From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Overview of the events of 1983 in video games
1983 has seen many sequels and prequels in video games, such as
Mario Bros. and
Pole Position II , along with new titles such as
Astron Belt ,
Champion Baseball ,
Dragon's Lair ,
Elevator Action ,
Spy Hunter and
Track & Field . Major events include the
video game crash of 1983 in North America, and the
third generation of video game consoles beginning with the launch of
Nintendo 's
Family Computer (Famicom) and
Sega 's
SG-1000 in Japan. The year's highest-grossing video game was
Namco 's
arcade game
Pole Position , while the year's best-selling home system was Nintendo's
Game & Watch for the third time
since 1980 .
Financial performance
In the United States ,
arcade video game revenues are worth
$ 2.9 billion
[1] (equivalent to $8.87 billion adjusted for inflation).
In the United States, home video game sales are worth $2 billion
[2] (equivalent to $6.12 billion adjusted for inflation).
In Japan , home video game sales approach
¥ 400 billion
[3] (equivalent to $1.68 billion at the time, or $5.69 billion adjusted for inflation).
Highest-grossing arcade games
Pole Position , a
racing game by
Namco , was the most successful arcade game of 1983.
[4]
Japan
In Japan,
Game Machine magazine began publishing half-monthly charts of top-grossing
arcade games from June 1, 1983.
[5] The following titles were the top-grossing arcade video games on the Game Machine charts from June to December 1983.
United States
In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1983, according to RePlay magazine, the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA), and
Cash Box magazine.
Rank
RePlay
AMOA
[20]
Cash Box
[21]
Play Meter
1
Pole Position
[22]
Pole Position
[23]
Ms. Pac-Man ,
Pole Position
Dragon's Lair
[24]
2
Dragon's Lair ,
Mr. Do!
[25]
Bump 'n' Jump ,
Galaga ,
Ms. Pac-Man ,
Mr. Do! ,
Bag Man ,
Nibbler ,
Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom ,
Jungle King (Jungle Hunt )
Donkey Kong ,
Joust ,
Time Pilot ,
Q*bert
Unknown
3
Dragon's Lair
4
Unknown
Millipede
5
Unknown
—
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Best-selling home video games
The following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1983.
Rank
Title
Platform
Publisher
Licensor
Release Year
Genre
Sales
Ref
1
Ms. Pac-Man
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
Midway
1983
Maze
1,963,078
[26]
2
Donkey Kong
ColecoVision
Coleco
Nintendo
1982
Platformer
1,500,000
[27]
3
Centipede
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
—
1983
Shoot 'em up
1,475,240
[26]
4
Pitfall!
Atari 2600
Activision
—
1982
Platformer
1,000,000+
[28]
[29]
5
Pac-Man
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
Namco
1982
Maze
684,569
[26]
6
Night Driver
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
—
1980
Racing
580,959
7
Space Invaders
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
Taito
1980
Shoot 'em up
435,353
8
Warlords
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
—
1981
Action
372,672
9
Breakout
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
—
1978
Block breaker
312,672
10
Centipede
Atari 2600
Atari, Inc.
—
1983
Shoot 'em up
100,499
Best-selling home systems
Rank
System(s)
Manufacturer
Type
Generation
Sales
Japan
Worldwide
1
Game & Watch
Nintendo
Handheld
—
—
5,300,000
[30]
2
Atari 2600 (Atari VCS)
Atari, Inc.
Console
Second
—
3,000,000
[31]
3
Commodore 64 (C64)
Commodore
Computer
8-bit
—
2,000,000
[32]
4
ColecoVision
Coleco
Console
Second
—
1,500,000
[27]
5
Family Computer (Famicom / NES)
Nintendo
Console
Third
1,000,000+
[33]
[34]
1,000,000+
6
IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC)
IBM
Computer
8-bit /
16-bit
—
850,000
[35]
7
Intellivision
Mattel
Console
Second
—
750,000
[36]
8
Atari 400 /
Atari 800
Atari, Inc.
