The first thing to happen to gaming in the eighties was the release of Pacman in Japan on a micro home computer system.
Alongside this was the release of the Mattel Intellivision, along with twelve games and a keyboard so the console could double as a home computer, their aim was to steal the throne from Atari, they did remarkable well selling over 200,000 units in the first product run. Shortly after in 82 they released the Intellivision 2 which showed improvements in efficiency and design.
In the eighties almost every electronics company wanted in on the rapidly expanding game market, with the release of the GCE Vetrex, Emerson Arcadia 2001, the Coleco Colecovision and Gemini, and Atari 5200 in 82, the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom in japan in 85, The Atari 2600 junior and 7800 and the Sega Master System in 86, then finally the Nec turbo Grafx 16 and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 89.
Nintendo's NES release marked a new turning point for the gaming industry, it dominated the market destroying all other competition with games like Mario Bros, Metroid and The Legend Of Zelda spearheading their rise to the top, and with the tragic disappointment of the Atari 5200 ( basically the system was huge, the games sucked and half the time never worked and they were overpriced ) fans of Atari simply bought an NES instead.
When the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Was released in 89, it claimed to be the future of gaming because it was a stronger console with more "bits" and thats when whats known as the "bit war" began and gamers began to become more interested in a games graphics and visuals rather than whether or not it actually plays well.
Sonic the Hedgehog was Segas first really big success and was a huge rival to Nintendo's Mario bros, but he wasn't around just yet.. until then the Genesis only did averagely on sales.
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