1973 in video games

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The year 1973 saw a substantial increase in the number of video games created and distributed. In coin-operated games, a craze for Pong -style games ignited the first fad for video games both in the United States and other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Time-sharing networks saw greater proliferation of popular programs through type-in listings. The PLATO computer located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign played host to some of the earliest massively multiplayer games.

Contents

Events

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Total Video Game Cabinets: 50,000-70,000 units. [7] [8]

Total Video Game Revenue (machine sales): $20 million-$77 million. [7] [8]

Title Arcade cabinet units (Lifetime)ManufacturerDeveloperGenre
Paddle Battle17,000 [9] Allied Leisure Industries Universal Research Laboratories Sports
Pro Tennis7,000 [10] [Note 1] Williams Electronics Magnetic Corporation of America Sports
Winner7,000 [11] [12] * Midway Manufacturing Atari Inc. Sports
Tennis Tourney5,000 [11] Allied Leisure Industries Universal Research Laboratories Sports
Super Soccer5,000 [11] Allied Leisure Industries Universal Research Laboratories Sports
TV Ping Pong3,300 [13] * Ramtek Corporation Ramtek Corporation Sports
Gotcha3,000 [11] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Maze
Asteroid [Note 2] 2,000 [11] Midway Manufacturing Atari Inc. Racing
Hockey2,000 [14] Ramtek Corporation Ramtek Corporation Sports
Space Race1,500 [11] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Racing
TV Tennis1,000 [13] *

5,000 [11]

Chicago Coin Chicago Coin Sports
Volly1,000 [14] Ramtek Corporation Ramtek Corporation Sports
Olympic TV Hockey/

Olympic TV Football [Note 3]

750 [13] *

1,000 [11]

Chicago Coin Chicago Coin Sports
Elimination!500 [11] Kee Games Atari Inc. Sports
Pong Doubles [Note 4] 500 [11] Atari Inc. Atari Inc. Sports

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

Home consoles

Total Console Revenue (retail): $4.6 million. [15]

TitleGame console units (1973)ManufacturerDeveloper
Odyssey 89,000 [16] *

83,000 [17] [Note 5]

Magnavox Co. Sanders Associates/Magnavox

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

Publications

Notable releases

Arcade games

Computer games

Console games

Hardware

Consoles

  • Official test markets for the Odyssey console outside of North America begin. [33]
  • Several clones of the Odyssey appear in Europe, including Spain's Overkal. [34]

Business

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Ralph Baer's numbers compiled in April 1976 are mostly estimates without direct access to sales figures.
  2. ↑ Licensed version of Space Race.
  3. ↑ Released under both names.
  4. ↑ Atari's version of Elimination!.
  5. ↑ Ralph Baer's numbers for Odyssey units sold per year contradict those of official figures disclosed by Magnavox in 1974.

Related Research Articles

<i>Pong</i> 1972 arcade game

Pong is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is 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>Arkanoid</i> 1986 video game

Arkanoid is a 1986 block breaker arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was published by Romstar. Controlling a paddle-like craft known as the Vaus, the player is tasked with clearing a formation of colorful blocks by deflecting a ball towards it without letting the ball leave the bottom edge of the playfield. Some blocks contain power-ups that have various effects, such as increasing the length of the Vaus, creating several additional balls, or equipping the Vaus with cannons. Other blocks may be indestructible or require multiple hits to break.

A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy and sport management. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out!!, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been popular throughout the history of video games and is competitive, just like real-world sports. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, and are updated annually to reflect real-world changes. The sports genre is one of the oldest genres in gaming history.

1972 marked an important landmark in the history of the video game industry with the releases of Pong and the Odyssey home console. The profile of electronic games rose substantially and companies began exploring the distribution of video games on a larger scale. Important mainframe computer games were created in this period which became the basis for early microcomputer games.

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.

1976 was a mixed year for the expansion of the video game industry. While the consumer market in the United States for dedicated home consoles saw significant growth, the coin-operated video game market saw a decline despite individual hits. The year also marked the availability of some of the first computer game software for microcomputers, growing out of the hobbyist market.

