How Severe was The Video Game Crash of 1977?

[+GoldLeader]

Yeah I was really gonna say.. Not talking about arcades, but wtf consumer home video game market was there really in 1976 to even "crash" in 1977, aside from the pong clones?

 

Just look at any Sears or JCPenny christmas catalog at that time as those are generally good indicators of the flagship toys & products.

 

In the 1976 catalog it's a sad friggin single front page item next to a pleather jacket.

image1.jpg

 

 

 

OMG! I have Almost that exact Jacket!!

 

I thought it was identical so I just looked...Nope! On mine the pockets are angled instead of straight...So close!

 

 

 

Anyway (and I could be wrong) but I think video games were a real esoteric, niche product at the time. Video game magazines were still years away. Sales went up and down the way they would on almost anything else...Model cars, for instance...And I'm not denying there was a crash, but other than this thread, I've never heard of one.

[+GoldLeader]

 

At 8 years old (i.e. 1977) I don't fully recall tbh.. but that picture is from half a decade later.. 1982, and I know EXACTLY what my interests were that time and it started with an A and ended with an I.

 

 

Alien BootI ?

 

 

 

Sorry ...It's not even spelled right....Haaa I got nothing.

[mr_me]

There were many companies and jobs involved in the pong crash. Companies like URL Action Systems, GHP Wonder Wizard, First Dimension, Executive Games, Heathkit, Ricochet, to name a few; plus more in europe. APF was one of the largest pong manufacturers and attempted to transition to computer games. Coleco was forced out of video games for a few years.

 

In 1978, when people started playing Space Invaders in the arcades, pong was no longer the same.

Edited April 11, 2019 by mr_me

[christo930]

I didn't know it was 77, but I did know the market got completely flooded with Pong machines that were all essentially the same that could play pong in 5 different ways.

 

At 8 years old (i.e. 1977) I don't fully recall tbh.. but that picture is from half a decade later.. 1982, and I know EXACTLY what my interests were that time and it started with an A and ended with an I.

 

I was also 8 during 1977 and I had a bunch of electromechanical toys. I had the Marx Shooting Gallery, Hit and Missile, Digital Derby, Blip and I think that was the year my dad picked up a pong unit. Slot racers and hot wheels... Though I loved video games later on, I was always fascinated with electromechanical toys/games. Maybe that's why.

 

I don't think I ever even heard of Atari until 79 or 80 when one of the kids up the block had a machine that could play Space Invaders.

[atarilovesyou]

Are millenials making up history again?

 

What "crash of 77"?

 

Too funny.

[Keatah]

They are.

[hwrd]

I first remember reading about the pong clone crash in some magazine in the summer of '82.

[zzip]

Are millenials making up history again?

 

What "crash of 77"?

 

Too funny.

 

What, you don't remember the "Jaws" Pong game that was so bad that everybody stopped buying Pong consoles overnight???

[JBerel]

So, can we then agree that the title of this thread be..."how severe was the pong crash of 1977?"

[digdugnate]

i can't help but think we've seen this thread before.