1970s in video games

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1970s in video games. 1980s
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1976 flyer advertising the racing game Fonz. Fonz 1976 sega arcade flyer.JPG
1976 flyer advertising the racing game Fonz .

The 1970s was the first decade in the history of the video game industry. The 1970s saw the development of some of the earliest video games, chiefly in the arcade game industry, but also several for the earliest video game consoles and personal computers.

Contents

Notable games released in the 1970s included Computer Space, The Oregon Trail , Pong , Space Invaders , Asteroids , Galaxian , Combat, Breakout, Lunar Lander, Sea Wolf, and Zork .

Arcade history

Notable early arcade video games of the early-to-mid-1970s include Computer Space (1971), Pong (1972), Space Race (1973), Gotcha (1973), Speed Race (1974), Gun Fight (1975), Heavyweight Champ (1976), Fonz (1976), Night Driver (1976), Breakout (1976), Death Race (1976), Sea Wolf (1976), and Space Wars (1977).

Golden age of arcade video games (1978–1979)

Classic arcade games of the late 1970s include Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Asteroids (1979), Barrier (1979), Speed Freak (1979), Warrior (1979), Tail Gunner (1979), and Lunar Lander (1979).

Consoles of the 1970s

First-generation consoles (1972–1979)

Polistil VG2 Pong clone (1978), made in Italy Polistil VG2 pong console.jpg
Polistil VG2 Pong clone (1978), made in Italy

The first generation of consoles were on sale between 1972 and 1980 and included the Magnavox Odyssey, Telstar, Home Pong, and Color TV-Game.

Typical characteristics of the first generation of consoles:

Second-generation consoles (1976–1983)

The second generation of consoles, on sale between 1976 and 1988, made several leaps forward technologically. Consoles first available in the late 1970s included the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Bally Astrocade, and Magnavox Odyssey². The first handheld console, the Microvision, was released in 1979.

Typical characteristics of the second generation of consoles:

Notable video game franchises established in the 1970s

Arcade

Home computers and console

Notes:

Financial performance

Best-selling arcade games of the decade

The following titles were the best-selling arcade games of each year in the 1970s.

YearRegion(s)TypeTitle Cabinet sales RevenueInflationDeveloperManufacturer(s)GenreRef
1979 Worldwide— Space Invaders 750,000$1,000,000,000+$4,500,000,000+ Taito Taito / Midway Shoot 'em up [1] [2]
1978
1977 Japan Electro-mechanical F-1 Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Namco Namco Racing [3] [4]
Medal game EVR Race Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Nintendo Nintendo
Video game Speed Race DX Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Taito Taito
US — Sea Wolf 10,000Un­knownUn­known Dave Nutting Associates Midway Shooter [5] [6] [7]
1976 US—
JapanElectro-mechanical F-1 Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Namco Namco Racing [8] [4]
Medal game EVR Race Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Nintendo Nintendo
Video game Ball Park (Tornado Baseball) Un­knownUn­knownUn­known Midway Manufacturing Taito Sports
1975 USVideo game Wheels / Wheels II (Speed Race) 10,000Un­knownUn­known Taito Midway Racing [9]
1974 USVideo game Tank 10,000Un­knownUn­known Kee Games Kee Games / Atari Maze
1973 USVideo game Pong 8,000$11,000,000$73,000,000 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Sports [9] [10]
1972 USVideo game Computer Space 200Un­knownUn­known Syzygy Engineering Nutting Associates Space combat [9]

Best-selling home systems of the decade

RankSystemReleaseManufacturerTypeGenerationSalesAs ofRef
1 Nintendo Color TV Game 1977 Nintendo Console First 2,000,000 1979 [11]
2 Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS)1977 Atari, Inc. Console Second 1,550,0001979 [12]
3 Coleco Telstar 1976 Coleco ConsoleFirst1,000,000 1976 [13]
4 TRS-80 1977 Texas Instruments Computer 8-bit 450,0001979 [14]
5 Magnavox Odyssey 1972 Magnavox ConsoleFirst367,000 1975 [15]
6 Fairchild Channel F 1976 Fairchild Camera and Instrument ConsoleSecond350,0001979 [16]
7Epoch TV Baseball 1978 Epoch Co. ConsoleFirst230,0001979 [17]
8Epoch TV Game System 101977Epoch Co.ConsoleFirst200,0001979 [17]
9 Home Pong 1975 Atari, Inc.ConsoleFirst150,0001975 [18]
NEC PC-8001 1979 NEC Computer8-bit150,0001979 [19]

Hardware timeline

The following gallery highlights hardware used to predominantly play games throughout the 1970s.

