1982 in video games
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1982 was the peak year for the golden age of arcade video games as well as the second generation of video game consoles. Many games were released that would spawn franchises, or at least sequels, including Dig Dug, Pole Position, Mr. Do!, Pitfall!, Zaxxon and Q*bert. Additional game consoles add to a crowded market, notably the ColecoVision and Atari 5200. The new Commodore 64 goes on to eventually dominate the 8-bit home computer market in Europe. Troubles at Atari late in the year triggered the video game crash of 1983.
Financial performance[edit]
- The US arcade video game market is worth $4.3 billion,[1] equivalent to $11.5 billion adjusted for inflation.
- The US home video game market is worth $3.8 billion,[2] equivalent to $10.2 billion adjusted for inflation.
- The Japanese home video game market is approaching ¥300 billion,[3] equivalent to $3.72 billion adjusted for inflation.
Highest-grossing arcade games[edit]
The highest-grossing arcade game of 1982 was Pac-Man, which had accumulated a total revenue of $6 billion worldwide ($16.1 billion adjusted for inflation) by 1982.[4][5]
Japan[edit]
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1982, according to the annual Game Machine chart.[6]
| Rank | Title | Genre | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pole Position | Racing | Namco |
| 2 | Dig Dug | Maze | |
| 3 | Galaga | Shoot 'em up | |
| 4 | Pengo | Maze | Sega |
| 5 | Time Pilot | Shoot 'em up | Konami |
| 6 | Donkey Kong | Platformer | Nintendo |
| 7 | Front Line | Shoot 'em up | Taito |
| 8 | Donkey Kong Jr. | Platformer | Nintendo |
| 9 | Burnin' Rubber (Bump 'n' Jump) | Vehicular combat | Data East |
| 10 | Mr. Do! | Maze | Universal Entertainment |
United States[edit]
In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1982, according to RePlay and Cash Box magazines and the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA).
| Rank | RePlay | Cash Box[7] | AMOA[8] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Donkey Kong[9] | Ms. Pac-Man | Ms. Pac-Man |
| 2 | Unknown | Pac-Man | Pac-Man Centipede Donkey Kong Defender Zaxxon |
| 3 | Unknown | Donkey Kong Centipede | |
| 4 | Unknown | ||
| 5 | Unknown | N/A | |
| 6 | Unknown | N/A |
The following table lists the top-grossing titles of each month in 1982, according to the RePlay and Play Meter charts.
| Month | RePlay | Play Meter | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upright cabinet | Cocktail cabinet | |||
| January | Pac-Man | N/A | Unknown | [10] |
| February | Pac-Man | Unknown | [11] | |
| March | Pac-Man / Ms. Pac-Man | Unknown | [12] | |
| April | Ms. Pac-Man | Donkey Kong | [13][14] | |
| May | Turbo | [15][14] | ||
| June | Zaxxon | Unknown | Unknown | [16] |
| July | Ms. Pac-Man | Ms. Pac-Man | Unknown | [17] |
| August | Pac-Man / Ms. Pac-Man | Unknown | [18] | |
| September | Unknown | [19] | ||
| October | Jungle King | Unknown | [20] | |
| November | Ms. Pac-Man | Unknown | [21] | |
| December | Ms. Pac-Man | [22][23] | ||
| 1982 | Donkey Kong | [9] | ||
Best-selling home video games[edit]
The following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1982.
| Title | Platform | Sales | Publisher | Licensor(s) | Genre | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pac-Man | Atari VCS | 7,271,844 | Atari, Inc. | Namco | Maze | $200,000,000 (equivalent to $536,000,000 in 2020) | [24][25] |
| Frogger | Atari VCS | 4,000,000 | Parker Brothers | Konami, Sega | Action | $80,000,000 (equivalent to $215,000,000 in 2020) | [26] |
| Defender | Atari VCS | 3,006,790 | Atari, Inc. | Williams | Shoot 'em up | At least 68,993 copies returned in 1983 | [24] |
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Atari VCS | 2,637,985 | Atari, Inc. | Universal | Adventure | At least 669,733 copies returned in 1983 | |
| Berzerk | Atari VCS | 1,798,773 | Atari, Inc. | N/A | Shoot 'em up | At least 20,314 copies returned in 1983 | |
| Pac-Man | Coleco Mini-Arcade | 1,500,000 | Coleco | Namco | Maze | [27][28] | |
| Space Invaders | Atari VCS | 1,373,033 | Atari, Inc. | Taito | Shoot 'em up | [24] | |
| Asteroids | Atari VCS | 1,331,956 | Atari, Inc. | N/A | |||
| Pitfall! | Atari VCS | 1,000,000+ | Activision | N/A | Platformer | [29][30] | |
| Donkey Kong | ColecoVision | 550,000 | Coleco | Nintendo | Platformer | [31][32] |
Note: Donkey Kong (Atari VCS) published by Coleco sold 4 million units between 1982 and 1994,[33][34][35] grossing over $100,000,000 (equivalent to $268,000,000 in 2020) in sales revenue.[36] However, its sales figures for 1982 specifically are currently unknown.
Events[edit]
- December 27 – Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.
- Electronic Games holds the third Arcade Awards, for games released during 1980–1981. Pac-Man wins the best arcade game award, Asteroids (Atari VCS) wins the best console game award, and Star Raiders (Atari 8-bit family) wins the best computer game award.
Business[edit]
- Eidansha Boshu Service Center shortens its name to Enix and in August establishes itself as a computer game publisher.
- New companies:
Notable releases[edit]
Games[edit]
Arcade[edit]
- 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.
- 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[edit]
- 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. 12 million cartridges are produced, 7 million sold; it's believed to be one of the causes of the video game crash of 1983.
- 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.[37]
- 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.[37]
Computer[edit]
- March 11 – Infocom releases their first non-Zork title, Deadline.
- August 24 – Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress is released.
- November – Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 is released for MS-DOS. It becomes a standard compatibility test for early PC clones.
- Big Five Software releases the widely ported Miner 2049er, a platformer with ten screens compared to the four of Donkey Kong.
- Brøderbund releases Choplifter for the Apple II.
- Edu-Ware releases Prisoner 2 for the Apple II, Atari, and IBM PC.
- Koei releases The Dragon and Princess, the earliest known Japanese RPG, for NEC's PC-8001 home computer platform.[38] It is an early example of tactical turn-based combat in the RPG genre.[39]
- Koei releases Night Life, the first erotic computer game (Eroge).[40] The company also released the erotic title, Seduction of the Condominium Wife (団地妻の誘惑, Danchi Tsuma no Yūwaku), which was an early role-playing adventure game with color graphics,[41][42] owing to the eight-color palette of the PC-8001 computer. It became a hit, helping Koei become a major software company.[43]
- 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.[44][45]
- Sir-Tech Software, Inc. releases Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, the second scenario in the Wizardry series.
- Sierra On-Line releases Time Zone for the Apple II.[46] 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 family.
- Hiroyuki Imabayashi's Sokoban is released for the NEC PC-8801 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[edit]
Arcade[edit]
- 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.[47] It is capable of pseudo-3D, sprite-scaling, and displays up to 3840 colors.[48]
Console[edit]
- 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 lightly modified Atari 8-bit computer with analog joysticks and no keyboard.
- Entex releases the Adventure Vision tabletop console.
Computer[edit]
- 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 the European market leader and 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 the most popular gaming computer of its generation in the UK.
- Dragon Data, initially a subsidiary of Mettoy, releases the Dragon 32 home microcomputer.
References[edit]
- ^ Video Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades?, The Golden Age Arcade Historian (December 27, 2013)
- ^ Everett M. Rogers & Judith K. Larsen (1984), Silicon Valley fever: growth of high-technology culture, Basic Books, p. 263, ISBN 0-465-07821-4,
Video game machines have an average weekly take of $109 per machine. The video arcade industry took in $8 billion in quarters in 1982, surpassing pop music (at $4 billion in sales per year) and Hollywood films ($3 billion). Those 32 billion arcade games played translate to 143 games for every man, woman, and child in America. A recent Atari survey showed that 86 percent of the US population from 13 to 20 has played some kind of video game and an estimated 8 million US homes have video games hooked up to the television set. Sales of home video games were $3.8 billion in 1982, approximately half that of video game arcades.
- ^ http://www.gbrc.jp/content/old/PDF/GameCase.PDF#page=43
- ^ Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader. Portable Press. September 1999. p. 373. ISBN 978-1-879682-74-0.
In 1982 alone, Americans pumped $6 billion in quarters into Pac-Man's mouth—more than they spent in Las Vegas casinos and movie theatres combined.
- ^ Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader. Simon and Schuster. November 2012. p. 348. ISBN 978-1-60710-670-8.
In 1982 alone, Americans pumped $6 billion in quarters into Pac-Man's mouth—more than they spent in Las Vegas casinos and movie theatres combined.
- ^ ""Pole Position" No. 1 Video Game: Game Machine's "The Year's Best Three AM Machines" Survey Results" (PDF). Game Machine. No. 207. Amusement Press, Inc. March 1, 1983. p. 30.
- ^ "1982 Jukebox / Games Route Survey". Cash Box. Cash Box Pub. Co. November 20, 1982. p. 53.
- ^ "AMOA Announces Jukebox and Games Awards Winners". Cash Box. Cash Box Pub. Co.: 37 October 30, 1982.
- ^ a b "Top Hits of Last 5 Years". RePlay. March 1987.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. January 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. February 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. March 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. April 1982.
- ^ a b "Top Videos". Play Meter. May 1, 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. May 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. June 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. July 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. August 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. September 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. October 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. November 1982.
- ^ "RePlay: The Players' Choice". RePlay. December 1982.
- ^ Sullivan, George (1983). Screen Play: The Story of Video Games. F. Warne. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-7232-6251-0.
Before the end of the year Ms. Pac-Man had climbed to the top of the Play Meter chart.
- ^ a b c Cartridge Sales Since 1980. Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari. Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
- ^ Green, Mark J.; Berry, John Francis (1985). The Challenge of Hidden Profits: Reducing Corporate Bureaucracy and Waste. W. Morrow. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-688-03986-8.
By 1981, Atari's sales grew to $1 billion as it controlled about 75 percent of the fast-growing video game market. The dizzying climb continued into 1982, with Pac-Man alone bringing in over $200 million.
- ^ "Ed English: 2600 (Frogger, Mr. Do!, Roc 'n Rope)" (PDF). Digital Press (52). May–June 2003. p. 7. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
- ^ "Coleco Mini-Arcades Go Gold" (PDF). Arcade Express. 1 (1). August 15, 1982. p. 4.
- ^ "More Mini-Arcades Coming From Coleco" (PDF). Arcade Express. 1 (13). January 30, 1983. p. 2.
- ^ Sigel, Efrem; Giglio, Louis (1984). Guide to Software Publishing: An Industry Emerges. Knowledge Industry Publications. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-86729-108-7.
Pitfall won the award from Electronic Games magazine as the best video game adventure of 1983, and in 1982 sold more than 1 million copies.
- ^ "Our games have birthdays, but they don't get old". Cash Box. Cash Box Pub. Co.: FS-5 October 8, 1983.
- ^ Carlisle, Rodney P. (April 2, 2009). Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society. SAGE Publishing. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-4129-6670-2.
- ^ McFerran, Damien (September 18, 2010). "Feature: How ColecoVision Became the King of Kong". Nintendo Life. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
- ^ Kitchen, Garry. "Donkey Kong 2600". Garry Kitchen. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
- ^ Morrison, Mike (1994). The Magic of Interactive Entertainment. Sams Publishing. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-672-30456-9.
Kitchen's first cartridge game (Donkey Kong, 1981), sold 4 million units, took five months to create, and used 4,000 lines of code.
- ^ Kitchen, Garry E. (March 5, 2010). Expert Report of Garry E. Kitchen (PDF). United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. p. 3.
- ^ Hickey, Patrick (April 9, 2018). The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers. McFarland & Company. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-4766-7110-9.
- ^ a b Buchanan, Levi. "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN.
- ^ "ランダム・アクセス・メモ". Oh! FM-7. August 4, 2001. p. 4. Retrieved September 19, 2011. (Translation)
- ^ http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-dragon-princess-1982.html
- ^ Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier, Hardcore Gaming 101, reprinted from Retro Gamer, Issue 67, 2009
- ^ "Danchizuma no Yuuwaku". Legendra. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- ^ "Danchi-zuma no Yuuwaku". GameSpot. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- ^ Pesimo, Rudyard Contretas (2007). "'Asianizing' Animation in Asia: Digital Content Identity Construction Within the Animation Landscapes of Japan and Thailand" (PDF). Reflections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity—The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows. The Nippon Foundation. pp. 124–160.
- ^ http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-2-some-games-we.html
- ^ http://fm-7.com/museum/softhouse/ponyca/540200300.html
- ^ "Time Zone: An interview with Roberta Williams". Computer Gaming World. May–June 1982. pp. 14–15.
- ^ http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Writings/VideogameImpact.pdf#page=23
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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