Episode 125: The Video Game Crash of 1983

[Flack]

(Apparently I forgot to do this last week.)

Episode 125 is Online.

On this episode of You Don’t Know Flack I talk about the Video Game Crash of 1983: what caused it, and why Imissed it.

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[fergojisan]

I also missed it. I had moved on by then, I started high school in 84 and I had started playing in a band that summer. I was trying to get a girlfriend too. I remember going to the local Pathmark (a local supermarket) and seeing 2600 games for 99 cents. I didn't buy any. I remember the KayBee Toys in the mall, with the table out front stacked high with 2600 games. I didn't buy any of those either. When I started working at KayBee in 1991, I remember throwing out a couple of storage boxes full of brand new Atari cartridges (I discovered later they were most likely XE and 7800 games). That's the thing that makes me sad, those games I still would have now. Oh well.

[AArdvark]

We stood in line for about an hour for the new Pac-man release for the 2600. Couldn't believe it was $39.99 almost left right then. My friend bought it though. Couldn't believe how crappy it was when we plugged it in to the console.

[Flack]

I also missed it. I had moved on by then, I started high school in 84 and I had started playing in a band that summer. I was trying to get a girlfriend too. I remember going to the local Pathmark (a local supermarket) and seeing 2600 games for 99 cents. I didn't buy any. I remember the KayBee Toys in the mall, with the table out front stacked high with 2600 games. I didn't buy any of those either. When I started working at KayBee in 1991, I remember throwing out a couple of storage boxes full of brand new Atari cartridges (I discovered later they were most likely XE and 7800 games). That's the thing that makes me sad, those games I still would have now. Oh well.

I'm a couple of years younger than you (I'll be 40 this August) but I remember similar experiences. I remember going to some drug store and seeing big crates of Atari games for sale for $4.99 or less. I remember seeing piles of those silver-boxed Atari games for $2.99 or so.

We used to have a second hand computer software store here in town. I went there one time and found a box full of copies of Activision's Dolphin for the 2600 for 99 cents each. I think I bought one or two but in this post eBay world I would have bought them all and resold them for $2 or something.

[RUP]

Excellent podcast Flack! I was 12 in 1983 and I didn't realize what was going on. I do remember buying Atari 5200 carts at Boscov's (a local department store) in a ziplock style bags with photocopied 1 page instruction manuals!