Related Research Articles

<i>Pong</i> 1972 arcade game

Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released on 29 November 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnavox Odyssey</span> First commercial home video game console

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track scores. The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to accompany the games, while a peripheral controller—the first video game light gun—was sold separately.

<i>Breakout</i> (video game) 1976 video game

Breakout is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, who were influenced by the seminal 1972 Atari arcade game Pong. In Breakout, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. Breakout was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay.

1972 saw the release of the first commercially successful video arcade game, Pong, and the first video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of Space Invaders in 1978 led to a wave of shoot-'em-up games such as Galaxian and the vector graphics-based Asteroids in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Arcade video games switched from black-and-white to color, with titles such as Frogger and Centipede taking advantage of the visual opportunities of bright palettes.

1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.

1979 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Space Invaders Part II and Super Speed Race, along with new titles such as Asteroids, Football, Galaxian, Head On, Heiankyo Alien, Monaco GP, Sheriff and Warrior. For the second year in a row, the highest-grossing video game was Taito's arcade game Space Invaders and the best-selling home system was the Atari Video Computer System.

1978 saw the release of new video games such as Space Invaders. The year is considered the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. The year's highest-grossing video game was Taito's arcade game Space Invaders, while the best-selling home system was the Atari Video Computer System.

1977 had sequels such as Super Speed Race and Datsun 280 ZZZAP as well as several new titles such as Space Wars. The year's highest-grossing arcade games were F-1 and Speed Race DX in Japan, and Sea Wolf and Sprint 2 in the United States. The year's best-selling home system was Nintendo's Color TV-Game, which was only sold in Japan.

1975 had new titles such as Western Gun, Dungeon and dnd. The year's best-selling arcade game was Taito's Speed Race, released as Wheels and Wheels II in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color TV-Game</span> Video game console series by Nintendo

The Color TV-Game is the first video game system ever made by Nintendo. The system was released as a series of five dedicated home video game consoles between 1977 and 1983 in Japan only. Nintendo sold three million units of the first four models: one million units of each of the first two models, Color TV-Game 6 and 15; and half a million units of each of the next two models, Block Breaker and Racing 112. The Color TV-Game series has the highest sales figures of all the first generation of video game consoles.

<i>Tank</i> (video game) 1974 arcade game

Tank is an arcade game developed by Kee Games, a subsidiary of Atari, and released in November 1974. It was one of the few original titles not based on an existing Atari property developed by Kee Games, which was founded to sell clones of Atari games to distributors as a fake competitor prior to the merger of the two companies. In the game, two players drive tanks through a maze viewed from above while attempting to shoot each other and avoid mines, represented by X marks, in a central minefield. Each player controls their tank with a pair of joysticks, moving them forwards and back to drive, reverse, and steer, and firing shells with a button to attempt to destroy the other tank. The destruction of a tank from a mine or shell earns the opposing player a point, and tanks reappear after being destroyed. The winner is the player with more points when time runs out, with each game typically one or two minutes long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second generation of video game consoles</span> Second video game console generation, including the Atari 2600

In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex, all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first "killer app" arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, though earlier Atari-published arcade games were ported to the 2600 previously. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released in August 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First generation of video game consoles</span> First video game console generation, including the Magnavox Odyssey

In the history of video games, the first generation era refers to the video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1972 to 1983. Notable consoles of the first generation include the Odyssey series, the Atari Home Pong, the Coleco Telstar series and the Color TV-Game series. The generation ended with the Computer TV-Game in 1980 and its following discontinuation in 1983, but many manufacturers had left the market prior due to the market decline in the year of 1977 and the start of the second generation of video game consoles.

<i>Space Race</i> (video game) 1973 arcade game

Space Race is an arcade game developed by Atari, Inc. and released on July 16, 1973. It was the second game by the company, after Pong (1972), which marked the beginning of the commercial video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. In the game, two players each control a rocket ship, with the goal of being the first to move their ship from the bottom of the screen to the top. Along the way are asteroids, which the players must avoid. Space Race was the first racing arcade video game and the first game with a goal of crossing the screen while avoiding obstacles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AY-3-8500</span> Integrated circuit by General Instrument

The AY-3-8500 "Ball & Paddle" integrated circuit was the first in a series of ICs from General Instrument designed for the consumer video game market. These chips were designed to output video to an RF modulator, which would then display the game on a domestic television set. The AY-3-8500 contained six selectable games — tennis, hockey, squash, practice, and two shooting games. The AY-3-8500 was the 625-line PAL version and the AY-3-8500-1 was the 525-line NTSC version. It was introduced in 1976, Coleco becoming the first customer having been introduced to the IC development by Ralph H. Baer. A minimum number of external components were needed to build a complete system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari, Inc.</span> American video game developer (1972–1992)

Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.

