I'm kind of surprised we never saw these kids play Atari, ColecoVision or Intellivision. Or at least play an arcade game somewhere.
I'm kind of surprised we never saw these kids play Atari
I'm sure we will. One of them got an Atari for Christmas.
If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)
Video games weren't the cultural phenomena they are now. When the Atari 2600 came out, it was retailing for $199, adjusting for inflation and the value of the dollar, that would be almost 800 bucks today. Not sure if you noticed, but most of the kids on this show are not from well to do families.
The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/
That is a good point.
If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)
When the Atari 2600 came out, it was retailing for $199, adjusting for inflation and the value of the dollar, that would be almost 800 bucks today. Not sure if you noticed, but most of the kids on this show are not from well to do families.
King_of_bob-Your fucking kidding me right saying:Video games weren't the cultural phenomena they are now. Ummmm PC's like IBM, Apple, Amiga, Atari ST, Spectrum, Consoles like: Sega-Master System, Nintendo- NES,..........Sega-Megadrive, etc etc...Why on so many documentaries, many magazines and adverts on TV to buy them and they sold millions and just common knowledge Video Games started the cultural phenomena ....WTF you talking about
shareI know, back in the 80s, the original Super Mario Bros came out! They could've been playing that. Along with pac man, Tetris, etc
shareSuper mario bros was out in 1986. I think these kids are around during 1983. They'd be playing frogger, qbert and other kinds of games. The better version of pacman was out by 1983.
shareYou have to understand that you might have seen some Ataris around in those days but home consoles just didn't explode until the NES. Arcades like we see in season 2 were still a thing even in the early 1990s, and they were certainly much more versatile and enjoyable than much of what came out for Atari. Until NES hit its stride, arcade boxes had consistently better graphics, better audio, high scores to compare with friends AND strangers, and the controls were at least as good and often better than an Atari could muster.
shareyea but those were late 70s prices home video games had been around since like 1977. By 1983 the industry was already getting saturated with video games. Games were selling for 5 bucks back in those days as the video game market was crashing. Alot of us kids that weren't in the upper middle class were first exposed to video games during this era. Games like river raid, Galaxian, Donkey kong, A better version of pacman(, the dreaded ET game, frogger and many other games well beyond pong were out that year. I had an atari 400 back then and not a 2600. It was a great time for video game consumers back then but them poof. The game market crashed and we had to wait till 1986 when the 8bit nintendo slowly started reviving the game industry. Video games were a lot cooler by then. We'd never seen games long like super mario brothers most video games we'd seen were single screen games like frogger and qbert.
These kids in the movie should be playing video games as video games were cheap and every where in 1983.
We might see them run away from it or something in season 2, but im not really surprised some kids didnt play any video games while their best bud was lost in some supernatural mystery thriller of a story.
shareI know when my best friend went missing all I wanted to do is play Mario Kart 64 and Golden Eye.
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We didn't see them watch TV or play Dungeons & Dragons between the beginning and end of the season, for the same reason they weren't playing video games. With all the crazy stuff happening, their best friend disappearing and Eleven showing up, they had more important shit to worry about! Would an obligatory scene of the boys playing Space Invaders on Atari have added anything to the series? No. It would've been pure nostalgia filler.
sharePoor families or not, 1983 was a little late for the "golly gee...an Atari 2600!" reaction shown in this series. The young Duffer brothers hoped that nobody would notice.
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You are absolutely correct. By 1983 the video game industry was going through a crash. The Atari system was already on the decline. 1980-81 were the peak years to want an Atari for Christmas.
sharePoor families or not, 1983 was a little late for the "golly gee...an Atari 2600!" reaction shown in this series.
I was 14 years old in back in 1983 and while many of us had Atari or something else, we spent the majority of our time outside be adventurous or mischievous. Also, arcades were much more fun than Atari. We used to walk down the railroad tracks into town to get to the closet arcade. Occasionally we got lucky and a train would roll by and we would hop it for a quick ride.Good ole days.
shareArcades were more fun than Atari because we could meet girls there.
Pizza places, the DQ, and the arcades were major meeting places for teens in the 1980s.
The fictional town of Hawkins (aside from the lab) is a blue collar town. $200 was a lot to plunk down for a toy. It's not that surprising that many kids wouldn't have an Atari. Plus not everyone's parents wanted a video game console in their home. My own family didn't have one in 1983 either, not because we couldn't afford it but because my parents were afraid we'd be glued to the damn thing and no homework would get done. We were the last people on our street to get cable too.
Around 1983, video games were on the decline because the novelty had worn off and they were still too repetitive. Nintendo and Sega began their revival in the early 90's, when memory and processing capacity allowed for longer and more involved games to be created. But Christmas of '83 would've been the first year you could get an Atari or Intellivision console cheap - and the game cartridges were coming down in price at the same time. Joyce Byers doesn't exactly look like she's rolling in dough.
Or at least the 1985 version of Super Mario Brothers the original
shareChrisjdel-That was for consoles the computer crash-Not for PC'S though
shareMy family is far from rich. I don't really remember it, but we had an Atari 2600 around this time. My mom loved the PacMan games and my older sister somewhat did as well. Hell I think my Mom was the main gamer in our family until like 1991. We got a Nintendo I think in 88 or 89 when I was about 6. I know my friends and I played the games, but we also still really enjoyed going outside and doing stuff.
I can't remember if I got my Genesis in 92 or 93, but that was the start of when the video game consoles were no longer a "family" thing in my house. That was the first console that was strictly in my room and even still that would be something that got more play at night than during the days. As again my friends and I still preferred being outside until it was time to come in. And then if it was a weekend or something we'd start playing video games at night during sleepovers and stuff.