1975 saw several critical influences in the history of video games, including the first commercial games utilizing large-scale integrated circuits and microprocessors, as well as the first role-playing video games.

1974 saw the expansion of technology and public awareness of video games. A proliferation of companies creating commercial video games in the coin-operated market attracted attention from the mainstream press. Coin-operated games began to diversify in content beyond Pong derivatives. The first three-dimensional games were developed for linked graphical terminals which would not be widely commercialized. Some of the first efforts to create video game consoles after the release of Magnavox's Odyssey became available in the United States and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video game clone</span> Video game that resembles another video game

A video game clone is either a video game or a video game console very similar to, or heavily inspired by, a previous popular game or console. Clones are typically made to take financial advantage of the popularity of the cloned game or system, but clones may also result from earnest attempts to create homages or expand on game mechanics from the original game. An additional motivation unique to the medium of games as software with limited compatibility, is the desire to port a simulacrum of a game to platforms that the original is unavailable for or unsatisfactorily implemented on.

<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>Gran Trak 10</i> 1974 arcade game

Gran Trak 10 is an arcade driving video game developed by Atari through its subsidiary Cyan Engineering, and released by Atari in May 1974. In the game, a single player drives a car along a race track, viewed from above, avoiding walls of pylons and trying to pass as many checkpoints as possible before time runs out. The game is controlled with a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals, and a gear stick, and the car crashes and spins if it hits a pylon.

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 1978 and the start of the second generation of video game consoles.

Centuri, formerly known as Allied Leisure, was an American arcade game manufacturer. They were based in Hialeah, Florida, and were one of the top six suppliers of coin-operated arcade video game machinery in the United States during the early 1980s. Centuri in its modern inception was formed when former Taito America president Ed Miller and his partner Bill Olliges took over Allied Leisure, Inc. They renamed it "Centuri" in 1980.

<i>Gotcha</i> (video game) 1973 arcade game

Gotcha is an arcade video game developed by Atari and released in October 1973. It was the fourth game by the company, after the 1972 Pong, which marked the beginning of the commercial video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey, and the 1973 Space Race and Pong Doubles. In the game, two players move through a maze, which continually changes over time. One player, the Pursuer, attempts to catch the other, the Pursued; if they do, a point is scored, and the players reset positions. The game emits an electronic beeping sound, which increases in pace as the Pursuer gets closer to the Pursued, and each game lasts a set amount of time.

<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.

<i>Qwak!</i> 1974 video game

Qwak! is a single-player duck hunting light gun shooter arcade video game developed by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering and released in November 1974. In the game, ducks fly one at a time across the screen, and the player shoots at them using a light gun attached to the game cabinet. The player gets three shots per duck; ducks change direction away from missed shots and fall to the bottom of the screen when hit. A screen overlay adds images of reeds and a tree branch, and an image of a duck is added to a row at the top of the screen whenever a duck is hit. Games continue until a time limit, set by the machine operator, is reached.

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

Rebound is a two-player sports arcade video game developed by Atari and released in February 1974. In the game, two players each control paddles on either side of a volleyball net, with a ball dropped from the top of the screen. The players bounce the ball back and forth across the net with the goal of scoring points by having the ball reach the bottom or side of the other player's half of the screen, with the trajectory of the ball dependent on where it strikes the paddle. The winner is the first player to reach eleven or fifteen points, depending on the game settings.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1970s in video games</span> Video game-related events in 1970s

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.