Magnavox Odyssey is the general brand name of Magnavox's complete line of home video game consoles released from 1972 through 1978. The line includes the original Magnavox Odyssey console, the Magnavox Odyssey series of dedicated home video game consoles, and the Magnavox Odyssey 2 ROM cartridge-based video game console released in 1978. Philips Odyssey is the brand name that includes the Philips Odyssey series of dedicated home video game consoles.

A vertically scrolling video game or vertical scroller is a video game in which the player views the field of play principally from a top-down perspective, while the background scrolls from the top of the screen to the bottom to create the illusion that the player character is moving in the game world.

References

  1. ↑ "After Pong". ACE . No. 6 (March 1988). 4 February 1988. pp. 29-32 (29).
  2. ↑ Sullivan, George (1983). "The First Big Hits". Screen Play: The Story of Video Games. F. Warne. p. 38-47 (40). ISBN   978-0-7232-6251-0.
  3. ↑ "結果ベスト3" [Best 3 Results](PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 90. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 February 1978. pp. 2–3.
  4. 1 2 "調査対象5年間のベスト1" [Best 1 of the 5 Years Surveyed](PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 159. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 February 1981. p. 1.
  5. ↑ "Top Arcade Games". Play Meter . November 1977.
  6. ↑ "Profit Chart". RePlay. October 1976.
  7. ↑ Steven L. Kent (2000), The first quarter: a 25-year history of video games, BWD Press, p. 83, ISBN   0-9704755-0-0 , retrieved 2011-04-09, Sea Wolf, which was another creation of Dave Nutting, did solid business, selling more than 10,000 machines.)
  8. ↑ "本紙アンケー 〜 ト調査の結果" [Paper Questionnaire: Results of the Survey](PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 65. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 February 1977. pp. 2–3.
  9. 1 2 3 Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. pp. 10–3. ISBN   978-0-9643848-1-1.
  10. ↑ Barack, Lauren (8 May 2003). "In Blast From the Past, Atari Video Games Plan a Return". New York Post . p. 34. Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Its first hit game, "Pong," launched in 1972, made $11 million in revenue in just one year.
  11. ↑ Horowitz, Ken (2020-07-30). "Video Killed the Electromechanical Star". Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games. McFarland & Company. p. 27. ISBN   978-1-4766-4176-8.
  12. ↑ Rubin, Michael (2006). "Eighteen: A Hole in the Desert [1982–1983]" (PDF). Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution. Triad Publishing Company. pp. 291-314 (293-4). ISBN   978-0-937404-67-6.
  13. ↑ Herman, Leonard (1997). Phoenix: the fall & rise of videogames (2nd ed.). Union, NJ: Rolenta Press. p. 20. ISBN   0-9643848-2-5 . Retrieved 16 February 2012. Coleco released Telstar in 1976. Like Pong, Telstar could only play video tennis but it retailed at an inexpensive $50 that made it attractive to most families that were on a budget. Coleco managed to sell over a million units that year.
  14. ↑ Reimer, Jeremy (2005-12-15). "Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 2012-06-07. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  15. ↑ Smith, Alexander (November 27, 2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry. Vol. 1: 1971 – 1982. CRC Press. pp. 207–9. ISBN   978-1-138-38990-8.
  16. ↑ Edwards, Benj (January 22, 2015). "The Untold Story Of The Invention Of The Game Cartridge". Fast Company . Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  17. 1 2 "昔(1970年代）のテレビゲームは何台売れた？" [How many old (1970s) video games sold?]. Classic Videogame Station Odyssey (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  18. ↑ Ellis, David (2004). "Dedicated Consoles". Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games. Random House. pp.  33–36. ISBN   0-375-72038-3.
  19. ↑ West, Joel (January 1996). "Moderators of the Diffusion of Technological Innovation: Growth of the Japanese PC Industry" (PDF). Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations. University of California, Irvine. pp. 9–10. alternate url
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