Electronic Games

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For the game form, see Electronic game
Electronic Games

The cover of the first issue of Electronic Games (Winter 1981)
Frequency Monthly
Publisher Katz Kunkel Worley Inc.
Founder Bill Kunkel, Arnie Katz
First issue 1981 (1981)
Company 1994 (1994)
Country United States
Language English
ISSN 4302-8018

Electronic Games was the first dedicated video game magazine published in North America and ran from 1981 to 1994. It was co-founded by Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel, and is unrelated to the subsequent Electronic Gaming Monthly.[1]

It was active from 1981, during the golden age of arcade video games and the second generation of consoles, up until 1985, following the North American video game industry crash. The magazine was briefly revived during the 16-bit era in the early 1990s, but eventually ended in 1994.

Contents

[edit] Awards

The magazine is notable for holding some of the first Game of the Year award ceremonies, called the Arcade Awards, or Arkie Awards. The following games are the winners of the magazine's annual Arcade Awards. The awards for each year took place in the January of the following year. No single game could win more than one award in the same year.[2]

[edit] 1979 (1st)

Award Winner Platform
Game of the Year Space Invaders Arcade
Best Pong Variant Video Olympics Atari VCS
Best Sports Game Football Bally Professional Arcade
Best Target Game Air-Sea Battle Atari VCS
Best S.F. Game Cosmic Conflict Odyssey²
Best Solitaire Game Golf Odyssey²
Most Innovative Game Basketball Atari VCS
Best Audio and Visual Effects Bally[3] Arcade/Bally

[edit] 1980 (2nd)

Award Winner Platform
Arcade
Best Coin-Op Electronic Game Asteroids Arcade
Console
Game of the Year Superman Atari VCS
Best Targest/WarGame Armored Battle Intellivision
Best Pong Variant Volleyball Odyssey²
Best S.F. Game Space Battle Intellivision
Best Audio-Visual Effects Fishing Derby Atari VCS
Best Solitaire Game Skiing Atari VCS
Best Sports Game NASL Soccer Intellivision
Most Innovative Game Adventure Atari VCS

[edit] 1981 (3rd)

Award Winner Platform(s) Honorable Mention
Coin-Op Division (Arcade)
Best Commercial Arcade Game Pac-Man Namco Pac-Man Defender, Battlezone
Console
Videogame of the Year Asteroids Atari VCS Quest for the Rings (Odyssey²), Missile Command (Atari VCS)
Most Innovative Game Quest for the Rings Odyssey² Freeway (Atari VCS), Asteroids (Atari VCS)
Best Competitive Game Tennis Atari VCS
Best Sports Game Auto Racing Intellivision) Tennis (Atari VCS)
Best Pong Variant Warlords Atari VCS
Best Audio-Visual Effects Kaboom! Atari VCS
Best Solitaire Game Missile Command Atari VCS
Computer
Computer Game of the Year Star Raiders Atari 400/800
Best Computer Action Game Jawbreaker Atari 800, Apple II, Commodore 64
Best Computer Sports Game Computer Baseball Apple II

[edit] 1982 (4th)

Award Winner Certificate of Merit
Coin-Op Game Awards (Arcade)
Coin-Op Game of the Year Tron
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Coin-Op Game Bosconian
Best Coin-Op Game Audio/Visual Effects Turbo
Most Innovative Coin-Op Game Tempest
Videogame Awards (Console)
Videogame of the Year Demon Attack (Atari VCS)
Best Solitaire Videogame Donkey Kong (ColecoVision)
Best Arcade-to-Home Videogame Translation Frogger (Atari VCS) Galactic Invasion (Bally Astrocade)
Best Action Videogame Chopper Command (Atari VCS)
Best Adventure Videogame Pitfall! (Atari VCS)
Computer Game Division
Computer Game of the Year David's Midnight Magic (Apple II) Bandits (Apple II)
Best Computer Adventure Deadline (Apple II) Kabul Spy (Apple II)
Best Arcade/Action Computer Game K-razy Shoot-Out (Atari 400/800) Star Blazer (Apple II)
Best Solitaire Computer Game Snack Attack (Apple II) Neptune (Apple II)
Stand-Alone Game Awards (Dedicated)
Stand-Alone Game of the Year Galaxian (Coleco Mini-Arcade)
Best Mini-Arcade Game Cartridge Scramble (Vectrex)

[edit] 1983 (5th)

Award Winner Certificate of Merit
Coin-Op Games Division (Arcade)
Coin-Op Game of the Year Pole Position
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Coin-Op Game Xevious
Most Innovative Coin-Op Game Q*bert Baby Pac-Man
Best Coin-Op Game Audio/Visual Effects Dragon's Lair
Videogame Division (Console)
Videogame of the Year (Less than 16K ROM memory) Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 2600) BurgerTime (Intellivision)
Videogame of the Year (16K or more ROM memory) Lady Bug (ColecoVision) Zaxxon (ColecoVision)
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Videogame Vanguard (Atari 5200) Moon Patrol (Atari 2600)
Best Videogame Audio/Visual Effects Donkey Kong Jr. (ColecoVision) Qix (Atari 5200)
Best Action Videogame River Raid (Atari 2600)
Best Adventure Game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Intellivision)
Best Arcade-to-Home Videogame Translation Kangaroo (Atari 5200) Turtles (Odyssey²)
Computer Game Division
Computer Game of the Year Lode Runner (Apple II) Repton (Apple II, Atari 8-bit)
Electronic Game of the Year (Players Pick) Miner 2049er (Apple II, Atari 8-bit)
Best Computer Adventure Witness (Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, DOS)
Best Computer Action Game Centipede (Atari 8-bit) Jumpman (Atari 400/800)
Most Humorous Computer Game Free Fall (Apple II) Preppie! II (Atari 8-bit)
Best Arcade-to-Home Computer Game Translation Frogger (Atari 8-bit)
Best Multi-Player Computer Game M.U.L.E. (Atari 8-bit) Oil Barons (Apple II)
Best Educational Computer Game Learning With the Leeper (Apple II)
Most Innovative Computer Game Archon: The Light and the Dark (Atari 8-bit) Moondust (Commodore 64)
Stand-Alone Games Division
Stand-Alone Game of the Year Q*bert (Parker Brothers)
Mini-Arcade Game of the Year 3-D Sky Attack (Tomytronic 3D)

[edit] 1984 (6th)

Award Winner
Coin-Op Game Division (Arcade)
Coin-Op of the Year Star Wars
Most Innovative Coin-Op Game Punch-Out
Best Coin-Op Audio-Visual Effects TX-1
Certificates of Merit
Videogame Division (Console)
Videogame of the Year Space Shuttle (Atari 2600)
Best Action Videogame Buck Rogers (Atari 2600/5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, SG-1000)
Best Adventure Videogame Pitfall II (Atari 2600)
Best Videogame Audio-Visual Effects Congo Bongo (ColecoVision, Atari 5200, Intellivision)
Certificates of Merit
Computer Game Division
Computer Game of the Year Ultima III: Exodus (Apple II, Atari 800, Commodore 64)
Electronic Game of the Year (Players Pick) One on One (Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64)
Best Computer Adventure Game Gateway to Apshai (Atari 400/800, Commodore 64)
Most Humorous Video Computer Game Quest for Tires (Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX)
Best Arcade-to-Home Translation Joust (Commodore 64)
Electronic Educational Game of the Year Agent USA (Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64)
Certificates of Merit
Stand-Alone Games Division
Stand-Alone Game of the Year Zaxxon (Coleco Mini-Arcade)
Mini-Arcade Game of the Year Miner 2049er (Tiger)
Certificates of Merit

[edit] 1992 (7th)

Following the magazine's revival in 1992, it published the Electronic Gaming Awards in January 1993, where editors nominated several games for each category and the readers would vote which games win. The following games were nominated for 1992.[4]

Award Nominees Platform
Video Game of the Year
Computer Games of the Year
  • MS-DOS
  • MS-DOS
  • MS-DOS
  • MS-DOS
  • MS-DOS
Multimedia Games of the Year

[edit] Reader polls

From May 1982 onwards, the magazine carried out a reader poll in each issue to see which are the most popular games of the month among its readers, up until the January 1985 issue. The top-ranking games in these polls are listed below.[2]

[edit] 1982

May
August
September
October & November

The games that were top-ranked the most in these 1982 polls were:

[edit] 1983

January
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

The games that were top-ranked the most in these 1983 polls were:

[edit] 1984

January
November
December

The games that were top-ranked the most in these 1984 polls were:

[edit] 1985

January

There was no reader poll held for the March 1985 issue.

[edit] Hall of Fame

The twelve games voted by readers as part of the magazine's Hall of Fame up until January 1985.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cifaldi, Frank (2005-12-12). "Playing Catch-Up: Bill 'The Game Doctor' Kunkel Lets Loose". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7481. Retrieved 2008-05-16. 
  2. ^ a b "Electronic Games Magazine". Internet Archive. http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%28collection%3Aelectronic-games-magazine%20OR%20mediatype%3Aelectronic-games-magazine%29%20AND%20-mediatype%3Acollection. Retrieved 1 February 2012. 
  3. ^ "Bally Awards". Arcadian 2 (3): 20. 01/15/1980. http://www.ballyalley.com/newsletters/arcadian/arcadian_vol_2/arcadian_vol_02_issue_03.pdf. Retrieved 2 February 2012. 
  4. ^ "Electronic Gaming Awards". Electronic Games (38): 26-7. January 1993. http://archives.tg-16.com/00_happy_new_year_1993.htm. Retrieved 5 February 2012. 
  5. ^ "Hall of Fame Winners". Electronic Games 3 (35): 58-59 [58]. January 1985. http://www.archive.org/stream/electronic-games-magazine-1985-01/Electronic_Games_Issue_35_Vol_03_11_1985_Jan#page/n57/mode/2up. Retrieved 2 February 2012. 

[edit] External links

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