1978 in video gaming
Encyclopedia
Notable releases
- June - Taito CorporationTaito CorporationThe is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
releases the Space InvadersSpace Invadersis an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
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...
in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. - October - NamcoNamcois a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
releases their first arcade game, Gee BeeGee Bee (arcade game)Gee Bee is Namco's first internally designed arcade game, released in 1978. It was developed by Tōru Iwatani, who went on to create Pac-Man...
, in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. - CinematronicsCinematronicsCinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look...
releases the Space WarsSpace WarsSpace Wars was the first vector graphics arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program. It was ported to the Vectrex in 1982...
vector graphicsVector graphicsVector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
arcade game. - KonamiKonamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
Corporation releases their first arcade game, The Block Game. - One of the first sim games, Killer Shrews, based on the cult movie The Killer ShrewsThe Killer ShrewsThe Killer Shrews is a 1959 science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg. It has been released on DVD and is considered a cult classic. It was featured in the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as the first season of the similar show This Movie Sucks!.-Plot:Thorne Sherman and...
, is programmed on the PDP-10PDP-10The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
mainframeMainframe computerMainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
at Claremont Graduate UniversityClaremont Graduate UniversityClaremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
by Don DaglowDon DaglowDon Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for designing a series of pioneering simulation games and role-playing games, as well as the first computer baseball game and the first graphical MMORPG, all between 1971 and 1995...
.http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/six/cge993p.htm - 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...
, microcomputer edition, was released to capitalize on gaming for home computers.
Hardware
- APF Electronics, Inc. releases the APF-M1000APF-M1000The APF-M1000 is an early 8-bit cartridge-based game console released in 1978 by APF Electronics Inc. The controllers are non-detachable joysticks which also have numeric keypads. The APF-M1000 can only be used with a color TV and comes built-in with the game Rocket Patrol...
home console. - Bally/MidwayMidway 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...
releases the Bally Professional Arcade home console. - ElektorElektorElektor is a monthly magazine about all aspects of electronics, first published as "Elektuur" in the Netherlands in 1960, and now published worldwide in many languages including English, German, Dutch, French, Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese and Italian with distribution in over 50 countries...
releases the TV Games ComputerElektor TV Games ComputerThe Elektor TV Games Computer was a programmable computer system sold by Elektor in kit form from 1979. It used the Signetics 2650 CPU with the Signetics 2636 PVI for graphics and sound. These were the same chips as used in the Interton VC 4000 console family...
. - Entreprex releases the Apollo 2001 home console.
- Interton releases the VC 4000VC 4000The VC 4000 is an early 8-bit cartridge-based game console released in Germany in 1978 by Interton. The console is quite obscure outside Germany, but many software compatible systems can be found in many European countries...
home console. - MagnavoxMagnavoxMagnavox is a US electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, who invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 at their lab in Napa, California. They formed Magnavox in 1917 in order to market their inventions....
releases the Odyssey²Magnavox Odyssey²The Magnavox Odyssey², known in Europe as the Philips Videopac G7000, in Brazil as the Philips Odyssey, in the United States as the Magnavox Odyssey² and the Philips Odyssey², and also by many other names, is a video game console released in 1978.In the early 1970s, Magnavox was an innovator in the...
(G7000 Videopac) home console. - NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
releases the Color TV Game 15Color TV Gameis a series of home dedicated consoles created by Nintendo. There were five different consoles in the series, all developed and released in Japan.-History:...
home console and the Computer OthelloComputer Othellois a reversi-based video arcade game developed and published by Nintendo. It is one of their earliest video arcade games along with Block Fever and after they did release a dedicated console called Color TV Game 6 and a variety of electromechanical arcade games earlier in the 1970s. It was...
arcade game. - Warner Communications' 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...
introduces the trak-ballTrackballA trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor...
controller on the arcade game Football; releases the Pinball Game System home console.
Business
- SNKSNK PlaymoreSNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
founded.