1984 in video gaming

Events

• The fifth Arcade Awards are held, for games released during 1982-1983. Pole Position wins Coin-Op Game of the Year, Ms. Pac-Man wins console Videogame of the Year, Lode Runner wins Computer Game of the Year, and Q*bert wins dedicated Stand-Alone Game of the Year.
• For the second Golden Joystick Awards (held in 1985), Knight Lore takes Game of the Year.

Business

• New companies: Accolade, Elite Systems, Gremlin Graphics, Kemco, New World Computing, Novagen, Ocean, Psygnosis, Sculptured Software
• Defunct companies: Astrocade, Imagine, Sirius.
• Hasbro, Inc. acquires Milton Bradley Company.
• Management Sciences America acquires Edu-Ware Services.
• Brøderbund acquires 8-bit gaming competitor Synapse Software.
• Atari shuts down the Atari Program Exchange, which sold notable "user written" games such as Eastern Front (1941) and Dandy.
• Warner Communications Inc. sells the Consumer Division of Atari, Inc. and creates an entirely new company, Atari Games, out of the retained arcade division.
• Sega and CSK merge to form Sega Enterprises Ltd.

Notable releases

Games

Arcade

• April - Namco releases Gaplus, the sequel to Galaga.
• July - Data East releases Technōs Japan's Karate Champ, laying the foundations for the one-one-one fighting game genre.
• July 20 - Namco releases the Tower of Druaga arcade game, a precursor to the action role-playing game genre.
• August - Namco releases Pac-Land and lays the foundations for horizontally-scrolling platform games.
• November 1 - Namco releases Grobda, a spin-off from Xevious.
• December - Namco releases Super Xevious and Dragon Buster, the latter of which is one of the first games to feature a life bar.
• December - Capcom releases 1942.
• December - Irem releases Kung-Fu Master and lays the foundations for the beat 'em up genre.
• December - Atari Games releases Marble Madness, their first game written in the C programming language and to use a 68000-family microprocessor.

Computer

• June 6 - Alexei Pajitnov creates Tetris for the Electronika 60 in the Soviet Union.
• September 20 - Elite, an influential wireframe 3D space trading game offering full six degrees of freedom and a then-unique open-ended design, is published by Acornsoft.
• October - Nihon Falcom releases Dragon Slayer, which lays the foundations for the action role-playing game genre.
• December - T&E Soft releases Hydlide, an early action role-playing game that features a health regeneration mechanic and anticipates elements of The Legend of Zelda and Ys series.^[1]
• December 7 - Knight Lore by Ultimate Play The Game is released for the ZX Spectrum (and later ported to the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, MSX, and Famicom Disk System). It is the third title in the Sabreman series, but the first to use the isometric Filmation engine.
• Bullet-Proof Software releases The Black Onyx, which helps popularize turn-based role-playing games in Japan.
• Brøderbund releases The Ancient Art of War by Dave and Barry Murry. It is a real-time tactics game and a precursor to the real-time strategy genre.
• Brøderbund releases Karateka for the Apple II.
• The Lords of Midnight, a strategy adventure game by Mike Singleton, is released.
• Infocom releases The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Sorcerer, Cutthroats, and Seastalker.
• First Star releases Boulder Dash, which inspired enough clones to create the rocks-and-diamonds genre.
• Epyx releases Impossible Mission for the Commodore 64.
• Electronic Arts releases Adventure Construction Set.
• Synapse releases Atari 8-bit game Dimension X, over 9 months after running magazine ads showing features that weren't present in the final game.^[2]

Console

• June 4 - Nintendo releases a conversion of their own Donkey Kong 3 for the Famicom/NES.
• December 17 - Nintendo releases Ice Climber and Balloon Fight for the Famicom/NES.
• Activision releases Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, one of the last major titles for the Atari 2600. Each cartridge contains a custom chip allowing 4-voice sound.

Hardware

• January 24 - Apple Inc. announces the original, 128K, floppy disc-only, Macintosh.
• March - IBM releases the IBM PCjr in an attempt to enter the home computer market. It has improved sound and graphics over the original, business-oriented IBM PC, but is commercial failure.
• Atari announces the Atari 7800, a next-gen console that's compatible with Atari 2600 cartridges. It is then shelved until 1986 due to the sale of the company and legal issues.
• Discontinued systems: Atari 5200, Vectrex, Intellivision

References