Two In The Think Tank - 38 - The Video Game Crash of 1983

Episode Date: July 13, 2016

The video game industry was going along swimmingly in the early 1980s... until the video game crash of 1983.Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at dogoonpod.com. Most weight loss programs are short-term fixes, but managing your weight needs a long-term solution,

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Kia Sorento, or Kia Saltoves. Kia. Movement that inspires. Call 800-333-4-Kia for details. Always drive safely. for details. Always stripesapely. Hello world ladies and gentlemen welcome down to do go on my name is Dave Wanuki and I am here with Matt Stewart Jess Perkins let's do this guys how are you we are very well I'm pretty well I'm really well I'm also well I was speaking for both of us for some reason I'm sorry about that no if you couldn't speak for me for the rest of the episode that would be very helpful

Matt is a little tired but still I feel that we were starting maybe every second episode with that phrase Matt is a little tired, but still... I feel like we were starting every second episode with that phrase. Matt is a little bit tired. Yeah, one of us has always just gotten off a plane recently. And both of you have just gotten off a plane today. Yeah, we've been in the Northern Territory. We're going to need Northern Territory listeners. Hello. We had someone tweet in asking if you were in Alice.

Yeah, that's right. It was a good time. A great time. I love the tropical winter weather. 30 degrees up in the north and out of the north. 30 degrees Celsius is so, but in the mornings it's quite cold. It's cold overnight. Yeah, because it is a desert.

Certainly in Alice it was was but up in Darwin It felt it was so warm Yeah, it was love. I think Catherine was similar. Mm-hmm. It was like the perfect weather and but unfortunately I just love lady Melbourne. I love it so much. Mm-hmm. What a lady. What a lady a cold cold lady. What a classy name She's a classy day. What a lady, what a night. And I've spent many nights here, because I've not been away, but I've been good. Thanks for asking.

I'm good. Nobody else. Let's keep talking about the Northern Territory episode, all right? Unless that's Matt's topic today. I'm going to output out a, we took a photo with you up there. I should put that out. Took a photo with me up there.

Did you? Yeah. Well you're head. What, what, what? Did you notice that your head was missing, Griefer? What shot did you use? Uh, what, do you, what? Do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what? One of your primary shots, one of those classic

wanna keep pointing down the barrel, and shots. One of the action shots. I reckon it's just after a click. Oh yeah. Yeah, that one, one of those. Hey, do you reckon he. One of those. Hey! Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it?

Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it?

Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it?

Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? Do you guys see it? She could smile in passport photos. It looked like an obese serial killer in mine. I'm not looking forward to traveling again. We have to hand it over sort of in there. And I'm blonde in it too. I look like a slim serial killer. Do you? It's quite a flattering, serial killer. No, that one's gone.

So have you seen that? I think so. That's a classic pick. Did you used to have dreadlocks? Yeah, but yeah, just by, by anyway. It was mainly, should you whack of combing my hair. It's pretty fun. Just being a dirty boy.

I probably had three. Oh, I don't need to. Did you just have one rope hanging from your foot? I had one dreadlock about that big. Oh, that's big. That's like big serious. Yeah, I remember I'd spend a whole evening picking it out on sofa watching the OC season one. And did it take every episode? I took a full couple episodes.

The highs and the lows were felt. Yeah, well you picked a trip, just chop it off man. Yeah, probably could have. And I was in the form of a mullet as well. I was very funny in my younger years. Wow. Get it? I don't know. Whether you say it was a great show that we can all agree on that. Sandy Cohen, am I right? What a guy. Everyone's dad.

Everyone's dad. Does that mean the dad of the people? Father to everyone. Father to all. But um, what's that? Well, we did have a habit of adopting runaways so I did one time if you call one time a habit I do you've got a habit of holding a pen right now yeah sure do yeah it's my worst habit you got to kick

that habit oh my mom always tells me off for it yeah you have to kick your habit of adopting strange skater boys. I love doing it. Sandy? No. He's no good. He's from the wrong side of the bloody road or whatever. The wrong side of the cliff. He came from the ocean. Like a salmon up three. He's a seaman. Get rid of the seaman. I'm not another seaman. No too much seaman on the last episode. Who knows how much seaman we're going to have on this episode. If you haven't had the last episode then. It's too much seamen, Dave.

Okay. I think, well, probably in Aaron, 20 minutes from the last episode. If you haven't heard the diathlon of Parsons, then go listen. But Matt, is your turn to do a report this week? Yeah. And then it's a coka. It's a corka. It's about corks. It's about the town of cork. Oh no. It's about bottle openers. Well the things that do the caulking. So much editing so early. Some sort of bottle machine. Yeah.

Oh, a corka. The one that puts the corks in. Yeah, it's about the history of caulking machines. Okay, so we always start with a question. Have you got a question for us? Yes. And as always, I write the best questions. And I think you guys, you know, I know Dave writes the best reports, but I definitely write the best questions. When I write the best. Fun facts. Or fun fact. know, you definitely, with though, we'll be in a bit. Can you remember the last time we had a set of fun facts officially?

Good point. Yeah, I don't have any fun facts. I have been neglected, but then again, my last couple of topics have been kind of dark. Yeah. You know, so I'm lightning it up next week and there will be, like just a bit of a, a bit of sizzle, bit of teas for you. There will be fun facts next week. Oh that's great.

Well if you say it now you have to come through because they'll be angry, they'll come for you with pitchforks if you don't have fun facts. But they do, do you mean you? Oh yes I do talk about myself as a collective group. Unfortunately you guys. No fun facts this time. No fun facts it's also quite a dark topic We're on a real streak of a moment. We really are a bit of heavy lifting by the other two has been required

Is that gonna be required of us this time as well? Yeah, always always my paper thin reports All right, great. So he does he does with the excellent question then in 1983 what now booming industry was nearly wiped out? Okay, industry nearly wiped out. 83 also the... Oh, yes? The my brother was born. So the child-rearing industry was going quite well. Very well.

Very well indeed. Okay, I've ticked that, yes. And I was only going to get better a few years later. Seven years later. Possibly seven. 33. So are we talking, is this confined to Australia or worldwide industry? And I was only going to get better a few years later. Seven years later. Possibly seven. That makes it three. So are we talking, is this confined to Australia or worldwide industry?

It's a worldwide industry. This particular event was more North America based. Something happened in North America. Do they all give up on NFL that season or something? And is it NFL? It's not, but that good guess. It could have happened. Quite an industry too.

Yep. All right. Look, I mean, I gave you a very little chance of getting it. It's a gold gold. I thought they found all the gold in the NFL. Is he getting closer? Imagine if it was that, but Matt didn't give it to me when I said the NFL. No, you had to say gold.

No, it's darker than that. Oh, the top of the... Oh, I forgot he said dark. Oh, yeah. The top of this week is the video game crash of 1983. Video game crash. Video game crash. I kind of feel like video games are doing okay.

Yeah, that's what I said. It's the now booming industry. Oh, you did say that. Oh, geez. It's always this good. He's really good. It was also known as the North American video game crash of 1983, which is quite a similar sort of sounding thing. And also in Japan, it's known as Atari Shock, which is way better.

Oh, I like that. Now this was a, a business suggestion. Yeah. So I remember seeing this. This came out of the hat, this was suggested by a man known as Shhh, 3PHRD.