References

  1. ↑ "PONG Into National Distribution; Success for Atari, Inc". Cash Box. 34 (40): 104. April 7, 1973.
  2. ↑ "Computer against computer in chess match". The Daily Herald. August 17, 1973. pp. Section 2, 2.
  3. ↑ Kenny Jr., Herbert (September 30, 1973). "Computer conquer space, but not Bobby Fischer". The Boston Globe. pp. A-24.
  4. ↑ Akagi, Masumi (2005). Soreha "Pon" Kara Hajimatta - Ākēdo TV Gēmu no Naritachiそれは「ポン」から始まった-アーケードTVゲームの成り立ち[In the Beginning, There was "Pong" - The Origins of Arcade TV Games]. Amusement News Agency. p. 89. ISBN   978-4990251208.
  5. ↑ shmuplations (December 29, 2021). "Kasco and the Electro-Mechanical Golden Age - shmuplations.com" . Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Focus on MOA's 25th Anniversary Expo". Cash Box. 35 (21): 50–51. November 24, 1973.
  7. 1 2 Cole, Bernard C. (June 27, 1974). "A whole new game". Electronics: 69–70.
  8. 1 2 The Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1976. p. 87.
  9. ↑ 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. p. 173. ISBN   978-1-138-38990-8.
  10. ↑ Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. p. 12. ISBN   978-0-9643848-1-1.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Baer 2005, p. 10.
  12. ↑ Jarrell, Timothy (November 1976). "Like Old Man River Midway Sales Go Rollin' Along". Play Meter. 2 (12): 50.
  13. 1 2 3 Neven, John F. (July 11, 1977). "Notice of Motion". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  14. 1 2 Baer 2005, p. 12.
  15. ↑ The Electronic Games Market in the U.S. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1983. p. 26.
  16. ↑ "Magnavox will drop". Weekly Television Digest with Consumer Electronics. 14 (19): 9. May 13, 1974.
  17. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 86.
  18. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 244–245.
  19. ↑ Meades, Alan F. (2022). Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade. Game Histories / edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. p. 124. ISBN   978-0-262-37235-0.
  20. ↑ Akagi, Masumi (2005). アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005)[List of Arcade TV Games (1971-2005)] (in Japanese). アミューズメント通信社. pp. 34, 40. ISBN   978-4990251215.
  21. ↑ "Atari Bows 'SPACE RACE'". Cash Box. 35 (3): 39. July 21, 1973.
  22. ↑ "4-Player, 50c, TV Game From ALI". Cash Box: 48. August 25, 1973.
  23. ↑ "Atari Ships 'Pong Doubles' & 'Gotcha'". Cash Box. 35 (13): 54. September 29, 1973.
  24. ↑ Fries, Ed (May 25, 2016). "Fixing Color Gotcha" . Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  25. ↑ "Nutting Industries Ships Color Tennis TV". Cash Box. 35 (23): 44. December 8, 1973.
  26. ↑ Willaert, "Critical Kate" (April 11, 2021). "Moonlander: One Giant Leap For Game Design". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  27. ↑ "Lost in the Caves". People's Computer Company. 1 (5): 4. May 1973.
  28. ↑ Daleske, John. "PLATO Empire - Empire 1". www.daleske.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  29. ↑ Daleske, John. "PLATO Empire - Empire 2 - Tactics". www.daleske.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  30. ↑ Dear, Brian (2017). The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture. New York: Pantheon Books. pp. 267–269. ISBN   978-1-101-87155-3.
  31. ↑ Lewis, Barbara (July 28, 1973). "Television Does Have Advantages". The Telegraph-Journal and Evening Times-Globe. p. 11.
  32. ↑ Willaert, "Critical Kate" (February 9, 2020). "Box Art History #1: The First Video Games In Boxes Were For Magnavox's Odyssey". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  33. ↑ Baer 2005, p. 90.
  34. ↑ Martorell, Martin F. (April 18, 2024). "Overkal - The History of the Spanish Magnavox Odyssey clone". prehistoricgaming. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
  35. ↑ "Corporate Info / Corporate History". Konami. Archived from the original on February 10, 2006. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
  36. ↑ Carlston, Douglas G. (1985). Software People: An Insider's Look at the Personal Computer Software Industry. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 254–255. ISBN   978-0-671-50971-2.
  37. ↑ "Corporate Info. / History". Hudson. Archived from the original on November 24, 2005. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
  38. ↑ Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012). Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Press. p. 122. ISBN   978-0985597405.
  39. ↑ Goldberg & Vendel 2012, pp. 128–129.
  40. ↑ Smith 2019, p. 199.
  41. ↑ Eglin, Roger (June 26, 1977). "Big shots with a small screen". Sunday Times. p. 63.
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