Insert Coin to Continue, Part 5: Console Wars (1983-2001)

The growth of console gaming brought about a slew of football titles, but not many of them hit the spot.

By the early years of the 1980s, the video gaming cat was out of the bag, and even the industry crash of 1983 wouldn’t see the end of this revolution on either side of the Atlantic. While fundamental changes to the industry would come about as a result of the events of that particular year, though, the show had to continue.

On top of the lousy quality of several of their high profile licensed games, Atari suffered as a result of poor sales of their 1982 follow-up to the 2600, the Atari 5200. Many of the 5200’s games appeared simply as updated versions of 2600 titles and the controllers were absolutely panned by both the press and the public. The system lasted just two years before being discontinued.