History of Video Games - Part 3
Have You Played Atari Today?
Catch up on the Series
The New Hire
On November 16, 1952, Shigeru Miyamoto was born. Miyamoto developed an active imagination that led him to explore the Kyoto countryside as a child. He would put ideas in his head while exploring, such as seeing himself unlocking new areas when stepping into caves. These childhood moments would become influential in his life and work.
Miyamoto graduated with a degree in industrial design. He developed a love for manga and wanted to become a manga artist. He also learned to play the guitar and loved to play it. His father wasn’t the biggest fan of his son hoping to play guitar or be a manga artist and talked to his connections at Nintendo to get him a job interview. Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi was a strict, button-down, no-nonsense guy. Despite this, Miyamoto showed up with toys he created in his spare time and reportedly wasn’t dressed for the occasion. However, he must’ve made an impression because he was hired.
He became a designer and artist for many of the company’s ambitions, including providing the art for the coin-operated game Sheriff. Nintendo was trying to break into the North American video game market and launched Radar Scope. It was similar to Space Invaders and Galaxian. However, the game was a commercial failure in the States, triggering a crisis for Nintendo of America, which was a reasonably new subsidiary as the company began to expand its operations beyond Japan. With no one else to turn to, Yamauchi would go to Miyamoto and ask him to make something in hopes of salvaging the leftover cabinets they needed to turn a profit. Despite no experience, Shigeru Miyamoto (with Gunpei Yokoi supervising) would need to help Nintendo make a hit video game. The story of Miyamoto and Nintendo’s modern video game legend was about to begin.
The Birth of PC Gaming
Something I forgot to talk about in Part 2 of the series was the origins of what today we call PC gaming. That’s because I never found out about BASIC computer games until after. It shows how much is in danger of being lost to time in the industry. Throughout the 1960s, many used mainframe computers in institutions to make text-based simple games. While most of these games would be specially coded for specific computers, many would be converted to the computer language BASIC.
In 1971, David H. Ahl began to port a few of these games to the BASIC language. His first two games were Hamurabi and Lunar Lander. They became a hit after he published the language in the educational newsletter EDU. He asked for submissions and got a bunch from high school students. He went on to publish the book 101 BASIC Computer Games, which contained the games he gathered. Hobbyists with the first microcomputers began to use the book to get the games on their computers. It would go on to become the first million copies selling computer book.
Many would use this book and subsequent others to play these games on their computers. This led to some early pre-console era consequential titles such as Star Trek, Lunar Lander, Civil War, Empire, and many others. Today, PC gaming is just as significant as console gaming, and it all started with BASIC computer games.
The Rise of the Video Game Console
The Magnavox Odyssey was a failure. It may have come out before its time, and the market was not ready for a dedicated video game console in the early 70s. However, that didn’t stop many companies from trying to deliver the first truly successful video game system for the home. Despite the golden era of arcade gaming taking off, many hoped to establish a home console that would print money. Many would come and become cult classics among gamers while also getting us steps closer to today’s industry.
The first one that challenged Magnavox was the Fairchild Channel F. Developed by Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, the system is famous for being the first to use ROM cartridges as a medium for consumers to buy games. With the breakthrough of microprocessors, Fairchild funded and licensed the product, initially a prototype made by Alpex Computer Corporation employees Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel. The system launched in November 1976. It would go on to be a flop, and even after Zircon International bought the rights and launched the Channel F II, it could never really compete against what would become the juggernaut Atari VCS. Despite its failure, the system has become a cult classic in many gamers’ minds, and many now credit Jerry Lawson for his work in the industry and for being the first prominent African-American figure in the industry.
Mattel, the same company that would become the world’s most famous toy company and the creator of Barbie, wanted to get into the new video game industry. They quickly began work on hoping to be the first successful home video game console. This was the first system a significant corporation spearheaded, compared to the small team start-ups that made the previous systems. In 1979, at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Mattel debuted the Intellivision and aimed to be Atari’s main rival. Aiming for a big Christmas season push, the company got the system in JC Penny catalogs. By mid-1980, the system launched nationwide.
Despite its high price, the system would be the closest rival to Atari. Mattel would use its marketing power and focus on superior graphics over the Atari VCS. The system even sold over a million units in its second full year. Eventually, the console proved no match for Atari, and the system would become a casualty of the 1983 North American Video Game Crash. However, there would be an Intellivision II and III to build from the brand.
