universal Entertainment Corporation). Having a remotely similar gameplay, both games offered their own gameplay and each won its own army of fans. Both games are classics of the golden age of arcade machines and are among the twenty most popular slot machines in the world. Like many classic games, Dig Dug and Mr. Do! Get ported versions for game consoles and home computers.

Data East produces for its universal gaming machine DECO Cassette System truly hit games —BurgerTime and Bump 'n' Jump, thereby forcing attention to unified arcade machines in general, and DECO Cassette System in particular. Though games have become quite popular, nevertheless, the main popularity came to them after the release of versions for home computers and game consoles.

Taito launches the Jungle Hunt arcade machine gun (the first versions of the machine gun were released under the name Jungle King). The game is another early implementation of an arcade scrolling platform game. Jungle Hunt was an attempt to create a new type of platformer, and was a very popular arcade machine of its time (over 18,000 slot machines in the US alone, not counting sales in other countries). Subsequently, the game developed its popularity on home gaming systems.

Irem launches arcade machine Moon Patrol. The game is a mixture of scrolling shooter and scrolling platformer, and has a simple, but fun gameplay, which makes it quite popular slot machine. In addition, Moon Patrol is the first known game in which the parallax scrolling technology (Parallax scrolling ( Eng. )) Is applied. It has many ports for home gaming systems.

Another attempt to create a new gameplay and repeat the fate of Pac-Man was the game Pengo from Sega. Despite some success, the popularity of the machine was incomparably lower than Pac-Man, yet the release of versions of the game for home video systems was very successful.

Pole position

Special mention deserves an arcade machine Pole Position released by Namco (except North America), and re-released in the United States by Atari. The game is a Formula 1 racing car simulator and is the first popular game with a third-person view (the view of the track behind the car), which has practically become the standard for car simulators. In addition, the Pole Position is the first racing game that reproduces the real environment (the actual Fuji Speedway track). Plus, the game is the first attempt to implement product placement in video games (on the track you can find billboards of real companies and products, such as Pepsi, Canon, 7-Eleven, Dentyne, Centipede, Marlboro and Martini & Rossi). Pole Position is a recognized classic of the golden age of arcade video games and one of the most popular games of 1982. Pole Position is the most popular gaming machine of 1982 in North America. The popularity of the game made it a participant in many television programs (originally on MTV), and later, based on the game, an animated television series of the same name was released. Pole Position has had a huge impact on the popularization and development of the racing video game genre. Like any popular game of the time, the game was reprinted for most home gaming systems, and later developed into a multitude of sequels.

Another interesting arcade machine became the game Robotron: 2084 released by Williams Electronics. The game is an ordinary action-shooter, but offered innovative management - for the first time one player controlled the game process with the help of two joysticks. For the original control, the machine was very popular with players and is considered a classic game of the golden age of arcade video games, and also included in the top five best-selling machines in 1982.

Bally Midway releases the Tron arcade based on the popular movie of the same name. Despite the commercial success of the film, the arcade machine became the first game based on the movie, the charges from which exceeded the charges from the movie. The Tron game Electronic Games magazine was awarded the "Coin-Operated Game of the Year" [18] .

Zaxxon

In 1982, the scrolling shooter genre was supplemented with two arcade games, which today are considered classics. Namco launches the shooter Xevious, which is also the first arcade machine advertised on television. Sega launches the Zaxxon machine, which is also the first Shoot 'em up arcade in isometric view. Both games were later reissued for home gaming systems with great success.

Almost all popular games of that time had the same life cycle - an arcade machine was produced, after some time a version for game consoles was released, and, finally, versions for home computers were released. However, there were exceptions. For example, the game Choplifter published by Brøderbund Software in 1982 for Apple II computers turned out to be so popular that it was ported to other home computers, and later to game consoles. Another interesting event was the release of the Sokoban game for NEC PC-8801 computers in Japan by Thinking Rabbit. In view of the fact that the NEC PC-8801 platform was distributed only in Japan, the popularity of the game grew only within this country. But after European and American developers turned their attention to the popular computer puzzle, Sokoban was released for almost all models of home and office computers, and the game itself became very popular all over the world.

For game consoles also comes out a few popular games. Traditionally, Atari continues to port popular games on the Atari 2600 consoles of sardine machines. Nevertheless, the company releases several popular original games. For example, this year comes Yars' Revenge, which became the most popular Atari original game for the Atari 2600. In addition, Atari releases the game Raiders of the Lost Ark based on the Indiana Jones Adventures movie. Raiders of Lost Ark is the first release of a video game for a home gaming system under license from a filmmaker. The game of the popular film was also a success.

