Games Arcade • January –
Sega releases
Zaxxon, which introduces
isometric graphics and looks far more 3D than any other raster game at the time. • January 13 –
Midway releases
Ms. Pac-Man (despite it being copyrighted as 1981); it is (as the name suggests) the sequel to
Pac-Man, but was created without
Namco's authorization. They also release
Baby Pac-Man and
Pac-Man Plus without Namco's authorization later in the year; the former is a pinball/video game hybrid. • February —
Exidy releases
Victory (video game) • April 19 –
Namco releases
Dig Dug, manufactured by
Atari in North America. • August –
Nintendo releases
Donkey Kong Jr., the sequel to
Donkey Kong. • August –
Taito releases parallax scroller
Jungle Hunt. • September 24 – Namco releases
Pole Position, one of the first games with
stereophonic and
quadraphonic sound. Featuring a
pseudo-3D,
third-person, rear-view perspective, it becomes the most popular
racing game of its time. • September –
Sega releases maze game
Pengo, starring a cute penguin. • October – Namco releases
Super Pac-Man, the third title in the
Pac-Man series. • October – Universal releases
Mr. Do! solely as a conversion kit, the first game in the series. • October –
Gottlieb releases
Q*bert. • November –
Konami releases
Time Pilot. •
Bally/
Midway releases the
Tron arcade game before the movie. •
Atari releases
Gravitar which, though extraordinarily difficult, inspires a number of gravity-based home computer games. •
Williams Electronics releases
Joust,
Robotron: 2084, and the second game of the year with parallax scrolling, Irem's
Moon Patrol.
Robotron popularizes the twin-stick control scheme for fast action games. •
Data East releases
BurgerTime. •
Taito releases
Front Line, which creates the blueprint for mid-80s, vertically scrolling, commando games. • Electro Sport releases
Quarter Horse, the first
Laserdisc video game. •
Kangaroo is one of the first
Donkey Kong-inspired games to become popular in arcades. •
Gottlieb releases
Reactor.
Console • February –
Atari releases
Haunted House for the 2600, which is later considered one of the first survival horror games. • March –
Atari's
Atari 2600 version of
Pac-Man hits stores. • April –
Activision releases
Pitfall!, which goes on to sell 4 million copies. • May –
Atari releases ''
Yars' Revenge''. • August – Overlooked arcade games are revitalized as
ColecoVision launch titles, including
Cosmic Avenger,
Mouse Trap,
Lady Bug, and
Venture. • October –
Atari releases
Swordquest: Earthworld, the first title in a planned four-game contest. • December –
Atari releases
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Written in five and a half weeks, it's one of the games that sparks the
video game crash of 1983. •
Activision releases
River Raid,
Megamania,
Barnstorming,
Chopper Command, and
Starmaster for the Atari 2600.
River Raid becomes one of the all-time bestselling games for the system. •
Starpath releases
Dragonstomper (the only RPG for the Atari 2600) and
Escape From the Mindmaster. •
Parker Brothers releases
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600, which is the first
Star Wars video game. •
Imagic releases
Demon Attack,
Atlantis,
Cosmic Ark, and
Dragonfire for the 2600.
Atlantis sells over a million copies while
Demon Attack doubles that. It is an early example of
tactical turn-based combat in the
RPG genre. • Koei releases
Night Life, the first erotic computer game (
Eroge). The company also released the erotic title, , which was an early
role-playing adventure game with color graphics, owing to the eight-color palette of the
PC-8001 computer. It became a hit, helping Koei become a major software company. •
Pony Canyon releases
Spy Daisakusen, another early Japanese RPG. Based on the
Mission: Impossible franchise, it replaces the traditional
fantasy setting with a modern
espionage setting. •
Sir-Tech releases
Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, the second scenario in the
Wizardry series. •
Sierra On-Line releases
Time Zone for the
Apple II. Written and directed by
Roberta Williams, the graphical adventure game shipped with 6 double-sided floppy disks and cost US$99. •
Synapse releases
Necromancer and
Shamus for the
Atari 8-bit computers. • Hiroyuki Imabayashi's
Sokoban is released for the
PC-88 and becomes an oft-cloned puzzle game concept. •
Datamost releases the action/adventure game
Aztec for the Apple II. •
The Arcade Machine from Broderbund is one of the first general-purpose game creation kits.
Hardware Arcade • January – Sega releases the
Sega Zaxxon, an
arcade system board that introduces
isometric graphics. • September – Namco releases the
Namco Pole Position, the first arcade system board to use
16-bit microprocessors, with two
Zilog Z8002 processors. It is capable of
pseudo-3D,
sprite-scaling, and displays up to 3840
colors.
Console • May –
Emerson releases the
Arcadia 2001. • August – Starpath releases the
Starpath Supercharger add-on for the
Atari 2600 • August –
Coleco launches
ColecoVision in North America, the first console with versions of
Donkey Kong and Sega's isometric
Zaxxon. • November – General Consumer Electronics releases the
Vectrex with built-in vector monitor. • November – Atari renames the venerable Atari Video Computer System to the Atari 2600. • Atari releases the
Atari 5200, a console based on the hardware of
Atari 8-bit computers with analog joysticks and no keyboard. •
Entex releases the
Adventure Vision tabletop console.
Computer • July –
Timex Sinclair releases a modified
ZX81 in the US as the
TS1000. It's the first sub-$100 home computer. •
Commodore Business Machines releases the
Commodore 64 home computer, which would become one of the best-selling computers of all time. •
NEC releases the
NEC PC-98, which would become the Japanese market leader and one of the best-selling computers of all time. It is released as the
APC overseas. •
Sharp releases the
X1. •
Sinclair Research releases the
ZX Spectrum home computer, which would become Britain's best-selling computer. •
Dragon Data, initially a subsidiary of
Mettoy, releases the
Dragon 32 home microcomputer. ==See also==