I guess it's Shepard. Okay. Shepard. Is that a Twitter? That's a Twitter handle, but also his name I guess cool So thanks so much shepherd for sending us in I have a Funny feeling that you're gonna know way more about this than I do as I The only video game console I ever owned was a super Nintendo

One of the best which came out well after we got it well after it'd come out. I think we got it. Was it cousins or something? I think no, I think we got a new one, but it came. We got it when the, maybe the 64 or whatever the following one was came out. So the, the past drop. I'm trying to get just throwing him out. And we all got a game.

We had battle toads, me and my siblings battle toads, Nigel Mansell's racing. Oh, forming the one. Yes Mario paint It was it was a Mario based paint game. So it's not a like art. He's sort of again I mean, I mean, it was self-explanatory, wasn't it? But it included this game I don't know if you guys ever watched amazing on Australian TV channel seven afternoon show with James champagne Sherry as the host. Is this one we had to find the keys? Yes And at the end yet to play a game to win the I think the game at the end was a video game and it was always a super NES game and

It included one of the games from Mario Paint, which was like this fly swatting game that was like this little game inside the game of Mario. Oh wow did you did you have gaming consoles? Did you match the game as a kid? Never been really much of a game but we had a couple of consoles I had an Nintendo 64 that was the first one we got and then a PlayStation 2. Very nice. That is like that scene is one of the classics, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great, because it also had the DVD player. Oh yeah.

Suddenly you got two DVD players in the house. Oh my God. Oh, geez, always. Well, you had a Sega, well, my brother had a Sega. So I played that a little bit when I was really little. And then we didn't really have anything. I was like, that's why I loved going to Friendshouses, because they'd have play stations and I'd get to play.

But then when my, I think I was about 18 so my brother was 25 and he had like, temporarily moved back home and Mum bought us a wee for Christmas. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's so good. I think it was kind of her way of being like, don't leave, don't leave again. So we were, we're,

Oh no, he's taking the wee. Yeah, no. Why didn't I chain it to the wall? So we're, We're not chained him taking the way. Yeah, no, why didn't I chain it to the wall? So we did not chain him to Never lays me. What did he did? Oh, Annie is a mania sweetheart. She's a sweetheart and he's married and lives with his wife which makes sense who's got the Nintendo way It's still mom and dad's place It is I feel like the Nintendo way is a bit of a mom and dad's

Console. Yeah, my mom and dad have a Wii. I think I'm gonna take it. Do they ever use it? No. It feels like, because everyone gets that Wii Fit game. I was gonna say, no one uses it. We bought mum Wii Fit and she's just about twice. I don't know why I buy you nice things.

Anyway, so that's our gaming history. But I had no idea that it crashed even before I was born. Yeah. Yeah, well. I had no idea, so let's find out. It did. Okay, so I's find out. It did. Okay, so I mean, you're probably asking, what was the video game crash of 1983?

I feel like we literally just asked that question. I prefer to phrase it as well, was the Atari Shock of 1983. I wish I could speak Japanese. I would have had something really good for you right then. Cheney Sonshi. Oh that's not right. He just can't yourself in.

I can't. One, two, three, four. Report. It was a huge recession of the video game industry, which I believe it. And it occurred from 1983 to 1985. The crash was serious enough that it brought an abrupt end to what has considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. In Japan, the second generation kicked on for a few more years because it didn't

have the big, big old crash. Interesting. Do you know much about the generations? Yeah. From, we like up to the seventh of the eighth generation or something now. I've got no idea at all I'm not sure I only looked in I'm like what the I'd never heard of generation so every time a new one so you know you've got Nintendo 64 versus PlayStation one and then PlayStation 2 comes out so they have GameCube and PlayStation 3 comes out and Xbox has got the three you know They all have it every few years they have to bring out something new to try and capture them. Well that's interesting to say that because it wasn't always done that way. Oh really. So it was a little bit more hazard in the early years in terms of bringing it. These days it's

every, you know, five or six or seven years, they all kind of bring them out at the same time, they've all sort of fit into a rhythm, meaning that you've given yourself time for the players to, you know, get a good life out of that console. Yeah, so you don't feel like you're upgrading all the time. Yeah, which otherwise, why would you, you'd stop buying them if you were thinking, oh, there's going to be a new one in six months anyway. Yeah, but I imagine it's also they bring them out at the same time. So you can be like, hey, you were an Nintendo guy before.

You're, you're still an Nintendo guy, right? Yeah. Don't, don't try that PlayStation. Nintendo is still an intender go right don't try that PlayStation Nintendo is still cool yucky don't try that yucky yucky yucky PlayStation no it very nearly put in end to the industry altogether actually like it was it got pretty dire in America for the the home gaming consoles anyway. Wow. There are many reasons for the crash I'll go and know a few of those but you know when I was reading about the generations of Mamie thing I what was the first generation sort of thing so I looked into that a bit. I said

the first generation began in 1972, which seems crazy to me, with the Magnavox Odyssey. I've never heard of that one. And the generation one lasted until 1977, when the Pong style console manufacturers left the market. Due to the video game crash of 1977. Oh wow. So they've got precedent for crashes. Yeah, apparently.

And I did not look into it at all, so maybe we'll do that another week. Some characteristics of the first generation consoles were, the games are very basic, would you believe it? Were they 3D? No. No, no, that weren't, yeah. On the kitty.

I was like, of course they weren't. That was a great acting day. They were zero-d, I think. Zero-d? There was no dimensions. No, they weren't. That was a great acting day. Thank you. Zero D, I think. Zero D? Zero D, I had no dimensions. They hadn't invented the D yet. But D came later. That was the 80s.

There's the hashtag. The D came later. First generation consoles had games integrated so that you know they were inside the machine they weren't cartridges like you see you buy it and that's it yeah like those are the games you've got yeah rather than you know having the removal media that we're more used to now entire games are restricted to only one screen you know like pong and stuff the whole game exists on that one screen

you're not move you're not scrolling through or anything like that color graphics were very basic but mostly just black and white, and they only include a very basic or no audio at all. Great, you know what's great? Just playing video games in complete silence. That's so good. In complete black and white. I don't really like how the sound effects of video games

really round out the experience. I find it overwhelming. I don't enjoy it at all. I can't concentrate on the skateboard if the music's playing. That said, actually, one time I had a... this is really like, I won a lot of the rings PC game and I was playing it and you've got to like sneak through a field, past some wolves and I had to turn the music off because it was making me too scared. I was like, I can't concentrate, getting past the walls were just scary music. You turn it down, but then you miss the clue that the walls of

New York. The walls of New York. The magic wall is like speaking into you. Turn left, turn left. Then hear it. I was busy hiding behind hay bales. Okay. The three hours. My mother coming and pulling the plug out from the wall. It's just a game. It's just a game. It's just a game. It's not a game, Mum. This wall. This wall, I tell ya. Didn't sleep for that year, but... That's a real, I bet hell. We're pretty glad you won that competition.

Yeah, that's a great game. Wolves are scary, I think it's fair enough. That's the lesson here. I think I actually... I'm quite into those really basic games. Like, I never play them, really, but things like Pong, I'm a Pong being, there was a game when I was a kid. I think it was probably even old when I was a kid called Commander Keen. And it was it.

