Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

40 years ago:
TI reports huge losses,
Sega gets out of the arcade business in the US &
Nintendo prepares to launch the Family Computer

These stories and many more on this episode of the VGNRTM

This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in June 1983. 

As always,  we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events.

 

Alex Smith of They Create Worlds is our cohost.  Check out his podcast here:

https://www.theycreateworlds.com/

and order his book here:

https://www.theycreateworlds.com/book

 

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Links:

7 Minutes in Heaven: G.I.Joe Cobra Strike

Video Version:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/7-minutes-in-85891299

https://www.mobygames.com/game/9959/gi-joe-cobra-strike/

 

Corrections:

May 1983 Ep - https://www.patreon.com/posts/may-1983-84598928

Ethan's fine site The History of How We Play: https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/

https://archive.org/details/19750103Answers/page/n25/

https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Richard_J._Thome

 

 

1953

Doriot predicts the automated office

https://www.nytimes.com/1953/06/22/archives/the-business-bookshelf.html?searchResultPosition=1    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Doriot

https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/11/archival_objects/3024708

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Research_and_Development_Corporation    

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40289287?searchText=%28%22the+automatic+office%22%29+AND+%28doriot%29&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Ddoriot%26prq%3D%2522the%252Bautomatic%252Boffice%2522%26swp%3Don&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A200ab83f02f42821164b4f56e9bb8d38&seq=1  

https://www.chapmanfuneral.com/obituaries/William-L-Alden?obId=20622559

 

1963

Corporate espionage at IBM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM_magnetic_disk_drives   

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/30/archives/7-arrests-made-in-an-ibm-case-industrial-espionage-against-computer.html?searchResultPosition=7

 

 

1983

Nintendo hunts down pirates

Arcade Express June 8, 1983 p. 3

 

FTC goes after Liesure Time

Play Meter June 15, 1983 pg. 10

 

Sega gets out of arcade biz

Play Meter June 1, 1983, pg. 20

 

Bally profits plunge

Replay June 1983, pg. 21

 

Williams offsets coinop losses

Replay June 1983, pg. 24

 

Konami opens US office

Play Meter June 1, 1983, pg. 20

 

Atari gets Sente rights

Pizza Times June 1983, pg. 2   

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg.. 36

 

Atari debuts Star Wars

Replay June 1983, pg 28

 

Dave and Busters profiled

Replay June 1983, pg. 64

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_%26_Buster%27s

 

Pacman land coming to Six Flags

Replay June 1983, pg 138    

https://sixflags.fandom.com/wiki/Pac-Man_Land

 

Kiddie rides' Video Car image reveals what its all about

Play Meter June 15, 1983, pg. 14

 

 

Study sees convergence of video games and simulators

Play Meter June 15, 1983, pg. 132

 

Casio, Bandai, and Nintendo all prepare  console launches

The Japan Economic Journal June 21, 1983, pg. 18 

Casio Computer will enter home video game market

 

Atari to fix 5200 joysticks

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg. 40

https://www.atari-computermuseum.de/5200peri.htm#52pj

 

Vectrex to show off 3D Imager at CES

https://vectrex.fandom.com/wiki/3D_Imager   

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf   pg. 41

 

Vectrex drops below $100

https://archive.org/details/arcade_express_v1n23

 

Colecovision sells big post-Xmas

Arcade Express June 8, 1983 p. 8

 

Atari to consolidate console and home computer divisions

https://archive.org/details/arcade_express_v1n23/page/n1/mode/2up   

https://web.archive.org/web/20070202054917/http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/XL-Pages/xl-range-main.htm

 

Brazil to get 2600

https://grupogradiente.com.br/noticias/gradiente-nao-saiu-do-coracao-dos-usuarios/

 

3rd party controller market booms

Toy and Hobby World June 1983

 

North American Philips goes multiplatform

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg. 42    

https://www.mobygames.com/company/9446/north-american-philips-consumer-electronics-corp/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Lords

 

Atari gets Mario

Jiji Press Ticker Service, June 16, 1983, Atari Signs License Contract with Nintendo

https://youtu.be/BjRuV52Jk78

 

Starpath prepares to SWEAT

https://www.ataricompendium. com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg. 35   

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/sweat/sweat.htm

 

Activision announces Decathalon

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg. 39

 

Disney license to Atari

Toy and Hobby World June 1983

 

AT&T may be mulling over online gaming

https://archive.org/details/arcade_express_v1n23

 

