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Great topic, I really liked reading through all the comments... gets me thinking. I was 12 when the crash
happened. I was a lower-middle class kid from WestCoastSmallTown, USA, and I can stand up and testify that the Crash truly did happen. Why? better for someone else to figure, but seemingly overnight things changed. I remember '83, '84 as very good years despite the lack of gaming. But what I mostly remember when thinking on the gaming situation was the sense that I had moved on. My social milieu had changed and I starting thinking of other things... A huge part of the gaming market at the time comprised 10-16 yr olds and it's possible we simply, collectively had a change of attitude toward videogaming. What sparked the change? Many factors I suppose: puberty, same-game-different-wrapper-syndrome, cost, whatever.

My family could never.. ever... have afforded a $500 Commodore64. Gaming for me and my friends was over in '83, period! After '83 we would drag out the ol' colecovision or atari every once in a great while (along with our 10 carts... total!), but mostly it was on those rainy days when all the board games looked boring. In case you're wondering, I was a huge videogamer prior to the crash, had a subscription to Electronic Games and somehow managed to get an atari 2600 AND a colecovision (after a years worth of begging the folks). I remember the early days of owning the atari when we had to wait for Mom and Dad to stop playing so my brothers and I could get a turn. I've been there and I can testify, gaming today is much different than it was prior to '83, mainly as a direct result of the Crash and the reformation that followed.

For those of you posting about your c64s and whatnot, I can only think that you must've been in those big houses up on the hill, cuz it certainly isn't representative of the average joe gamer in '83. We most certainly suffered a Crash and its something that still lingers on my mind today. I'm still not convinced we have enough stability in this industry to stave off another such event. Although I've been feeling much more encouraged by the direction I'm seeing from Nintendo. If anyone can save us, it's them ... again.