The (Supposedly) Worst Years in Video Game History: 1984

by alianger

1984 was a year of contrasts in the gaming industry, especially from an international, multi-platform perspective. The year is defined by groundbreaking and quality games in multiple genres on the one hand, and lingering challenges from the 1983 crash on the other. Games like Elite, Knight Lore, "I, Robot", Kung-Fu Master, Pitfall II, King's Quest and Marble Madness showcased new gameplay and t...

However, the industry still suffered from various issues, such as fragmentation due to an oversaturated hardware market, disappointing home ports and rushed releases, continued customer distrust in the US, and misleading marketing. Despite these challenges, 1984 laid the groundwork for console gaming's resurgence and the rest of the industry's continued growth, with companies like Nintendo, EA, NEC (in Japan), Ultimate Play the Game and Commodore shaping its future.

Here's a breakdown of the highs and lows of 1984!

Pros:

High quality and sometimes influential titles in a variety of genres were released for the C64, Spectrum and Apple II, such as Elite, Spy vs Spy, Boulder Dash, King's Quest, Impossible Mission, Karateka, Bruce Lee, Ghostbusters, Montezuma's Revenge, Knight Lore, Pitstop II and Jet Set Willy.
The NES (Famicom) was now dominating in Japan, laying the foundation for a global gaming revolution. It received three of its best selling games this year in Duck Hunt, Excitebike and Golf. Nintendo was now planning to bring it to the west on its own after a cancelled agreement with Atari, and created a lockout chip for that version of the console to prevent unlicensed games.
Arcade game developers continued to innovate with games like "I, Robot", Marble Madness, Kung-Fu Master, Karate Champ, Tower of Druaga and Pac-Land, and games like Pole Position II, VS. Tennis, Spy Hunter (all from late 1983) and Punch-Out! were very successful. Punch-Out!, Roller Jammer and Bank Panic also showed off big, colorful and expressive sprites that wouldn't be matched on home systems until 1986 (the closest before that are Donald Duck's Playground and Rescue on Fractalus).
Beginning recovery for the industry in the US after its video game crash of 1983, with continued growth in the computer and arcade markets, and more stable companies like Nintendo, EA, Commodore and Apple leading the way. Computers like the C64 and Spectrum dominated in Europe, and the influential Macintosh computer and OS were also released.
Development of The Legend of Zelda started. The most influential non-linear action adventure game actually released in 1984 was probably Elite, but there's also The Seven Cities of Gold which can be seen as a precursor to Pirates!, Hydlide and Dragon Slayer in Japan, and genre hybrid The Lords of Midnight for the Spectrum.
The first version of Tetris was released on the Elektronika 60 in Russia, one of the most well regarded and (eventually) best selling puzzle games ever made. It was based on the pentomino board game.
The Atari 2600 continued to be a major player in the US, with three of its best new games that year being Pitfall II, HERO and Montezuma's Revenge. The best selling games that year however, were Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Pitfall.
Increased software quality control by Nintendo, ensuring there were no crashes or major bugs, which would later lead to restored consumer trust in the US. On other systems, Epyx, Broderbund, Synapse Software, Ultimate Play the Game (later Rare), Konami and Hudson Soft (on the MSX), NEC (in Japan), MicroProse, Activision and Infocom were known for their quality titles.
Chip music made some strides this year. There are the first FM synth OSTs (Marble Madness is the best), the C64's signature sound is basically there in Lazy Jones, the still unique Ballblazer OST with its solos generated by the game itself as you play (!), and the first proper OST by Hirokazu Tanaka in Balloon Fight.

Cons:

The video game crash still had lingering effects in 1984, with several companies struggling to rebuild or closing down (Coleco, Mattel, Magnavox, GCE, Imagic, etc.). The US console market would not see a revival until the next year, as retailers refused to sell console video games in their stores.
The growing complexity of games led to a sharp increase in development costs, which strained the budgets of smaller developers (FMV games such as Thayer's Quest (whose developer later went bankrupt), "I, Robot", King's Quest and more).
There was a large oversaturation of consoles and home computers on the market, with too many systems competing for attention (globally speaking about ten different consoles, and over ten computers). The Vectrex, TI-99/4A, Atari 5200 and Colecovision would be discontinued this year.
The industry was still fragmented, with many incompatible formats and no unified standard across hardware (e.g., C64 vs. Spectrum or Apple II vs. IBM PC). Some controllers were partially cross-platform compatible however, such as the Atari 2600 Joystick and the Competition Pro Joystick (C64), and it could be increased with adapters.
While arcade games continued to evolve rapidly, many home console and computer games still had limited graphical capabilities, short length and rudimentary gameplay mechanics. It wasn't uncommon for games to take less than 20-30 minutes to complete, and developers generally compensated for this with much higher difficulty.
Despite some strong releases, many home consoles were still underpowered compared to newer arcade machines. Developers also usually didn't try to compensate with more polished or in-depth gameplay, leading to disappointing home versions of arcade games like Zaxxon (PC, Spectrum), Spy Hunter (A2600, Atari 8-bit), Tapper (CPC) and Congo Bongo (PC, A5200 and more).
Marketing in the gaming industry was still inconsistent, with misleading advertising about the capabilities of certain consoles and games leading to consumer frustration (Coleco Adam Computer, "arcade perfect" claims, the Atari 5200 console, Intellivision's Keyboard Component).
As developers focused on larger, more complex games, they were often less accessible to newcomers or casual players, which led to some feeling overwhelmed by complicated mechanics or esoteric puzzle design. See for example Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Elite, King's Quest, The Tower of Druaga and Impossible Mission.
Many games suffered from being rushed to release and a lack of quality control (e.g. some versions of Congo Bongo, Spy Hunter, Star Wars and Tapper), resulting in less polished experiences (e.g., poor ports of arcade games or license-based games).

---

In discussions (posts, articles and videos) about the worst years in gaming, 1984 tends to get mentioned pretty often, getting lumped together with 1983 and placing around the top of "worst of" lists. Taking it all in, do you think 1984’s impact on video games was enough to cancel out the criticism it gets?

Edit: Personally, while I wasn't around in 1984 to check and have played few games released that year (I played a few more since my previous post about GOTY 1984, such as Bomb Jack and a bit of Bruce Lee), I would say it was a good year overall. At least for (most) players, since I doubt the average person would've even known about most of the cons here. But maybe there are people on here who mostly have bad gaming memories from 1984?