June 1983

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/

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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