1980 in video gaming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| List of years in video gaming (table) |
|---|
| … 1970 . 1971 . 1972 . 1973 . 1974 . 1975 . 1976 … 1977 1978 1979 -1980- 1981 1982 1983 … 1984 . 1985 . 1986 . 1987 . 1988 . 1989 . 1990 … |
| Related time period or subjects |
| … 1977 . 1978 . 1979 - 1980 - 1981 . 1982 . 1983 … … 1950s . 1960s . 1970s -1980s- 1990s . 2000s . 2010s |
| Art . Archaeology . Architecture . Literature . Music . Science +... |
Contents |
[edit] Events
[edit] Notable releases
- Namco releases Navalone, Kaitei Takara Sagashi, SOS, Pac-Man, which is their biggest selling game of all time, King and Balloon, which is the first game to feature synthesized voices, Tank Battalion and Rally-X, which is the first game to feature a bonus round.
- Rogue is written by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, spawning the category of roguelike games.
- Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game and the Game & Watch handheld LCD game by Gunpei Yokoi.
- Stern Electronics (a subsidiary of Universal Research Laboratories) releases the Berzerk arcade game.
- Warner Communications' Atari releases the Missile Command arcade game, and the Battlezone arcade game (it was later enhanced for the US Army for military training) – albeit relying on specialized vector graphics hardware.
- Williams Electronics releases the Defender arcade game.
- Warner Communications' Atari releases the Centipede (by Ed Logg & Dona Bailey) and Warlords arcade games and also the Tempest color vector arcade game.
- Universal release the arcade game Space Panic, often cited as the first platform game.
- Edu-Ware releases The Prisoner, loosely based upon the 1960s TV series of the same name. Programmed by David Mullich, it became a classic of the Apple II platform.
- Infocom releases Zork I, the first Zork game and the first Infocom game.
[edit] Hardware
- Mattel releases the Intellivision video game console.
- Sinclair Research releases the ZX80 home computer and Acorn Computers release the Atom, the first 'domestic' computers to play games in the UK.
[edit] Business
- New companies: Mindscape, Inc., Sierra On-Line.
- Mattel creates the original five-programmer Intellivision game design team, nicknamed the Blue Sky Rangers by a magazine writer when the company keeps their names secret in a TV Guide interview.
|
|||||||||||