Computer
8-bit
—
500,000
[32]
9
Apple II
Apple Inc.
Computer
8-bit
—
420,000
[32]
10
NEC PC-88 /
PC-98
NEC
Computer
8-bit / 16-bit
360,000
[37]
[38]
360,000+
Major awards
Events
January –
Electronic Games labels
Donkey Kong ,
Space Panic , and other games with ladders as "climbing games."
[42]
The fourth
Arcade Awards are held, for games released during 1981–1982, with
Tron winning best
arcade game ,
Demon Attack best
console game ,
David's Midnight Magic best
computer game , and
Galaxian best
standalone game.
A major
shakeout of the North American video game industry ("the crash of 1983") begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.
[43]
December - Sente Technologies, a division of Pizza Time Theater, launches and demonstrates its first title Snake Pit .
Business
MCA Universal
files suit against
Nintendo , claiming that the latter company's
video arcade hit
Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on
King Kong . After a brief trial, the judge determined that the rights to the original Kong had passed into the
public domain . The case was dismissed, and MCA Universal paid US$1.8 million in damages to Nintendo.,
[44]
Atari files suit against
Coleco , claiming violation of Atari's patents on the
Atari 2600
video game console . The previous year, Coleco released a
peripheral device that made it possible for Atari 2600
game cartridges to be run on the
ColecoVision console.
[45]
Amusement Developing Section 8 (later known as
Sega-AM2 ), a
research and development department of
Sega , is established under the supervision of
Yu Suzuki in
Tokyo , Japan.
[46]
Milton Bradley takes over distribution of the
Vectrex console after purchasing General Consumer Electronics.
New companies:
Aackosoft ,
Alligata ,
Beyond ,
Graftgold ,
Infogrames ,
[47]
Origin Systems ,
[48]
Interplay ,
[49]
Navarre ,
[50]
Mastertronic ,
Spectrum HoloByte ,
Tynesoft
Defunct companies:
Games by Apollo ,
U.S. Games ,
Xonox .
Notable releases
Games
Arcade
January – Namco releases
Xevious .
March –
Sega releases
Astron Belt in the
Japanese market , the second
laserdisc video game . It uses
pre-rendered , computer-animated film footage as backdrops, overlaid with
sprite graphics.
May – Atari releases
Star Wars , a color
vector graphics game based on the popular
film franchise .
[51]
Konami releases
Gyruss in Japan.
Centuri distributes the game in North America.
[52]
June 14 –
Nintendo releases
Mario Bros. , which features the first appearance of
Mario 's brother,
Luigi .
June 19 –
Cinematronics releases Advanced Microcomputer Systems's
Dragon's Lair ,
[53] the third
laserdisc video game , and the first in the
American market .
June –
Data East releases
Bega's Battle , a laserdisc video game.
[54] It uses
anime
FMV
cut scenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages, which would later become the standard approach to
video game storytelling .
[55]
August – Sega releases
Astron Belt in
Europe , as the first laserdisc game in the region.
[56]
September – Konami releases
Track & Field .
November – Sega releases
Astron Belt in the United States.
[57]
December – Namco releases
Pole Position II , adding three additional tracks.
Atari releases the trackball-controlled
Crystal Castles .
Bally /
Midway releases
Spy Hunter .
[58] They also release
Jr. Pac-Man and quiz game
Professor Pac-Man without
Namco 's authorization, and the latter is an immediate
flop .
Nintendo releases
Punch-Out!! in Japan.
Williams releases
Blaster , which was originally programmed on an Atari 8-bit computer.
Parker Brothers releases
James Bond 007 .
Personal computer
June –
Yuji Horii releases
The Portopia Serial Murder Case for the
NEC PC-6001 in Japan. It is an influential
adventure game that lays the foundations for the
visual novel genre.
[59]
July 8 –
Infocom releases
Planetfall , which becomes one of their top sellers.
August 23 –
Origin Systems publishes
Ultima III: Exodus , one of the first
role-playing video games to use tactical,
turn-based combat . It is released for the
Apple II ,
Atari 8-bit family ,
Commodore 64 , and
IBM PC .
[48]
ASCII releases
Bokosuka Wars for the
Sharp X1 in Japan. It is a precursor to the
tactical role-playing game
[60] and
real-time strategy
[61] genres.
Koei releases
Nobunaga's Ambition for Japanese computers. Its combination of role-playing, turn-based
grand strategy and
management simulation elements sets a standard for the historical
simulation and
strategy RPG genres.
[62]
Electronic Arts publishes its first five titles:
Hard Hat Mack ,
Pinball Construction Set ,
Archon: The Light and the Dark ,
M.U.L.E. , and
Worms? .
[63]
Bug-Byte releases
Matthew Smith 's
Manic Miner , a
platform game , for the
ZX Spectrum .
[64]
Ultimate Play the Game , later known as
Rare , releases its first video games,
Jetpac and
Atic Atac , for the ZX Spectrum.
[65]
Hudson Soft releases
Bomberman for the
MSX and
FM-7 .
Psion releases
Chequered Flag , the first driving game published for the
ZX Spectrum ,
[66] one of the first computer
car simulators , and the first driving game with selectable cars.
[67]
The 4-player simultaneous
Dandy is released for the
Atari 8-bit family . It directly inspires 1985's
Gauntlet arcade game.
Muse Software releases a port of
Castle Wolfenstein for the
MS-DOS .
Console
Hardware
Arcade
Console
Family Computer
July 15 –
Sega releases the
SG-1000 console in Japan,
[70] on the same day as the Famicom.
July 15 –
Nintendo releases the
Family Computer (Famicom) console in Japan. Shortly after its release, complaints begin to surface about rampant system instability, prompting Nintendo to issue a
product recall and to rerelease the machine with a new
motherboard .
[43] It would later be released worldwide as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
October –
Casio launches the
Casio PV-1000 in Japan. It does not remain on the market for long.
October –
Gakken launches the
Compact Vision TV Boy in Japan. It's the last
second generation console released. It was expensive and obsolete at launch, being discontinued shortly after.
GameLine , a combination modem and dialup game distribution service for the
Atari 2600 , is announced but never ships.
Personal computer
January –
Apple Computer releases the
Apple IIe , which becomes their most popular 8-bit machine.
June 16 –
Microsoft Japan releases
MSX , an early standardized
home computer architecture.
March – Atari releases the poorly received
1200XL computer. Late in the year it and the rest of the
Atari 8-bit family are replaced by the 600XL and 800XL.
June – Mattel Electronics releases the
Aquarius home computer, originally designed by Radofin Electronics Far East.
[71]
October –
Coleco releases the
Adam home computer.
[72] It is only on the market for 15 months.
October – Mattel discontinues the Aquarius.
Acorn Computers release the
Acorn Electron , a cut down version of their
BBC Micro to compete in the under
£ 200 home computer market. Problems in manufacture see only 1 in 8 presales being delivered for the Christmas market.
Sega releases the
SC-3000 , a
personal computer version of the
SG-1000 console, in Japan.
[70]
See also
References
^
Video Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades? , The Golden Age Arcade Historian (December 27, 2013)
^ Lindner, Richard (1990).
Video Games: Past, Present and Future; An Industry Overview . United States:
Nintendo of America .
^
"The Home Video-Game Industry (1983-1996" (PDF) . gbrc.jp . p. 43.
^
"Racing Games Roundup: Facts" .
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition . Little Brown Books. 2008. p. 154.
ISBN
9781904994213 .
^
a
b
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 215.
Amusement Press, Inc. July 1, 1983. pp. 29–30.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 213.
Amusement Press, Inc. June 1, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 214.
Amusement Press, Inc. June 15, 1983. p. 27.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 216.
Amusement Press, Inc. July 15, 1983. p. 37.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 217.
Amusement Press, Inc. August 1, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 218.
