1980 in video games

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List of years in video games

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, and Olympic Decathlon. The Atari VCS (later the Atari 2600) grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new developer Activision.

Financial performance[]

  • The arcade video game market in the US generates $2.81 billion in revenue[1] ($8.83 billion adjusted for inflation).
  • Home video games sell $464 million ($1.46 billion adjusted for inflation) in the United States, with the Atari VCS leading the market with a 44% share.[2]

Highest-grossing arcade games[]

The following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games worldwide in 1980.

Rank Title Gross revenue Inflation Cabinet sales Developer Distributor(s) Genre Ref
1 Pac-Man $1,000,000,000 $3,100,000,000 100,000 Namco Namco / Midway Maze [3][4][5]
2 Asteroids $700,000,000 $2,200,000,000 70,000 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Shoot 'em up [6][7]
Galaxian Un­known Un­known Un­known Namco Namco / Midway Shoot 'em up [8][9]
Space Invaders Un­known Un­known Un­known Taito Taito / Midway Shoot 'em up [10]

Japan and United States[]

In Japan and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1980.

Rank Japan (Game Machine)[8][11] United States
Title #1 #2 #3 Points RePlay[12] Cash Box[13] Play Meter[9][14] Cabinet sales
1 Pac-Man 62 46 17 295 Asteroids < 60,000[6]
2 Galaxian 44 25 18 200 Un­known Galaxian < 40,000[15]
3 Crazy Climber 14 19 30 110 Un­known N/A Space Invaders < 12,000[16][17]
4 Moon Cresta 3 24 15 72 Un­known N/A Un­known Un­known
5 Monaco GP 11 4 11 52
6 Rally-X 1 6 3 18
7 Heiankyo Alien (Digger) 1 4 4 15
8 Pitch In 0 1 5 7
9 Super Speed Race 0 2 2 6
10 Sasuke vs. Commander 0 0 5 5
Space Invaders 0 1 3 5
Missile Command 0 2 1 5

Best-selling home video games[]

Space Invaders for the Atari VCS console was the best-selling home video game of 1980.[18] The following titles were the best-selling Atari VCS games in 1980.[19]

Rank Title Sales Genre Licensor
1 Space Invaders 1,318,655 Shoot 'em up Taito
2 Breakout 256,265 Action N/A
3 Football 248,502 American football
4 Bowling 245,670 Sports
5 Night Driver 161,352 Racing
6 Air-Sea Battle 160,093 Shooter
7 Circus Atari 148,756 Action
8 Street Racer 89,269 Racing
9 Video Olympics 36,028 Sports

Events[]

Awards[]

  • Electronic Games hosts the first Arcade Awards, the first video game awards ceremony. It awards games released during 1978–1979, with Space Invaders winning the overall Game of the Year award.

Business[]

  • New companies: Broderbund, Bug-Byte, HAL Laboratory, Human Engineered Software, Mindscape, On-Line Systems, Sirius, Sir-Tech.
  • Mattel creates the original five-programmer Intellivision game design team, later nicknamed the Blue Sky Rangers in 1982 in a TV Guide interview.

Notable releases[]

Games[]

Arcade
  • May 22 – Namco releases Pac-Man (originally Puckman in Japan). It becomes the highest-grossing game of all time.[20] It has the first gaming mascot character, established the maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[21] introduced power-ups,[22] and told a story through cutscenes.[23]
  • May – Stratovox from Sun Electronics is the first game with voice synthesis.
  • July – Atari, Inc. releases the cold-war-inspired Missile Command.
  • October – Nichibutsu releases the vertically scrolling Crazy Climber, the first video game with a climbing mechanic and an objective of climbing to the top of the level.
  • November 12 – Stern Electronics releases Berzerk, with designer Alan McNeil's signature on the monitor glass of each cabinet.
  • November – Namco releases Rally-X, the first game with a bonus round. It also features multi-directional scrolling.
  • November – Universal releases Space Panic, the first game with platforms and ladders. The term platform game was still several years in the future.
  • November – Atari, Inc. releases first-person 3D tank shooter Battlezone.
  • Cinematronics releases Star Castle. In 1982 the Atari 2600 port ends up as Yars' Revenge.
  • Midway's Wizard of Wor is released, allowing two players to fight simultaneously in monster-filled mazes.
  • The multi-stage Phoenix sports one of the first video-game bosses: a purple alien in a mothership.
Console
  • Atari, Inc.'s port of Space Invaders becomes the killer app for the VCS and the first console title to sell a million copies.
  • The first batch of games from Activision, all for the Atari VCS, hits stores: Dragster, Fishing Derby, Boxing, Bridge, and Checkers.
Computer
  • December – Infocom releases its first game, Zork (later called Zork I), which begins the Zork series.
  • The mainframe game Rogue is written by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, eventually spawning a crowded genre of Roguelike games.
  • Edu-Ware releases The Prisoner for the Apple II, loosely based upon the 1960s TV series of the same name.
  • Strategic Simulations releases its first game: Computer Bismarck for the TRS-80.
  • Microsoft publishes Olympic Decathlon for the TRS-80, a track and field video game which precedes Konami's Track & Field and The Activision Decathlon by three years.
  • On-Line Systems publishes its first title, the graphic adventure Mystery House for the Apple II.
Handheld