Anticipating even more interest in the game on the just-released Steven Spielberg film Alien, Atari is trying to buy the rights to create the game. Atari aims to release the game for the Christmas holidays, but the negotiations are dragged out a lot, and when the deal finally took place, there are only five weeks left to create the game. The development of the game is entrusted to Howard Scott Warshaw, creator of Atari hits such as Yars' Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Howard completes the development on time, but the quality of the game created in such a short period of time does not hold water. ET the Extra-Terrestrial receives sharply negative reviews from critics, and then the players. The first time the game is selling very well - for the first two months, it was possible to sell 1.5 million copies, which makes the game the best-selling Christmas game, but the sale makes mostly a big name. Atari continues to produce cartridges with a game of multi-million copies, but at the end of the season, the sale of the game ends. The game has become one of the most serious losses for Atari - an expensive license plus the production of a huge print run of cartridges, most of which had to be destroyed, according to some estimates, Atari cost $ 125 million in damages. [nineteen]

River raid

Activision is launching several popular games for the Atari 2600 this year. The most popular games are River Raid and Pitfall !. River Raid is considered a classic scrolling shooter and has become the first popular game of the genre for home gaming systems and the first original scrolling shooter for gaming consoles. The game had a great influence on the development of the genre and was re-released for most other game consoles and home computers. Besides the fact that the game is among the top ten best-selling games for the Atari 2600, it usually turned out to be among the best-sellers for other gaming systems.

Pitfall!

Another popular game Activision - platformer Pitfall !. The game is often called the game formed the genre of platformers. Pitfall! Is the most popular game for the Atari 2600 from a third-party manufacturer and is among the top three best-selling games for the Atari 2600 (over 4 million copies). The game was the first big success of Activision and was reissued with great success for other home gaming systems. The popularity of heroes has outgrown video games and the characters are embodied in the animated series. Pitfall! It is not the first game of the platformer genre, nevertheless it had a great influence on the development of the genre, and many subsequent platformers accepted the rules of the genre presented in this game. Therefore, very often Pitfall! called the first classic platformer.

Following Activision in 1982, many new companies enter the Atari 2600 games market, and, accordingly, a large number of games. Unfortunately, most games are not of high quality, but there are also a few that deserve special attention. So, for example, Imagic releases several original games. Among them is particularly noticeable game Atlantis. The game is a fixed shooter, but the dynamism of the process makes it quite popular, and Imagic re-releases the game for some other gaming platforms, and later (in the same year) releases the sequel Atlantis - the game Cosmic Ark. Among other things, Cosmic Ark is the first sequel of the game for the game console and the first game that uses the constructive error of the game console to create new features - the effect of the starry sky in the game was obtained as a result of incorrect operation of the Atari 2600 in certain software-created conditions. [20]

In addition to Imagic and other less successful newbies, many well-known companies come to the market. Thus, the well-known in the field of entertainment company Data East releases the popular BurgerTime game for the Atari 2600.

20th Century Fox acts as a publisher of Sirius Software games for this platform, and later begins to create its own games: M * A * S * H ​​on the same name, Crypts of Chaos and Alien - a game based on the popular movie Alien (released in 1979). ). Unfortunately, the games of the 20th Century Fox didn’t stand out as original and didn’t enjoy popularity.

Frogger for atari 2600

Coleco Industries also enters the Atari 2600 games market. The company manages to enter into a licensing agreement with several companies, with the result that in 1982 it releases the games to the market: Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (licensed Peyo), Mouse Trap (Exidy), Venture ( Exidy), Donkey Kong (Nintendo), Carnival (Sega) and Zaxxon (Sega).

Another major entertainment provider is Parker Brothers (the creator of Monopoly, a division of Hasbro) also acts as a manufacturer and publisher of games for the Atari 2600. The starting lineup, according to tradition, consists of games created under a license. These are the Frogger (Konami), Amidar (Konami), Spider-Man (Marvel Comics) and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Lucasfilm) games.

This situation is fundamentally not satisfied with Atari. The company loses control over its own market. And it's not even that additional games create unnecessary competition for Atari games themselves and do not bring company profits. The quality of most games leaves much to be desired, but in such a large assortment, quality games are simply lost. So, if for the entire 1980 for the Atari 2600 there are about 12 games (8 of them from Atari and 4 from Activision), then in 1982 there are about a hundred and fifty games. And if the buyer used to choose a game that was really interesting for him from 3-4 new games in the store, now he had to revise dozens of games of dubious quality, and, in most cases, the player simply could not find a quality product in the variety of games.

The Mystique company made the situation even more complicated by releasing several games for the Atari 2600 of dubious quality, but attracting buyers with “adult content”. Especially the big noise made the game Custer's Revenge. The goal of the game was to commit sexual abuse of a native American woman. And although the graphics of the game was made in a simplified playful style, the theme itself caused a great resonance in society immediately after the game was released. Various organizations take part in protest actions and public demonstrations: Native American groups, women’s rights advocates, WAP (Women Against Pornography), video game opponents, outraged parents, and many other groups. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that at that time in the USA there is no legislation restricting the sale of certain categories of video games to certain age groups of the population, and sales are regulated by the sellers themselves. Moreover, the majority of claims are made to the owner of the gaming platform, and not to the manufacturer of the game. Atari becomes a hostage to the situation, while most of the claims are made to it, it can no longer control the game market and influence the situation, which causes another serious blow to the company's reputation.

In 1982, several new video game companies were formed. Among them, formed on May 28 by Trip Hawkins (Trip Hawkins) with a starting capital of only 200 thousand US dollars Amazin 'Software. The company, later renamed Electronic Arts, is becoming a prominent player in the market. Today Electronic Arts is the world's third largest manufacturer and distributor of computer games (after Nintendo and Activision).

