1973 in video games

Overview of the events of 1973 in video games

1973 saw a substantial increase in the amount of video games created and distributed in multiple sectors. In coin-operated games, a craze for Pong-style games ignited the first fad for video games both in the United States and other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Time-sharing networks saw greater proliferation of popular programs through type-in listings. The PLATO network played host to some of the earliest massively multiplayer games.

Events

• January – Pong is licensed to Midway Mfg, subsidiary of Bally, for release as Winner (1973).
• April – Atari Inc. launches Pong nationally to distributors of coin-operated games across the United States.^[1]
• August 26–28 – The fourth U.S. American Computer Chess Championship is held in Atlanta, Georgia. It is won by Northwestern University's Chess 3.5 running on a CDC 6400 computer, successor to the undefeated champion from the prior three years.^[2][3]
• September – The Japanese Amusement Association show is held in Tokyo. The company Kansai Seiki displays the prototype game Playtron, among the first games utilizing color graphics – though it is never released.^[4][5]
• November 9–11 – The Music Operators of America show is held in Chicago, IL. Over a dozen companies exhibit video games at the show, almost all clones or variants of Pong.^[6]

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Total Cabinet Unit Sales: 50,000-70,000 units.^[7][8]

Total Revenue (machine sales): $20 million-$77 million.^[7][8]

Home consoles

Total Revenue (retail): $4.6 million.^[13]

Notable releases

Publications

• July – 101 BASIC Computer Games, edited and compiled by David Ahl, is published by Digital Equipment Corporation. The publication is vital in the dissemination of influential mainframe games like Hamurabi, Star Trek, and Lunar Landing variants.

Arcade

• March – Volly by Ramtek Corp, Rally by For-Play Manufacturing, and Paddle Battle by Allied Leisure are released in the United States, among the first clones of Pong.
• April – Ping-Pong by Alca Electronics is released in the UK as the first European coin-op video game.^[16]
• July – Sega releases Pong-Tron and Taito releases Elepong, the first two video games produced for the coin-operated games market in Japan.
  • Atari Inc. releases Space Race, a combination of a racing game and obstacle avoidance.^[17]
• August – Tennis Tourney by Allied Leisure is released, the first four-player variant of Pong.
• September – Gotcha is released by Atari, a game featuring characters in a maze.^[18] The game is notable for its low-production variant, Color Gotcha, which may be the first commercially-released video game utilizing color graphics.^[19]
• October – Elimination! is released by Kee Games, a ball-and-paddle game featuring up to four people in an elimination-style contest. Atari's version is released as Quadrapong.
• December – Nutting Associates releases the ball-and-paddle game Wimbledon, among the first color games.^[20]

Mainframe

• February 25 – Jack Burness completes Moonlander, a graphical version of the Lunar Lander game concept for the DEC GT-40 intelligent terminal. His version features the first overworld map and the first Easter egg in a video game.^[21]
• May – Hunt the Wumpus by Gregory Yob is first distributed on paper tape by the People’s Computer Company newsletter.^[22]
  • Empire by John Daleske of Iowa State University is released on the PLATO IV, a game featuring trading and resource management elements with up to eight players.^[23]
• August – Empire II is released to PLATO by John Daleske and Silas Warner. This version evolved into an arena combat shooting game featuring fifty simultaneous players on any of eight teams.^[24]
• Lemonade Stand is developed for the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.

Console

• Magnavox releases the games Interplanetary Voyage, Basketball, W.I.N., and Brain Wave for the Odyssey at retail. Previously they had provided the game Percepts to customers who returned their survey card, but these were the first commercial releases of console games separate from the hardware.^[25]
• Official test markets for the Odyssey outside of North America begin.^[10]

Business

• March 19 – Konami Industry Co., Ltd. is formerly incorporated in Japan by Kagemasa Kōzuki, Yoshinobu Naka, Tatsuo Miyasako.^[26]
• May – The company Hudson is established in Sapporo, Japan as the business arm of the radio shop CQ Hudson. The company later changed its name to Hudson Soft when it began selling computers and associated software.^[27][28]
• August – Atari opens their Atari Japan subsidiary to import games for the domestic market.^[29]
• September 25 – Kee Games Inc. is founded in California. The company is majority owned by the principals of Atari but is presented as a competitor.^[29]
• October 19 – Exidy Inc. is founded by former Ramtek engineer Pete Kauffman and Samuel Hawes. Their first product was a Pong clone.
• Taito Co Ltd. – in the business of coin-operated amusements as well as general import and export – opens its office Taito America in Illinois, the first Japanese company involved with video games to open an American office.^[9]
• The toy company Nintendo Co. Ltd. establishes the label Nintendo Leisure System to release coin-operated games, starting with the electro-mechanical Laser Clay Shooting Range.
• Videomaster of the UK is established to distribute coin-operated Pong games throughout the nation.^[30]

Notes

1. Ralph Baer's numbers compiled in April 1976 are mostly estimates without direct access to sales figures.
2. Licensed version of Space Race.
3. Released under both names.
4. Atari's version of Elimination!.
5. Ralph Baer's numbers for Odyssey units sold per year contradict those of official figures disclosed by Magnavox in 1974.

See also

• 1973 in games

References

1. "PONG Into National Distribution; Success for Atari, Inc". Cash Box. 34 (40): 104. April 7, 1973.
2. "Computer against computer in chess match". The Daily Herald. August 17, 1973. pp. Section 2, 2.
3. Kenny Jr., Herbert (September 30, 1973). "Computer conquer space, but not Bobby Fischer". The Boston Globe. pp. A-24.
4. Akagi, Masumi (2005). Soreha "Pon" Kara Hajimatta - Ākēdo TV Gēmu no Naritachi それは「ポン」から始まった-アーケードTVゲームの成り立ち [In the Beginning, There was "Pong" - The Origins of Arcade TV Games]. Amusement News Agency. p. 89. ISBN 978-4990251208.
5. shmuplations (December 29, 2021). "Kasco and the Electro-Mechanical Golden Age - shmuplations.com". Retrieved July 21, 2024.
6. "Focus on MOA's 25th Anniversary Expo". Cash Box. 35 (21): 50–51. November 24, 1973.
7. Cole, Bernard C. (June 27, 1974). "A whole new game". Electronics: 69–70.
8. The Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1976.
9. Smith, Alexander (2020). They create worlds: the story of the people and companies that shaped the video game industry. Boca Raton: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-0-429-42364-2.
10. Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
11. Jarrell, Timothy (November 1976). "Like Old Man River Midway Sales Go Rollin' Along". Play Meter. 2 (12): 50.
12. Neven, John F. (July 11, 1977). "Notice of Motion". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
13. The Electronic Games Market in the U.S. Frost & Sullivan Inc. 1983.
14. "Magnavox will drop". Weekly Television Digest with Consumer Electronics. 14 (19): 9. May 13, 1974.
15. Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
16. Meades, Alan F. (2022). Arcade Britannia: a social history of the British amusement arcade. Game Histories / edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-37235-0.
17. "Atari Bows 'SPACE RACE'". Cash Box. 35 (3): 39. July 21, 1973.
18. "Atari Ships 'Pong Doubles' & 'Gotcha'". Cash Box. 35 (13): 54. September 29, 1973.
19. Fries, Ed (May 25, 2016). "Fixing Color Gotcha". Retrieved July 24, 2024.
20. "Nutting Industries Ships Color Tennis TV". Cash Box. 35 (23): 44. December 8, 1973.
21. Willaert, "Critical Kate" (April 11, 2021). "Moonlander: One Giant Leap For Game Design". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
22. "Lost in the Caves". People's Computer Company. 1 (5): 4. May 1973.
23. Daleske, John. "PLATO Empire - Empire 1". www.daleske.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
24. Daleske, John. "PLATO Empire - Empire 2 - Tactics". www.daleske.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
25. Willaert, "Critical Kate" (February 9, 2020). "Box Art History #1: The First Video Games In Boxes Were For Magnavox's Odyssey". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
26. "Corporate Info / Corporate History". Konami. Archived from the original on February 10, 2006. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
27. Carlston, Douglas G. (1985). Software people: an insider's look at the personal computer software industry. New York: Computer Book Division, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-50971-2.
28. "Corporate Info. / History". Hudson. Archived from the original on November 24, 2005. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
29. Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012). Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Press. ISBN 978-0985597405.
30. Eglin, Roger (June 26, 1977). "Big shots with a small screen". Sunday Times. p. 63.