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RETRO
SYSTEM OF THE
FROM OUR SISTER MAGAZINE RETRO LIVE ISSUE 2
CENTURY
YOU VOTED!
V
[PRE 2000]
ideo games have
been part of our lives
since the 1970s.
While there were
massive computers
able to play simple games in
the50s and 60s, using vector
displays, it wasn’t until Mag-
navox released the Odyssey
in 1972, a system that could
be connected to your TV set,
that we had true home console
gaming. Things really kicked off
when Atari’s Pong was released
on the Odyssey 100 and Atari’s
own home console. rushed out to buy systems just
so they could play the highly
addictive game at home.
On the computer side we had
Spacewar! in 1961, but you
needed a mainframe to run it. Then Nintendo released their
Famicom in Japan with better
graphics but they were worried
how it would be received in the
U.S after the crash so they re-
leased it as the Nintendo En-
tertainment System. It was the
start of things picking up again
for the video game industry.
Sega released their Master
System and while no where
near as popular as the NES, it
did well in the U.S and Euro-
pean markets. It was now the
With the first consoles for
homes released, things then
moved pretty quickly with Fair-
child releasing the VES in ’76
and Atari the 2600. The 2600
became the most popular sec-
ond generation console. In
1980, Atari had a conversion
of Space Invaders released on
their 2600 system and families
The 80s came and initially the
outlook for gaming was bright.
A number of companies had
systems for the home and the
number of games to play was
growing, Then the video game
crash of 1983 happened. Too
many low quality games like
E.T flooded the market and
gamers voted with their pock-
ets and sales slowed with many
companies going bankrupt.
mid 80s and computer systems
from Commodore, Atari, Texas
Instruments and the ZX Spec-
trum from Sinclair were starting
to appeal to a different type of
customer. One that didn’t mind
a bit of fiddling with loading
cassettes or typing in code.
Tandy also were in the comput-
ing business with their TRS-80
Color. Commodore released
the VIC-20 in 1980 and sold 1
million units by the end of 1982.
Then came the Commodore
64, a brilliant and much loved
system that cost almost $600
U.S on release but dominated
the low end market in comput-
er sales. In fact it sold around
2 million units per year in the
time from 1983 to 198 and was
considered by some major de-
velopers as the best choice to
develop for due to its’ massive
sales.
The mid 80s saw the release of
some major computer systems
that were a favourite among
gamers. The Commodore Ami