Was it Commander Keen for Pain? Yes, Commander Hashtag Keen for Pain. You know, I was so close to doing the report on penis week. I started looking it up. And because you know that, me! Penis! I was just going to report about penis. Wikipedia penis enter.

This is a bad mistake. Man, there's a whole, no, Wikipedia's got quite a long article about penis. Quite a long article. They've got photos of elephant pain. Oh, okay. Wow, maybe we could do it. I don't think I want to be part of that episode. The cops through duck pain? Okay, yeah, I don't want to hear that episode. Thank you. No, thank you.

But it did make me think when I was looking into it. I... Pain. Into the pain. Into the eye of the pain. So, just wait. No, no, literally. Quite literally.

Yeah, you really get... That's how I think. That's how I do my best thinking. Um... I am so sweet. No, no literally quite literally. Yeah, you really get that's how I think it's. That's how I do my best thinking. Um, but you said, oh, one of you guys, who ever posted last week about our most ever requested topic, being the Dilettov pass.

Do I love pass? Do I love pass? Do you love pass? Incorrect. Oh. Pain by a long way. Keen for pain by a very, very long way. Because people tweet in Keen for pain.

Yeah. That is what that was, that was, hashtag was born out of. It was requesting pain as a topic. So I think we really have some sort of responsibility to give the people out pain. I protest my interest in being part of that. Okay. Well, stay tuned in being part of that.

Okay, well stay tuned for a couple of weeks time guys because I might be going to the peanut. Oh, I'm not, I'm not. The peanut. Just imagine there's quite a small hat. A little peanut. Good to see you. Is that a top hat?

It's a super hat! It's a little beany. Red Beret. Top of the morning! The second generation kicked off just prior to the crash in 77 actually, with the release of the Fairchild Channel F and Radofin Electronics 1292 advanced programmable video system in 1976. You ran out of breath, okay. First rule of marketing something.

Make it something you can say. It's gotta be easy enough for mum to go to came out and remember what it's called. He wants the 129. I'm getting you a t-shirt. It's funny, There was so many... Amanda. Get him a t-shirt. Thanks, Mom. Anyway, there was all these different brands. I'd never heard of like Calico or something like that. Anyway, some features that separated the second generation from the first include a macro processor-based

game logic. Oh, yes. Can you- No, you're talking my language. No, I understand exactly what you're talking about. They introduce computer-based opponents, so you could do single player and a multiplayer game. Oh.

Which is cool. Which surely pong was like that, but I guess they don't think of the paddle or whatever. No, what is it? How does Kong work? I can't even remember it. Kong's just like, you can't. There's two paddles. So, yeah.

Oh, so the original one, you couldn't play by yourself. Oh, man. What about for all those only children out there? You have to run from one remote to the other. Oh. We'll just put them next to each other. No, I want my child to exercise. Why don't just play with the child? Never. I also did not want to do that.

Games on cartridges allowing any number of different games to be played on one console. So yes, the removable media was introduced. Yeah, which is a great idea. Games started to span multiple screens. Oh, yep. Yeah, you can move through the world and that introduced basic color graphics generally between two color and 16 color. Can you even name 16 colors about your car? No. Blue, green, yellow, red, orange, pink, magenta. Hang on the up to seven hang on hang on black eight Was that not a color? All right get rid of black gray fuck you Brown nine

Seven okay, well give me a chance have you ever even got have you got yellow? Yeah, I said yellow. I went I did that red. Yes Have you even got yellow yet? Yeah, I said yellow. I went, I did that. You got red. Yes, some were distracting me. What about purple? Rookie mistake was just saying blue.

You should have said dark blue and then light blue. Siam. Siam. I'm not even sure what that is. It's like a pink. Coral. Somewhere between red and orange. Salmon.

So we're up to, I'm up to 11. I don't think the 16 color graphics included salmon. Yes. It was there or coral beige Bage. Oh you guys are fucking emerald green bottle green never go 16 boom bang No, it asked me stupid questions like can you name 16 colors? This game sounds incredibly colorful We've got beige and salmon and grey. Says that on the box now including grey. I can see a rainbow, see a rainbow, see a rainbow too. What's that? What's the fun colour in the rainbow? You know they're all normal and there's one fun colour. Indigo. Indigo. I want a fun color Yeah, then yellow and pink and green purple and orange and blue

I can see I said it I think so yeah Indigo any I can say indigo 17 no you miss the game can only cut handle 16 you chose salmon and beige over Indigo They were your fault to be fair and great salmon and beige over indigo. Well, they were your fault to be fair. And grey. Oh shit, shit. So things were looking pretty great for the video games industry.

Looking pretty grey. Pretty grey. Great, great. Really great. Through 1982, they'd have... I don't see anything bad, I mean, it sounds amazing. Like to be honest, it's something that's just getting better and better. Up to 16 colors, my friends.

Yeah. Well, how many colors do you need? Yeah? Was that part of the crash they ran out of colors Yeah This is a go scratching his head. Yeah, go ahead. I'm a towering going fuck. We're done for now. Tari's American Japan was going fine, Dave. I if you're not gonna listen to me Just honestly is a towering not Japanese take a fucking walk to me, I just honestly... I thought it'd be nice. It's a towering not Japanese. Take a fucking walk. No, I'm pretty sh-

American. It's American. Hey guys, there's just a little too much swearing on this podcast. I mean, I know it's always funny. It's coming from your mouth. So things were looking pretty great for the video games industry through 1982. Having gone from a niche industry, game cartridges were now in mainstream stores like large music and video cassette retailers.

What? You don't have to go to that dingy dungeon anymore to buy your games, kids. Come up here to Magic Mike's big old retail store. Everyone in we got Madonna on this side. We got Bono and his band the U2 over here and behind me all the video games You like with colors range from grey all the way to beige and everywhere in between Thanks Mike Mike sounds like a really fun guy. I like Mike. I mean I hear you skinned a kid That was that wasn't enough to turn you on him Mike Mike, I mean I hear he's skinned a kid but he's basement but that was a

that wasn't enough to turn you on him. You know you know me I'm not one to turn on people. That's true. I hear some stats from a website that I liked the name I've called the dot eaters.com. The dot eaters. I think I think it's a Pac-Man reference. Ah yes. I'm we go around eating the dots. I like to make that noise when I play Pac-Man. You turn the sound down and do your own soundtrack. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'll do that for a bit too. That's the ghost.

Trick me if it gets full. Nah. Oh yeah. Yeah. You don't say it happens off screen. He's following the... He's blaming. When when the screen changes over he's just they gone Please Please let the ghost fucking kill me kill me now. I used to be a stick man. Now. I'm just a big fat circle I don't even have a body anymore

So yeah, the dot eaters had these these handy stats on there for so around this time thousand home video games Across the board rose from $950 million in a year up to $3.2 billion Billion with a bee. So I don't know if you can triple tripled so pretty good more than triple Even yeah, because in America thousand millions of billion right? Correct is that in Australia as well? Yes good, more than tripled even. Yeah. Because in America, 1000 millions of billion, right? Correct. Is that in Australia as well?

Yes, no. Internationally, we all treat it. Because in Britain, it was for a while. It was a million million. A million million. An a billion billion billion is a trillion. But that means we'd never get there because that's so many million.

