The console industry saw its first competitive environment in the United States withMagnavox, Atari, and smaller competitors introducing systems utilizing advanced circuit designs. Atari’s Ponghome console featured a sophisticated custom chip created in-house.[1][2] Europeandedicated consoles remained isolated to specific regions, but offered some of the first console lines from companies like Videomaster. Japan’s first native console was developed and released by toy companyEpoch.
Computer networks saw a mass proliferation of game variants written in theBASIC programming language which influenced the emerging field ofmicrocomputers. Games introduced in publications likePeople’s Computer Company and101 BASIC Computer Games were frequently played viateletypes ontime-sharing connected terminals; some were distributed via the remote connectedARPANET. ThePLATO network likewise experienced a massive uptick in titles following the popularity ofEmpire andSpasim. Midwestern universities connected to the PLATO system were early recipients of the spread ofDungeons & Dragons, which prompted several student groups to develop the earliest computer role-playing games.
February 16–19[3] –Atari attends the New YorkToy Fair to interest retailers to stock their forthcomingPong home console. They fail to find any interest among toy buyers.[1][2]
March 12 – Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel file US Patent #4,026,555 for Alpex Computer Corporation relating to abitmapped system forvideo game graphics.[4]
March 17 –Sears, Roebuck & Co. signs an agreement with Atari Inc. to distribute their Pong home console in their Sears retail stores.[2] Sears creates the Tele-Games brand to market the game while also allowing Atari’s logo to appear on the product.Magnavox later sues Sears over infringement of theirOdyssey patents.[2][5]
September 16–19 – The first WESCON computertrade show is held inSan Francisco, California. Premiering there is theMOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, which powers many future video game systems. Steve Mayer and Ron Milner of Atari'sCyan Engineering are convinced to use the 6502 in their prototype home video game system which develops into theVideo Computer System.[1][2]
October 17–19 – The Music Operators of America show is held inChicago, Illinois. Severalmicroprocessor video games make their debut includingGun Fight fromMidway,Shark from U.S. Billiards,PT-109 fromMirco Games, andDestruction Derby from Major Manufacturers.[6]
October 29 – Stephen Bristow of Atari Inc. patents the technology behind the first hardware-enabledsprites for video games, dubbed Player/Missile Graphics by Atari.[7]
RePlay magazine published its first popularity chart for coin-operated games in the United States in March 1976, covering games of the previous year. The lists were based on polling operators regarding their opinions of games receiving the most attention in their locations.[14] RePlay's charts were based only on a subset of operators and are not on imperial metrics such as earnings reports, but they give a strong indication of games which were of the most value to arcades and street locations.
The RePlay rankings included both video andelectro-mechanical games which ran in close competition through the 1970s until video games became dominant. Outside of the top twenty ranked in order, forty-eight other games were also listed.[14]
October – RePlay magazine publishes its first issue. Edited byEddie Adlum – previously editor for the coin machine section of publicationCash Box – the monthly magazine covers all aspects of coin-operated entertainment.
April –Indy 800 byAtari (published under theKee Games label) begins production.[18] The game features color graphics and an eight player cabinet powered by eightcircuit boards. Despite its massive profile and price restricting the range of venues, the game is highly successful and proves the earning power of large, multiplayer games.[2]
Atari releasesHi-Way, a scrolling racing game featuring a sit-down cabinet and screen-warping effects.[19]
September –Western Gun is released byTaito in Japan. It features the first human-on-human combat in a video game as well asdestructible environments.
October –Sega’s American marketing arm, Sega of America, releases their first video game in the United States,Bullet Mark.[20]
Project Support Engineering releasesManeater. The game is noted for its specialcabinet design which is molded in the shape of a great white shark with open jaws.[21] It is one of several games capitalizing on the release of the movieJaws – includingShark Jaws by Atari andShark by U.S. Billiards.Steven Spielberg is photographed with theManeater cabinet.
Atari introducesSteeplechase – a unique, six-player game. Controls are simplified to a single button which causes a horse to leap.[22] It is the first graphical game featuring a character who can jump.
Electra Games releasesAvenger.[23] It is an early example of a scrollingshoot 'em-up.
November –Gun Fight is released byMidway Manufacturing, based onWestern Gun by Taito.[24] It is the preeminent video game to use amicroprocessor as well as the firsttwin-stick shooter. The game is among the most successful of 1975 and its hardware is used for subsequent Midway-released games.[2]
Fairchild employeeJerry Lawson creates the gameDestruction Derby[Note 4] which he offers to Major Manufacturers.[26][27] Though the game is never officially released, its creation leads to Lawson’s engineering leadership of the FairchildVideo Entertainment System console.[28]
In response to the deletion ofThe Dungeon from PLATO, Paul Resch, Larry Kemp, and Eric Hagstrom of the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana create the gameOrthanc.[30]
April – The company Jolieb distributes theOdyssey console in Japan, the first home video game to be sold in the country.[33]
May – Control Sales offers the Video Action II console for sale for $299.[34] The console runs into difficulties withFederal Communications Commission restrictions, forcing the company to pull it from sale.[2]
September – Toy companyEpoch releasesTV Tennis Electrotennis in Japan.[35] It is the first Japanese-developed home video game console, with the unusual feature of awireless connection to the television via aUHF antenna.
