# 1980 in video games

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS (later called the Atari 2600) also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.

## Financial performance

* The arcade video game market in the US generates $2.81 billion in revenue ($10.4 billion adjusted for inflation).
* Home video games sell $464 million ($1.72 billion adjusted for inflation) in the United States, with the Atari VCS leading the market with a 44% share.

### Highest-grossing arcade games

The following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games worldwide in 1980.
| Rank | Title | Gross revenue | Inflation | Cabinet sales | Developer | Distributor(s) | Genre |
| 1 | Pac-Man | $1,000,000,000 | $3,700,000,000 | 100,000 | Namco | Namco / Midway | Maze |
| 2 | Asteroids | $700,000,000 | $2,600,000,000 | 70,000 | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | Shoot 'em up |
| 2 | Galaxian | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Namco | Namco / Midway | Shoot 'em up |
| 2 | Space Invaders | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known | Taito | Taito / Midway | Shoot 'em up |

#### Japan and United States

In Japan and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1980.
| Rank | Japan (Game Machine) | Japan (Game Machine) | Japan (Game Machine) | Japan (Game Machine) | Japan (Game Machine) | United States | United States | United States | United States |
| Rank | Title | #1 | #2 | #3 | Points | Cash Box | Play Meter | RePlay | Cabinet sales |
| 1 | Pac-Man | 62 | 46 | 17 | 295 | Asteroids | Asteroids | Asteroids | < 60,000 |
| 2 | Galaxian | 44 | 25 | 18 | 200 | Galaxian | Galaxian | Galaxian | < 40,000 |
| 3 | Crazy Climber | 14 | 19 | 30 | 110 | — | Space Invaders | Space Invaders | < 12,000 |
| 4 | Moon Cresta | 3 | 24 | 15 | 72 | — | Un­known | Missile Command | Un­known |
| 5 | Monaco GP | 11 | 4 | 11 | 52 | — | Un­known | Rip Off | Un­known |
| 6 | Rally-X | 1 | 6 | 3 | 18 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 7 | Heiankyo Alien (Digger) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 15 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 8 | Pitch In | 0 | 1 | 5 | 7 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 9 | Super Speed Race | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 10 | Sasuke vs. Commander | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 10 | Space Invaders | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |
| 10 | Missile Command | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | — | Un­known | Un­known | Un­known |

### Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the best-selling home video games in 1980.
| Rank | Title | Platform | Developer | Publisher | Release Year | Genre | Sales |
| 1 | Space Invaders | Atari VCS | Taito | Atari, Inc. | 1980 | Shoot 'em up | 1,318,655 |
| 2 | Breakout | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1978 | Action | 256,265 |
| 3 | Football | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1979 | Sports (American football) | 248,502 |
| 4 | Bowling | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1979 | Sports | 245,670 |
| 5 | Night Driver | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1980 | Racing | 161,352 |
| 6 | Air-Sea Battle | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1977 | Shooter | 160,093 |
| 7 | Circus Atari | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1980 | Action | 148,756 |
| 8 | Street Racer | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1977 | Racing | 89,269 |
| 9 | Video Olympics | Atari VCS | Atari, Inc. | Atari, Inc. | 1977 | Sports | 36,028 |

### Best-selling home systems

| Rank | System(s) | Manufacturer | Type | Generation | Sales |
| 1 | Game & Watch | Nintendo | Handheld | — | 2,000,000+ |
| 2 | Atari Video Computer System (VCS) | Atari, Inc. | Console | Second | 1,250,000 |
| 3 | TRS-80 | Tandy Corporation | Computer | 8-bit | 290,000 |
| 4 | Intellivision | Mattel | Console | Second | 200,000 |
| 5 | Atari 400 / Atari 800 | Atari, Inc. | Computer | 8-bit | 200,000 |
| 6 | Commodore PET | Commodore International | Computer | 8-bit | 90,000 |
| 7 | Apple II | Apple Inc. | Computer | 8-bit | 79,500 |
| 8 | HP 9800 / HP Series 80 | Hewlett-Packard | Computer | 8-bit | 11,300 |
| 9 | North Star Horizon | North Star Computers | Computer | 8-bit | 8,200 |
| 10 | TI-99/4 | Texas Instruments | Computer | 16-bit | 8,100 |

## Events
### Awards

* Electronic Games hosts the first Arcade Awards, the first video game awards ceremony. It awards games released during 1978–1979, with Space Invaders winning the overall Game of the Year award.

### Business

* New companies: Broderbund, Bug-Byte, HAL Laboratory, Human Engineered Software, Mindscape, On-Line Systems, Sirius, Sir-Tech.
* Mattel creates the original five-programmer Intellivision game design team, later nicknamed the Blue Sky Rangers in 1982 in a TV Guide interview.

## Notable releases
### Games
#### Arcade

* May 22 – Namco releases Pac-Man (originally Puckman in Japan). It becomes the highest-grossing game of all time. It has the first gaming mascot character, established the maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences, introduced power-ups, and told a story through cutscenes.
* May – Stratovox from Sun Electronics is the first game with voice synthesis.
* July – Atari, Inc. releases the cold-war-inspired Missile Command.
* October – Nichibutsu releases the vertically scrolling Crazy Climber, the first video game with a climbing mechanic and an objective of climbing to the top of the level.
* November 12 – Stern Electronics releases Berzerk, with designer Alan McNeil's signature on the monitor glass of each cabinet.
* November – Namco releases Rally-X, the first game with a bonus round. It also features multi-directional scrolling.
* November – Universal releases Space Panic, the first game with platforms and ladders. The term platform game was still several years in the future.
* November – Atari, Inc. releases first-person 3D tank shooter Battlezone.
* Cinematronics releases Star Castle. In 1982 the Atari 2600 port ends up as Yars' Revenge.
* Midway's Wizard of Wor is released, allowing two players to fight simultaneously in monster-filled mazes.
* The multi-stage Phoenix sports one of the first video-game bosses: a purple alien in a mothership.

#### Console

* Atari, Inc.'s port of Space Invaders becomes the killer app for the VCS and the first console title to sell a million copies.
* The first batch of games from Activision, all for the Atari VCS, hits stores: Dragster, Fishing Derby, Boxing, Bridge, and Checkers.

#### Computer

* December – Infocom releases its first game, Zork (later called Zork I), which begins the Zork series.
* The mainframe game Rogue is written by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, eventually spawning a crowded genre of Roguelike games.
* Edu-Ware releases The Prisoner for the Apple II, loosely based upon the 1960s TV series of the same name.
* Strategic Simulations releases its first game: Computer Bismarck for the TRS-80.
* Microsoft publishes Olympic Decathlon for the TRS-80, a track and field video game which precedes Konami's Track & Field and The Activision Decathlon by three years.
* On-Line Systems publishes its first title, the graphic adventure Mystery House for the Apple II.

#### Handheld

* Nintendo releases the Game & Watch series of LCD handheld electronic games by Gunpei Yokoi.

### Hardware
#### Arcade

* December – Data East releases the DECO Cassette System, the first standardized arcade platform, for which many games are developed.

#### Console

* Mattel releases the Intellivision home video game console.
* PPZ Ameprod releases the Ameprod TVG-10 dedicated home video game console in Poland.
* The BSS 01 dedicated home video game console is released only in Germany.

#### Computer

* The Sinclair ZX80 and Acorn Atom are the first home computers to play games in the UK.
* Tandy releases the first version of the Tandy Color Computer.