Video Game Crash of 1977
In 1977, manufacturers of obsolete home video game consoles and Pong clones glutted the market with their products, causing electronics companies RCA and Fairchild to abandon their consoles. Only Magnavox and Atari stayed in the home video game console market. The video game industry experienced dramatic losses.
The Golden Age of Arcade Games
Eventually, in 1978, the Japanese video game company Taito released Space Invaders, the success of which ended the crash and beginning the Golden Age of Arcade Games. The Golden Age of Arcade Games generally refers to a period placed between the late 1970s to the mid 1980s in which the popularity and earnings of arcade video games peaked. Games that were released during this period (such as Space Invaders or Pac-Man) generally focused on fun gameplay instead of graphics. Due to the focus on gameplay, many of these games are still played today, even though the graphics and sound quality are dwarfed by modern technology.