A subsidiary of Lucasfilm Games is being created in the media empire of George Lucas. The company is being created as a developer of its own video games based on the works of Lucasfilm - primarily in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones adventures. Nevertheless, the studio, which was renamed LucasArts Entertainment in a few years, became famous not only for playing films, but also donated a large number of popular original games.

Of the other studios created this year, it is worth pointing out the MicroProse Software studio founded by Sid Meier and Bill Styles. The studio for a long time pleased the players with original products. So, it was in this studio that the famous Pirates !, Civilization, the X-COM series, many classic air and auto simulators and a large number of other popular games were created.

Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd (ACG) was founded in 1982 and is famous for its many hits for home computers released under the Ultimate Play The Game (sometimes just Ultimate). In the late 1980s, the company was renamed Rare Ltd and switched to game consoles for Nintendo, for which it also released a large number of video games that became hits. Since 2002, the company is a division of Microsoft Corporation and has been creating games for consoles of the parent company.

In the same year, Imagine Software was created. The company ported a large number of popular games from arcade machines to home computers. Fame came to the studio after Imagine Software ceased to exist as an independent company and became one of the studios of Ocean Software. It was under the label Imagine that many popular studio projects such as Target came out: Renegade, Renegade III, Freddy Hardest.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Commodore 64

Vectrex

Arcadia 2001

ColecoVision

Atari 5200

In 1982, produced many models of home computers. Some large consumer electronics companies are trying to enter the emerging market. There are newbies too. Brand new models and new models in the existing model range are coming out. Among the latter, it is worth noting the completion of a series of 8-bit computers Atarimodeley 600 XL, 800 XL and 1200 XL. These models have become the most popular computers Atari.

However, on April 23, Sinclair Research Ltd deals a serious blow to its competitors with the release of a new home computer, the ZX Spectrum. Unlike previous computers company Speccy is more expensive than a hundred pounds and is not compatible with the ZX80 and ZX81. Nevertheless, for 125 pounds, the buyer received an advanced home computer with color graphics, a fast Zilog Z80A processor and 16 KB of RAM (the model with 48 KB of RAM was available at 175 pounds). ZX Spectrum almost instantly becomes the most popular computer in the UK, and a little later - the most popular computer in Europe. For him, a huge number of peripheral devices and, of course, computer programs - office, training, technical, and especially games. For all the time for the ZX Spectrum was released over 24 thousand software products. The computer was also successfully sold outside Europe, although it did not become “number one” there. Nevertheless, in North America under the brand Timex Sinclair successfully competed with the computers of Commodore and Atari. Given that in the design of the Speccy was used only standard element base, after a while around the world (even behind the iron curtain of the USSR) appear Spectrum-compatible computers, which only increases the popularity of this architecture. The ZX Spectrum continued to evolve over time and its new models were officially released until 1992, and the unofficial Spectrum-compatible computers were made before the beginning of the 21st century. Spectrum-compatible computers are one of the most popular platforms for gaming home computers of the eighties.

Become more popular than Spectrum managed only a new home computer company Commodore International. Four months after the start of sales of Clive Sinclair’s new home computer in August, the company releases a new personal computer Commodore 64 at a price of $ 595. The model features a powerful MOS Technology 6510 processor (one of the modifications of the classic MOS Technology 6502), a color graphics adapter with hardware sprite output and an advanced sound processor. Despite the development of the line, the first model Commodore 64 remains the most popular and continues to be sold successfully until 1994. In total, the Commodore 64 model has sold over 30 million computers. Moreover, this record is listed in the Guinness Book of Records and has not yet been broken. No other computer model was sold in such a circulation. In the 1980s, the Commodore 64 was the most popular home computer in the world, with the exception of European countries, where the ZX Spectrum completely dominated. About 10 thousand different software products were created for the Commodore computer. Commodore 64, along with Spectrum-compatible computers and 8-bit Atari computers, is among the three most popular home gaming platforms of the eighties of the 20th century.

In September, Jay Miner establishes Hi-Toro, later renamed Amiga. The company is engaged in the development of a new generation game console, as well as the release of game cartridges and joysticks for game consoles. In just three years, the company will create one of the most famous multimedia personal computers Amiga.

In 1982, several new models of second-generation game consoles from various manufacturers entered the market. Among them are very exotic models. Among them are the game console Adventure Vision from the company Entex. The prefix did not have commercial success - only 50 thousand ready-made devices were released, and the production of the prefix was minimized already in 1983. For the short life for the console, only 4 games were released. Nevertheless, the uniqueness of the game console is that Adventure Vision is a complete game system and does not require connection to a TV. Moreover, the main feature of the system is the built-in electro-mechanical display (the display with mechanical scanning). Entex Adventure Vision is the first gaming console with an electro-mechanical display, and until 1995 it was the only home gaming system with a display of this type (until the release of Nintendo Virtual Boy).