Amusement Press, Inc. August 15, 1983. p. 27.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 219.
Amusement Press, Inc. September 1, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 220.
Amusement Press, Inc. September 15, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 221.
Amusement Press, Inc. October 1, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 222.
Amusement Press, Inc. October 15, 1983. p. 35.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 223.
Amusement Press, Inc. November 1, 1983. p. 33.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 224.
Amusement Press, Inc. November 15, 1983. p. 29.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 225.
Amusement Press, Inc. December 1, 1983. p. 33.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 226.
Amusement Press, Inc. December 15, 1983. p. 33.
^
"Best Hit Games 25" (PDF) .
Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 227.
Amusement Press, Inc. January 1, 1984. p. 37.
^
"AMOA Votes On Annual Game Awards" .
Cash Box . October 29, 1983. p. 60.
^
"Cash Box Jukebox/Games Survey" .
Cash Box . Cash Box Pub. Co. October 29, 1983. p. 46.
^ "Top Hits of Last 5 Years". RePlay . March 1987.
^
"Around The Route" .
Cash Box . Cash Box Pub. Co. November 26, 1983. p. 32.
^
"1983" .
Play Meter . Vol. 20, no. 13. December 1994. p. 70.
^ Adlum, Eddie (November 1985).
"The Replay Years: Reflections from Eddie Adlum" . RePlay . Vol. 11, no. 2. pp. 134-175 (168-70).
^
a
b
c Cartridge Sales Since 1980 .
Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari . Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
^
a
b McFerran, Damien (September 18, 2010).
"Feature: How ColecoVision Became the King of Kong" .
Nintendo Life . Retrieved April 2, 2021 .
^ Capparell, James (June 1984).
"Activision's James Levy: A software success story" .
Antic . Retrieved April 22, 2017 .
^ Sigel, Efrem; Giglio, Louis (1984).
Guide to Software Publishing: An Industry Emerges . Knowledge Industry Publications. p. 22.
ISBN
978-0-86729-108-7 . Pitfall won the award from Electronic Games magazine as the best video game adventure of 1983, and in 1982 sold more than 1 million copies.
^ Fujii, Daiji (June 10, 2005).
"The Birth of "Final Fantasy": Square Corporation" . 岡山大学経済学会雑誌 (Okayama Economic Review) . 37 (1).
Okayama University : 63–88 (67–71).
ISSN
0386-3069 – via Okayama University Scientific Achievement Repository.
^ Guins, Raiford (January 24, 2014).
Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife . MIT Press. p. 324.
ISBN
978-0-262-32018-4 .
^
a
b
c Reimer, Jeremy (December 15, 2005).
"Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures" .
Ars Technica .
Archived from the original on June 7, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2021 .
^ Donovan, Tristan (2010).
"12. A Tool To Sell Software" .
Replay: The History of Video Games .
East Sussex , England: Yellow Ant. p. 158.
ISBN
978-0-9565072-0-4 . Archived from
the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2021 . Within two months of the Famicom's July 1983 launch around 500,000 had been sold. By the end of the year sales had topped the million mark.
^ Wolf, Mark J. P. (May 1, 2015).
Video Games Around the World .
MIT Press . p. 322.
ISBN
978-0-262-52716-3 . The Nintendo Famicom was released in July of 1983 and by the end of the year had sold more than a million units.
^ Shea, Tom (February 6, 1984).
"Companies register big sales during Christmas season" .
InfoWorld . Vol. 6, no. 6. p. 16.
ISSN
0199-6649 .
^ Hayes, Thomas C. (February 4, 1984).
"Mattel Is Counting on Its Toys" .
The New York Times . Retrieved November 26, 2021 .
^ Methe, David; Mitchell, Will; Miyabe, Junichiro; Toyama, Ryoko (January 1998).
"Overcoming a Standard Bearer: Challenges to NEC's Personal Computer in Japan" . Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) : 35 – via
ResearchGate .
