1981 in video gaming

Events

Magazines

• November - The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games (C&VG) starts.
• Winter - Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.

Business

• APF Electronics goes defunct
• The arcade game market in the US generates $4.8 billion in revenue^[1] (equivalent to $12.5 billion in 2015).
• The home video game market in the US generates $1 billion in sales revenue^[2] (equivalent to $2.59 billion in 2015).
• The home video game market in Europe is worth $200 million^[3] (equivalent to $519 million in 2015).

Notable releases

Games

Arcade

• February, Konami releases Scramble, the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels.^[4]
• February, Williams Electronics releases Defender.
• July 9, Nintendo releases Shigeru Miyamoto's Donkey Kong, which introduces the characters of Donkey Kong and Mario, and sets the template for the platformer genre. It is also one of the first video games with a fleshed out storyline.^[5]
• September, Namco releases Galaga, the popular sequel to Galaxian.
• June, Konami releases Frogger, a popular arcade game.
• October, Frogger is distributed in North America by Sega-Gremlin.
• October, Sega releases Turbo, a racing video game for the VCO Object that features a third-person perspective, rear-view racer format, nearly a year before Namco's Pole Position.
• October 21, Williams Electronics releases Eugene Jarvis' Stargate arcade game.
• November, Namco releases Bosconian, which was the first game to have a continue feature.
• December, Jump Bug, the first scrolling platformer, developed by Hoei/Coreland and Alpha Denshi, is distributed in North America by Rock-Ola under license from Sega.
• Midway releases Gorf and Wizard of Wor.

Computer

• June, Ultima was released, starting one of the most successful computer role-playing game franchises.
• September, Wizardry is released, starting one of the most successful computer role-playing game franchises.
• IBM and Microsoft include the game DONKEY.BAS with the IBM PC, arguably the first IBM PC compatible game.
• Muse Software releases Silas Warner's Castle Wolfenstein.

Hardware

Arcade

• July, the Namco Warp & Warp arcade system board is released.
• October, the Sega VCO Object, the first arcade system board dedicated to pseudo-3D, sprite-scaling graphics, is released.

Computer

• Astrovision distributes the Bally Computer System after buying the rights from Bally/Midway
• Acorn Computers Ltd releases the BBC Micro home computer, which brought the game Elite to prominence
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore VIC-20 home computer
• NEC releases the PC-8801 home computer in Japan.
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX81 home computer in the UK; shortly after, J. K. Greye Software publishes 3D Monster Maze written by Malcolm Evans - the first video game featuring real-time 3D graphics without using specialized vector graphics hardware

Console

• Coleco Industries releases the Total Control 4 home console
• Sega test markets the SG-1000 home console in Japan

Handheld

• November - Nintendo's Game & Watch is released in Sweden.

References