An even more unusual console was developed by General Consumer Electric and released in 1982 under the Vectrex brand. The heart of the Vectrex was the Motorola 68A09 processor at 1.6 MHz - much faster than the central processors of the competitors' consoles (in particular, it was significantly superior in performance to the legendary MOS 6502). The game console even had a General Instruments AY-3-8912 three-channel sound generator, which the competitors also could not boast of. But the main difference with Vectrex was the screen built into the console. Unlike most other gaming systems, as well as Entex Adventure Vision, the game console did not connect to the TV, but, unlike Adventure Vision, it used its own unique vector graphics monitor. By this measure, Vectrex is truly a unique home gaming system. Neither before it, nor after the home game system with a vector screen appeared on the market. At the same time, in the sector of arcade automatons there were quite a lot of machines using vector screens instead of raster ones. Perhaps the most popular vector slot machine game was Atari Asteroids. Therefore, at that time, the release of the vector home gaming system was quite expected and was accompanied by great interest. Vectrex was not from cheap consoles, nevertheless it was quite popular, and its release was recognized as commercially successful. Several dozens of games were released for the console, while a large enough part of them used full-fledged 3D graphics - an extremely rare case on other consoles of the time. Several peripheral devices were released for Vectrex, and some of them were truly unique for their time. It was released a light pen, which allowed the player to draw directly on the screen, or a device called “3-D Imager”, which turns a 2D image on the screen in 3D using anaglyph 3D glasses.

The market is replenished with traditional gaming consoles. Emerson Radio Corporation releases the game console Arcadia 2001. Arcadia was created with an eye on the most technically advanced game console of the time Intellivision. Game consoles have similar technical characteristics, similar appearance and similar game controllers. Arcadia 2001 was not successful in the United States, however, Emerson Radio Corporation licensed the console to several companies around the world, resulting in more than 30 different consoles that were hardware compatible with Arcadia 2001 (though not always compatible programmatically and mechanically).

Coleco Industries delivered the most serious blow to its competitors in the home game console market by launching a new second-generation console, ColecoVision. The appearance of the system was similar to other game consoles of that time, copying quite successful solutions - a black rectangular plastic case with recesses for game controllers, while the design of game controllers was similar to Intellivision controllers. Nevertheless, the technical characteristics of ColecoVision were significantly superior to those of competitors: a fast Zilog Z80A central processor, a 16-color Texas Instruments TMS9918 video controller with hardware display of sprites (up to 32 sprites on the screen) and a four-channel Texas Instruments SN76489 sound generator. Such advanced equipment allowed the transfer of games from arcade machines with great accuracy. Moreover, Coleco has an agreement with Nintendo, Sega, Konami and Universal. Most of the popular games from the arcade machines of these manufacturers were transferred to ColecoVision, while the result of the transfer was surprisingly accurate. Having an exclusive license to the games of these manufacturers, Coleco produces cartridges for other popular game consoles - for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, but the significantly weaker equipment does not allow the same games to look as attractive as ColecoVision. Plus, each ColecoVision game console comes with the popular game Donkey Kong, which only increases the attractiveness of the system. Coleco releases several unique peripherals for its new console, the most interesting of which is Expansion Module # 1. This expansion module allowed the Atari 2600 game cartridges to be launched on the ColecoVision game console, which automatically made the Coleco game library the largest among all consoles of that time. Expansion Module # 2 was a new kind of controller - the steering wheel for car simulators. A new game console is quickly becoming popular - by the end of the year about a million devices were sold. And although the prefix was produced incomplete two years (until spring 1988) during this time about six million copies were sold, and about 170 games were released for the prefix. ING placed the ColecoVision video game console in 12th place on the best gaming consoles of all time [21] .

Another interesting fact is that shortly after the release of Expansion Module # 1, Mattel is announcing a new version of Intellivision game console (Intellivision II), as well as a device for running Atari 2600 games on this console.

At the time of the release of the “second wave” of the second generation game consoles, sales of the Atari 2600 are rapidly declining. Atari at the time, refusing to update the model range of game consoles in favor of entering the home computer market (see 1979), in 1982 has a single console with outdated hardware. To urgently remedy the situation, Atari hastily “defreezes” the project of the game console canceled in 1979 and the existing element base of 8-bit computers Atari 400/800 is developing a new second-generation gaming system. Already in November 1982, the Atari 5200 game console saw the light. Despite the fact that the console as a whole repeats the structure of existing Atari computers, it offers a number of interesting solutions. So to the Atari 5200 it was possible to connect up to four game controllers (instead of the standard two), and the controllers themselves were quite revolutionary. Atari 5200 is the first game console which was equipped with analog joysticks, and for the first time the joysticks themselves had four “fire” buttons and “start”, “pause” and “reset” buttons located directly on the controller case. But the revolutionary analog stick device becomes one of the Achilles' heels of the system, as it is a frequent cause of a controller breakdown. Despite the almost identical Atari 5200 device, for several reasons, it is not programmatically compatible with Atari 400/800 / XL / XE computers. But even more surprising for potential buyers of the system is the fact of lack of compatibility with the Atari 2600. As a result, Atari gets a game console incompatible with nothing, and therefore with a zero game library, and although several games were released for the Atari 5200 release, they By and large, they were adapted versions of Atari 2600 games and could not attract new customers. Atari falls into a vicious circle - either it releases games to the Atari 2600 console, sales of which by that time go up to 40 million pieces, or releases games to the Atari 5200 game console whose sales amount to only a few thousand devices. Counting that the number of game cartridges sold will be proportional to the number of consoles sold, Atari, in a difficult period for itself, concentrates on the release of games for the Model 2600. As a result, only 69 games were officially released for the Atari 5200 (both from Atari and other manufacturers ). Naturally, the game console was not very popular. By the time the 5200 model was discontinued, only about 1 million console units had been sold.

1983

Main article: 1983 in computer games

1983 marked the beginning of a global crisis in the home console market, commonly known as the 1983 Gaming Crisis. The crisis lasted until 1985, as a result of which many companies were forced to leave the market.

The beginning of the year, the market leader Atari met with big losses. The Atari 2600 prefix is ​​technically outdated, and the games for it essentially lose in the performance before the games for competitors' consoles - first of all ColecoVision. The new Atari 5200 game console, although it has quite good technical characteristics, is distinguished by a high percentage of breakdowns and a very small library of games. Moreover, for the model 5200 exclusive games, which would not exist on other consoles, there simply wasn’t. In addition, adapters allowing launching games from the Atari 2600 are available for the ColecoVision and Intellivision II consoles. As a result, only the demand for games for the 2600 model remains stable. However, this market is no longer controlled by Atari. There is high competition in the market, but the situation is even more dangerous because most games are released by market novices and the quality of the majority of games is extremely low. Players try to buy games from “proven manufacturers”, but Atari itself releases some low-quality games at the end of 1982 (many of them mention the ET the Extra-Terrestrial game first), and thus undermine the credibility of both the company and the general 2600th platform.

Players choosing their gaming platform are confused. There are a large number of diverse and incompatible gaming platforms on the market, with their own unique set of games. So, at the beginning of the year, the buyer had the opportunity to choose a game console from the following models: Adventure Vision, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Bally Astrocade, ColecoVision, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Fairchild Channel F System II, Magnavox Odyssey², Mattel Intellivision, Vectrex and some others. Moreover, by that time the clones of these consoles come out, which only increases the selection.

Coleco adam

Thus, the buyer experienced difficulties in choosing a platform, and experienced rather serious difficulties in finding quality games for game consoles. Plus, in 1983, the next-generation game consoles were announced. Atari announces the Atari 7800 will be released soon, Magnavox - on Odyssey³, which further convinces customers to no longer purchase second-generation consoles. An unexpectedly more attractive device is a home computer, the price of which has significantly decreased, and the technical equipment of the most popular models is at least as good as the game consoles. At the same time, many users rightly believed that the home computer is a more serious household appliance than a game console - after all, a large number of office, training, technical and other application programs are being created for personal computers, and not just games. Moreover, new home computers are also coping with games very successfully. On top of that, Commodore International unleashes a price war. The price of its Commodore 64 computer is constantly falling, and after it, the prices of other computer manufacturers are also dropping. Commodore even launches the replacement program for old gaming systems on the Commodore 64. The company sent all customers of the Commodore 64 computer that sent the old game console or another home computer to the company back by mail $ 100. As a result, it is home computers that become the best-selling gaming systems of the year, while sales of all game consoles almost cease. Many manufacturers of game consoles will leave the market in the next two years.

Some companies are trying to quickly adjust to dramatically changed conditions. For example, Coleco has at its disposal another extension module for ColecoVision which turns the game console into a computer. On the basis of these developments, the company creates in 1983 a full-fledged Coleco Adam computer. The computer boasts quite good features and a rich bundle: Zilog Z80A CPU (3.58 MHz frequency), three Motorola 6801s auxiliary processors, 80 KOHZU, cassette drive, full-format dot-matrix printer and software suite (including the Buck Rogers game: Planet of Zoom). However, such a generous equipment determines the high price of the device. The cost of Adam is $ 725, while the price of Commodore 64 in 1983 drops below $ 300. The high price along with some production problems determined the fate of the Coleco computer. Adam never enjoyed serious popularity - for all the time managed to sell less than 100 thousand copies.

Sega SC-3000

According to a similar scheme, Sega operates. The company has a SG-1000 console developed in 1981. Based on these developments, the company creates and releases the home computer SC-3000, which almost repeats the characteristics of the SC-1000 console, as a result of which it was fully compatible with this game console. The computer was sold mainly in Japan, but received some distribution in other countries. Sales of the SC-3000 were many times smaller than the popular models of those years, however the model enjoyed local success and is often called the first successful game system, the Sega.

Mattel aquarius

On a different path went to the manufacturer of consoles Mattel. The company enters into a contract with the Hong Kong electronics manufacturer Radofin. Radofin has developed and manufactured a computer based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. The computer was not a success; nevertheless, Mattel buys the rights to manufacture a computer and manufactures it under the Mattel Aquarius brand. The Aquarius computer is also not a success, mainly due to the fact that its technical characteristics look very weak, and therefore the games that Mattel produces, look even worse than on the older Mattel Intellivision game console, while Intellivision is significantly cheaper than a computer Aquarius. For some time, the computer is supported by the manufacturer - peripherals and new programs are being released for it, but this popularity has not had a big impact. Soon, Mattel stops the release of this computer model and announces the Aquarius II, which was never released.

