Electronic Games 1979: Addictive, Exciting, Primitive As Hell
After the first Pong cabinet was placed in Andy Capp’s Cavern in 1972, video games exploded, reaching their full stride by the late ’70s. Here are some of the notable games/systems you played (or would have played) back then:
Duck Hunt (1976)
Before Duck Hunt hit the NES as part of the most famous (and arguably most successful) gaming bundle of all time, Nintendo released a version of the game as a standalone toy. A revamp of their IR-based Laser Clay Shooting System! (1973), Duck Hunt used a battery powered lightgun and projector to fly ducks randomly around your wall. Tastefully, there was no little dog there to laugh at you when you inevitably ran out of batteries. [See Duck Hunt in action here]
The Atari 2600 (1977)
Parents may hate consoles now, but the Atari 2600 was greeted with open arms by parents who were happy to keep their kids safe at home rather than exploring seedy arcades. It wasn’t the first modern (cartridge-based) console—that award goes to the 1976 Fairchild Channel F. But Fairchild gave up on games before the phenomenon had passed while Atari became the best selling Christmas gift of 1979. Powered by a 1.19MHZ processor and bundled with two joysticks, two paddles (for Pong) and a game, the launch price was $US199. That doesn’t sound like much, but in when adjusted for inflation since 1977, that was about $US700.
Simon (1978)
In 1974, Atari released an arcade cabinet called Touch Me. It was a critical flop. But four years later, a pair of inventors tweaked the game, shrinking it down to portable sizes and adding colour to the formerly black buttons. The result? Simon, the addictive memory-music game that holds up to this day. Sold by Milton Bradley, a slew of clones would pop up over the years. But c’mon, Simon they were not.
Really Bad Sports Games
Sports are hard enough to stomach on their own, but Atari’s early versions of baseball, basketball and football, while necessary to the evolution of video game sports, were simply horrible. With the exception of Activision’s 1981 Ice Hockey, none of these games have aged well because even in their simplified versions with limited rule sets and minuscule rosters, the very premises of these sports are far wider in scope than any early era video game. Then again, Pong, made in the early ’70s, may be the best “tennis” game of all time.
Space Invaders (1978)
Space Invaders is, quite simply, the biggest arcade game of all time. Taito’s simple game incorporated sci-fi elements like lasers and aliens to a humble 5×11 grid of monochromatic descending sprites. (In fact, Space Invaders was never technically in colour—coloured cellophane was merely laid over the monitor.) It’s been attributed to coin shortages in Japan and the rise of mainstream arcade prominence in the US. And while Pac-Man would also be a mega force of its own, he wouldn’t be around until 1980.
Coleco Telstar Arcade (1977/78)
No, the Coleco Telstar Arcade did not revolutionise gaming forever, it’s just a personal favourite. Before the rise of cartridge-based consoles, single-title home arcade units were extremely popular. There was a huge market of PONG clones that were essentially a base unit with knobs that plugged into your TV. Anyway, Coleco made a lot of these dedicated machines, but their most advanced/ridiculous was the Telstar Arcade. The triangle base unit contained Pong, gun and racing controls, plus it actually accepted additional (triangle-shaped) cartridges to expand gameplay. I sort of wish that the Xbox 360 were designed so ludicrously.
Adventure (1979)
It might not look like much now, but Adventure was, aptly, the first action/adventure video game. A modest 4KB, Adventure followed a dragon-slaying hero through a labyrinth of mirrored environments (the Atari simply wasn’t capable of more complex levels) in his quest to transport a chalice to a yellow castle. Grand! And beyond its invention of an entire genre, the game introduced the concept of inventory (to hold contemporary gaming mainstays like swords and keys). What Adventure was missing was the motivation of a damsel in distress. [Try it here]
Asteroids (1979)
One ship stuck in an asteroid field—duplicate that idea in arcade cabinet form over 56,000 times and you have Asteroids, Atari’s best selling arcade game of all time (though admittedly only about a third as successful as Taito’s Space Invaders). As players blew the heck out of space rocks, they also had to control inertia in what’s considered the first real physics based game. The effect is akin to a dogfight on ice. [Try it here]
Pinball Wizardry
It’s tough to think of the year 1979 without Pete Townshend popping into your head. So what was going on in terms of Pinball in that era? Circuitboards. In 1977, Bally’s Lost World became the first pinball machine to replace chimes with electronic sounds. And by 1979, Williams’ Gorgar introduced the first pinball game with a continuous soundtrack. But since this was the ’70s we’re talking about, we’ll remind you that Kiss pinball came out, too, and people weren’t playing it with any aura of self-deprecation.
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and a healthy dose of Wikipedia/wasted youth].
Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analogue age gave way to the digital, and most of our favourite toys were just being born.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I took apart my Simon too.
GeneralGozz
I remember I took apart the Atari game cartridges and would just use put the little circuit board in to the slot on the console. They were not very big, 1.5" x 3" max.
GeneralGozz
A Coleco Telstar Arcade! I've got one of those. Triangle shaped cartridges that plug in the top.
Head to head football with the little red LED blips that you moved in a field like 3 or 4 columns wide by about 10 or 12 long. Was a blast! I think that head to head one came out after the original, which was 1 player at a time and you took turns in a 2 player game. Hmmm, now that I think about it, there was the old 1p/2p switch on all the old games back then. I loved growing up in the '70s :)
BlackSmokeDMax
Asteroids is my favorite retro game of all time followed closely by Space Invaders. I had a Pong, an Atari, a ColecoVision with the Atari adapter and the 3D glasses for Zaxxon, and a Sega Master System, which to theis day I still thing is better than the first NES (sorry but it's true). Electronic games were the shit and I had the Mattel Battlestar Galactica game, a Pocket Simon, and a Merlin. Merlin was bad ass because it had tons of games. Okay, I'll stop or I could go on all night, heh, but we did have some awesome pinball games, too. My dad still has a Bally's 8 Ball which was the first digital pinball game.
maven2k
Kiss pinball!!! Wow!!!
