Well, being a bit older than you and perhaps a bit more in-tune with the goings on at the time owning an Atari 2600, ColecoVision and C-64, I'd say it was pretty much what I said, in that there was still a smattering of product in stores of the videogame (console) variety, but most places were becoming more and more skewed to computers (if anything) until the NES went national in 1986. I also was an avid reader of Electronic Games magazine and remember very distinctly when they suddenly changed their focus to computer gaming (as well as an eventual name change before giving up the ghost). It was actually fairly well documented in the pages of Electronic Games as it was happening from late 1982 forward (they used terms like "shakeup" and what-not, never actually "crash", which didn't come into vogue until several years later). Videogame stuff never went away entirely, though none of the original companies officially remained in the game beyond Atari, and that was more about stock already in retail channels than anything else. There were definitely no gaps and obviously once the NES started having success, Atari got what they had warehoused out of mothballs and gave a somewhat half-hearted challenge to Nintendo with limited new product. Obviously by this time, there was no one left (Mattel, Coleco, etc.) to cash in on the rebirth other than Atari. Sega also obviously got in at this time. With limited competition (Atari and Nintendo), it made sense.

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