Passage C: Questions 46-50        The early history of video game consoles in North America is fascinating. The video gameconsole market quickly grew from nothing to a giant boom phase. Soon afterwards, however, it wasimperiled by a mixture of hubris and bad ideas. Fortunately, for gaming aficionados, the industrywas rescued by an obscure company based in Japan.       The console boom started in 1980 when Atari released the ''Atari 2600"' game console. Atarihad a brilliant gimmick for its sales campaign. It included a free copy of the game "'Space Invaders"with every Atari 2600. Space Invaders was extremely popular at arcades at this time so consumerswere excited to be able to play it in their homes. As a result, Atari 2600 sales skyrocketed. Othercompanies jumped in to the video game console market and produced their own consoles for sale.Home computers such as the Commodore and the Apple series were also becoming popular becausethey could play games and use other kinds of software. Video game consoles and personalcomputers were in nearly every North American home in the early 1980s. Although the market forvideo games had reached the saturation point, many companies ignored this reality and keptmanufacturing consoles and new games at breakneck speed. A collapse was imminent.        The failure of many companies to recognize the realities of an overcrowded market isexemplifed by the story of Atari's "E.T." video game, based on the hit movie of the same name.Without devoting adequate time to develop and test the game, E.T. was rushed to market forChristmas in 1982. Atari executives were so confident of the game's consumer appeal that theymanufactured millions of E.T. games and Atari 2600s to sell for Christmas. Not only did the gamefail to spur the sale of new Atari 2600 consoles, but it was poorly received by fans. For months, E.T.sat unsold on store shelves. There were so many unsold E.T. games that Atari was forced to burymillions of the cartridges in the New Mexico desert. The E.T, fiasco nearly sunk Atari financially. Itshowed everyone that there was no more money to be made in selling video game consoles. By1984, no companies in North America were making them.        Just as the video game console market in North America seemed to be dying, an unlikelysavior appeared. In 1983, a Japanese company called Nintendo released the Family Computer (orFamicom) in Japan. Famicom games were longer than any North American games and had superiorgraphics than most other consoles at the time. Nintendo started selling the Famicom console inNorth America, where it was dubbed the "'Nintendo Entertainment System" (or NES) in 1985.Nintendo sold the NES with a Super Mario Brothers game and a light gun (the Zapper). SuperMario Brothers was a massive hit with North Americans, and it prompted them to buy video gameconsoles again. In just two years, Nintendo had revived the North American video game marketafter most domestic companies had given up on it.
【題組】46. According to the article, when did the expansion in video console sales begin?
(A) after Atari released a game console with an ingenious twist
(B) it started in 1980 when Apple released a game console
(C) when Commodore released its first home computer
(D) in the early 198Os when the market became overcrowded