Hardware[]

Arcade
Console
  • Mattel releases the Intellivision home video game console.
  • The Sinclair ZX80 and Acorn Atom are the first home computers to play games in the UK.
  • Tandy releases the first version of the Tandy Color Computer.
  • PPZ Ameprod releases the Ameprod TVG-10 dedicated home video game console in Poland.
  • The BSS 01 dedicated home video game console is released only in Germany.

References[]

  1. ^ Video Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades?, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (December 27, 2013)
  2. ^ Lindner, Richard (1990). Video Games: Past, Present and Future; An Industry Overview. United States: Nintendo of America.
  3. ^ Kline, Stephen; Dyer-Witheford, Nick; Peuter, Greig De (2003). Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing. McGill–Queen's University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-7735-2591-7. The game produced one billion dollars in 1980 alone
  4. ^ Altraide, Dagogo (January 15, 2019). "Video Games: Pac-Man! (1980)". ColdFusion Presents: New Thinking: From Einstein to Artificial Intelligence, the Science and Technology That Transformed Our World. Mango Publishing. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-63353-751-4.
  5. ^ Loguidice, Bill; Barton, Matt (August 21, 2012). Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time. CRC Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-136-13758-7. It was all Midway could do to keep up with the demand for the quarter-munching machines, churning out a hundred thousand of them in 1980 (three times that number were produced over the next seven years).
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Kubey, Craig (1982). The Winners' Book of Video Games. New York: Warner Books. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-446-37115-5.
  7. ^ Kepos, Paula; Derdak, Thomas (1994). "International Directory of Company Histories". International Directory of Company Histories. St. James Press. 9: 45. In 1980, the company introduced Asteroids to compete with the Space Invaders arcade game, which was produced by another company. Atari's version proved to be a popular alternative. By the end of the year, 70,000 of the units had been shipped.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "ベストスリー 本紙調査 (調査対象1980年) 〜 アーケードゲーム機" [Best Three Book Survey (Survey Target 1980) ~ Arcade Game Machines] (PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 159. Amusement Press, Inc. February 15, 1981. p. 2.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Sullivan, George (1981). Social Science. Pi Gamma Mu. p. 210. Examination of the graphics of 10 video machines, selected from the list of the 20 most popular videos for 1980 as published by Play Meter, supported our initial observations. (...) The three most popular video games for 1980 were Asteroids, Galaxian, and Space Invaders in that order. All three video games involve shooting electronic projectiles at rocks in space or at alien invaders.
  10. ^ Cohen, Daniel (1982). Video Games. New York: Pocket Books. p. 17. ISBN 0-671-45872-8.
  11. ^ ""Donkey Kong" No.1 Of '81 — Game Machine's Survey Of "The Year's Best Three AM Machines" —" (PDF). Game Machine. No. 182. Amusement Press, Inc. February 15, 1982. p. 30.
  12. ^ "Video Games". RePlay. November 1980.
  13. ^ "1980 Jukebox/Games Route Survey" (PDF). Cash Box: AMOA-28. November 1, 1980.
  14. ^ "Play Meter Award 1980". New York Heritage Digital Collections. Empire State Library Network. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  15. ^ "Midway Mfg. Co. v. Dirkschneider, 543 F. Supp. 466 (D. Neb. 1981)". Justia Law. U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. July 15, 1981. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  16. ^ Stone, Andrea (December 1982). "The House That Pac Built: Midway Manufacturing is king of the coin-op hill and loving it!". Video Games. Pumpkin Press. 1 (3): 53-55 (54).
  17. ^ Dale Peterson (1983), Genesis II, creation and recreation with computers, Reston Publishing, p. 175, ISBN 0-8359-2434-3, retrieved May 1, 2011, By 1980, some 300,000 Space Invader video arcade games were in use in Japan, and an additional 60,000 in the United States.
  18. ^ Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond (PDF). Three Rivers Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7615-3643-7.
  19. ^ Cartridge Sales Since 1980. Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari. Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
  20. ^ Steve L. Kent (2001), The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world, Prima, p. 143, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4, retrieved May 1, 2011, Despite the success of his game, Iwatani never received much attention. Rumors emerged that the unknown creator of Pac-Man had left the industry when he received only a $3500 bonus for creating the highest-grossing video game of all time.
  21. ^ The Essential 50 - Pac-Man, 1UP
  22. ^ Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever, 1UP
  23. ^ Gaming's Most Important Evolutions Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, GamesRadar+
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