1973 in video gaming
Encyclopedia
Events
- On 19 March, Kagemasa Kozuki establishes Konami Industry Co., Ltd.Konamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
Formerly the owner of a jukeboxJukeboxA jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
repair/rental business in Osaka, Japan, Kozuki launches Konami to manufacture amusement machines for video arcadeVideo arcadeAn amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s. - In May, Hudson Soft Ltd.Hudson Soft, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
is established in Sapporo, Japan for the purpose of marketing telecommunicationTelecommunicationTelecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s devices and art photographs. - The Computer SpaceComputer SpaceComputer Space is a video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, Inc., it is generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game — and indeed, the first...
game make appearances in the films Soylent Green and Sleeper.
- Mazewar is developed for the Imlac PDS-1Imlac PDS-1The Imlac PDS-1 is a graphical minicomputer made by Imlac Corporation of Needham, Massachusetts. The PDS-1 debuted in 1970 and is considered to be the predecessor of all later graphical minicomputers and modern computer workstations. The PDS-1 had a built-in display list processor and 4096 16-bit...
computer. Mazewar is perhaps the first First Person Shooter and one of the earliest examples of a network game. - Empire versions I, II and III are developed for the PLATOPLATOPLATO was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system, and, by the late 1970s, comprised several thousand terminals worldwide on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers...
system by John Daleske. Possibly the first team game ever, the first fifty-player game ever, and numerous other innovations. - Silas WarnerSilas WarnerSilas Warner was a game programmer and the first employee of Muse Software. Among other games, he created Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein....
takes over PLATO Empire version I and renames it Civilization. - Lemonade StandLemonade StandLemonade Stand is a basic economics game created in 1973 by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium. Charlie Kellner ported the game to the Apple II platform in February 1979...
is developed for the first time.
Notable releases
- Midway Manufacturing Co.Midway GamesMidway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
licenses PongPongPong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
from AtariAtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
to produce Winner, their first video game arcade gameArcade gameAn arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
. - AtariAtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
releases GotchaGotcha (arcade game)Gotcha is a 1973 arcade game manufactured by Atari Inc.. It was Atari's fourth game after Pong, Space Race, and Pong Doubles. This was the first maze arcade game, as well as the very first video game to cause a considerable amount of controversy, predating other early examples such as Death Race...
, the first commercial maze game, to video arcades. - Atari releases PONG Doubles to video arcades. A variation on the wildly successful PONG, PONG Doubles is the first video arcade game to include four player gameplay.
- Williams Electronics releases Paddle Ball, an unlicensed duplicate of Pong, as their first arcade game.
- BASIC Computer GamesBASIC Computer GamesBASIC Computer Games is a compilation of type-in computer games in the BASIC programming language collected by David H. Ahl. Some of the games were written or modified by Ahl as well...
was first published. It included 101 games written in BASICBASICBASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
.