1974 in video gaming

List of years in video gaming (table)
... 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 ... 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 ... 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 ...
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Events

• The number of copies of Pong and its commercial clones exceed 100,000 units. Approximately 10,000 of these units were manufactured by Atari, the original developer of the Pong.^[1]
• H.R. "Pete" Kaufman leaves Ramtek to found Exidy, Inc.^[1]
• Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. and formally enters the video arcade game market.^[1]
• Atari acquires Kee Games as a "marketing ploy." Atari will continue to use the "Kee Games" title as a brand name until 1978.^[1]
• Royal Philips Electronics N.V. acquires Magnavox, which becomes "Philips Consumer Electronics."^[2]

Notable releases

Magazines

• Play Meter, the first magazine devoted to coin-operated amusements (including arcade games), publishes its first issue.^[1]

Arcade games

• February: Taito releases Basketball,^[3] an early example of sprite graphics, used to represent baskets and player characters,^[4] making it the first video game with human figures.^[3] The same month, Midway licenses the game for a North American release under the title TV Basketball, making it the first Japanese game licensed for North American release.^[3]
• July 24, Atari releases Gran Trak 10, the first car racing video game, to video arcades.^[5]
• November, Taito releases Tomohiro Nishikado's Speed Race,^[6] the second car racing video game. It introduces scrolling sprite graphics with collision detection,^[7] and uses a racing wheel controller.^[8] Midway releases it as Wheels and Racer in the United States.^[7]
• November 5,^[9] prior to their acquisition by Atari, Kee Games releases Tank to video arcades.^[1]

Computer games

Maze War, an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre, was ported to a number of computer systems. The above image was created from a version of the game written for the Xerox Star 8010 in 1985.

• Steve Colley, Howard Palmer, and Greg Johnson develop Maze War on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.^[10] It is recognized as an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre.
• Jim Bowery develops Spasim for the PLATO system. Two versions are released, the first in March and the second in July.^[11] It is also recognized as an ancestor of the first-person shooter genre.
• Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood develop dnd, the first game with a boss, and arguably the first role-playing video game, for the PLATO system.^[12] Development continued into 1975; it is unclear at what point the game became playable.

Video game consoles

• Magnavox reissues the Odyssey and releases it in Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and Venezuela.^[13]

References

1. Thomas, Donald A. Jr. (2005). "–1974–". ICWhen.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2006. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
2. Kaiser, Robert D. (1999). "The Ultimate Odyssey² and Odyssey³ FAQ". Archived from the original (text) on March 8, 2008. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
3. http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/video-game-firsts.html
4. Basketball at the Killer List of Videogames
5. Cassidy, William (2003). "Hall of Fame / Gran Trak 10 and Sprint 2". GameSpy. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
6. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=speed-race&page=detail&id=19475
7. Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, p. 197, Focal Press, ISBN 0-240-81146-1
8. Speed Race at the Killer List of Videogames
9. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=tank-upright-model&page=detail&id=3383
10. "The Maze War 30 Year Retrospective". DigiBarn Games. 2004. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
11. Bowery, Jim (2010). "Spasim (1978) The First First-Person-Shooter 3D Multiplayer Networked Game". Archived from the original on October 21, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2006.
12. Koster, Raph (February 17, 2002). "Online World Timeline". Raph Koster's Website. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved 2006.
13. Gegan, Shaun and David Winter (2003). "Magnavox Odyssey FAQ version 2.9.1" (text). Archived from the original on February 13, 2006. Retrieved February 16, 2006.