Is that why we changed it so we could have billionaires? Yeah. Otherwise, we'd have none. Yeah, that would be lame. Who could we hate? I just thought you... Oh, I know you guys are aspiring to be that open-ass list. Yeah, I was literally about to say, I'd just like to be a millionaire. Then you made enough of an e-s.

Do you think anyone buys that? I mean, you do come from the affionist, but you guys are very poor. I was so poor. So poor. I've got nothing. I mean, from the start, parents gave you you guys have done awful Oh my parents gave me a very good education Not like not the best Melbourne had to offer but that sounds pretty good

Sounds a bit of resentment there isn't it not the best no I just done better mum I just don't know how to say like they gave me a very good education. It's like well. It was fine. It was a good education I'm put myself through uni. Wow. As everybody does with Hex now. You mean the government put you through uni and you promise to pay them when you can make enough money, but you never will.

I'll never make enough money. Sucked in, Hitler. Because I'm a comedian. That Hitler stuff would not make sense to new listeners. It doesn't really make sense to all of the stuff. I actually don't know where it started, which episode was that? Well something about Dave and his... Nazis of the Arctic, yeah.

Don't say whays. C'mon, that hit la. Anyway, Matt, please do go on. So 15 million consoles have been sold overall along with... Sounds like it's booming. 65 million cartridges, so this is hitting a pay for it So I was thinking before when you said they've introduced like the cartridge That's genius because then like you're not just selling that one console And then you keep making money from them. You get new games like the Sims with all their expansion packs

And I fall for it every time because I fucking love the Sims. It's got a new type of hairbrush Yeah, oh my god. I can buy sometimes you can buy Expansion packs that are just stuff. It's literally called the Sims 3 stuff, and it's just objects you can buy for them. So you play a lot of the Sims? I fucking love the Sims, so I fucking love the Sims. I can talk about Sims all day. I'm running that down as a topic I'm gonna do. The Sims, the Sims.

Oh, so good. Yeah, pretty, I mean pretty good. 25% of US homes at this stage have at least one good. Yeah, pretty. I mean, pretty good. 25% of US homes at this stage have at least one system. That's crazy. I feel like here wouldn't have been that for a long time after. Yeah. So it was going off.

So one in four people has, one in four homes, yeah. One in four homes, yeah. So far, it sounds like a burn rather than a crash. I think you've written down the wrong word. I think you mean the video game boom of 1983. By mid 1983. Yeah, come on,. By mid-1983 there have been over 12 million Atari 2600's. Do you know what you guys know how that's meant to be said? Is it 2600 or 2600's? So by mid-1983 there have been over 12 million Atari 2600 sold 12 million so giving them about 70% of the market Yeah, so they just dominated and they employed almost 10,000 people

Wow It's huge yeah in Silicon Valley They have around well they have more than 200 games available for their system and and games are hitting the market every week. They were owned by Warner Communications and Atari made about five times the revenue at that stage of Warner's film division. What? Wow.

What? So this is still mid-1983. Things seem to be going really well. Because Warner's been around for ages, like, you know, 50 years at this stage and then suddenly... But he again, so he takes over. Yeah, you talked about the Warner Brothers in the Academy of Worlds. Yeah, Jack Warner. Uh, Jack Warner is the most famous one, but there are like four brothers.

And it was like the 20s or something, right? Yeah, I think maybe the 1930s for the Warner Brothers, yeah. Wow. Man, imagine what maybe the 1930s for the Warner Brothers, yeah. Wow. Man, imagine what Jack Warner would have thought. Probably good on you. Good on you, Tari. Wow. Um, um, and yeah, so, so that revenue accounts were over 60% of Warner Brothers

corporations' profits over 60% of Warner Brothers corporations profits. 60% Yeah, so they're doing a lot of heavy lifting for Warner Brothers that year. I mean, it was a real spark though. Mm-hmm. So people are suddenly real rich. At the same time, there are a million televisions sold by Mattel, which is another console that I've never heard of before.

Was it called, sorry? Intellivision. Intellivision sold by Mattel, which is another console that I've never heard of before. Was it called, sorry? Intellivision. Intellivision sold by Mattel, the toy company. No, I don't know if that one either. And another million and a half Coloco visions sold by Coloco or Colco. Wow. Another one never heard of. In my head, like obviously, we wheel grew up after this time, but the

Oh in my head. It's it's Nintendo and Seiga and then it's PlayStation and Xbox. Yeah, yeah I thought they were the ones who made it up. Yeah, I'd vaguely heard of a Terry, but I didn't really know what it was Yeah, same like I knew I knew it was a brand or a company, but I didn't I wouldn't have known the consoles and stuff like that. Weird. So yeah, so things are going pretty well. What about a Commodore 64? Who makes that? They are more of a home computer.

So, all right. I've just heard of that, but I've been. Yeah, I found out a little bit about them. I think they get a mention at some point during this. I was reading this article in the New Yorker just earlier and it said that Atari was your classic Silicon Valley startup, right? And it even employed Steve Jobs for a time. And according to this article, they found a quote from Walter Isaacson's biography of jobs.

Quite in there said that he was asked to work night shift after his co-workers complained about his abrasive personality in body odor. He's like, Hey, you can have one, but not both. Pick either have a shower or put a smile on the dark, or work on night, I either. Okay, the options. You'd be great, boss, though.

I really would. And he's like, fuck you, I'm making my own company. I'm gonna be one of the richest men ever. Okay, yeah, good on your mind. Yeah, yeah, sure, man, sure. So this is the work. Yeah, that isn't at all relevant, but you know, interesting. Yeah, it's cool. Thank you, Jobs. That's a respect, the man died. Oh, yeah, that's a big rich. That is a bit rich.

We all, every episode is about dead people on this show. We never have any respect. I think, I think we're very respectful. What about the episode devoted to death? That was the best. In the early days, Atari had in-house video game developers, but they didn't credit them. The developers, the guys who made the games, guys and girls, mainly guys. They developed the games, but they weren't able to put their name to them. Due to this, over time, due to this and the fact that they thought they were underpaid, several of the programmers left to form their own rival video game company called Activision. Have you heard of Activision?

Yes, because they made the Tony Hawk games. Yes, so they obviously did continue to do pretty well. Yeah, right, so that's made by people that wanted more credit. Yeah. Have you ever finished a video game, which I really have? But you get to the end and often, it's like congratulations, you've passed, and then it's like a three minute credit sequence of all the people, and you're like, I don't give a fuck, I just finished it.

Yeah, give me a trophy. Get your kind of credit. Yeah, not a credits. Or like, it's, if it's a sports game, it's like, yeah, well done, you won the season. Now he's 700 animators who made the soccer players uniforms. Oh God. But it's like, I mean, it's like that's the time for every exit. Skip, skip, skip. You work on a TV show that doesn't do credits, is that you're just being bitter? Yeah, I think every episode should finish with a three minutes credit sequence of all the people that

made the soccer uniforms for that episode. Yeah, I think that's fair. Wait, is that what you do? You make soccer uniforms? Yes, it's a sport show. It's not at all. What are you talking about? I'm so confused. Am I confused? No, he's making a very funny joke about what he just talked about. Well then I am very confused, Jess. Now more confused. Okay, well, just do go on with your report, Matt. Listen back to it and you might understand. I go, I look forward to that.

