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00:00Where did you find the NES for Nintendo Switch?
00:04Welcome to Mojo Plays and welcome to Part 2 of our journey through gaming time.
00:09Over the coming weeks, we're going to be looking at the complete history of console gaming.
00:13And after our breakdown of the 60s and 70s in Part 1, we're ready to jump straight into the 80s.
00:18No time to catch you all up, so if you missed Part 1, make sure to check it out.
00:21Link's in the description below.
00:23If I miss anything important, let me know in the comments.
00:25Before we continue, we publish content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get
00:31notified of our latest videos.
00:39We've just left the 70s with three massive changes to the industry.
00:44Atari released the Atari 2600, made home consoles what they are.
00:48Taito dropped Space Invaders at arcades.
00:50Namco dropped Pac-Man.
00:51And the gaming world was booming.
00:53But in 1981, things went from booming to barreling.
00:57Nintendo introduced Mario in the game Donkey Kong.
01:00Two names more familiar than the Pope's.
01:02Honestly, what is the Pope's name?
01:03It's Italian, probably. Sounds Italian.
01:06And by 1982, arcade games were making more money than movies and music combined.
01:11A feat that has never been achieved by any other entertainment industry.
01:14Including Bop-Its.
01:16Thanks to this video game boon, home consoles were ready to get hot.
01:20The previously mentioned Atari 2600 was still dominating living rooms five years on.
01:26And this obviously meant that competitors wanted a piece of that very profitable pie.
01:31Therefore, other companies started cooking up their own home consoles.
01:34The Magnavox Odyssey 2 dropped sales of 2 million, improving sound design.
01:39Mattel dropped their own console, the Intellivision, to 3 million fans, offering more realistic games.
01:45And even Coleco popped out the ColecoVision to 2 million, simply improving the power of home gaming to match arcades.
01:52Arcade games like Donkey Kong Jr.
01:54Looping.
01:54Pepper 2.
01:55Time Pilot.
01:56Mr. Do.
01:57Space Fury.
01:58Frontline.
01:59Home consoles came by the bucket load.
02:01These three were very popular, but other consoles included the Bandai SuperVision 8000, Atari 5200, something called the Cassette Vision.
02:09And even that sold half a million units.
02:11It was a massive influx for the industry.
02:14But there was a problem.
02:15A problem that seems obvious to us now in the year 2026.
02:18Too many consoles and too many people trying to pump out games and rake in cash.
02:23Output was increased, but in order for increased output, quality control was basically non-existent.
02:29Zilch.
02:29In fact, some games were going to market basically unplayable.
02:33In the early 80s, the simple problem was there was too many bad games.
02:37The North American market became a mess.
02:40And then, 1983.
02:45Hello?
02:46Somebody out there?
02:53E.T.
02:55Video game?
02:56This was the year it all collapsed.
02:58The year that the industry was almost wiped off the face of the earth for good.
03:03The year that turned a beloved film about a boy and an alien into a trigger for gamers of the
03:0780s.
03:07Now, don't get us wrong.
03:09E.T.
03:09The Extra Terrestrial does take a lot of the blame for the crash.
03:12And we'll talk about that soon.
03:14But don't let the hundreds of YouTubers who talk about this fool you.
03:17It's obviously a much more fun story to blame one epically terrible title.
03:21But the reality is, it's far more complicated than just one big villain.
03:25The industry was crashing hard long before E.T. had even started development.
03:31In fact, it was long before the film was released.
03:33Wow, they're too boring now.
03:35It's the same games over and over again.
03:36I used to come out and play about four or five dollars.
03:39But sometimes now, I just come out and play about one or two dollars.
03:43I don't like playing games over and over.
03:45It was 1981 and 82 when stores were flooded with low quality titles.
03:50Consumer confidence tanked.
03:52And if there actually was one big villain to blame, it wasn't E.T.
03:56It was its publisher, Atari.
03:58Atari was pumping out garbage at an Olympic pace.
04:01And with home computers like the Commodore 64 looking smarter and more versatile than any home console at the time,
04:08people were ready to let home gaming die.
04:10Now, like I said, home gaming was already in its coffin well before E.T.
04:15But every coffin does need a final nail.
04:17And when people talk about infamous gaming disasters, E.T. the Extraterrestrial is basically the finalist nail you could ever
04:23dream of.
04:24The idea sounded unstoppable on paper.
04:27After the massive success of E.T. the Extraterrestrial, the film, Atari secured the license, a huge get for the
04:35company.
04:35And they were hoping to cash in during the 1982 Christmas season.
04:39The problem? Well, Christmas is in December.
04:42You guys know that, right?
04:43And the film came out in June.
04:45That's only six months.
04:46And that's not even including waiting for the film to be popular enough to catch Atari's eye and the time
04:52spent acquiring the license.
04:53When all was said and done and the game was ready to start development, they gave programmer Howard Scott Warshaw
04:59just five weeks to design and code the entire game for the Atari 2600.
05:04Five weeks.
05:06That's about as much time as it takes to program one character's leg to move today.
05:10Warshaw built a surprisingly ambitious game involving exploration, item collection and phone assembly to call home.
05:17But confusing mechanics, especially those infamous pits, left players frustrated and pretty underwhelmed.
05:24Atari overproduced cartridges, expecting record-breaking sales for Christmas, but instead returns piled up, contributing to massive financial losses and,
05:33as some would argue, the official video game crash of 1983.
05:37There were so many unsold copies of E.T. that they were reportedly buried in a New Mexico landfill.
05:43Crazy.
05:44Companies folded, retailers panicked, and the console industry flatlined.
05:49But here's the twist and the reason why the home console maintained a quiet heartbeat.
05:55That crash was mostly an American problem.
05:58In Japan, gaming was thriving.
06:01America is very easy to centralize in our minds as Westerners, but don't forget that in that same year that
06:06the industry crashed, Nintendo launched the Famicom in Japan.
06:10And for any gaming fans of yesteryear, you know exactly how important that console was to gaming as we know
06:16it today.
06:16You can play around the game games with a new Tablet Dime.
06:27So, the home console industry crashed in the US, but arcades were still strong.
06:32Good work, arcades.
06:33Europe wasn't really panicked either.
06:35Gamers there were already deep into home computers like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64,
06:40so the console collapse didn't wipe out the scene there either,
06:43just carried on in another form as it did with arcades in the US.
06:46Globally, gaming never really died.
06:48It just respawned.
06:50In 1985, the single greatest thing to happen to gamers of the West happened.
07:03Will it be you?
07:10Will your family be the first to witness the birth of the incredible Nintendo Entertainment System?
07:19Will you be the first to see, to touch, to play with Rob, the extraordinary video robot?
07:26Nintendo brought the Famicom to North America in the redesigned form,
07:30and that form was now titled the Nintendo Entertainment System.
07:35Good lord, look at that beast.
07:37What a console.
07:38Ignoring how it feels today next to the spaceship PS5,
07:42at the time, the NES looked modern, felt reliable,
07:45and most importantly, Nintendo enforced strict quality control
07:49to prevent another flood of terrible games.
07:51And boy, did it work.
07:53The NES has some of the greatest games ever made,
07:57and actually, not that many borderline terrible ones.
07:59Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid didn't just sell systems,
08:04they defined a generation.
08:06By the late 80s, Nintendo owned living rooms worldwide,
08:10with basically no substantial competitors.
08:12But, peace never lasts long in gaming.
08:15Eventually, the Fire Nation always attacks.
08:17The Sega Master System.
08:20Hang on, hang on.
08:21With more accurate control,
08:23more detailed graphics,
08:24more levels of play.
08:25Awesome.
08:25Sega entered the fight with the Master System.
08:28But, let's not fluff it up just for the drama,
08:30they basically failed.
08:31It was an admirable fight,
08:33but they were no match for the NES.
08:35The real punch came with the 16-bit Sega Genesis.
08:39Faster gameplay, sharper graphics, cooler attitude.
08:42And in 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog showed up like a blue blur,
08:45with something to prove.
08:46This began one of the greatest constants in the industry.
08:49Competition.
08:50What Xbox is to PlayStation,
08:52Nintendo was to Sega.
08:56Nintendo's answer to the Sega Genesis,
08:58was the Super Nintendo,
08:59which was released in 1990.
09:01And it was a damn strong fighter.
09:04For years, Nintendo vs. Sega,
09:06wasn't just marketing,
09:07it was playground politics.
09:09Franchises exploded in popularity.
09:11Street Fighter 2 ruled fighting games.
09:14Mortal Kombat pushed violence into the spotlight,
09:16sparking US congressional hearings,
09:18and eventually leading to the creation
09:20of the ESRB rating system in 1994.
09:23And as much as I'm trying to avoid
09:24talking about handheld console gaming,
09:26because that's a tail for another video,
09:28Nintendo did change the game with the Game Boy in 1989.
09:31But I'll shut up on that.
09:33Nintendo had sold tens of millions of NES units,
09:36and Sega was a legitimate challenger.
09:39Mario and Sonic were household names,
09:40arcades were still social hotspots,
09:42and most importantly,
09:44the center of gaming had shifted.
09:46Japanese companies were now leading the charge globally,
09:49while Europe and North America
09:50balanced consoles with home computers.
09:52The crash didn't kill video games,
09:54it just forced them to level up.
09:56In the late 1980s,
09:57a little company by the name of Sony,
09:59maybe you've heard of them,
10:00was planning to work with Nintendo.
10:02The partnership began when Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi
10:05secretly developed a sound chip
10:07for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
10:09And although Sony was mad at Ken
10:11for working secretly,
10:13they were impressed,
10:14as was Nintendo,
10:15who agreed to collaborate on a CD-ROM add-on
10:18for the SNES,
10:19codenamed the Play Station.
10:21The idea was simple,
10:22combined cartridges with CDs
10:23to allow bigger, more advanced games.
10:25But this partnership,
10:27it resulted in one of the biggest
10:29backstabs gaming has ever seen.
10:31And the 90s,
10:32that's where things get wild.
10:34Hey, plumber boy,
10:36mustache man,
10:37your worst nightmare has arrived.
10:39Pack up your stuff!
10:40Unfortunately, that ends part two.
10:42Next time,
10:42we're going to dive into the 90s,
10:44the PS1,
10:44the N64,
10:45and some of the greatest innovations
10:47the industry ever saw.
10:48So make sure you subscribe
10:49if you're not already,
10:50and I'll see you very soon.
10:52Did you enjoy this video?
10:53Check out these other clips from Mojo Plays.
10:56Be sure to subscribe,
10:57and ring the bell
10:58to be notified of our latest videos.
11:10We'll see you next time.
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