Despite you, I bought an Atari

the historical context of the arrival of video games in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is one of the main consumer markets for video games in the world, both in terms of the number of players and in terms of spending. In light of this prominent scenario occupied by the country, the objective of this article was to revisit historical aspects that mark the arrival of video games in Brazilian territory, which occurred at a time of political and economic instability. The argument defended is that the Market Reserve Law, which banned the import of electronic equipment, somehow managed to induce national production of electronics, but not in the way planned: the ban, in fact, was the catalyst for the emergence of a parallel market, anchored in the reserve engineering method, which boosted video game culture in Brazil.