From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Overview of the events of 1980 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 , 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 (later called the Atari 2600) also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision .
The arcade video game market in the US generates $2.81 billion in revenue[ 1] ($10.4 billion adjusted for inflation).
Home video games sell $464 million ($1.72 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
$3,700,000,000
100,000
Namco
Namco / Midway
Maze
[ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
2
Asteroids
$700,000,000
$2,600,000,000
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.
Best-selling home video games
The following titles were the best-selling home video games in 1980.
Rank
Title
Platform
Developer
Publisher
Release Year
Genre
Sales
Ref
1
Space Invaders
Atari VCS
Taito
Atari, Inc.
1980
Shoot 'em up
1,318,655
[ 19] [ 20]
2
Breakout
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1978
Action
256,265
[ 20]
3
Football
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1979
Sports (American football )
248,502
4
Bowling
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1979
Sports
245,670
5
Night Driver
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1980
Racing
161,352
6
Air-Sea Battle
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1977
Shooter
160,093
7
Circus Atari
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1980
Action
148,756
8
Street Racer
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1977
Racing
89,269
9
Video Olympics
Atari VCS
Atari, Inc.
1977
Sports
36,028
Best-selling home systems
Rank
System(s)
Manufacturer
Type
Generation
Sales
Ref
1
Game & Watch
Nintendo
Handheld
—
2,000,000+
[ 21]
2
Atari Video Computer System (VCS)
Atari, Inc.
Console
Second
1,250,000
[ 22]
3
TRS-80
Tandy Corporation
Computer
8-bit
290,000
[ 23]
4
Intellivision
Mattel
Console
Second
200,000
[ 22] [ 24]
5
Atari 400 / Atari 800
Atari, Inc.
Computer
8-bit
200,000
[ 23]
6
Commodore PET
Commodore International
Computer
8-bit
90,000
[ 23]
7
Apple II
Apple Inc.
Computer
8-bit
79,500
[ 25]
8
HP 9800 / HP Series 80
Hewlett-Packard
Computer
8-bit
11,300
[ 25]
9
North Star Horizon
North Star Computers
Computer
8-bit
8,200
[ 25]
10
TI-99/4
Texas Instruments
Computer
16-bit
8,100
[ 25]
Events
Awards
Business
Notable releases
Games
Arcade
May 22 – Namco releases Pac-Man (originally Puckman in Japan). It becomes the highest-grossing game of all time .[ 28] It has the first gaming mascot character , established the maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[ 29] introduced power-ups ,[ 30] and told a story through cutscenes .[ 31]
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 .[ 32] [ 33]
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
Computer
Handheld
Hardware
Arcade
Console
Computer
See also
References
^ Video Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades? , The Golden Age Arcade Historian (December 27, 2013)
^ Lindner, Richard (1990). Video Games: Past, Present and Future; An Industry Overview . United States: Nintendo of America .
^ 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
^ 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 .
^ 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).
^ a b Kubey, Craig (1982). The Winners' Book of Video Games . New York: Warner Books . p. 13. ISBN 978-0-446-37115-5 .
^ Kepos, Paula; Derdak, Thomas (1994). "International Directory of Company Histories" . International Directory of Company Histories . 9 . St. James Press : 45. ISBN 9781558623248 . 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ Cohen, Daniel (1982). Video Games . New York: Pocket Books . p. 17. ISBN 0-671-45872-8 .
^ " "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.
^ "1980 Jukebox/Games Route Survey" (PDF) . Cash Box : AMOA-28. November 1, 1980.
^ "Play Meter Award 1980" . New York Heritage Digital Collections . Empire State Library Network. Retrieved August 30, 2021 .
^ Adlum, Eddie (November 1985). "The Replay Years: Reflections from Eddie Adlum" . RePlay . Vol. 11, no. 2. pp. 134-175 (160-3).
^ "Video Games". RePlay . November 1980.
^ "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 .
^ Stone, Andrea (December 1982). "The House That Pac Built: Midway Manufacturing is king of the coin-op hill and loving it!" . Video Games . 1 (3). Pumpkin Press: 53-55 (54).
^ 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.
^ 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 .
^ a b 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.
^ "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 January 9, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2021 .
^ a b Greenberg, Jonathan (April 13, 1981). "Japanese invaders: Move over Asteroids and Defenders, the next adversary in the electronic video game wars may be even tougher to beat" (PDF) . Forbes . Vol. 127, no. 8. pp. 98, 102.
^ a b c Reimer, Jeremy (December 15, 2005). "Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures" . Ars Technica . Archived from the original on June 7, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2021 .
^ Bloom, Steve (1982). "The Next Step" (PDF) . Video Invaders . Arco Pub. pp. 107-109 (108). ISBN 978-0-668-05518-5 .
^ a b c d Pollack, Andrew (August 13, 1981). "Big I.B.M.'s Little Computer" . The New York Times . Vol. 130, no. 45, 039. p. D1. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved December 6, 2021 .
^ The Arcade Awards – 1980 – Electronic Games Winter 1981, pages 38-9
^ "Bally Awards" (PDF) . Arcadian . 2 (3): 20. January 15, 1980. Retrieved February 2, 2012 .
^ 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.
^ The Essential 50 - Pac-Man , 1UP
^ Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever , 1UP
^ Gaming's Most Important Evolutions Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , GamesRadar+
^ "AtariAge - Catalog - Atari (CO16725-Rev. D)" . atariage.com . Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2015 .
^ Campbell, Colin (March 9, 2015). "The story of Yars' Revenge is a journey back to a lost world of video games" . Polygon . Retrieved July 2, 2015 .
By platform By console generation
Video games by country
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania