The Most Important Moments in Gaming - 1980s
The Most Important Moments in Gaming
The 1980s were a pivotal decade for the video game industry as it began to slowly escape the niche and enter the mainstream. The decade was a roller coaster of change, from the rise of Atari to the 1983 North American crash to the rise of Nintendo. Here are twelve of the most important moments in that decade, whether it’s a video game, a moment in a game, or a company decision.
12 - Easter Egg
The 1980 game Adventure is an early pioneer in what today would be best described as a single-player adventure game (I mean, the name is right there). However, what really makes Adventure stand out in history is its place as the first easter egg placed in a game, which was actually done as a bit of a defiant act. Now, technically, this is not the first video game with an easter egg, but it was the first well-known and set a precedent for more to come. What it really was, was developer Warren Robinett’s middle finger to Atari management for refusing to credit his name in the game, as Atari wanted their games to be known simply for the name of the company. In a secret room, players found Warren’s credit, and it became instant history. It was also a major focal point of the novel and film Ready Player One.
11 - Taking the Ball and Going Home
Atari had strict control over credit and games made by their developers, something that began to rub many in the company the wrong way. Many of these talents started to feel unappreciated, and Atari’s new management after their sale to Warner Communications didn’t help. A group of five had enough and rebelled. David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Jim Levy left and founded Activision. Since they knew the ins and outs of the Atari system, they had no problem releasing games for the hardware without having to release their own console. This set many of the precedents companies use with consoles they don’t manufacture today. While Activision is owned by Microsoft, a console manufacturer, today, they set the standards for the many console third-party companies to come.
10 - Samus Takes the Helmet Off
Metroid, released in 1986, was clearly inspired by the Alien movie and several sci-fi films of the previous decades. The game established part of the genre we now call metroidvania, focusing on atmosphere, exploration, and power-ups. In the 1980s, we were in the action movie star era, dominated by big muscular men who basically blew everything up on screen. When players took on the role of Samus, the character hid under a power suit of armor and blasted their way through Zebes. If enough completion was reached, players were then treated to Samus taking off the helmet to reveal that Samus was... a woman?! This doesn’t sound like much today, but this is considered by many to be one of the first twists in video game history. In an era of men saving princesses, Samus established herself as a badass and remains to this day one of the most iconic female video game characters.
9 - Overnight Emergency
When Miyamoto and his team began work on The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo had high hopes for the new adventure title. It was created and inspired by many of Miyamoto’s childhood memories of his hikes. The game just needed that main theme as players explored Hyrule, and there was one man perfect to do it - Koji Kondo. Kondo had become a staple at Nintendo and was already forming a stacked lineup of great scores for the company. The night before the deadline to submit the overworld theme, Kondo found himself facing an issue. He had planned to use Maurice Ravel’s Boléro but learned it was not in the public domain as he originally thought. So, in a quick overnight emergency, Kondo put together the score for the overworld map, which would go on to become the main theme of the soon-to-be iconic franchise. This not only helped begin the critically successful run of the Zelda franchise but established Kondo as one of the greatest composers in all of gaming.
8 - And You Make a Video Game and then - BOOM!
Looking to make a premier sports game, Trip Hawkins and his new company Electronic Arts sought the legendary coach and commentator John Madden for help on a football video game. Despite not knowing anything about games, Madden became heavily involved in the project. The development took much longer than expected as he wanted the game to be as realistic as possible. The coach imagined this as a game that could teach non-fans about the sport. Many in the industry called it “Trip’s Folly” as they expected the game to fail. However, John Madden Football would release in 1988 and begin a run as the biggest sports video game franchise in the United States. Madden gained a legacy with gamers, not just football fans, and Hawkins and EA laughed all the way to the bank after many doubted them.
7 - The Warriors of Light
For a long time, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s dream was to make an RPG inspired by games such as Ultima and Wizardry. However, Square had no interest in the genre due to a perception that they didn’t sell well. Dragon Quest changed all that as the success of the title finally gave Square a reason to approve a Sakaguchi RPG. Sakaguchi was thought of as an unsuccessful creator, so the name Final Fantasy was partially a joke that it was his final chance at making a successful game. The team used elements from the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons games to put together their battle systems and rules. They were able to use Square’s successful composer, Nobuo Uematsu, who would go on to become one of gaming’s most celebrated composers. After release, Final Fantasy would prove a success and was just the start for the most famous RPG in the industry’s history, spanning beloved characters, music, and worlds that are still being enjoyed today.
6 - Taking on a Super Power
Henk Rogers promised Nintendo he could deliver the perfect video game to come packaged with their upcoming Game Boy handheld system, but in order to deliver, he would have to take on a superpower. Right as the Cold War was coming to a close, Nintendo sought out the rights to a popular game made by Russian Alexey Pajitnov. Rogers flew to the Soviet Union and had to deal with another company trying to take the rights, Mirrorsoft, owned by Robert Maxwell. It was rough, and it got dicey, but Rogers gained the trust of Alexey and secured the rights to Tetris for the NES and Game Boy. The game was packaged for the new system and helped sell it like hotcakes.
