1984 in video gaming

Events

• The fifth Arcade Awards are held, for games released during 1982-1983. Pole Position wins Coin-Op Game of the Year, Ms. Pac-Man wins console Videogame of the Year, Lode Runner wins Computer Game of the Year, and Q*bert wins dedicated Stand-Alone Game of the Year.
• For the second Golden Joystick Awards (held in 1985), Knight Lore takes Game of the Year.

Notable releases

Games

Arcade

• April - Namco releases Gaplus, which is the sequel to Galaga (and is also known as Galaga 3).
• July - Data East releases Technōs Japan's Karate Champ, which laid the foundations for the fighting game genre.
• July 20 - Namco releases the Tower of Druaga arcade game, a precursor to the action role-playing game genre.
• August - Namco releases Pac-Land, which laid the foundations for horizontally-scrolling platform games.
• November 1 - Namco releases Grobda, which is a spin-off from Xevious.
• December - Namco releases Super Xevious and Dragon Buster, the latter of which is one the first games to feature a life bar.
• December - Capcom releases 1942.
• December - Irem releases Kung-Fu Master, which laid the foundations for the beat 'em up genre.
• David Ralston develops Paperboy. Atari later releases it in April 1985 in arcades, and it is then ported to several systems, and featured an innovative bicycle handle steering controller.
• Donald R. Lebeau develops Gauntlet. Atari later releases it in October 1985 for the arcades, and it is then ported to the Atari 8-bit computers.

Computer

• May 10 - King's Quest (Sierra, IBM PC), the first animated adventure game, the first game in the King's Quest series, and the first game to use the AGI engine, is released.
• June 6 - Alexei Pajitnov creates the Tetris video game for the Electronika 60 in the Soviet Union. Atari Games and Sega both released arcade versions in 1988, and Nintendo released its most popular versions (for the NES and Game Boy) in 1989.
• September 20 - Elite, by David Braben and Ian Bell, an early and very influential wireframe 3D space trading game offering full six degrees of freedom and a then-unique open-ended design, is published by Acornsoft.
• October - Nihon Falcom releases Dragon Slayer by Yoshio Kiya. Dragon Slayer and its sequels laid the foundations for the action role-playing game genre.
• December - T&E Soft releases Hydlide, an early action role-playing game that features a health regeneration mechanic and anticipates elements of The Legend of Zelda and Ys series.^[1]
• December 7 - Knight Lore by Ultimate Play The Game is released for the ZX Spectrum (and later ported to the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, MSX, and Famicom Disk System). It is the third title in the Sabreman series, but the first to use the innovative isometric Filmation engine.
• Alley Cat is released, for IBM PC compatibles.
• Bullet-Proof Software releases The Black Onyx, which helps popularize turn-based role-playing games in Japan.
• Brøderbund releases The Ancient Art of War by Dave and Barry Murry. It is a real-time tactics game and a precursor to the real-time strategy genre.
• The Lords of Midnight, a strategy adventure game by Mike Singleton, is released.

Console

• June 4 - Nintendo releases a conversion of their own Donkey Kong 3 for the Famicom/NES system.
• December 17 - Nintendo releases the Ice Climber and Balloon Fight games, for the Famicom/NES system.

Hardware

• RDI Systems releases the Halcyon laserdisc home console.
• Atari announces the Atari 7800 console. It is then shelved until 1986 due to the sale of the company and legal issues.

Business

• New companies: Gremlin Graphics, Kemco, Accolade, New World Computing.
• Defunct companies: Astrocade Inc.
• Hasbro, Inc. acquires Milton Bradley Company.
• Management Sciences America acquires Edu-Ware Services.
• Warner Communications Inc. sells the Consumer Division of Atari, Inc. and creates an entirely new company (Atari Games Corp) out of the retained arcade division.
• Sega and CSK merge to form Sega Enterprises Ltd.

References