Another situation is with Atari. Although the company is temporarily suspended from the market of game consoles, nevertheless it has successfully mastered the actively developing market of home computers. Moreover, Atari computers have been present on the market since 1979, and in 1983, Atari architecture is one of the three most popular home gaming platforms of personal computers after Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. However, Commodore International is unleashing a price war and prices for home computers are steadily declining. The positive point is that the popularity of home computers is increasing every day, and therefore sales are growing. Отрицательный — себестоимость компьютеров Atari намного выше, чем затраты Commodore на выпуск Commodore 64. В результате, для того чтобы удержаться на этом рынке Atari приходится удешевлять производство, в том числе упрощать конструкцию моделей компьютеров и переносить сборку компьютеров в развивающиеся азиатские страны — в частности в Тайвань, Китай и Гонконг. Все эти действия отрицательно сказываются на качестве продукции, а также приводят к срывам программы выпуска. Но, что более важно, Atari удается снизить себестоимость компьютеров, но не настолько, чтобы безболезненно конкурировать с Commodore. В результате, к концу года компания Warner Communications отмечает, что Atari — её подразделение ещё недавно приносившее более половины дохода компании, теряет по несколько миллионов долларов в день и срочно ищет для него покупателя.

Acorn Electron

Тем не менее в целом рынок домашних компьютеров развивается и, несмотря ни на что, некоторым компаниям приносит прибыль. Как уже говорилось, самыми популярными моделями остаются компьютеры Commodore 64 и ZX Spectrum, за ними с некоторыми потерями следует компания Atari со своей линейкой домашних ПК. Имея поддержку правительства на территории Великобританиибольшое распространение получают компьютеры BBC Micro. Но в качестве домашнего компьютера BBC Micro распространения не получил, в основном из-за достаточно высокой цены. Разработчик и производитель компьютера компания Acorn Computers не оставляет надежд выйти на рынок домашних персональных машин и в 1983 году представляет новый компьютер Acorn Electron. Конструкторам удалось существенно снизить себестоимость новой модели, при этом сохранив базовые функции BBC Micro. Правда на старте продаж компания Acron сталкивается с серьёзными производственными трудностями. Компании не удалось в срок поставить даже предзаказанные компьютеры. Acron удовлетворяет только около 12 % спроса. В результате компьютер хоть и являлся популярным на старте, Acron так и не смогла этим воспользоваться, а неспособность обеспечить предзаказы только подрывает репутацию компьютера. И хотя Acorn Electron в качестве домашнего компьютера использовался чаще чем BBC Micro, тем не менее он так и не смог получить массового распространения. Впрочем, можно отметить, что для Electron было выпущено свыше тысячи компьютерных игр.

Компьютер Sharp HotBit, один из многих представителей компьютеров стандарта MSX

The 1980s were marked by rapid economic growth in Japan. Cars and consumer electronics from the land of the rising sun are sold with great success almost all over the world. However, Japanese companies do not dare to enter the market of household computers. But the situation changes after June 27, 1983, the Japanese branch of Microsoft publishes a home computer standard developed in-house with the Japanese company ASCII Corporation under the name MSX. The appearance of the standard was accepted with great enthusiasm, a large number of large Japanese companies began to issue computers MSX. MSX has become the de facto standard for home computers in Japan. Many famous Japanese manufacturers of computer games created a large number of original games for the platform (most of the games for MSX computers were released by Konami and Hudson Soft). So, it was for the MSX standard that the famous Antarctic Adventure, Bomberman, Castlevania, King's Valley, Metal Gear, Valis and other games first came out, many of which became classics and were re-released for other gaming systems, and some of them were the beginning for successful games. series of games. Quite quickly, major consumer electronics manufacturers from Europe, North America and South Korea joined the Japanese manufacturers of MSX computers. MSX computers were manufactured under the brand names Al Alamiah, Canon, Casio, Daewoo, Fujitsu, Gold Star, Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, National, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony, Spectravideo, Talent, Toshiba, Yamaha and other companies . And although not a single model of any of the manufacturers could boast of record sales, nevertheless, more than 7 million MSX computers have been sold all over the world throughout the whole world, which is a very good indicator of those years. As already mentioned, computers were popular mainly in Japan, but they became widespread in the countries of the Middle East, the Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, the Soviet Union and some countries of Eastern Europe. However, in two large markets - North American and Western European - was not popular. Interestingly, for some time the MSX computers were officially imported into the USSR, which was almost a unique phenomenon of that time. MSX computers, as a gaming platform, left a noticeable mark on the history of computer games, the platform itself continued to develop until the early 1990s, and the machines themselves were available for sale until the mid-nineties.