5 - Saving Barbie
Tom Kalinske spent the 1980s with Mattel, continuing the success he had in the previous decade by saving the Barbie brand. After helping create the Flintstones vitamins, he caught the eye of Mattel when he successfully debated the powerful Senator Margaret Chase Smith in a congressional hearing. When Barbie creator Ruth Handler asked him what he would do to save Barbie, he responded that the secret to Barbie is that she could be whatever she wanted to be. The brand was going through a rough period as the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s made the doll feel passé.
Tom, however, embraced the message that Barbie could be anything, finding a perfect balance between the more traditional dolls and the new independent thinking of women and their daughters. Barbie dolls released with all kinds of different occupations and expansions, becoming an empowering image for little girls. So why is this important to gaming? Well, Kalinske saving Barbie made him the target of Sega of America, which saw him as what they needed to help their new Genesis system take on the seemingly unstoppable Nintendo. He eventually joined, and the rest is history.
4 - Get A Real Job
A recent graduate, Shigeru Miyamoto, dreamed of drawing and playing the guitar. His dad, however, wasn’t too keen on this idea and wanted him to get a “real” career. Using his connections, he was able to land his son a job interview at Nintendo. Knowing the reputation of their president , Miyamoto showed up in casual clothes, hoping he might not get the job, but the toy concepts he presented were enough for him to be hired anyway. Then, Nintendo had a problem; their new arcade title to enter the video game market, Radarscope, had bombed. Needing to sell the remaining cabinets, he was surprisingly picked by his boss to make a game. Working with his mentor, Gunpei Yokoi, he created a game about an escape monkey who had taken his owner’s pet. He called it... Donkey Kong. The game was a hit and would be the start of one of the most important careers in history.
3 - King Kong Ain’t Got Nothing on Me!
Universal Pictures was not a fan of the massively popular Donkey Kong. They saw it as a copy of their classic 1933 film, King Kong. So, they sued the Japanese company. Knowing they were the underdogs, the company sought the services of Howard Lincoln, who put Jack Kirby on the case. Kirby was able to successfully argue in Nintendo’s favor, handing the company a win against the motion picture giant. For his work, they would eventually honor Jack by naming a future character of theirs Kirby. The case secured the Donkey Kong concept and characters, preventing Nintendo from going back to the drawing board, potentially saving Mario from being shelved.
2 - The 1983 North American Video Game Crash
The video game industry was heating up extremely fast in the early 1980s. Atari had become the first mainstream video game brand, and the games and hardware were flowing in North America. It all came to an end in a dramatic way during the holiday season of 1982. Rushed to meet demand and to get as close to the movie’s release as possible, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was released for the holiday season and bombed in critical reviews. Many parents who had picked the game up for their children were disillusioned and returned it. This was the first domino for the industry as trust in Atari and games took a nosedive. The industry shrank from $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100 million in 1985, a massive 97% plummet from its peak. Video games seemed like a fad, and the party was over. With many unsold games, the cartridges would be buried in the Alamogordo, New Mexico desert, which remained open to debate until an excavation in 2014 proved it.
The 1983 North American Video Game Crash has come under scrutiny recently. Many now point out that it was more of an Atari crash rather than an industry crash, and computer games and arcades were still fine. We also never factor in the 1982-1983 double-dip recession, which saw unemployment reach nearly 11% and saw popular President Ronald Reagan’s worst job approvals. Still, however you see it, the crash is still a very important part of the industry’s history.
1 - The Son-in-Law
Nintendo had successfully launched their Family Computer System in Japan, most commonly known as the Famicom. The company now looked to get it to the Americas and originally had a deal to have Atari manufacture the American version. However, the crash happened, and that plan fell apart. Many in Japan thought video games were done for in the States, and Nintendo had to tread lightly. Ultimately, they went ahead with the plan and established Nintendo of America. Yamauchi sent his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa. Arakawa and a team that included Howard Lincoln, Gail Tilden, Lance Barr, and others had to find a way to sell the new system to a region that may not be interested in video games anymore. The hardware team went through many pains trying to create a more western-friendly aesthetic, and the system was temporarily called the Advance Video System (AVS). By the end, they created a system that was supposed to feel like the future with a front-loading tray similar to cassette and VHS players, and they redesigned the system’s colors around a grey aesthetic with stripes of black.
Many retailers were apprehensive about taking on a new video game system in their inventory. Looking to take a risk, unbeknownst to his father-in-law, Arakawa told retailers Nintendo would buy back in full any unsold systems, which would lead to wasted money if that did happen. They also packaged an interactive toy, R.O.B. the Robot, to add value and called it an entertainment system rather than a video game system. Arakawa decided to sell only in New York City for the holiday launch of 1985, believing in the old saying that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. It worked! The team sat outside a store and watched as the first units left the store. The NES slowly but surely gained popularity, and the modern video game console era had begun. The son-in-law’s risk paid off.