Pre-Famicom Japan

[Pezcore343]

Hey guys. I was thinking about pre-crash of '83 games just now and I realized I have no idea what the video game scene was like in Japan before Nintendo released the Famicom. Did the market also crash their for games? Was there even a big market for games in Japan before Nintendo? All of the companies I can think of that were in the industry in the 70's and early 80's were Western companies. So does anyone have any insight into Japan before Nintendo?

[Gameguy]

Space Invaders caused a coin shortage in Japan after it came out. That's about all I know.

[Pezcore343]

Ah that's a good point, I forgot about the arcade game industry. I was thinking more along the lines of home consoles but any info is good info.

[Tetsu]

It's been a while since I read it but the book 1UP: How the Japanese Gave Videogames a Free Life has a couple of pretty good chapters on how there was a bowling fad in Japan, and when that went bust the bowling alleys were converted into arcades, and how most of the early games were electromechanical, i.e. crane games, clay shooting, skeeball, etc.

[Lady Jaye]

Well, before the Famicom, Nintendo did have its own series of Pong-like dedicated consoles. Remember the burned orange controllers on the GameCube? That was an homage to one of those Pong units, which was that tint of orange.

And before the Famicom, there was indeed Space Invaders and Pac-Man and before even that, there were light-gun games in bowling alleys (early version of the NES/Famicom Duck Hunt game)... I really do recommend Chris Kohler's 1-Up book.

On the home front, Sega's SG-1000 console also came out in 1983, actually at the same time as the Famicom if Wikipedia is to be believed (July 15, 1983). It eventually evolved into the Sega Mark III/Sega Master System (in the same way that we can say that the Wii evolved from the GameCube).

[smork]

There were a bunch of dedicated pong-type consoles. For systems with swappable cartridges, there was the Visicom, Supervision 8000, Cassette Vision, SG-1000, Casio PV-1000...

[Cobra Commander]

Game & Watch first came out in 1980. Those seemed to be pretty popular.

[Sanriostar]

One of my Holy Grails-to-get is a pre-Famicom Dedicated system that plays a thinly veiled version of Space Invaders from around 79-80. Wish I had easy-to-get pics of it.

[tom]

Weirdly enough, computer gaming was very successful pre-Famicom.

In 1979 the computer series NEC PC-8001, in 1981 the NEC PC 6001 and also in 1981 the NEC PC 8801 were hugely popular, boasting more than 2000 gaming titles. The NEC PC-98 was released in 1982, again a total library of almost 1500 games (Thunderforce debuted on PC-98).

The Sharp MZ computer series also started in 79, with a library of almost 300 games and the Sharp X1 computer series in 1982, with almost 500 game titles.

Fujitsu FM-7, FM-77 computers, starting in 1982, approx 700 games

The Epoch Cassettevision (despite the name a cartridge console) was the 'first' Japanese programmable console, starting in 1981.

The relatively unknown Takara M5 from Sord (computer/console?) came out in 1982, games approx 70.

Tomy Pyu-TA console, 1982, 30 games

Casio PV-1000 console, 1983, 20 games

MSX computers were introduced in 1983, but probably after Famicom, 1500 games on disk/cart.

There you go, lots of gaming going on in Japan pre-Famicom. And lots of famous Japanese companies/programmers started out on early Japanese computers.

[Superman]

Didn't Japan get a version of the Atari 2600? I though it was labeled as the Atari 2800 or something like that.

[tom]

Didn't Japan get a version of the Atari 2600? I though it was labeled as the Atari 2800 or something like that.

Yes, it was the 2800. Japan also got Intellivision, Vectrex, even the original 1972 Magnavox Odyssey was imported by Nintendo in 1975....so in a way, Nintendo brought the first progammable console into Japan.

[Mayhem]

I'm glad someone mentioned the NEC computers... the Vic-20 (or Vic-1001 as it was known in Japan) was based around the design, capabilities and ideas of some of Japan's current computer tech of the time. And don't forget the machine launched in Japan first in September 1980 before it came out in the West in 1981...

[Volcanon]

Simple stuff like Donkey Kong was out in arcades before famicom.