In addition to all of the above, home computers had another significant advantage - the carrier. If cartridges are commonly used for gaming consoles, for home computers games are distributed on cartridges, diskettes and audio cassettes. At the same time the cheapest media in production are audio cassettes, and the most expensive are cartridges. As a result, the price of audio cassettes with a game for home computers is significantly lower than the price of a game cartridge for a game console. The market for cartridges with console games since 1982 is full, and in order to sell off the surplus, many stores reduce the price of cartridges by several times. Many console game manufacturers have switched to the growing market of home computer games, which only increased their popularity. For personal computers comes a lot of original quality games. At the same time, companies that remained on the gaming consoles games market have to sell new cartridges at prices several times lower than before, as the prices for game cartridges fell several times, which means they have to focus on budget projects and significantly limit the cost. developing new games. As a result, the quality and original games for the second-generation consoles no longer come out.

Dragon's Lair amazed the players with its graphics

Despite the crisis of the home consoles market, the arcade machines continue to evolve and offer players new original games. Cinematronics launches the new Dragon's Lair slot machine, which almost immediately becomes a hit. The game is the first in which the gameplay is displayed full-screen cinematic animation. Unlike other games of the time, the animation of which is made with vector graphics technology or with the help of small sprites, the graphics of Dragon's Lair are no different from a high-quality animated film. The secret of the machine was simple enough. All game moments were really created by the method of classic hand-drawn animation. This work was perfectly done by animator Don Bluth (formerly Disney animator). The resulting episodes of the animated film were recorded on Laserdisc and played back by a microprocessor controlled player in a manner dependent on the “quality” of the user's game. The contrast with other slot machines was striking. The success of Dragon's Lair led to the emergence of many porting versions, sequels and related games. The versions of the game, which were naturally ported to home computers and game consoles, were made using standard sprite technologies and, therefore, had significantly simplified graphics. Nevertheless, the arcade machine with the game Dragon's Lair became the most popular slot machine in 1983, and also marked the beginning of a new class of arcade machines on laser discs. It is worth noting, however, that Dragon's Lair is not really the first game developed using Laserdisc video technology. The first game on this technology is Astron Belt, developed and shown by Sega back in 1982. However, the solution of industrial, hardware and software problems takes so much time that the game appears only in 1983 and much later than Dragon's Lair. In addition, Astron Belt was not very popular.

Space shooters, traditional for arcade machines, are replenished with Konami's new Gyruss game. The game is becoming quite popular, which gives rise to the release of versions for home computers and game consoles. However, the game is remembered by many sound. Gyruss is the first arcade machine in the gameplay of which background stereo music is used. To implement this, the original technical solution was applied. The machine itself was controlled by two Zilog Z80 processors, a Motorola 6809 processor and an Intel 8039 microcontroller, and the sound system was built on the basis of a DAC and five three-voice General Instrument AY-3-8910 chips.

Mario Bros.

Nintendo launches an arcade machine with the game Mario Bros., which quickly becomes popular. Mario reappears in the lead role, but for the first time as a plumber, and for the first time in company with his brother Luigi. Also for the first time in the game, turtles appear under the name "Pelt Creeper." In subsequent games, crawlers are known as Kupa turtles. The heroes of this game are one of the most popular characters of computer games. Although the game itself is a simplified platformer, it nonetheless has gained wide popularity not only on arcade machines, but also on game consoles and home computers. The game was a prerequisite for the creation of the famous Nintendo platformers series about the adventures of the Mario brothers.

Atari Star Wars

Atari has released an Star Wars arcade based on the first Star Wars movie. The game used the proprietary technology Atari of the QuadraScan vector display, which implemented vector graphics in color, but the game stood out with digitized sound samples with the voices of the characters from the original film - this technology was used in arcade machines for the first time. The famous film, high-quality technical implementation and well-developed gameplay make the slot machine very popular. The Star Wars submachine gun diverges with a circulation exceeding 12,000 copies and ranks among the most popular slot machines of the golden age of arcade games. The game was re-released as versions for almost all home computers and game consoles of the time.

It is worth noting another arcade machine released by Atari this year. I, Robot has become an event in the industry. The game is the first commercial game with three-dimensional polygonal graphics and flat shadow model, with the ability to control the camera. Despite a serious technical breakthrough, the game was absolutely unpopular and is a typical example of a game in which technical implementation dominates the concept of gameplay. As a result, I, Robot received an extremely low criticism and almost zero popularity of the players, and the machine itself became one of the biggest commercial failures - with large costs for the development of the arcade had very weak sales.

Spy hunter

Another popular arcade machine releases Bally Midway. The company releases the game Spy Hunter. The game is a scrolling racing action game with elements of a joker on the subject of spy fighters. Spy Hunter attracted players with a simple but fun gameplay, good graphics and high-quality music. As a result, the game entered the top ten most popular slot machines in 1983, and continued its popularity in the form of versions for home computers and game consoles, and later developed with the release of several sequels.

Tapper

Bally Midway marked the release of another popular arcade machine that has become a classic. The company releases the game Tapper, which for its simple but fascinating gameplay finds a large number of fans. The popularity of the game increases even more after the versions of the game for home computers and game consoles appear. The game remains popular today, and the main character of the game is one of the most recognizable video game characters. Interestingly, the game was often criticized by public organizations for the hidden propaganda of beer, therefore, often in the re-releases of izkegov, root beer (rutbier), Mountain Dew and other non-alcoholic beverages flowed instead of beer.