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At the time, the biggest selling console was the Atari 2600 as we were talking about, but if you knew how to make Atari 2600 game cartridges you could, right? And obviously the new Activision Company already knew how to write the code. So when they figured out how to make the cartridges, they started doing, they started making their own sort of third party games for Atari consoles. Right, but could they legally sell them at the shops so you have to do it in an alleyway? Atari sued. Okay.

And the case was settled out of court, but the end result meant that the precedent was set so that third party manufacturing of Atari games had become legal. Legal? Yeah, they're able to do it. So at this stage, the market became flooded with many different games manufactured by...

Oh, I'm starting to hear. Fluttered isn't a good word. This is not good for a market that's doing so well. Fluttered is never a good word. Hang on, let's think of a context when Fluttered with cash. There we go. Fluttered with yogurt? When you really want some?

No, because if it's flooded, that implies like a lot of mess. And it's everywhere, it's not in a nice contained little bowl. My mouth was flooded with yogurt. Oh, hello, there we go. Yep, that's pretty good. Fluttered with yogurt. Fluttered with the perfect amount of yogurt. I think we got it.

So just those two cases, everything else is bad. Everything else is bad. My mouth was flooded with water until I died under the water. What about? That's a bad one. The area was flooded, but the only person living there was a convicted serial killer. Still bad. Well, he died.

Yeah, but flooding's never good. It has other effects. He was about to push the button that would have killed everyone in the world. but flooding is never good. It has it has other effects. He was about to push the button I would have killed everyone. And flooding is good. Yeah. Flading flooding flooding. I'm not for a good flood. Interesting. He didn't jump on board with my flooding chance. Anyway, I'm always too late. Do go on with your silly was a report. So what's about this market flooding with With all this flooding, the quality control was obviously very poor because there wasn't any. It was just up to the individual. So now is it

a bunch of people have worked at how to make their games. Yeah. Not just these Atari. I mean, Activision. Yeah, the Activision guys were probably the ones you might want to do it, but because they had some skills. Can people just buy the good ones? Like, for example, you go on the Apple App Store, there's 10 billion apps, but you just download the good ones. Quality floats to the top. Yeah, but you wouldn't necessarily know which ones are the good ones.

And probably the shit ones are probably cheap. So people would buy those. Drinking. Well, I reckon stay posted to the end of this paragraph. Oh, okay, we're jumping the gun a little bit. I want tender hooks on this paragraph. So we're going to talk about the app store. So when you bought cartridges in the app store,

something happened and it was really good. All right, flooding, flooding, flooding. Due to the over-saturation of the market and of the poor quality sales numbers dropped dramatically. But this meant that a lot of those companies those new companies went out of business and The shops couldn't return their products to them because they're out of business So they just started slashing prices. All right, so they're like always got 600 of this video game that doesn't Exist

Yeah, so Mike can put the Atari system still do so they can still be sold to a bucket buck Well, they went they went from being like 30 or 40 bucks down to five bucks So his mic maybe slashing the prices My mic is slashing all that sound like oh Guys hey, I mean Madonna is still a full price So if you if you're in the market for some Madonna, but you can't quite afford it Well, why don't you have a look over here and down in the dungeon area that I've reopened because you weirdos, just don't have the money,

but I've got some cheap games here. Look, I've got nobbi, nobbi, nobbi games down here. And I've got, I'll take one. How much? Three bucks. I'll give it here for two. Thanks for, thanks for playing. Do you know I've got man? I am like no

I don't and this is all a front for my drug business I'm the kid is gonna get skinned. Yes, you definitely know You got to live in that basement now kid You can live in the basement and I can live in your skin It's like I want You too is still full price. Bono's ban. Bono's ban. The you too.

That was good. So because the price came down of, you know, some games are under five bucks even when they'd gone, what's that as a percentage? So, say game was 40 bucks down to like 499 or something. 12.5%. All right, great. That was very good. Initially, I'm gonna assume that's right.

Initially. Well, it was five. You've gone 4.99. That's slightly good. I was saying five. Yeah, rounding up. So, yeah, initially it was just the poor quality games that were reducing price, but due to market forces, people were all buying those cheaper games that forced the better games, the poor quality games are reducing price. But due to market forces, people were all buying those cheaper games, and forced the better games, the better quality games.

Because they have to drop in price as well. To compete, the flooding, and the saturation. So basically the whole market just ate itself. Yeah. And this is obviously that, that's their the biggest factors, probably in what the crash was. People talk about other things, which I'll talk about a bit. He's a paragraph out of that New York radical. It was better words than I could write. Atari hadn't yet figured out the, this is another another potential reason. Yeah, there was lots of factors at play, but Atari hadn't yet figured out the precise timing required to successfully transition from one generation of consoles to the next. Like I was just kind of talk about before. Today's console makers have set it into the predictable

rhythm, typically releasing new machines every five or six years, enough time for customers to trust that a next generation system will be genuinely superior to the one it had replaced. But in the early 80s, the process was far less orderly. Manufacturers like Atari issued new systems much more frequently, and then newness often hinged on gimmick Cree, such as a built-in screen or a different kind of controller, rather than any major technical milestone. I think this one's got a blue controller. Oh my God, I need it. I think gimmick Cree might be one of my favorite words ever.

That's where you go to the New Yorker. The New Yorker. It's funny that the word gimmick cream in a way is kind of gimmick cream. Atari released the 5200 console, which was their next generation on the 2600. And probably twice as good, I imagine. It was released in 82, meaning that it cannibalized

the sales of the older Atari 2600, but didn't offer enough technical improvements to persuade many people to trade up. Even as Atari promoted the new console, it flooded the market itself with games for the 2600, which is. Oh, come on. I've definitely not leave it like stop making games

for the old model, so you have to get the new one. You said that the last year, there's not many new games, you're like, oh, I want the model. So you had to get the new game. You said the last year there's not many new games. You're like oh I want the new games gonna get the new thing. Yeah build up some pressure. But they're like hey we've got some sweet games for the old one by the new one. Oh but I don't need it you've got all the good games for the unit I already have. Yeah now but this one's got a bigger number. Oh. It's 5200. It looks much the same and doesn't have any of the good games available for it. I'm not sold yet It's got some blue plastic on it. Oh hang on a second. I'm gonna put both of you on the base when you're gonna Shut the fuck up. Okay, I'll have my

The boy maybe the boy did the boy take my skin now the boy The boy sounds scary very very confusing subplot But I'm enjoying I'm sure it will be resolved by shows and I don't know that it will In addition company executives at Atari were very optimistic Almost overly optimistic for reddit properly producing 12 the 104,000 no they produce 12 million copies of a Pac-Man game

Kids a love Pac-Man 12 million copies for the Pac-Man game for the 2600 even though they'd only sold 10 million consoles at that point Some kids are gonna be dumb enough to buy two right? That doesn't make any sense at all Well, I think they're their theory was that the game would make people buy the console as well, but it didn't turn out that way. They ended up selling, I've seen different numbers on this fact, but New Yorker said that they ended up selling 7 million copies, making it the best selling video game in history, so you know pretty good, but nearly that was only about half of the games they'd made. So it's the best selling game ever, still.

