1979 in video games

none March 2016 1979 video 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 (Atari VCS). Financial performance Highest-grossing arcade games Space Invaders was the top-grossing video game worldwide in 1979,After Pong ACE 4 February 1988 6 (March 1988) 29–32 (29) https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_06_1988-03_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n28/mode/1up having become the arcade game industry's all-time best-seller by 1979.1979: The Year in Review Cash Box 19 December 1979 114 https://archive.org/details/cashbox41unse_31/page/n131 Cash Box Pub. Co. The following table lists the year's top-grossing arcade game in Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide. Market Title Cabinet sales Developer Distributor Genre Ref Reference(s) Japan Space Invaders Taito Taito Shoot 'em up United Kingdom Space Invaders Space Invaders sold 85,000 arcade cabinets in the United Kingdom between 1978 and 1979. Taito Midway Manufacturing Shoot 'em up United States Space Invaders 55,000 Taito Midway Manufacturing Shoot 'em up Video Games RePlay November 1979Sullivan George The First Big Hits Screen Play: The Story of Video Games 1983 F. Warne 978-0-7232-6251-0 38–47 (40) https://archive.org/details/ScreenPlaytheStoryofVideoGames/page/n49 Worldwide Space Invaders 355,000+ Taito Shoot 'em up Japan In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1979, according to the annual Game Machine chart. Taito's Space Invaders was the highest-grossing arcade game for a second year in a row.ベストスリー 本紙調査 Best 3 Paper Survey Game Machine 136 Amusement Press, Inc. February 1980 2 ja https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19800201p.pdf#page=2調査対象5年間のベスト1 Best 1 of the 5 Years Surveyed Game Machine 159 Amusement Press, Inc. 15 February 1981 1 ja https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19810215p.pdf Rank Title Points DeveloperDistributor Genre Cabinet sales #1 #2 #3 Total 1 Space Invaders 40 4 3 Taito Taito Shoot 'em up Can Asteroids Conquer Space Invaders? Electronic Games Winter 1981 1 1 30–33 (31) http://www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/electronic_games/electronic_games_winter81.pdf#page=31 12 February 2021 2 Galaxian 9 13 9 Namco Namco Shoot 'em up rowspan="10" 3 Monaco GP 9 11 8 Sega Sega Racing 4 Head On 0 11 2 Sega/Gremlin Sega Maze 5 Super Speed Race V 2 5 1 Taito Taito Racing 6 Speed Race CL-5 0 1 4 Taito Taito Racing Space Chaser 0 2 2 Taito Taito Maze Special Dual 0 2 2 Sega/Gremlin Sega Compilation Space Stranger 2 0 0 Taito Hoei Sangyo Shoot 'em up 10 Heiankyo Alien (Digger) 0 1 3 Theoretical Science Group Denki Onkyō Maze Sheriff (Bandido) 0 1 3 Nintendo R&D1 Nintendo Shoot 'em up United States The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing arcade video games of 1979 in the United States, according to Cash Box, Play Meter and RePlay magazines. Rank Cash BoxAMOA Expo 1979: '79 Route Survey Cash Box November 10, 1979 AMOA-33 https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1979/CB-1979-11-10.pdf#page=59 Play MeterThe Winners of '79: Top Videos Play Meter 1979 RePlay Cabinet sales 1 Space Invaders 55,000 2 Football < 10,405Product: Total Build http://www.atarigames.com/atarinumbers90s.pdf Atari Games 1999 March 2, 2021 May 10, 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130510143012/http://www.atarigames.com/atarinumbers90s.pdf dead 3 Star Fire Sprint 2 rowspan="8" 4 Space Wars Head On 5 Head On Star Hawk 6 Sprint 2 Space Wars 7 Crash Star Fire 8 Super Breakout 9 Star Hawk Crash 10 Video Pinball Best-selling home systems Rank System(s) Manufacturer(s) Type Generation Sales Ref Reference 1 Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) Atari, Inc. Console Second 1,000,000 Russell Jimmy https://books.google.com/books?id=Qsa-BAAAQBAJ&q=atari+vcs+christmas+1979&pg=PP10 101 Amazing Atari 2600 Facts December 3, 2012 Andrews UK Limited 9781782344957 en 2 Personal computer (PC) Various Computer 580,000 3 TRS-80 Tandy Corporation Computer 8-bit 200,000 Reimer Jeremy 2005-12-15 Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures https://arstechnica.com/features/2005/12/total-share/ live 2021-11-27 Ars Technica en-us https://web.archive.org/web/20120607023023/http://arstechnica.com:80/features/2005/12/total-share/ June 7, 2012 Jeremy Reimer 2012-12-07 Total Share: Personal Computer Market Share 1975-2010 https://jeremyreimer.com/rockets-item.lsp?p=137 Jeremy Reimer4NEC PC-8001NECComputer8-bit150,000West Joel January 1996 Moderators of the Diffusion of Technological Innovation: Growth of the Japanese PC Industry https://escholarship.org/content/qt7qn582kq/qt7qn582kq.pdf#page=14 Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations University of California, Irvine 9–10 alternate url 5 Atari 400 / Atari 800 Atari, Inc. Computer 8-bit 100,0006Commodore PETCommodore InternationalComputer8-bit45,0007Apple IIApple Inc.Computer8-bit35,000 Major awards Electronic Games magazine hosted the first Arkie Awards in 1980, for games in 1979.The Arcade Awards – 1980 – Electronic Games Winter 1981, pages 38-9Bally Awards Arcadian 1980-01-15 2 3 20 http://www.ballyalley.com/newsletters/arcadian/arcadian_vol_2/arcadian_vol_02_issue_03.pdf 2 February 2012 Award Winner Platform(s) Game of the Year Space Invaders Arcade Best Pong Variant Video Olympics Atari VCS Best Sports Game Football Bally Professional Arcade Best Target Game Air-Sea Battle Atari VCS Best S.F. Game Cosmic Conflict Odyssey² Best Solitaire Game Golf Odyssey² Most Innovative Game Basketball Atari VCS Best Audio and Visual Effects Bally Arcade / Bally Business New companies: Activision, Capcom, Edu-Ware, Infocom, Quicksilva, Strategic Simulations The US market for arcade games earn a revenue of 1.5 billion noCoin-Op history – 1975 to 1997 – from the pages of RePlay http://replaymag.com/history.htm RePlay 1998 dead https://web.archive.org/web/19980428063132/http://replaymag.com/history.htm April 28, 1998 April 21, 2021 (US 1.5 1979 1 billion no adjusted for inflation). The US home video game market generates a revenue of 330 million noLindner Richard Video Games: Past, Present and Future; An Industry Overview 1990 Nintendo of America United States https://archive.org/details/06Kahle001551 (US 0.33 1979 1 billion no adjusted for inflation). Notable releases thumb|Microvision Games Arcade April – Sega's dot-eating driving game, Head On, is released. It becomes a popular concept to clone, especially for home systems. August – Atari releases Lunar Lander, the first arcade version of a game concept created on minicomputers ten years earlier. November – Atari releases the vector graphics-based Asteroids, which becomes Atari's second best selling game of all time and displaces Space Invaders as the most popular game in the US. November – Namco releases fixed shooter Galaxian in full color. November – Vectorbeam releases Tail Gunner, a space shooter with a first-person perspective. December – Nintendo releases Radar Scope, featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person perspective. Later, 2000 out of 3000 manufactured machines are converted to Donkey Kong. Cinematronics releases Warrior, one of the first fighting games without a boxing theme. Sega releases the vertically scrolling Monaco GP, featuring full color and day/night driving. It is one of Sega's last discrete logic (no CPU) hardware designs. Computer August – Automated Simulations releases Temple of Apshai, one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers.http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1991&pub=2&id=87 C*R*P*G*S / Computer Role-Playing Game Survey Computer Gaming World October 1991 November 18, 2013 Scorpia 109 It remains the best-selling computer RPG through to 1982.Computer Gaming World September–October 1982 2 5 2 List of Top Sellers October – subLOGIC releases Flight Simulator for the Apple II. Richard Garriott creates Akalabeth, a computer role-playing game for the Apple II. It launches Garriott's career and is a precursor to his highly successful Ultima series. Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw create what is commonly recognized as the first playable MUD.http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mudhistory.html Early MUD History January 2, 2005 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924035924/http://www.iol.ie/~ecarroll/mud/mudhistory.html September 24, 2015 dead Atari, Inc.'s 8K Star Raiders cartridge is released and becomes a system seller for the new Atari 400/800 computer line. Hardware Computer June – Texas Instruments releases the TI-99/4. It is the first home computer with a 16-bit processor and, with TI's TMS9918 video chip, one of the first with hardware sprites. September – NEC releases the PC-8001, the first in the PC-8000 series of home computers. November – Atari, Inc. releases the first two models in the Atari 8-bit home computer series: the Atari 400 and Atari 800. They feature custom graphics and sound coprocessors which support sprites, four-channel audio, and programmable display modes. Console Mattel test markets the Intellivision console in Fresno, California. It is released throughout the United States in 1980. Handheld November – Milton Bradley Company releases the Microvision, the first handheld game console that uses interchangeable cartridges. See also 1979 in games Notes References Category:Video games by year