Mattel sold the brand to the newly created INTV Corporation, made by investors and former employees who wanted to keep the platform going. They would discontinue hardware by 1990 as the company started making games for Nintendo and Sega systems. Today, the system (like the Fairchild Channel F) has a cult following among gamers. Mattel made many first-party titles for the system, such as Night Stalker, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Astrosmash, and more. It also had some famous games from the era, like Centipede, Defender, Pac-Man, and even Nintendo’s own Donkey Kong.
Another well-known early video game platform was the ColecoVision by Coleco, a company famous for Cabbage Patch dolls. The system’s most successful legacy would be landing the first home console variant of Donkey Kong. Originally, Nintendo President Yamauchi had promised the American rights to Atari, but ColecoVision engineer Eric Bromley talked to Yamauchi’s daughter at a CES event and convinced them to pick the ColecoVision instead. This is yet another system that found a couple million units of success and had some great graphics for the time but couldn’t compete with Atari. Like the others, this is also a system with a cult following.
There would be many other consoles as companies scratched and clawed to establish space in the new industry. Magnavox came out with the Odyssey II, Bally Arcade had the Astrocade, and, as mentioned before, there were several clone Pong-like systems for the home. There was even a system that used vector-type graphics in a built-in display, arguably making it the first portable video game system. Last but not least was none other than Nintendo! The company released the Color TV-Game systems in Japan, each model with a unique experience. They also had the Game & Watch LCD-based portable systems with several different versions. This was no match for the first major brand in the gaming industry – Atari.
Have You Played Atari Today?
Pong put Atari on the map. From then on, the company became one of the big names in arcade gaming. However, Nolan Bushnell wanted to make a bigger impact and have something to sell with more long-term value than a couple of minutes in an arcade shop. He looked to the new home video game console concept and began work on his own, which they codenamed Project Stella.
Atari was able to get the new microprocessor from MOS Technology, the 6507 to power the system. Atari game developers were brought into the project to advise. Bushnell got advice from Gene Landrum, who previously helped consult for the creation of the Fairchild Channel F. It was he who would give the tip to Atari to use what would become its iconic wood-grain finish to fit a device that would make sense in the average living room. Needing more financial backing to make the console come to market, Atari eventually sold itself to Warner Communications in 1976 for $28 million (about $150 million in 2023).
"Idiot proof, child proof and effective in resisting potential static [electricity] problems in a living room environment." - Gene Landrum explains how to make a game cartridge
In September 1977, Project Stella was released as the Atari Video Computer System, also known as the Atari VCS. At a $199 price (close to $1,000 in 2023), it still had the issue of being expensive for normal everyday consumers that all the other consoles had. The system sold slowly but surely as it dropped in price and added major new games. The console’s first true must-have title was the home console version of Taito’s Space Invaders. The system began to enter the American consciousness and became the first successful video game console platform and brand, becoming a huge Christmas list item. The video game market, as we know it today, was here.
With the success of Atari, which quickly became THE brand people thought of when talking about home video games, came the birth of third-party developers. Companies were created aiming at releasing games for the Atari VCS and its eventual rivals like the already mentioned ColecoVision and Intellivision. Some Atari game designers began to notice how little they would get paid while their games would make Warner Communications millions.
Four designers specifically were the most vocal and wanted to get recognition for game developers. When Atari CEO Ray Kassar belittled them and basically said anyone could make a game, the four left and created a new company. David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Jim Levy would create Activision, which would go on to become one of the biggest third-party companies in the industry (well… before Microsoft paid nearly $70 billion for them). This led to others who put out games and helped launch many classics of the era.
In the early 80s, after some struggles in the first few years, Atari was becoming unstoppable. In 1982, the company acquired the console version of Pac-Man, and it would go on to become Atari’s best-selling game. This would be the peak of Atari, as the VCS system was down to $125 ($399 in 2023) to buy, and the system had reached over 15 million sold worldwide. 1982 was also the year Atari released the Atari 5200, a slightly upgraded system, which led to the VCS being softly rebranded to the Atari 2600, a name that has stuck ever since. With the game market expanding and entering a boom period, it was time for its most iconic character to make his debut. So we come back to where we started Part 3.
