1971 in video games
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1971 saw the first public demonstrations of Computer Space that November, the first commercially released title. However in this period computer games were still primarily limited to organisations such as universities that had access to early mainframe computers.
Events
- Mike Mayfield develops Star Trek on a SDS Sigma 7.
- Baseball and an unrelated Star Trek mainframe game are written by Don Daglow.[1]
- Versions of the mainframe games Hammurabi and Lunar are converted into BASIC for the first time, and published via a newsletter.[2]
- January - Licensing negotiations conclude at Magnavox and hardware development formally begins on the Skill O Vision, work that would eventually result in the Odyssey.
- June - The first six prototype units at Magnavox are complete and undergo testing.[3]
- August 2-4 - The second North American Computer Chess Championship is held in Chicago, with the previous champion Chess 3.0 winning a second time.
- August - The original prototype of Computer Space is completed.
- November - Computer Space is released in North America, and is the first commercially available video game.[4]
- November - Galaxy Game is released.[5]
- December 3 – The Oregon Trail is first demonstrated to students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.[6]
Arcade video games
In 1971 the concept of arcade video games was in its infancy. Prototypes were displayed which the public could pay a fee to use, but the cabinets themselves were not yet available for purchase.
Rank | Title | Arcade cabinet units | Developer | Manufacturer | Genre |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Computer Space | 1 | Syzygy Engineering | Nutting Associates | Space combat |
2 | Galaxy Game | 1 | Mini-Computer Applications | Mini-Computer Applications | Space combat |
See also
References
- ^ Kendall, Mark. "Putting Bytes into the Old Ball Game | Pomona College Pomona College Magazine".
- ^ "Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal". TIME. 29 April 2014.
- ^ Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
- ^ Smith, Alexander (2014-08-07). "One, Two, Three, Four I Declare a Space War". They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
- ^ "Galaxy-Game machine". infolab.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
- ^ "Carl Creators of Oregon Trail Celebrate 50th Anniversary - Carleton College". Archived from the original on 2023-01-24. Retrieved 2023-02-09.