Jetpac (original version for ZX Spectrum)

Alley Cat (original version for Atari 8-bit PCs)

Lode Runner (original version for Apple II)

King's Quest: Quest for the Crown (original version for IBM PCjr)

As already noted, many developers of games for game consoles are switching to the production of games for home computers, many new developers, both companies and independent authors, come to this market. As a result, there are many unique projects for home computers. So for the popular ZX Spectrum platform, this year, Ant Attack (by Sandy White) is released - the first game with isometric graphics and a three-dimensional maze with movement in six degrees of freedom, as well as the first three-dimensional game with changing viewpoints. Platformer Manic Miner (Bug-Byte Software) is released - the first game for ZX Spectrum with background music. Popular games like Jetpac (Ultimate Play The Game), Atic Atac (Ultimate Play The Game), and Deathchase (Micromega) appear. By the way, it is worth noting that Deathchase game was quite simple, but the fascinating gameplay allowed it to take first place in the list of the 100 best games of all time compiled by Your Sinclair magazine [22] . For Apple II, the classic game Lode Runner (Brøderbund) appears, as well as the famous B.C.'s Quest for Tires (Sydney Development). On Commodore 64 come out hits such as Stix (Supersoft) and Blue Max (Synapse Software). For Atari computers, the famous Archon publishes: The Light and the Dark (Electronic Arts) and Alley Cat (Synapse Software). On the MSX platform, the Bomber Man (Hudson Soft) game will debut. Almost all games with great success are reissued on other gaming platforms and become classics.

1983 was the year when Infogrames Entertainment was founded. This famous French company gave the world many hits for home gaming systems. For example, in 1992, the company released the famous game Alone in the Dark. Over time, many other gaming companies have become part of Infogrames: Atari, Ocean Software, Gremlin Interactive, Accolade, Melbourne House and many other famous video game makers.

In the same year, another equally well-known video game manufacturer, Interplay Entertainment, was created. The company has created and acted as a publisher for many classic games, some of which were developed as whole game series. It was Interplay that gave rise to such classic game series as Wasteland, Battle Chess, Descent, MDK, Fallout and Baldur's Gate. In addition to directly producing video games, Interplay also acted as a third-party video game publisher.

Richard Garriot is the creator of the Ultima series of games, in 1983 he was already working on the fourth game of the series. Previous game Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress was released by Sierra On-Line and enjoyed unprecedented success. As a result, Garriot decides to terminate the agreement with Sierra and establish his own company. In 1983, brothers Robert and Richard Garriott, their father Owen Garriott and Chuck Bush founded Origin Systems. And in the same year, the company released its first game Ultima III: Exodus, which immediately brings success to the company. In addition to the series, Ultima Origin Systems is famous for the Wing Commander, Crusader, and Shadowcaster, System Shock, and BioForge games. And the game Ultima II, despite the great popularity remains the only game of the series released by Sierra On-Line.

By the way, Sierra On-Line was noted this year not only as a publisher. The company released the adventure game King's Quest: Quest for the Crown. The development of the game was handled directly by Robert Williams. The game was created as an exclusive project for a new IBM PC-based home computer IBM PCjr. The computer itself failed in sales, but the game was saved by a re-release for IBM PC-compatible machines, many of which were more popular than the original IBM PC (primarily Tandy 1000, which, as a home computer, enjoyed the greatest success). The game is the first full-color graphic quest with animated graphics, although management is still introduced by commands from the keyboard. Nevertheless, it was this game that finally formed the genre of adventure games, defining its basic principles and rules. Suffice to say that the very name of the genre quest originally came from the game King's Quest. The game enjoyed unprecedented popularity and saw at least eight reprints. In addition to IBM PC-compatible computers, the game was released for Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST computers, as well as for the Sega Master System game console. The popularity of the game gave rise to the famous series of games King's Quest, and served as the impetus for the development of the adventure game genre. Soon, Sierra On-Line introduced new quests: Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. And some time later, other companies are releasing their adventure games. Nevertheless, they all followed the basic principles laid down in the game King's Quest: Quest for the Crown.

In general, in 1983, created a huge number of new companies for the development and distribution of computer games. In addition to the above, it is worth mentioning the fact of founding companies such as Beyond Software (publisher of the famous games The Lords of Midnight, Spy vs. Spy, etc.), Dinamic Software (developer and publisher of such hits as Army Moves, Fernando Martín Basket Master, Freddy Hardest, Game Over, Hundra, Narco Police, West Bank, and others.), Domark Software (famous for home games for home computers), Durell Software (created by Harrier Attack !, Saboteur !, Deep Strike, Thanatos, Turbo Esprit, Saboteur II: Avenging Angel, Sigma 7 and other games), Incentive Software (famous for its three-dimensional adventure games, including Total Eclipse, Castle Master, Dark Side), Mastertronic (One Man and His Droid, Amaurote, Finders Keepers and others), Palace Software (known I'm playing Cauldron, Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax), Software Projects (creator of Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy and Hysteria), Virgin Games Ltd (publisher of

продолжение следует...

Продолжение:

Часть 1 The history of computer games
Часть 2 1983 - The history of computer games
Часть 3 1984 - The history of computer games
Часть 4 - The history of computer games
Часть 5 1991—2000 - The history of computer games