Yeah, oh, no, at that stage. All right, and it's still only about half as many copies as they made. Yeah, so they were pretty, they were pretty... We wanted to double the record. Yeah, amazing. So that was seen as a bit of an embarrassment for them, but apart from that. Yeah, they sent the like the gold record certificate for the Guinness World Record for the most games ever saw, but they're crying because they still got five million copies in the warehouse. Bittersweet. When it was released, there was a lot of hype around it. The Pac-Man game. It was

very highly anticipated, but unfortunately the release was rushed and the quality was poor. I read somewhere that the guy who made it, the programmer, he delivered a prototype and they're like, let's get it to market. It's like, no, this isn't just an early... It's only got 15 colours, I haven't put grey in yet. No, print it print it 12 million copies. I got a go beige in there because Yeah, the beige with that base the game that they just wouldn't work the background's beige

If you see through imagine a see through a game So it just it was it was the arcade game was very popular, but it just looked like a really Really poxy knockoff, you know, the dots were dashes, the mouth like continuously opened even when it stopped, just like weird little things like that. The music which I've heard is so bad. It just sound... he was like... Thank you for your introduction. Yeah, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, boo, seen as maybe contributing a little bit to the downfall of the whole industry was a game called ET the extra terrestrial. I don't know if you heard it all about this. I've heard of ET. Yeah, it's from a movie. It's from a movie. You've probably never heard of it.

The biggest selling movie in a biggest grossing movie of the AT's. That is the film you're referencing isn't it? The film AT? We're talking about AT. The Steven Spielberg film. This one was... So there's a video game to go along with it. Yeah, and it was a genuine rush job.

I'd never heard of it, but apparently it's infamous in video game circles. It was a super rush job. Like, from programming to manufacture the whole spectrum, like from the idea from the first like typing of the keys. Can we guess? To it being printed and manufactured how long do you reckon? Two weeks. Oh no that's I mean that that is. Two is far, two silly. That's two silly. Imagine that. So it's longer than two

weeks, a month. Or three months. Six weeks. Six weeks. So yeah, I mean, I'm not that impressed then. After two weeks. That's half the time that I, I PS. Yeah, but like three times what I get. So that's six weeks from coming up with the idea. Yeah. How long does it take? I've come up with joke ideas. Well, it obviously takes morning and performed them that nice. Then they got to design it. Like every, that includes everything. And it, and it apparently that nice then they got to design it like every that includes everything and And it apparently maybe if they stop procrastinating like you get it done in two weeks So it's how are you they'd spent over $25 million on the rights for ET? You don't spend that much money then take six weeks and then save money

They just they just smashed through it But also because they wanted to get it out in time for Christmas sure The end result is a shit game widely known as the worst game of all time Again, they accepting the Guinness World Record with some teas in their eyes Oh And this is mainly because it is boring and nearly impossible to play What a combo that's the review boring and nearly impossible to play. What a combo.

That's the review. It says that on the box. It was such a rush job they didn't read their own review. There's took a quote for it, printed it, 12 million copies went, oh, that doesn't sound very good. The part that I think the point of the game is that you're meant to find pieces of a telephone,

I guess, to phone. To phone home, sure. And but you'd fall down pits and you just couldn't get out of them. You'd be stuck there. I don't home, sure. And but you'd fall down pits and you just couldn't get out of them. You'd be stuck there. I don't need you to die, but you just, you just stuck there. So fun. And apparently, you know, if you went into play it, you wouldn't just figure it out. You'd have to go read the manual.

Like, you just, you most games you'd be like, all right, I'm starting to get the hang of this and push in some buttons. I can see which one makes it go forward and stuff. To say, I can feel you. To turn right, it's like a nine key combination. Yeah, that's left fuck. To turn right you got to go to the fridge, get a bottle of milk, pour it on your head, spin around three times. Singing the first verse of the National Anthem.

Yeah. Of your choice. Any country. Yeah that's the thing. It got was very loose in the same time. They programmed 200 National Yeah, that's the thing. It got was very loose in the same time. Yeah, they programmed 200 national anthems into the video game. Very specific, but also very loose. The majority of the games were returned. It's that bad. Even at Christmas time, people are... Yeah, people are just like, what the fuck is this?

Just like, I just pictured millions of people sitting in front of their console, just like with a blank look on it, if I said, is this happened? I'm stuck in a pit. I'm just gonna keep resetting every time I fall down a pit. Some reason that I enjoyed that so much. I love that. Why is there so many why is there so many pits? Yeah, where are the heads? All pits. Pittsburgh Which isn't that's a topic in the hat. Yeah. Pittsburgh. Well, there you go. Well, I think we can tick it off the list.

Yeah, that's right. But if we mention a topic, does that mean we've covered it? I think so. I don't think so. Let's just go through that one day, read them all out, and we're done. I'm looking forward to doing Pittsburgh one day. If we get through the hat, I think we should say,

at the moment, it sits at about two years worth of episodes. So we're going to keep going forever, guys. But that's like, as it is now, we get suggestions all the time. Which is great. I'm confident I'm pushing through. I mean we're doing one right now. That's true. Unless two have come through. We've at least stayed. Exactly. We definitely got one this morning so. Oh no. No please keep him coming. They're amazing because there's stuff that we never considered. I've never heard of this. I've never heard of it either. I found some other funny things like advertisers also started making Atari games. This is like anyone could say companies which is making promotional material that was an Atari game. I reckon McDonald's had to have had one.

The McDonald's held to order a large fries video game. The one that I bet you they did, but the one I read about, you got no cool aid. So that's like their cordial, I think, in America. So, Kool-Aid released a game about a carrot called the Kool-Aid man. He's often paraded in some cartoons saying, oh yeah, you know, that guy's called

Kool-Aid kid would have made more sense right yeah that does sound better the iteration the the title character in the game had to chase down tear-shaped villains called thirsty's that were trying to take away the world's cool-aid supply from the children and you'd get that game by like Byron a certain amount of cool aid. So you know, so it's free basically with free. But every two meters you fell in a pit and then you have to start again. You put a cool aid. You drowned in a pit of cool aid. Why do I need to go? Flooded. What do I need? Oh, now that's a good way. It flooded with cool aid. Yeah, I'm into it. Sticky. Love it. Well, that is my nightmare.

Lots of gross cations like this were made, which obviously continued to lower the reputation of Atari and video games more generally. So, Atari controlled such a huge percent of the video game market right in 1982 and into 1983. Only a year later, an urban myth started around the ET time started doing the rounds which said that the dramatic drop in demand for video games meant that the company dumped 14 truckloads worth of game cartridges into a new Mexico landfill and poured cement over the top. So no one can ever play them again? What?

They literally went into a pit. A bit of a bit. They fell into a pit. I fell into a pit. No, that's a nightmare. Fall into a pit. Had not considered that. That is very good.

That just winked at me. Like a proving of my joke. Not with laughter. With a series of wings. So that was like, that became this really big urban myth and it was talked about through gamers circles around the world like a lot and it had been for years and years until it was uncovered as being true in 2014. They found the pit.

But they found the pit. So I dug it up. So I dug it up. Yeah, yeah. And they weren't the millions of ET games that they thought they were but there were still heaps. There was like at least nine. Yeah, there they were, they weren't the millions of ET games that they thought they were, but they were still Heaps, there was like at least nine. Yeah, they were not I'm not a big TV games How do you know they're unplayed?

But like they took the med of the concrete and you know you could just blow on them They got to go yep Fire them up plug it in oh shit. I'm in a pit So the industry's revenues had peaked it around 3.2 billion in 1983 and then fell to around $100 million by 1985. So it was almost reversed back to where that peak and it came back down to that same level which said on a few different things, I trust their maths because it said on a few different websites this is a drop of about 97%.

Oh, you know, a relatively big drop. Relatively, yeah. That's huge. No, I'd say it's a relatively big drop. Relatively, compared to like say like a 95 or a four percent drop. If you compare it to a 99% drop, then it's not relatively big. Is there a relatively small drop?

A hundred percent drop. Relatively small. Tiny, nothing. Relatively small. 90% is number of the, fuck off 90%. Everything's relative. Yeah, that's it. That's a good point. Even the scale of zero to Everything's relative. Yeah, it's a good point even the scale of zero to 100 relative Include and what a what an excellent point to make there and also Jess and her brother We are relatives

We are relatives, but how in the episode? So it's a tying it all back neatly together. It was at the end of our subplot. Jess and her brother are related. Yeah. Yeah, we still haven't talked about the mics skimming the kid but we'll get there. Well, you know, my brother's name is Mike. Yeah. Oh.

Oh. And he skidded kids. Skidded kids. Skidded. He skidded kids. He used to. He's nice now. Yeah. He's a reform. He's better. He's kidding. He's nice now. Yeah, he's a reform. He's better.

He doesn't skin anybody anymore. Just cats. Yeah, no one likes cats. Well, Chris, he does and he's very nice. I'm sorry, Mikey. His name is really mine. Yeah, he says Michael. That's spooky. Hey, did you guys know after last week's episode about the dilat of past? Dilat of past? Every time, yeah. I woke up the next morning with bruising on my body with no reason. Oh my god.

You know how they didn't bruise? They got internal injuries. They got internal injuries, no bruising. Did you think you got their external injuries? Yeah, I had them up on my shoulder and down my arm and then a little bit on my neck. Oh my god. It was really weird. Wow, like a lot of bruising. Yeah,

like this weird yellow bruising and also the next day I was in a cafe and Rod Stewart's song with mandolin played. I I'm not even fucking with you Did you forget a little bit though too? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I was like, cool. What are the odds of this? Oh, weird.

Like the song before it was some sort of minimalist dance, and the song after it was back to that weird sort of techno, but in the middle, out of nowhere. Do you know what's so strange actually now that you mentioned I completely forgot that we talked about that? But the day after that, we recorded that episode, my tent got hit by a car and there would be Yeti driving the car. Are you still real? At the golden woman and I died!

Are you fucking with me? I'm not fucking with you. You can't fuck with me on this. I would never. So that's so connected? No, it couldn't be. Gotta be a coincidence. Of course. So anyway, the crash was rough. The car crashed into my tent. Yeah. The car crash was rough. I mean, I just as kicked on from death and she's moving on with her life.

I think I look better, Dad. You look good. You look good. I pull off death well. Yeah, also. Death becomes her. That's a thing I'm pretty sure. You look good. You look good. I pull off death well. Yeah, I would say death becomes her. I'd say that's a thing I'm pretty sure. I would say that you look just as good. Just as good dead as alive. That is really sweet. Try and work that compliment out. Well, I'm guessing then that you're seeing me dead, which means I have open-cask funeral, which may have been cast. You've been there.

It's a party. It shows my ass as big as that. Are we talking Goon? Yeah. You're wearing plastic underwear right now. It's a plastic underwear and they've packed my ass for six years. Oh, Jess, please. We all know what they've done to your ass.

You don't need to talk about it. Again, very confusing for new listeners. Go back to episode 10 and enjoy. This is a real one for the fans. Sorry, sorry everyone else. And even the fans amount of us for that. Yeah, so the crash in the video game was rough in non-83. Many companies went under and that, you know, to be honest, that sucked in some ways. But, oh, is there a part? many companies went under and that, you know, to be honest, that sucked in some ways. But...

Oh, is there a butt? But on the plus side, they meant that many families who wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford gaming consoles could. And they could all play that terrible, terrible, ET games. Correct the shits, and Valtundepp would play games. So I meant that a whole generation of gamers were introduced to video games that wouldn't have otherwise been. And I've read a lot of blogs and stuff, people talking about it saying it was bad, but if it wasn't for that,

my family wouldn't have got it. Now I run the website called, I'm a gaming nerdman.com. You know, like people who got right, you know, because of that. I'm a gaming nerdman.com. Well, they may not be, that may not be in it. Yeah, I should put an extra. What if it is? If that doesn't exist, we'll buy it. Yeah, that's it.

That'll be our website. I'm a gaming nerdman.com. For all you do, go on, do go on needs. It makes no sense. Have to keep writing it out. It's an in joke that really wasn't even in joke. Yeah, I mean, it was in. It wasn't in joke that really wasn't even in joke Yeah, I mean it was in yeah, it wasn't a joke Was it in?

It's out the industry recovered a few years later After the crash so but is did you say before that a Tari's gone? Tari's gone so they've bowed out at one point the was On charges for insider trading as well. Like a lot of things went wrong for it. So not very good. But they were at that one time, there was 70% of the market. Yeah. They're not there anymore. It's crazy. Yeah. It's too big too soon. And they just obviously would have confidence, too much confidence. Yeah.

Interesting. Hey, people feel free to correct me on anything that I've said wrong, and I'm sure I've said some wrong things, but... That's a stare? Thank you. I thought... No, I've probably fucked it all up. I've probably all really mad at me. I accept your feedback via game.nod.com, man.

.com, man? That was a different girl. It's very confusing. And they both called Steve. Weirdly. Yeah, they really have a rivalry going. Who's that? I think I need to, I don't like I need Donna a rehearsing at the spot.

People like it when we talk about I need Donna or one guy does. If you can, you send sprodel. I love it when you talk about that's not my Brody impression. Hey you kids little walkie walkie walkie that's Donner. Look, I'm up, very funny sketch comedy. Troop. Anyhow, the industry recovered a few years later and this was mostly due to the widespread success of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Which is launched in late 1985. So they've come from nowhere have they? Yeah, Japanese brand, I think a man they came from Japan. So they they learned a lot of lessons

from the crash including the fact that you know that because they were sort of out of fashion a bit they would they try to market themselves as separate from it from gaming consoles as well as well as called an entertainment system Hey, we're not a video game system. We're an entertainment system. Yeah, the system remains Hey, you've got to have a system Take away the system. What have you got chaos when Nintendo? Doesn't translate very well, but in Japanese that's amazing In Japanese it's beautiful. It's actually poetic.

It's beautiful, yeah. It's written by Kuh-Fon. It's an advertising high coup. They weren't from the third party issues, the third party producers, which led to Nintendo having much stricter quality control, but also they included a special chip in every cartridge that meant that only games approved by them could be played in their consoles. Clever. If you had an idea for a game that you wanted to be an Nintendo playable game, you had

to go to Nintendo and get approval, go through their system. Which makes sense. Which I haven't failed many times. It's because it's just you wearing a little vest. Yeah. How about this? How about this? How about a game about me?

Hey, how about a game where it's me, but I'm a monkey and you can throw bananas. Oh, that is pretty much Donkey Kong, right? Oh yeah. OK, how about this? My game. OK, I have to accuse you. The mind is Davey Kong. How about I'm wearing a hat and I've got a brother and I'm a plumber

Pretty original. Okay. That was something. Also I read about a bit that There were all the different manufacturers of games They didn't necessarily have exclusive rights to different games There was heaps of different donkey Kong games made by different people different pack man that sort of stuff She led to some issues as well I'm something else that Nintendo learned was that they went to a lot of effort to make the console look more like some sleek modern technology. They wanted it to make it look more like a VCR than a gaming console. VCRs were sleek and sexy at the time.

Well, they... Apparently, yeah. At the time, yeah. I mean, this is $9.85. Now it's like, what is this shoebox-shaped thing? I think we got a VCR in like $95 or something or a kid, or maybe later. Did have the ability to record shows. Yeah, I remember being very exciting.

Very exciting. And then did have the, like dad always did this. There'd be some sporting event on the middle of the night. So he'd set the thing to automatically record, you know, 1am to 1.45am. And the game would finish it too. Yeah, and it was like, or it just missed. It was started 12. Oh, back again. It just always fucked up.

Penalty shoot after back again. And here he comes. This is for the what? This, oh. And then, yeah, he'd always come and be like, fucking machine. So funny. Oh, life is really hard, Nani. We didn't have IVU, didn't have Netflix.

So a lot of these strategies, I'm not vibrating on a high frequency today. You're doing okay buddy. So these new strategies that Nintendo put in place, like with the tighter controls and that sort of stuff, ended up being taken on board by a lot of the future big players in the video game consoles like Sega, Sony and Microsoft. To different, not all of them were as strict, but they they used a lot of those ideas And obviously they all I think they are still I see here is see this around I don't know what their story is

But the last one was the dream cast right I don't think that did very well I don't remember it at all, but Sony's PlayStation, right? Yes, I'm not still going very strong Yeah, the PS4 is Microsoft Xbox. Yeah, that weird, Microsoft ended up in one of the big players. I didn't really mention it in the report, but the video game crash didn't actually affect it only affected those consoles. It didn't affect computers. Computers actually took over a lot of that market share. I mean, Steve Jobs was like, fuck you, I haven't had a share in weeks.

Yeah, like the Apple 2 came out during that period and the Commodore 64 and they the process those came down as well making a lot more affordable So they became and more and more games were released for those as well And they're also seen as being superior to families Or that's how they were marketing it as because they were game and computers But also you could do word processing and all sorts of other stuff, using for more practical things. Yeah, but was it a system?

Yeah, how about that? That's where it lets me down. Yeah, that's true. It was a system there. The Apple MacBook system. Oh, okay. Hello. Take three.

All right, so just to finish up, this is another, this is from the New Yorker again. After Atari's collapsed, it successes released new consoles at a slower pace, finally settling into a 5 to 6 year cycle by the time the sixth generation of hardware was released in the early 90s. This generation included Nintendo's GameCube, Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox Which was the first American made console to gain significant market share since the days of the Atari I see it's Harry so it's been 30 years since or 20 years. Yeah, I'm since America's had a go a

Big go. It was time, but they were back in the game. Anyway, that's that's what it brings me to the end As I like to do finish a report, you know sort of fade it out just like a fizzle. Yeah fizzle. Yeah, great Well, obviously video games now are like bigger than ever. They make built like it's Multiple billion dollar industry. It's getting at they're going in different directions now like 3d stuff and What do you call the one where you go inside of it? Oh? sex doll 3D stuff and what do you call the one where you go inside of it? Oh. Sex doll. No. He does plus sex. Seriously, they're working to get that.

A virtual reality is what I was meaning to say. Virtual reality. Maybe when you go inside it. Virtual reality is what he made. Like, he's like, he's like, So, and I played and I was so skeptical. Friends got a thing called a, it's called something weird like a,

Oculus, Oculus. I was gonna say a mop little less, but yeah, Ockle of the mwip. Which is, is that, is that, uh, Mark Zuckerberg owns that? Yeah, Mark Zuckerberg. He was my friend, and he had a, I was hanging out around at his joint at the Facebook

uh... Mastion and um... And he's sort of like... How the God this guy, I'm like... Oh I don't do the stuff. Hey Zuckerberg, take your fucking little toys and go play with the other kids. I'm not in. I don't need that shit.

I've got my sex doll right here. I'm getting in somewhere I don't need that shit. I got my sex doll right here. I'm getting in some anyway. I am Anyway, he gave it he gave me a go of it and and I honestly was going this is gonna be shit And I put it on every first real you've ever done in the 90s. How bad? They were awful really bad I've only I've never even done one before but in somehow that seeps through in my head I'm like this is gonna suck and anyway, I put it on and it blew me away. It would just go on like the sex star But yeah, it was amazing. I'll give us rift. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. It was fucking sick. I couldn't believe it.

Couldn't believe it. There was like, I was ducking from dinosaurs and then I was like on a ledge of a building. Wow. What? And all these weird things. And I thought the dinosaurs and buildings and the same thing. Yeah, I think I was just on some sort of like intro screen.

He's trying to hit start, start. It was the best. I'm just like, to menus over there and then I'm like I'm walking in a tables and stuff trying to get away from bullets. And there was a lot going on. Jesus, good. Anyway. Well, it starts building exciting stuff. So who knows what's going to happen in the future of gaming, huh?

Yeah, where do you go from there? In the time we'll tell you. I'm like, I want back in. Can I just live in there now? Yeah. Okay. I'm talking about the sax toligare. Okay, gross.

I want to live in there. Well, that's weird. I'm gonna add it to those last bits out. Probably won't. Hey, thanks for listening to me. That was cool. That was very interesting. I had no idea about any of that.

I'm not a video gamer, but I found that fascinating. I was, yeah, totally the same. Just never, it's never really got me, but I'm there where periods where I played a little bit. When I had that super NES, played some Donkey Kong Country 2 or whatever, but yeah, I find it fascinating. And it is a world where people who get into a get deep into it. Really into it. Which is great. It's really cool. Yeah, awesome. That's really interesting. Yeah, so thanks for having me. We should thank at SH3PRD. Thank you for the suggestion.

Thank you very much, Shepard. Hopefully that covered off some of the things that you wanted to. If you like Shepard, want to get in contact with us, you can do the tweets like he did at DoGoOnPod or you can email us at doGoOnPod.gmail.com. We've got the Facebook going now. We're getting a few people in there which is pretty good so. That's awesome yeah. Please follow all that kind of stuff and yeah the more suggestions, yeah. The longer we have to go. Yeah we're just going to keep going to we tick them all off so keep us here for another 10 years.

We're very anal like that Don't yes, you can't make me stop But until next time do you guys have anything else to announce? No, I don't think so I think all I would like to announce is have a lovely day everyone. I would like to announce friendship. Great. That's a great. I don't think that's a great thing. No, it's an announcement. Yeah, I could get behind that. That sounds a lot like gimmickery to me.

I just wanted to use that word. Did I use that properly? Who knows? No. It's probably not even a real word, but thank you for listening to those in the gentleman. We will see you. Or you'll hear from us. Next week and until then, we'll say goodbye. Bye! Why don't more infant formula companies use organic, grass-fed whole milk instead of skin? Why don't more infant formula companies use the latest breast milk science? Why don't more infant formula companies run their own clinical trials? Why don't more infant formula companies use more of the protein's found in breast milk?

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