Overview of the events of 1980 in video games
1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, includingPac-Man Battlezone Crazy Climber Mystery House Missile Command Phoenix Rally-X Space Panic Stratovox Zork Adventure Olympic Decathlon Namco 'sarcade game Pac-Man , while the best-selling home system wasNintendo 'sGame & Watch . TheAtari VCS (later called the Atari 2600) also grew in popularity with aport ofSpace Invaders and support from newthird-party developer Activision .
Financial performance [ edit ] Thearcade video game market in the US generates $2.81 billion in revenue[ 1] Home video games sell$464 million ($1.77 billion adjusted for inflation) in the United States, with theAtari VCS leading the market with a 44% share.[ 2] Highest-grossing arcade games [ edit ] The following titles were the highest-grossingarcade games worldwide in 1980.
Rank Title Gross revenue Inflation Cabinet sales Developer Distributor(s) Genre Ref 1 Pac-Man $1,000,000,000 $3,800,000,000 100,000 Namco Namco /Midway Maze [ 3] [ 4] [ 5] 2 Asteroids $700,000,000 $2,700,000,000 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 [ edit ] In Japan and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossingarcade video games of 1980.
Best-selling home video games [ edit ] 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 [ edit ] 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]
Game & Watch Arcade May 22 –Namco releasesPac-Man Puckman in Japan). It becomes thehighest-grossing game of all time .[ 28] mascot character , established themaze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[ 29] power-ups ,[ 30] cutscenes .[ 31] May –Stratovox Sun Electronics is the first game with voice synthesis. July –Atari, Inc. releases the cold-war-inspiredMissile Command October –Nichibutsu releases the vertically scrollingCrazy Climber November 12 –Stern Electronics releasesBerzerk November –Namco releasesRally-X bonus round . It also features multi-directionalscrolling . November –Universal releasesSpace Panic platform game November –Atari, Inc. releases first-person 3D tank shooterBattlezone Cinematronics releasesStar Castle Yars' Revenge [ 32] [ 33] Midway 'sWizard of Wor The multi-stagePhoenix Console Computer Handheld Arcade Console Computer ^ 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 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 Warner Books . p. 13.ISBN 978-0-446-37115-5 {{cite book }}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link )^ 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 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 byPlay Meter , supported our initial observations. (...) The three most popular video games for 1980 wereAsteroids ,Galaxian , andSpace 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 Pocket Books . p. 17.ISBN 0-671-45872-8 ^ "Game Machine's Survey Of "The Year's Best Three AM Machines" —" (PDF) .Game Machine Amusement Press, Inc. February 15, 1982. p. 30.^ "1980 Jukebox/Games Route Survey" (PDF) .Cash Box ^ "Play Meter Award 1980" .New York Heritage Digital Collections . Empire State Library Network. RetrievedAugust 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. RetrievedMarch 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 , retrievedMay 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. "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. RetrievedApril 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 ^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. RetrievedNovember 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 ISSN 0362-4331 . RetrievedDecember 6, 2021 . ^ The Arcade Awards – 1980 –Electronic Games Winter 1981, pages 38-9^ "Bally Awards" (PDF) .Arcadian .2 (3): 20. January 15, 1980. RetrievedFebruary 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 , retrievedMay 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 theWayback Machine ,GamesRadar+ ^ "AtariAge - Catalog - Atari (CO16725-Rev. D)" .atariage.com . Archived fromthe original on September 23, 2015. RetrievedNovember 12, 2015 .^ Campbell, Colin (March 9, 2015)."The story of Yars' Revenge is a journey back to a lost world of video games" .Polygon . RetrievedJuly 2, 2015 .
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