Video Games - (1980-1989)
1980: Atari 2600 sales boom as the home version of "Space Invaders" is sold for the system by the company. Mattel creates a home system which is the first serious contender to the Atari 2600 The system that is created by Mattel is Intellivision. On the arcade scene, Atari releases the first 3-D game called "Battlezone" and Namco introduces "Pac-Man," which would be the most popular arcade game of all-time. Nintendo of America is created by Minoru Arakawa.
1981: An artist for Nintendo creates "Donkey Kong," where Mario is first introduced. In America Sega puts out Konami's "Frogger." We all have probably played "Frogger" sometime in our lives, but for those of you who may not have, the game involves guiding a frog through obstacles such as rivers and highways.
1982: ColecoVision comes out, produced by Coleco, it has superior graphics and sounds compared to other home video game systems on the market. "Donkey Kong" and "Donkey Kong Jr." become instant classics for the system. Atari releases the 5200 game console, which is an updated version of the 2600. Activision's "Pitfall" is Atari 2600's only good seller this year. "Ms. Pac-Man" is created by Midway. It becomes the biggest arcade game in American history.
1983: The first arcade game to use laser disc technology, "Dragon's Lair," is released by Cinematronics. Commodore 64 comes out and it beats any video game home console on the market. In Japan the Famicom home game system is released with the original "Mario Brothers." The Famicom system would become what we know as the NES(Nintendo Entertainment System).
1984: Mattel and Coleco can no longer compete in the video game industry. Jack Tramiel, the man who created Commodore, leaves and takes over the Atari Corp. from Warner Communications. He quickly revamps their whole production of computers and home consoles.
1986: With the help of the maker of Teddy Ruxpin and Laser Tag, the NES is marketed across the U.S. The system could either be purchased with a robotic unit called R.O.B., a light gun, and the games "Gyromite," "Super Mario Bros.," and "Duck Hunt" or it could just be purchased with the game "Super Mario Bros." Also during this time Sega releases the Sega Master System. Atari releases the 7800.
1987: Nintendo releases long quest games such as "The Legend of Zelda," "Kid Icarus," and "Metroid." In our opinion these are the true classics along with "Super Mario Bros." These games created our hunger and demand for video games, which continues to this day.
1988: Nintendo continues to release mega hits such as "Tetris," "Zelda II: Adventures of Link," and "Super Mario Bros. 2."
1989: Atari and Nintendo begin to go to war(they should have made a game out of this!!). Atari figures out a way to create games similar to Nintendo's, in fact they released Tengen "Tetris." However, Nintendo won the copyright lawsuit which prevented Atari from producing the game any further. It is rumored that Atari's version was actually better. The first major handheld video game system, called Game Boy, is produced by Nintendo. It came along with the game "Tetris." NEC releases its home game system TurboGrafx-16. Also during this time Sega Enterprises unveils the Sega Genesis in the U.S. To compete with Nintendo's Game Boy, and to continue the war(see I told you they should've made a game), Atari releases a color handheld game system called Lynx.