October – The Tele-Games home version of Pong (sometimes called Home Pong) is made available for purchase inSears retail stores.[2]
November –Magnavox releases two new models consoles based on the Odyssey using chips developed byTexas Instruments, theOdyssey 100 andOdyssey 200. These consoles are pared down to play variants of thePing Pong game from the original Odyssey – which is discontinued – and are much more successful.[2]
Videomaster releases its Olympic Home T.V. Game model in the United Kingdom which plays six games.[36][37]
Television Tennis is released by Executive Games in the United States.[38]
December –Philips releases theES 2201 Tele-Spiel console in the Netherlands, an early console featuring interchangeable games similar to the original Odyssey.[39][40]
September 22 – Yasuhiro Fukushima founds the Eidansha Boshu Service Center in theShinjuku district ofTokyo. The advertising business is later renamedEnix Corporation when they enter computer games.
November 1 –Sammy Industry is established in Japan byHajime Satomi, a split of the coin-operated amusement assets from his company Satomi Corporation.
^The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals 53,000 games with traditional arcade cabinets and 26,000 for those under the new cocktail table presentation.
^The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals $58 million in games with traditional arcade cabinets and $18 million for those under the new cocktail table presentation.
^Ralph Baer's numbers compiled in April 1976 are mostly estimates without direct access to sales figures.
^Unrelated to theDestruction Derby released by Exidy.
^abcdGoldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012).Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Press.ISBN978-0985597405.
^abcdefghijkSmith, Alexander (2020).They create worlds: the story of the people and companies that shaped the video game industry. Boca Raton, [Florida] London New York, [New York]: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis group.ISBN978-1-138-38990-8.
^Zemo, Gini (February 14, 1975). "Toymakers Await Holidays".Asbury Park Press. pp. A–15.
^US4026555A, Kirschner, Wallace & Haskel, Lawrence Martin, "Television display control apparatus", issued May 31, 1977
^"Complaint For Patent Infringement".Magnavox Company v. Sears, Roebuck and Co. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. September 22, 1974. RetrievedNovember 2, 2024.
^"V/TMG Visits the Displays at MOA Expo".Vending Times.15 (11):74–76. November 1975.
^US4045789A, Bristow, Stephen D., "Animated video image display system and method", issued August 30, 1977
^Kerwin, Robert (June 6, 1976). "Put Another Quarter In...".The San Francisco Examiner. pp. Sunday Examiner & Chronicle 24.
^abcThe Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1976.
^Jarrell, Timothy (November 1976). "Like Old Man River Midway Sales Go Rollin' Along".Play Meter.2 (12):50–52.
^Cognevich, Valerie (March 15, 1986). "Video-game industry still evolving".Play Meter.12 (4): 12,14–16.
^Neven, John F. (July 11, 1977)."Notice of Motion".Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. RetrievedMarch 22, 2024.
^ab"The Nation's Top Arcade Games".RePlay.1 (22): 26. March 1976.
^abElectronic Games & Personal Computers. Predicasts Inc. February 1979.
^abThe Electronic Games Market in the U.S. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1983.
^Schultz, Kaye (May 28, 1975). "Who's in control: Man or machine?".The News. pp. The World 3.
^"New Kee game has chills, spills, enough for eight".Play Meter.1 (6): 55. May 1975.
^"Go out in the traffic and play!".Vending Times.15 (4): 59. April 1975.
^"Bullet Mark Another First From Sega".RePlay.1 (1): 41. October 1975.
^"Maneater from PSE".RePlay.1 (1): 28. October 1975.
^"It's Chicago Coin's Game with a Brain".RePlay.1 (10): 7. December 20, 1975.
^"Major Manufacturing's Kinsel Hails Fascination".Vending Times.15 (10): 95. October 1975.
^"Illogical".Microelectronics News with Manager's Casebook: 2. October 18, 1975.
^Donovan, Tristan (2010).Replay: the history of video games. East Sussex, England: Yellow Ant.ISBN978-0-9565072-0-4.
^Peterson, Jon (2012).Playing at the world: a history of simulating wars, people and fantastic adventures, from chess to role-playing games. San Diego, CA: Unreason Press.ISBN978-0-615-64204-8.
