1980 in video gaming

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## Business

* New companies: Mindscape, Inc., Sierra On-Line.
* Mattel creates the original five-programmer Intellivision game design team, nicknamed the Blue Sky Rangers by a magazine writer when the company keeps their names secret in a TV Guide interview.
* The US arcade game market's revenues rise to $7.19 billion in 1980 (equivalent to $20.6 billion in 2024).
* The home video game console market in the US generates $500 million in sales of systems and cartridges (equivalent to $1.44 billion in 2024).

## Notable releases

### Games

Arcade
* February: Namco releases *Navarone*, *Kaitei Takara Sagashi* (which was originally developed by K. K. Tokki as a prototype) and *SOS*.
* May: Namco releases *Pac-Man*, its biggest-selling game. One of the most influential games, it had the first gaming mascot character, established the maze chase video games genre, opened gaming to female audiences, and introduced power-ups and cutscenes.
* June: Namco releases *King & Balloon*, which was one of the first games to feature speech synthesis.
* October: Namco releases *Tank Battalion*.
* Namco releases *King & Balloon*, which is the first game to feature synthesized voices. It also featured dual-core processing, using two Z80 microprocessors, the second to drive a DAC for speech.
* Namco releases Navalone, Kaitei Takara Sagashi, SOS, Tank Battalion, and Rally-X, which is the first game to feature a bonus round.
* Nintendo releases the *Radar Scope* arcade game and the Game & Watch handheld LCD game by Gunpei Yokoi.
* Universal release the arcade game *Space Panic*, often cited as the first platform game.
* Stern Electronics (a subsidiary of Universal Research Laboratories) releases the *Berzerk* arcade game.
* Warner Communications' Atari releases the *Missile Command* arcade game, and the *Battlezone* arcade game (it was later enhanced for the US Army for military training) – albeit relying on specialized vector graphics hardware.
* Williams Electronics releases the *Defender* arcade game.
* Warner Communications' Atari releases the *Centipede* (by Ed Logg & Dona Bailey) and *Warlords* arcade games and also the *Tempest* color vector arcade game.

Computer
* *Rogue* is written by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, spawning the category of roguelike games.
* Edu-Ware releases *The Prisoner*, loosely based upon the 1960s TV series of the same name. Programmed by David Mullich, it became a classic of the Apple II platform.
* Infocom releases Zork I, the first Zork game and the first Infocom game.

### Hardware

Arcade
* December: DECO releases the DECO Cassette System, the first standardized arcade platform, which many games were developed for.

Console
* Mattel releases the Intellivision video game console.

Computer
* Sinclair Research releases the ZX80 home computer and Acorn Computers release the Atom, the first 'domestic' computers to play games in the United Kingdom.

## References

1. ↑ http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/video-game-myth-buster-did-crash-of.html
2. ↑ http://vidgame.info/vid1976.htm
3. ↑ The Essential 50 - Pac-Man, 1UP
4. ↑ Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever, 1UP
5. ↑ Gaming's Most Important Evolutions, GamesRadar
6. ↑ Steve L. Kent (2001). *The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond*. Prima. p. 142. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=C2MH05ogU9oC. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
7. ↑ *King & Balloon* at Museum of the Game