• January –
Dungeons & Dragons is released by
Tactical Studies Rules. The pen-and-paper
tabletop game is the origin of the
role-playing game and would exert a major influence on video games, through the genres of RPGs and
adventure games.
Arcade games • February – Taito’s
Basketball by pioneering game designer
Tomohiro Nishikado features the first human-shaped characters in a coin-operated video game.
Midway licenses the game for release in North America as
TV Basketball, making it the first Japanese video arcade game to be officially exported to the U.S. • March – Atari releases
Gran Trak 10, a video
driving game featuring advanced technology including a
ROM to store graphics and course data. After initial manufacturing issues, the game becomes a massive success. •
Meadows Games releases the enhanced ball-and-paddle game
Flim Flam. It's among the most successful
Pong clones, released in both upright and
cocktail cabinet format. It serves as an inspiration for
Breakout. • August –
Sega ships
Balloon Gun in Japan, the first coin-operated video game utilizing a
light gun. The method used is different from the
Odyssey light gun, able to identify individual parts of the screen being shot. • October –
Baseball by Ramtek is released. In addition to being the first coin-operated
sports video game to authentically depict aspects of its play, it is the first video game to represent multiple characters with
animation frames on screen at once. • November – Kee Games releases
Tank. The game is a reinterpretation of
Computer Space featuring custom controls and competitive gameplay. It becomes the best selling arcade video game released in 1974 in all and is seen as a defining moment for video arcade games. The game is later adapted to Atari's
Video Computer System as
Combat. • Taito releases
Speed Race, a racing game featuring an early form of
scrolling graphics. It helps pioneer
100 yen as a standard play price in Japan. • December –
TV Pinball by
Exidy introduces eliminating solid targets to ball-and-paddle games, preceding
Breakout.
Computer games • The first version of
Maze War is completed by three students at the
NASA Ames Research Center in
Moffett Field, California for the
Imlac PDS-1 terminal. The game is seen as the progenitor of the
first-person shooter. • January – The science fiction
economic strategy game Star Trader is first distributed by the
People’s Computer Company via
paper tape. It has a long-lasting legacy on computer systems, with subsequent iterations of the game expanding its design. • March – Jim Bowery develops
Spasim for the
PLATO IV system, a graphical
space flight simulator. It is the first computer game to implement true 3D graphics, rather than fixed perspective.
Spasim inspires a number of PLATO
flight simulation games including
Airace and
Airfight. • The first version of the game
Wander is developed by
Peter Langston. It is the earliest example of a
parser-based storytelling game; an early example of
interactive fiction.
Hardware Console • Magnavox releases the
Odyssey in European markets. • July - Control Sales (sales arm of Universal Research Laboratories) sells the game console Video Action. It is a repurposing of
Tennis Tourney by
Allied Leisure, including a television and four
potentiometer controls for $499 at retail. It is the second unique video game console available to consumers. • August – Schraeder Electronics begins selling Dixi Ping Pong in the Netherlands, utilizing a custom
transistor-to-transistor logic console design. • October – Italian home appliance company
Zanussi advertises the
Ping-O-Tronic console. It features one-handed controllers. • Videomaster Ltd. of the UK sells Home T.V. Game, the first in a line of systems from the company. == Business ==