1982 in video gaming

Events

• 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 (Namco Pac-Man) wins the best arcade game award, Asteroids (Atari 2600) wins the best console game award, and Star Raiders (Atari 400/800) wins the best computer game award.

Business

• Eidansha Boshu Service Center shortens its name to Enix and in August establishes itself as a computer game publisher.
• New companies:
  • Argonaut
  • Artech
  • Compile
  • Data Age
  • Distinctive Software
  • Dragon Data
  • Electronic Arts
  • English Software
  • First Star Software
  • Imagine Software
  • Llamasoft
  • Lucasfilm Games
  • Martech
  • MicroProse
  • System 3
  • Ultimate Play the Game (later known as Rare)
  • US Games
• The US arcade game market is worth $4.3 billion,^[1] equivalent to $10.6 billion in 2016.
• The US home video game market is worth $3.8 billion,^[2] equivalent to $9.33 billion in 2016.
• The Japanese home video game market is approaching ¥300 billion,^[3] equivalent to $3.07 billion in 2016.

Notable releases

Games

Arcade

Pole Position

• 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.
• November, Konami releases Time Pilot,
• December, Namco releases Xevious which sets the style for scrolling shooters to come.
• December 31, Gottlieb releases Q*bert.
• Bally/Midway releases the Tron arcade game before the movie.
• Atari releases Gravitar which, though extraordinarily difficult, inspires a number of gravity-based computer games.
• Williams Electronics releases Joust, Robotron: 2084, Sinistar, and the second game of the year with parallax scrolling, Moon Patrol. Robotron popularizes the twin-stick control scheme first used by Space Dungeon in 1981.
• Data East releases BurgerTime.
• Taito releases Front Line, which creates the blueprint for mid-80s, vertically scrolling, commando games.

Console

• March, Atari releases the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. 12 million cartridges are produced, 7 million sold; it's believed to be one of the causes of the North American 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 crash of 1983.
• Activision releases River Raid, Megamania, Barnstorming, Chopper Command, and Starmaster for the Atari 2600.
• Mattel releases Utopia for Intellivision, one of the first sim games.
• 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, and Dragonfire for the 2600.

Computer

• 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.^[4] It is an early example of tactical turn-based combat in the RPG genre.^[5]
• Koei releases Night Life, the first erotic computer game.^[6]
• 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.^[7][8]
• 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.^[9] Written and directed by Roberta Williams, the graphical adventure game shipped with 6 double-sided floppy disks and cost US$99.^[10]
• 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.

Hardware

Arcade

• 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.^[11] It is capable of pseudo-3D, sprite-scaling, and displays up to 3840 colors.^[12]

Console

• Atari releases the Atari 5200 home console, a lightly modified Atari 8-bit computer with analog joysticks and no keyboard.
• Astrocade, Inc. (formerly Astrovision) releases the Astrocade.
• Coleco Industries releases the Gemini, an Atari 2600 clone.
• Emerson releases the Arcadia 2001 home console.
• Entex releases the Adventure Vision home console.
• General Consumer Electronics releases the Vectrex home console.
• Coleco releases the ColecoVision home console.
• Starpath releases the Starpath Supercharger add-on for the Atari 2600.

Computer

• 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