[Pezcore343]

Now that some people have listed some pre-Famicom home consoles, home computers, and coin-ops, how about the question of the crash? Did it affect the Japanese market as well or was that a Western Hemisphere only phenomenon?

Also thanks to everyone who contributed so far. I always thought that all of the big names in video games before Nintendo were American, or at least Western (Atari, Coleco, Commodore, etc.).

[NE146]

Pre-Famicom? I was there! Well.. there once or twice yearly. My family would travel to Japan for vacation a lot in the early 80's. It's a short cheap flight from Guam, where I'm from.. so it's kind of like going to Myrtle Beach if you lived in Charlotte. LOL My sisters would shop for new wave tapes and clothes and other "cute stuff" like pink Godzilla earrings (I still got this Jap glossy book about Boy George / Culture Club X_x), and I would go looking for whatever games and electronic gadgets I could find.

First of all, the arcade was huge, just as it was in the states. As usual, arcade machines (generally cocktails) were available everywhere. Usually they were open-air areas facing the street where you could go in and see various amusement machines, and tons of cocktails. At first it was primarily Space Invaders with dozens of Space Invader machines. But then they started filling out with others such as Uniwars, Galaxian, Astro Fighter, and later Moon Cresta is my primary memory of the machines. You could also find the imports of Atari uprights which were usually the black & white machines.

I will tell you what was big in Japan and that was handheld electronic games. Most people are familiar with Akihabara as it is now. But Akihabara as it was circa 1982 were full of all sorts of clocks and watches and radios, and more importantly.. boxes and boxes of electronic games. I would get lost staring at the sea of electronic goodness with LCD, VFD, and LED games. Mixed in would be calculators (and games within calculators), and radios and tape decks. Arcade ports were pretty big too. The U.S. had their Coleco handhelds, but Japan had their own ports with classics like Pengo, Tutankham, Burgertime, and others covered as well. Now THOSE used to drive me crazy with lust LOL
http://www.handhelden.com/bandai/box/HO-Challenge5-front.jpg http://www.handhelden.com/gakken/box/DigDug-front.jpg

So yeah, that was the scene then. The hardest part to me was having to pick and choose what games I wanted. My parents would buy me a bunch, but of course I wanted them all LOL

Unfortunately, in my mindset at the time I wasn't really aware of any consoles, although I wish I was so I could've picked up some Nintendo Pong stuff had I ever seen it.. but the truth is, I really don't recall seeing any. Probably because I wasn't looking.

[Pezcore343]

Wow, thanks NE146. Awesome to hear some first hand experience of the scene.

[Mayhem]

Now that some people have listed some pre-Famicom home consoles, home computers, and coin-ops, how about the question of the crash? Did it affect the Japanese market as well or was that a Western Hemisphere only phenomenon?

To a degree, the crash really was only in America. The consoles were never that huge in Europe in 1983 (you could argue they never really took off until the NES and Megadrive came around) and probably more people had started using home computers by that point, which remained unaffected due to home country support. I only noticed to a degree because I had a 2600 and the games somewhat dried up by end of 1983 and we sold it to pay for a C64...

[Steve W]

Yeah, the crash was somewhat confined to the US, where console oversaturation and bad business practices were rampant. Atari was the leader of the pack, but their lousy business decisions, coupled with millions of research and development dollars being pissed away, brought them down. And once the head dies, the body (in this case the US game industry) dies quickly. Atari tried to do too many things at once (video phones, holographics, designing medical devices, and so on), while forgetting what brought them their money to begin with. Then there's the fact that the game console market had a heap of players (Atari 2600 and 5200, Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey2, Vectrex, Astrocade, Emerson Arcadia 2001, and more) which watered down the market. Then cheap computers started flooding stores, giving kids the idea that they can program their own games, and the computer industry (Atari 400/800, VIC-20, TS/1000, TI 99/4A, C64, TRS-80, Apple II, ADAM, etc.) took off while diluting the gaming market even more.

Japan's market for video games didn't really 'mature' until the Famicom came out. There had been other machines before then, it's just that they never really caught on for one reason or another. They were all fairly primitive and didn't appeal to Japanese interests. And from what I've read, early Japanese computers couldn't display proper Japanese characters onscreen, limiting those machine's appeal.