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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 .
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