TI's losses are massive

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/19/business/the-coming-crisis-in-home-computers.html

 

Commodore pushes price in C64 ads

https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputing198306/page/n54/mode/1up

 

Atari offers 800 rebate Toy and Hobby World June 1983

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews012-02Jun1983/page/n6/mode/1up  

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews014-15Jun1983/page/n7/mode/1up

 

Atari 1200 has a problem with slots

https://archive.org/details/arcade_express_v1n23/page/n1/mode/2uphttps://archive.org/details/arcade_express_v1n23/page/n1/mode/2up   

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_1200XL

 

MSX standard announced

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-msx-standard/62352975/  

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews016-29Jun1983/page/n3/mode/1up    

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-msx-standard/62353041/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

 

Adam debuts at CES

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews015-22Jun1983/page/n3/mode/1up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Adam

 

Unitronics' Sonic is everything to everyone

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf pg. 44

https://books.google.de/books?id=4S8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=unitronics+sonic+computer+1983&source=bl&ots=y7jMIoc6lm&sig=ACfU3U2sW9AZXaimorOQRQRkeAC3sxZO6Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiM9cC18eb_AhWsRvEDHck-CgkQ6AF6BAghEAM#v=onepage&q=unitronics%20sonic%20computer%201983&f=false

 

Move over mice, the Koala is here

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf pg. 47

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad

 

Romox bets on rewritability

Arcade Express June 8, 1983 p. 1

 

Bye bye carts, hello cassettes!

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews014-15Jun1983/page/n3/mode/1up

 

IBM tries to break free from MSDOS

https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-06_OCR/page/n8/mode/1up?view=theater

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews014-15Jun1983/page/n22/mode/1up

 

Microsoft expands Multi-Tool with Word

https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-06_OCR/page/n8/mode/1up?view=theater   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Mouse   

https://classictech.wordpress.com/2021/09/30/microsoft-multi-tool-word/   

https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-06_OCR/page/n9/mode/1up?view=theater

https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1983-06_OCR/page/n257/mode/1up?view=theater   

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews016-29Jun1983/page/n13/mode/1up?view=theater

 

Commodore forms software division

Toy and Hobby World June 1983

 

Epyx launches Thinker logo

Playthings June 1983, pg. 39

Michael Katz Part 1 - Coleco - Epyx - Mattel  https://www.patreon.com/posts/35169258

 

The learning company unveils Discovery Tool line

Toy and Hobby World June 1983

https://www.mobygames.com/game/42318/rockys-boots/

 

Imagic shifts to computers

Arcade Express June 8, 1983

https://www.mobygames.com/company/56/imagic/ 

 

Ultimate Play the Game ads debut

https://archive.org/details/Personal_Computer_Games_Issue01/page/n89/mode/1up

https://www.mobygames.com/company/41150/ashby-computers-and-graphics-limited/

 

EA wonders, can a computer make you cry

https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputing198306/page/n167/mode/1up

 

Midway beats Artic

Replay June 1983, pg. 18, 12, 15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Manufacturing_Co._v._Artic_International,_Inc.

 

Cross media licensing is the new name of the game

Toy and Hobby World June 1983

 

video game cereal is coming

  Arcade Express June 8, 1983 p. 3

https://movieweb.com/video-game-cereals-1980s-1990s-2000s/

 

Commodore User debuts

https://archive.org/details/CommodoreUserIssue001983Jun

 

Newsroom artist gets comics published in Creative Computing

https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputing198306/page/n19/mode/1up

 

Wargames premieres

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

 

Blade Runner premieres

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

 

Clive becomes Sir Clive

https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerNews/PersonalComputerNews015-22Jun1983/page/n3/mode/1up

 

Zimag RIP

https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/newsletters/video_game_update/video_game_update_jun83.pdf  pg. 35  Toy and Hobby World June 1983

 

 

Recommended Links:

The History of How We Play: https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/

Gaming Alexandria: https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/

They Create Worlds: https://tcwpodcast.podbean.com/

Digital Antiquarian: https://www.filfre.net/

The Arcade Blogger: https://arcadeblogger.com/

Retro Asylum: http://retroasylum.com/category/all-posts/

Retro Game Squad: http://retrogamesquad.libsyn.com/

Playthrough Podcast: https://playthroughpod.com/

Retromags.com: https://www.retromags.com/

Games That Weren't - https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/

 

Sound Effects by Ethan Johnson of History of How We Play.

 

Copyright Karl Kuras