^ Juliussen, Egil; Juliussen, Karen (1990).
The Computer Industry Almanac 1991 . Pearson P T R. pp. 10–47, 10–48.
ISBN
978-0-13-155748-2 .
^ "1984 Arcade Awards",
Electronic Games , January 1984, pages 68–81.
^
"Video Games Player 1983 Golden Joystick Awards" . Video Games Player . Vol. 2, no. 1. United States: Carnegie Publications. September 1983. pp. 49–51.
^
"1983 Golden Joystick Awards" .
Computer and Video Games (30).
Future Publishing : 81. April 1984. Retrieved January 13, 2012 .
^
"The Player's Guide to Climbing Games" . Electronic Games . 1 (11): 49. January 1983.
^
a
b Liedholm, Marcus and Mattias.
"The Famicom rules the world! – (1983–89)" . Nintendo Land . Archived from
the original on January 1, 2010. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming / Universal Goes Ape" . GameSpy.com . 2003. Archived from
the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Atari and Coleco" . New York Times . February 8, 1983. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"SEGA-AM2 Co., LTD" . MobyGames .
Archived from the original on February 14, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Atari – 1972–2004" . Atari – Official Corporate Site . Archived from
the original on October 19, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
a
b GameSpot Staff (2000).
"15 Most Influential Games of All Time / Ultima III: Exodus" . GameSpot .
Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^ Ackerman, Kyle (2002).
"The Saga Behind the Sagas: Interplay and the Business of Gaming" . Frictionless Insight . Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Navarre Corporation Completes $12.5 Million Private Placement" . Navarre Corporation . 2003. Archived from
the original on November 17, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Star Wars" . KLOV.com . Archived from
the original on February 22, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Gyruss" . KLOV.com . Archived from
the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Dragon's Lair" . KLOV.com . Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Bega's Battle arcade video game by Data East USA, Inc. (1983)" . www.arcade-history.com .
^ Travis Fahs (March 3, 2008).
"The Lives and Deaths of the Interactive Movie" .
IGN . Retrieved March 11, 2011 .
^
"Astron Belt arcade game review" . www.solvalou.com . Archived from
the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2014 .
^
"Astron Belt arcade video game by Bally Midway Mfg. (1983)" . www.arcade-history.com .
^
"Spy Hunter" . KLOV.com .
Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^ John Szczepaniak (February 2011).
"Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken" .
Retro Gamer . Retrieved March 16, 2011 . (Reprinted at John Szczepaniak.
"Retro Gamer 85" . Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved March 16, 2011 . )
^
"VC ボコスカウォーズ" . www.nintendo.co.jp .
^
"Dru Hill: The Chronicle of Druaga" . 1up.com . Archived from
the original on January 19, 2005.
^ Vestal, Andrew (November 2, 1998).
"The History of Console RPGs" .
GameSpot . Archived from
the original on June 8, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2011 .
^ Corriea, Alexa Ray (March 21, 2013).
"30 years ago Electronic Arts shipped its first batch of five games" . Polygon .
^ Broad, Andrew (2006).
"Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy" . Archived from
the original on October 26, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"GAMES / timeline" . Welcome to Rare . Archived from
the original on August 22, 2006. Retrieved April 3, 2006 .
^ "The Complete YS Guide to Driving Games". Your Sinclair (59): 77. November 1990.
^ "Road Racers". CRASH (16): 45. May 1985.
^
"Classic Gaming Expo – Don Daglow" . Classic Gaming Expo . 2005. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Star Jacker arcade video game by SEGA Enterprises (1983)" . www.arcade-history.com .
^
a
b
"Sega SC-3000 / SG-1000" . Obscure Pixels . Archived from
the original on February 6, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^
"Player 3 Stage 3: Contender to the Throne" . The Dot Eaters . Archived from
the original on November 9, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
^ Klein, Eric S.
"Coleco Adam" . Eric Klein's Vintage Computers .
Archived from the original on January 31, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2006 .
By platform By console generation
Video games by country
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania