Ah, the 80s. If there were ever a decade that was “you had to be there,” this would definitely be it according to my parents—although if you asked me, despite having lived during neither, the ’90s just sounded cooler. [The ’90s were cooler – Ed]
But there is no denying the impact that that decade had on video games, in particular the scene of home console games.
THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST
The end of the ’70s had been good to Atari, and their meteoric rise to their powerhouse status by 1982 was thanks to their business decisions to incorporate third-party developers to develop games for them and use game cartridges. However, there were also business decisions made where they overproduced units and games, not meeting sales expectations. This parallels the disco music genre, which started off hot in the seventies but has overstayed its welcome by this point. And much like disco being dead, Atari’s faux-wood finish was fading, finally putting the nail in its own coffin by ’83 with a massive reported loss of $530 million. (that’s not Zim dollars I put there. And this was in 1983. In today’s money, that would be $1.6 billion!)
This, paired with the “ports” of the titles played in the arcade (that were brought home and lost their shine), meant that the entire market in that year was feeling the effects, just like Gulf and Western, another American arcade game manufacturer, did. So much so that they sold their North American manufacturing and licensing contemporaries, leaving only their R&D team in the States and their Japanese subsidiary, a little company called SEGA.
With the American market out of action, SEGA pursued developing a console for the Japanese scene, which was also starting to bring the arcade home. At the same time, another Japanese toy maker looked to start making their toys more “electronic“.
Learning of this, SEGA sprang into action and began the development of the SG-1000. Boasting an 8-bit CPU and 1Kb of RAM, it had eight times that of the pioneering Atari 2600 stuck in boogie wonderland. It had video and sound processors from Texas Instruments, an old American friend of their former big boss, and it had carefully decided on a release date: 15 July 1983—the same day that other toy maker was planning on releasing its new console.
Despite their shiny hardware and preparations, there was little that SEGA could do about the absolute beast that their rivals had released.
THE NINTEN-DONS
While the SG-1000 was SEGA’s rising sun, the Famicom was the nova of Nintendo (or to translate to American, the “NES”). In every way, it just had the better appeal of the two. While the SG-1000 had the stronger CPU, the Famicom utilised a chip to display four-colour sprites instead of the one from their rival console, making for a more vivid colour display and better-looking graphics.
Design-wise, the infamous “short-cord” controllers of the Famicom did incite a change that is still in use in today’s latest console generation. Knowing that their short cords meant that people gaming on the Famicom would likely sit on the floor, the joystick that could so easily get stepped on and cause damage to both controller and foot was replaced for a flatter solution – the cross-shaped D-pad.
Finally, Nintendo’s commercial and marketing decisions were perfectly weighed. The SG-1000 would out-sell in its first year and surpass its own sales forecasts (it helps that there were 21 SG-1000 games to pick from compared to the eight Famicom games that were available at the time). But the Famicom would hold its own with arcade ports like Donkey Kong, that had a popular following, and in 1984 would license third party releases of games on their console (something which SEGA was stubborn about).
The coup de grace was yet to come, though, as in 1985, two of the biggest franchises of our times, Super Mario Bros (or to translate to South African, “van der Merwe and Boetie”) and Legend of Zelda, would release on the iconic game machine and catapult it to an unfathomable 62 million sales. It was official – the Famicom had landed the first blow. This was even more evident by the sheer amount of “Famiclones” that would release worldwide (my fiancee’s grandmother has one that she bought at Reggie’s. Er… do kids these days know what Reggie’s is?)
THE SANDWICH HAS JUST STARTED
If you read my previous column about the Atari 2600 in the ’70s (and if you haven’t, FOMO!!!!!!), you will recall that I mentioned things got difficult for them later on as the Nintendo and SEGA sandwich became a thing. This is that very sandwich I was referring to. That and the Atari 7800 shot in the foot. But don’t think we are done yet. SEGA was not going to give up.
If they were going to feel a giant, they had to go for the head and started scaling the mountain by releasing consoles with iterative hardware improvements, such as the SG-1000 Mark II and Mark III, and finally, the SEGA Master, which had much better sales and started to let their reputation grow too.
There were still more meats, lettuce, tomatoes and sauces to add to this towering masterpiece, but now I’m hungrier than Shaggy and Scooby just thinking about this delicious food. What do you say we adjourn, grab a bite to eat and tune in for part 2? Same place next week?
BigMacDaddy is a rockstar, MLG gamer and world-renowned knowledge base for all gaming studios… in his dreams. In real life, he is a full-time software developer and loves family time. His hobbies include a lil’ YouTubing, chess, game development and travel.