1979 in video games

Highest-grossing arcade games

Space Invaders was the top-grossing video game worldwide in 1979,^[1] having become the arcade game industry's all-time best-seller by 1979.^[2] The following table lists the year's top-grossing arcade game in Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1979, according to the annual Game Machine chart. Taito's Space Invaders was the highest-grossing arcade game for a second year in a row.^[4][5]

United States

The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing arcade video games of 1979 in the United States, according to Cash Box, Play Meter and RePlay magazines.

Best-selling home systems

Electronic Games magazine hosted the first Arkie Awards in 1980, for games in 1979.^[14][15]

• New companies: Activision, Capcom, Edu-Ware, Infocom, Quicksilva, Strategic Simulations
• The US market for arcade games earn a revenue of $1.5 billion^[16] ($6.3 billion adjusted for inflation).
• The US home video game market generates a revenue of $330 million^[17] ($1.4 billion adjusted for inflation).

Games

Arcade

• April – Sega's dot-eating driving game, Head On, is released. It becomes a popular concept to clone, especially for home systems.
• August – Atari releases Lunar Lander, the first arcade version of a game concept created on minicomputers ten years earlier.
• November – Atari releases the vector graphics-based Asteroids, which becomes Atari's second best selling game of all time and displaces Space Invaders as the most popular game in the US.
• November – Namco releases fixed shooter Galaxian in full color.
• November – Vectorbeam releases Tail Gunner, a space shooter with a first-person perspective.
• December – Nintendo releases Radar Scope, featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person perspective. Later, 2000 out of 3000 manufactured machines are converted to Donkey Kong.
• Cinematronics releases Warrior, one of the first fighting games without a boxing theme.
• Sega releases the vertically scrolling Monaco GP, featuring full color and day/night driving. It is one of Sega's last discrete logic (no CPU) hardware designs.

Computer

• August – Automated Simulations releases Temple of Apshai, one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers.^[18] It remains the best-selling computer RPG through to 1982.^[19]
• October – subLOGIC releases Flight Simulator for the Apple II.
• Richard Garriott creates Akalabeth, a computer role-playing game for the Apple II. It launches Garriott's career and is a precursor to his highly successful Ultima series.
• Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw create what is commonly recognized as the first playable MUD.^[20]
• Atari, Inc.'s 8K Star Raiders cartridge is released and becomes a system seller for the new Atari 400/800 computer line.

Hardware

Computer

• June – Texas Instruments releases the TI-99/4. It is the first home computer with a 16-bit processor and, with TI's TMS9918 video chip, one of the first with hardware sprites.
• September – NEC releases the PC-8001, the first in the PC-8000 series of home computers.
• November – Atari, Inc. releases the first two models in the Atari 8-bit home computer series: the Atari 400 and Atari 800. They feature custom graphics and sound coprocessors which support sprites, four-channel audio, and programmable display modes.

Console

• Mattel test markets the Intellivision console in Fresno, California. It is released throughout the United States in 1980.

Handheld

• November – Milton Bradley Company releases the Microvision, the first handheld game console that uses interchangeable cartridges.

• 1979 in games