1974 in video games

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List of years in video games

1974 had new titles such as Speed Race, Dungeon, Gran Trak 10, Tank and TV Basketball. The year's best-selling arcade game was Tank by Kee Games.

Best-selling arcade video games in the United States[]

The following titles were the best-selling arcade video games of 1974 in the United States, according to annual arcade cabinet sales estimates provided by Ralph H. Baer.[1]

Rank Title Arcade cabinet sales Developer Manufacturer Genre
1 Tank 10,000 Kee Games Kee Games Maze
2 Formula K (Gran Trak 10) 5,000 Atari, Inc. Kee Games Racing
3 Clean Sweep 3,500 Ramtek Ramtek Block breaker
4 Flim-Flam 1,500 Meadows Games Meadows Games Pong
5 Leader 1,000 Midway Manufacturing Midway Manufacturing
TV Flipper 1,000 Midway Manufacturing Midway Manufacturing Pinball
7 Gran Trak 20 500 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Racing
Robot 500 Allied Leisure Allied Leisure Pong
TV Basketball 500 Taito Midway Manufacturing Sports
TV Pinball 500 Chicago Coin Chicago Coin Pinball

Events[]

  • The number of copies of Pong and its commercial clones exceed 100,000 units. Approximately 10,000 of these units were manufactured by Atari, the original developer of Pong.[2]
  • H.R. "Pete" Kaufman leaves Ramtek to found Exidy, Inc.[2]
  • Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. and formally enters the video arcade game market.[2]
  • Atari acquires Kee Games as a "marketing ploy." Atari will continue to use the "Kee Games" title as a brand name until 1978.[2]
  • Royal Philips Electronics N.V. acquires Magnavox, which becomes "Philips Consumer Electronics."[3]

Notable releases[]

Magazines[]

  • Play Meter, the first magazine devoted to coin-operated amusements (including arcade games), publishes its first issue.[2]

Arcade games[]

  • February – Taito releases Basketball,[4] an early example of sprite graphics, used to represent baskets and player characters,[5] making it the first video game with human figures.[4] The same month, Midway licenses the game for a North American release under the title TV Basketball, making it the first Japanese game licensed for North American release.[4]
  • July 24 – Atari releases Gran Trak 10, the first car-racing video game, to video arcades.[6]
  • November – Taito releases Tomohiro Nishikado's Speed Race,[7] the second car-racing video game. It introduces scrolling sprite graphics with collision detection,[8] and uses a racing wheel controller.[9] Midway releases it as Wheels and Racer in the United States.[8]
  • November 5[10] – Prior to their acquisition by Atari, Kee Games releases Tank to video arcades.[2]

Computer games[]

Maze War, an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre, was ported to a number of computer systems. The above image was created from a version of the game written for the Xerox Star 8010 in 1985.
  • Steve Colley, Howard Palmer, and Greg Johnson develop Maze War on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.[11] It is recognized as an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre.
  • Jim Bowery develops Spasim for the PLATO system. Two versions are released, the first in March and the second in July.[12] It is also recognized as an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre.
  • Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood develop dnd, the first game with a boss, and arguably the first role-playing video game, for the PLATO system.[13] Development continued into 1975; it is unclear at what point the game became playable.

Video game consoles[]

  • Magnavox reissues the Odyssey and releases it in Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and Venezuela.[14]

References[]

  1. ^ Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. pp. 10–3. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Thomas, Donald A. Jr. (2005). "–1974–". ICWhen.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2006. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
  3. ^ Kaiser, Robert D. (1999). "The Ultimate Odyssey2 and Odyssey3 FAQ". Archived from the original (text) on March 8, 2008. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
  4. ^ a b c "The Golden Age Arcade Historian: Video Game Firsts??". November 22, 2013.
  5. ^ Basketball at the Killer List of Videogames
  6. ^ Cassidy, William (2003). "Hall of Fame / Gran Trak 10 and Sprint 2". GameSpy. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
  7. ^ "Speed Race, Arcade Video game by Taito (1974)".
  8. ^ a b Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, p. 197, Focal Press, ISBN 0-240-81146-1
  9. ^ Speed Race at the Killer List of Videogames
  10. ^ "Tank , Arcade Video game by Kee Games(1974)".
  11. ^ "The Maze War 30 Year Retrospective". DigiBarn Games. 2004. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  12. ^ Bowery, Jim (2010). "Spasim (1978) The First First-Person-Shooter 3D Multiplayer Networked Game". Archived from the original on October 21, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
  13. ^ Koster, Raph (February 17, 2002). "Online World Timeline". Raph Koster's Website. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  14. ^ Gegan, Shaun and David Winter (2003). "Magnavox Odyssey FAQ version 2.9.1" (text). Archived from the original on February 13, 2006. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
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