ToxicAdam

I hate people that perpetuate the myth that there was a video game "crash" in 1983.

No, there was an ATARI crash in 1983. That was more due to Atari overproducing and then strong arming retail chains into buying them.

The 2600 was at the end of its life cycle, and Atari did a horrible job transitioning into a new generation. Not only that, they were incapable of making arcade perfect games. So, why bother wasting your money on them?

Arcades were booming at the time. You could not goto a mall, hotel, convience store, landromat without seeing Arcade machines. EVERYWHERE. It was the golden age of the arcade machine with games like Frogger, Q-bert, Galaga, Spy Hunter.

Commodore posted earnings of 1 BILLION dollars (think about that value in 1983 terms) on sales of its machines in 1983. The 64 was becoming THE gaming platform for many American kids.

So, people did not stop playing video games. They just quit playing their Atari's and other consoles.