The Forgotten Video Game Crash of 1977

The Video Game Crash of 1977 is both misunderstood and very rarely discussed. Unfortunately for the Crash of 1977, it's big brother, the Video Game Crash of 1983 has completely overshadowed it.
Regardless of that fact, the Video Game Crash of 1977 still happened - and it is still just as important. The 1970s was an interesting time for Video Games, and it all started with something called Pong.

[@ninjacape]

Taito deserves credit for saving the Video Game industry in 1978. Not as much as Nintendo did in the eighties, but they were a factor.

[@ordinaryk]

Space Invaders was the game that changed everything. The Atari 2600 was only a minor success between 1977 and 1979, but when Atari put Space Invaders on a cartridge in 1980, they invented the Killer App as we know it. 2600 sales skyrocketed just for people wanting to play Space Invaders at home.

[@seroujghazarian6343]

funnily enough, 1977 is the year Nintendo made its first console and it was, ironically, a pong clone

[@LordRayken]

Really good point!

[@pez334]

I was 10 years old in 1977, I remember playing the arcade version of pong , my first console was the Atari c-380 which was before the 2600 and you’re right about the pong clones being everywhere but maybe if Atari didn’t come out with the 2600 or the 2600 failed I still think that arcades would have been just fine with the games that were coming out in the late 70s , space invaders asteroids, galaxians then quite possibly that the arcade scene itself would have lasted longer than it did, I mean without the home console market systems like the 2600 , Colecovision, Nintendo people wouldn’t have been able to play games at home . Eventually somebody would have tried another home console I’m sure but I think the arcade scene would have lasted a lot longer than it did , who knows ? Anyways great video, I’m a fan of 70s and early 80s video games and it’s always nice to see someone shining light on an era most people don’t know or care about because without these old games they wouldn’t have the games they play today

[@LordRayken]

Thank you so much for the insightful and well written comment. It's great to hear from an original gamer!

[@rafaelromero6306]

RIP Tokyo Colour, Binatone, Prinztronic, UltimaVision, Mentor, Duotronic, Inter-Electronica, and other 200 brands of PONG clones.

[@paranormalskeptic3893]

This is an interesting subject. Having lived through the beginning of the video game era, I had an Atari Pong console. I believe I got it for Xmas in 1977 when I was 15. It was still a big seller Xmas 1977. But I really don’t think there ever was a crash of 1977. Though pretty much a fad in the early 70’s, there were pretty much a good core of video game fans. There wasn’t that much time between what you say was a crash in 1977 and the Atari 2600 coming out (September 1977) and it being a massive hit that Xmas season. In fact, when my parents gave me Pong for Xmas 1977, they told me that there is a new system they saw in the store where you can change games by switching cartridges, but they couldn’t afford it at the time (got it Christmas 1978). I was blown away with how they described it. Also, arcades kept the fascination of video games alive during that era as well. I respectfully disagree with you about the crash of 1977. I don’t think there was one. Was there an over saturation of Pong type systems ? Sure, but it was quickly overtaken by the Atari 2600 late 1977, so no time for a crash. Interesting subject though. I was obviously a gamer in 1983, so I witnessed THAT crash. But I myself stopped playing video games for 4 or 5 years, I was 21 and, and had other priorities in life. NES got me back to gaming.

[@johnsimon8457]

Sorry if you covered this in the video already - I think they got the pong hardware down to a single chip, which made the cost of all of the hardware quite cheap, which is why we had a million and one clones.

[@matthewcherrington2634]

It was hard to understand generations of consoles at the time

[@CookyMonzta]

8:45 As I am watching this video _right now,_ I will take one guess as to why the market crashed in 1977, with two words: PONG CLONES! Chief among them, the Coleco Telstar, introduced in 1976, to be followed by a bunch of no-name-brand clones. I had one of these no-frills clones back in 1978.

[@nachsitzen_vg]

Great Video!

[@r4microds]

It's interesting to think we're in 2019 now and the industry is on yet another verge of major disruption. 2018 ended with the tech industry on a terrible financial decline and major video game Titans took serious stock hits follow bad PR and overall market directions. Companies are realizing today that hardcore audiences are difficult to satisfy and therefore it's easier to appeal to a non-gamer such as your typical mother or business commuter. As the mobile industry has flurished, so has mobile gaming and subsequently, the inclusion of MTX in virtually every new major title. "Games as a live service" they like to call it. In reality, nothing more than an excuse to design game mechanics with problems to only later sell the audience the solution. It's a shame but part of me smells yet another crash / uproar coming in the near future... If we aren't already in it now.

[@ninjacape]

I agree but people have been calling for a third crash since 1994 when there were too many consoles on the market. I don't think it will happen any time soon.

[@Crash-zm2qd]

ninjacape there was never a crash in 1994 but there was a crash with video game magazines in 94 that lasted just a year.

[@ninjacape]

@@Crash-zm2qd Yes, the was no crash in 1994, but there was a fear of one. Many of the mistakes of 1983 were being repeated .First, cartridge sales were down and critical favorites like Earthworm Jim and Final Fantasy 3 had disappointing sales. Next, there were too many consoles on the market(well over 10 . More than in 1983). Plus, there were too many Street Fighter Clones, Mortal Kombat clones, and Sonic(mascot with attitude) clones. Like in 1983 when there were too many Pacman and Space Invader clones on the market.

[@Crash-zm2qd]

ninjacape I didn’t know that interesting I think another video game crash might be on horizon due to the fact there are to many remakes and remasters on market.

[@OriginalGrasshopper]

Here we go again: more revisionist history about the NES “saving” video games in 1985. 🤦‍♂️ Clearly you weren’t born when all this was happening in the 1970’s and 80’s, but as someone who remembers all of it well I can tell you that this was not the case whatsoever. I was 15 in 1983 and this “crash” wasn’t noticed by any of my gaming friends. All that happened was some companies stopped making games and consoles, so we loved finding deals on ColecoVision and Atari VCS cartridges that were previously unaffordable. After this so-called “crash” most of us Gen X’ers moved on to home computers and played our games that way. No one in America was playing the Nintendo NES in 1985. No one. It didn’t really take off in the U.S. until the late 80’s, and within a year or so of it gaining popularity it had a much better console, the Sega Genesis, to contend with (in addition to the Atari 7800 and Sega Master System which came out in the U.S. at the same time as the NES plus the TurboGrafx-16 and others). I am not hating on Nintedo: the NES had a handful of decent titles. But it did NOT save the video game industry since gaming never went away in the first place.

[@LordRayken]

Appreciate the detailed comment, love hearing it from someone who lived it. Just wanted to let you know that I only mention the 1980s crash for about 30 seconds to say that the NES revitalized the game market. Nintendo wasn't big in 1985, but that wasn't the point of this video. This video is about the Pong crash of 1977, not the crash of 1983 or the NES, so I didn't touch on that much. Just a brief mention.

[@metronome8471]

The best Pong Console is the atgames blast vol 3 paddle system. It has pong, super breakout, night driver.

[@gothnerd887]

In my home country "pong" is a word for a bad smell and that gives a weird perspective to this video

[@gothnerd887]

Finding out there were video games in the 70 is like finding out about Micenean Greece

[@dryzenhawk4251]

This Video Game Crash for me is a good thing, honestly. This helps getting rid of all the pong consoles. But the second one could've been avoided, but it's inevitable ajd nowadays it's all too well now

[@ordinaryk]

I don't think the '83 crash could have been avoided. The 2600 was an open platform, whether Atari wanted it to be or not. They tried to sue Activision and lost, and when Coleco made the 2600 adapter for the ColecoVision, Atari sued them and lost again. The floodgates were open, and everybody and their dog (in the case of Chase the Chuck Wagon) was making really horrible games for the 2600.

[@astra6712]

The pong crash

[@gothnerd887]

Someone please make a meme out of this

[@gothnerd887]

So the lesson is never trust Atari?

[@TheMahayanist]

Budokai games were good.

[@Grizzly_Adam]

Yeah, neither were really Atari's fault. It is the clones of Pong and over-saturation of unsanctioned 3rd party games for the 2600. People say "Atari should have known better and made a lockout chip for the 2600." No one even thought of that back then as there were no third-party manufacturers back then.

[@JB-js4xi]

The 80s just made game systems more of a household thing. The console games systems of the 70s were marketed to adults ....mostly. Sit on the sofa together or lay in the floor and play Pong! Pong was a tennis type game your parents would play ...and did. It was very addictive because prior to this there really hadnt been anything like it. Atari was everything in the late 70s and early 80s. My family did have a Sears Pong system i think around 1974. I was four so i barely remember it but the adults playwd it and by 1977 i was certainly into Atari and Pong and Combat were two major go to games. And the adults played those too. I lived through it and MY opinion wasnt too many games and systems...it was too many clones and too many CRAP games. An atari game in 1978 cost 30 dollars...thirty......that would have bought you new jeans, cheap shoes and some groceries. And no one wanted to buy a game and end up hating it. And no one willing to trade for it. Atari was flooded with crap games. Then Nintendo put a seal of approval on their games...basically promising them to be good games. They built consumer confidence back up.