Jump Man
Radar Scope was a failure in North America. Nintendo’s American division found itself in financial ruin. Minoru Arakawa, the company president’s own son-in-law, was President of Nintendo of America and asked his father-in-law for help. Yamauchi then asked for game concepts from his employees and eventually landed on one of his more inexperienced and new employees, Shigeru Miyamoto.
At the time, the company was hoping to make a game on the American cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man. Miyamoto was a fan of the character and was hoping to make a game around it. However, they didn’t have the license yet, and it was decided to move ahead. Instead, he would use Popeye as an inspiration and create his own three characters. Bluto would be replaced by a gorilla, the main character’s escaped pet. Olive Oyl was replaced by the girlfriend of the protagonist. Last but not least, Popeye was replaced by a carpenter. As for the gorilla, his name would be Donkey Kong. The name was chosen as Miyamoto wanted to convey a “silly ape,” and Kong was a Japanese slang word for monkey (plus, of course, there was King Kong). This was the first game ever made with a plot thought out of before the gameplay.
The game would play with Jump Man trying to get to the top of a building to save the girl. The player jumps and avoids barrels that Donkey Kong is throwing. A hammer was added as an optional item that would help the player. There were other design ideas that would later be used when Nintendo finally did get the license to Popeye and made a game. Miyamoto even came up with ways to hide small details, such as giving the carpenter a hat so when he fell from being hit, they didn’t have to program his hair sticking out from the gravity of the fall.
The game was sent off to Nintendo of America. It was immediately looked down on, and many in the company didn’t see it becoming a hit. But, Arakawa believed in the game and thought it would save the American division. When it came time to translate the game, the American staff named the two human characters. The girlfriend was called Pauline, named after Polly James, the wife of warehouse manager Don James. The original version of the game called the main character Jump Man. However, it was Arakawa who named him Mario after the landlord of the building they were in, Mario Segale. So with that, Donkey Kong was released.
The game was a hit. Arcade cabinets couldn’t be shipped fast enough. The home console versions that would hit ColecoVision and eventually Atari were massive sellers for the consoles, especially ColecoVision, who used the game as a killer app and helped sell systems. Some early gaming magazines called it the game of the year. Shigeru Miyamoto, in his very first game, had created a phenomenon. What many didn’t realize was the long-term impact the game would have.
The game entered legal problems thanks to Universal suing Nintendo over what they felt was the likeness to King Kong. Nintendo used the legal services of Howard Lincoln, who would hire John Kirby to defend the company in court. Nintendo won the battle due to the character of King Kong being successfully argued by Kirby as a part of the public domain. Lincoln would later join Nintendo and help Arakawa build the modern video game industry and much of the first decade+ of the company’s entry into the video game console space. As for John Kirby, the company thanked him for his services by giving him a sailboat called the Donkey Kong. His name was also used to name one of their future popular characters and franchises, Kirby.
As for Shigeru Miyamoto, this was only the beginning. Donkey Kong put him on the map, and he was now Nintendo’s most valuable game designer. The character of Donkey Kong would become a household name. As for the protagonist Jump Man, or Mario, he would become a household name a few years later but would surpass Donkey Kong to become the most famous and recognizable video game character in the history of the medium. Nintendo, the first of what today is known as the “big three,” had arrived.
The Coming Fall
With Atari and video games entering American homes, many wondered if this was just a fad or a new entertainment medium. That test would come sooner than expected as the first big boom in the industry would be quickly followed by a catastrophic event, the 1983 North American Video Game Crash. The crash would challenge the viability of gaming and create many opinion makers calling video games a passing toy that had finished. Atari’s dominance would end, and stores would no longer want to sell video games. But Hiroshi Yamauchi had other ideas. In Part Four, we take a look at the fall of the industry and the rise of Nintendo.
ARTICLE SOURCE LINKS
Atari - Wikipedia
Shigeru Miyamoto - Wikipedia
Donkey Kong (arcade game) - Wikipedia
ColecoVision - Wikipedia
Intellivision - Wikipedia
Fairchild Channel F - Wikipedia
Second generation of video game consoles - Wikipedia
BASIC Computer Games - Wikipedia