A History of Computer Games: The Plumber is Nigh

Keira Peney

Posted on Mon 10 Dec 2007 by Keira Peney under History .
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Super MarioSo, the market is flooded with cheap spin-offs, crap movie tie-ins, and the same-old games with a few pixels moved around. The Atari was traded in for a Commodore. The Commodore was used for doing taxes and homework. The novelty had worn off. Sure, some people still played games, but it was nothing like the mania that had greeted Pong or Space Invaders. The companies themselves, over-confident, had blown their budgets on producing these mediocre games. In addition, games consoles tend to decline in their fifth year - one of the reasons behind the “Next Gen” consoles.

Stores can’t cope with the sheer number of releases - they don’t have the shelf space, and they return unwanted products to the manufacturers. These companies couldn’t afford to repay the retailers. Hundreds of games companies went into bankruptcy. Retailers decided the “video game fad” was over, and refused to carry any at all.

Even in this dark time there was one outstanding success. Dragon’s Lair, the first video game to be produced on laser disk, and the first game to have “movie quality” animated cut scenes - courtesy of Disney. In the arcades, Dragon’s Lair cost twice as much as a regular game. Did they pay? Yes indeed.

For most American companies however, the game was well and truly over, no sequels and no comebacks.

Did it affect the gamer? This is a more debatable question. Certainly, businesses lost money. But there were still games - cheap games - and personal computers were on the rise. For two years the market floundered in bargain bins and garage sales. Then, in 1985, Mario arrived.

Or rather, the NES arrived. Initially Nintendo wanted to release it via Atari, but Atari - perhaps wary of a console market that had gone to ruin - declined. So Nintendo did it themselves, releasing the NES alongside eighteen new games. (For Europe and Australia, the NES came a few years later — and never sold anywhere near as well as it did in Japan and North America.)

Hello Super Mario Bros.

Hello to the side-scrolling platform game, and to Japan. Super Mario Bros was the best selling game ever. By far. Check out the wikipedia list of best-selling games. See Super Mario Bros? Astounding figure, and definitely puts Halo 3 into perspective.

The plumber, the princess, the brother and King Koopa. What did this game have? Every aspect has been praised: the precision controls, the huge worlds, the storyline! In an article at IGN it says the storyline came first, and the game was designed around it. This is, folks, an important thing to remember. Story matters.

What else does the IGN article say? Well, it says Mario’s iconic look was created by graphical limitations. That Shigeru came up with such original ideas because he wasn’t a gamer, and he wasn’t confined by the limits of what people ‘expected’ from games.

If there is one thing we can learn from the crash, and the subsequent Nintendo success it is this: derivative, lazy, over-produced games suck, and creative, outside-the-box games rock. Whodathunkit?

The games industry was saved. Hurrah! But Japan was the source of our best games - and Japan’s influence would remain a huge part of gaming culture.

The Full History

A History of Computer Games: The Early Years
A History of Video Games: The Golden Years
A History of Computer Games: The Plumber is Nigh
A History of Video Games: The Commercial Years
A History of Computer Games: The Strategic Years
A History of Video Games: The Multiplayer Years

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6 Responses to “A History of Computer Games: The Plumber is Nigh

evan Says:
December 11th, 2007 at 5:43 am

Of Japan’s influence, lets note whether if it’s their game dev process or their creative capacity to be innovative, or their whole culture period. :)

Thanks again for the comment, :D

Keira Peney Says:
December 11th, 2007 at 8:10 am

evan - good question. I would think it was probably all of the above. I think their culture impacts the way they approach storytelling… which impacts they way they approach game dev. Something like that? I think you’ve given me an idea for my next post!

History Games Says:
December 17th, 2007 at 3:11 am

[...] A History of Computer Games: The Plumber is Nigh [...]

Write the Game » A History of Video Games: The Commercial Years Says:
December 17th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

[...] my last installment of this potted history of computer games, I talked about Nintendo, and how, by bringing Mario to North America, they rescued the console [...]

rdcifeg pdmacfe Says:
July 11th, 2008 at 10:26 pm

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Jane Johnson Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

Has anyone else feel like the global downturn has hurt the board industry?

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