I miss pinball...
@Crenshaw13: Your head asplode.
Adventure is a truly amazing game. Very rich behaviour from its game objects (eg. if the bat carries the magnet through a room it will attract objects in that room even if you're not there), and great replayability.
And it all fits in 4KB. I have a disassembled, annotated version I found online somewhere and when printed out double-stack it's only 13 pages. I used to keep a copy pinned up outside my office to remind people you don't need millions of dollars and gigabytes of storage to make a great game.
grahamwest
gimme PITFALL! P-I-T-F-A-L-L..... :)
mattius
@92BuickLeSabre: George Plimpton didn't help matters any.
Eltigro
@ackthbbft: There's the wall you can go through and see the programmer's name. Wasn't aware of a dot though. And yeah, I believe it is the first game known to have an easter egg. At the time, Atari didn't let programmers have their name on the game, so the programmer made his name in a secret room.
Eltigro
How can you not bring up that Adventure had the first ever Easter Egg in a video game?
If you brought a key to the right spot, it would show the designers name. He was mad because they didn't used to give credit to them, so he put that in without the publisher knowing.
CSUSam
@alysonnation: The Google Chrome logo is crazy similar to Simon.
telepheedian
I still have a Simon; they are/were cool as hell! And, oh, real pinball, how I miss thee.
@FrankenPC: The Magic Dot!! Wasn't that said to be the first easter egg in video game history?
ackthbbft
I remember every one of these. Sheez that makes me feel old - but nostalgic as hell.
Sukigod
@robjennings: It was definately Atari, Colecovision and then Intelivision in my area. It got so bad that I couldn't get the replacement touch pads for the Intelivision controller because everyone stopped selling parts for it.
@92BuickLeSabre: My friends had colecovision and I didn't think it was that great. The controller was weird. The only game I recall being decent was baseball.. But your right. I did get a lot of shit for having Intelivision!!
I think Space Invaders sounds of missiles, exploding cities and Final GAME OVER sounds and alternating color screens are forever burned into my brain from all those popcorn/koolaid binge nights back in hi-school.
Good Times!
:D
aec007
Intellivision football was great, way ahead of its time. You could program your own plays -- choose a formation, choose a receiver, choose a zone for that receiver to run. That was years before Tecmo Bowl gave you four pre-set plays to choose from.
OsiUmenyiora
@LoverofNewCommentSystem:
Intellivision! The family went through the whole beginning. Odyssey, Atari 2600 and then settled on the Intellivision. One Xmas later my brother and I received the voice module.
Hee Hee. I remember the glee when it belted out "B-17 Bomber!" on the first boot. Tron Solar Sailor was another of the (four?) voice games but it made absolutely no sense at all.
I always liked the little template stickers you could slide into the hand controllers.
Remember the Magnavox Aquarius? Saw one in a pawn shop many moons ago. Their attempt at the computer market which bombed terribly. In fact I think that's one of the first chiclet keyboards (which is what I thought of when seeing the first MacBook with those keyboards).
This is why the early years of computing were so much fun. So many players, operating systems, chipsets, etc. Each with it's own little bit of charisma and insane CEO.
atfphotography
I paid $200 for an original Asteroids cabinet in perfect working order. I had it for 4 years, and when I got married, my wife made me sell it.
Now, I'm divorced, and I miss my Asteroids more than my Ex.
ottermann
Adventure was my fav. Finding all of the Easter eggs was a blast.
FrankenPC
intellivision was sure to get you mocked in my neighborhood. however, we ended up with a colecovision (after our parents refused to buy an atari) and the neighborhood kids LIVED at my house for weeks.
astroglide
I'm not good enough with the new comment system to see if someone's already said this, but wouldn't we all rather see Engadget 69? With lots of grainy video?
dlomax
Ah, memories... I spent untold hours playing Adventure on the Atari VCS.
@robjennings: It was an age where anything that was different was inherently less cool. (And, of course, I mean age like 5-10 years old, not age like "the video game age").
So all you kids with the fancier doohickeys or the programmable whatsidoodles may have thought you were cooler, but what you were was different, and different is scary to a child (or child-like adult). Different didn't become cooler until you went to college. (And even then it depended on what college you went to.)
Personally, I would sneak off to my nerd friends' houses to play their better, less cool systems. But in my house, it was Atari all the way.
I had a simon, wasn't that good at it though. Mine looked exactly like this one
@VenomIreland: It's a hard game. I have an actual Space Invaders Deluxe coin-op and I find it incredibly difficult. I don't think I've made it past the eighth stage of invaders.
robjennings
@92BuickLeSabre: Was it lamer in comparison to the Atari 2600 or the Colecovision? Or both? I've owned all three as a collector but I'm too young to remember popular opinion at the time.
robjennings
@Skeetz: It's their knees, kinda like that one whole "little mermaid" urban legend with the old preist guy.
TurboTexas
@LoverofNewCommentSystem:
I had Inteliivision. My favorite game was B-17 Bomber. We had the optional voicebox, which made that game much cooler.
It was actually a pretty good flight sim when I was a little kid.
glamajamma
@BOING!
RobotVampire
@LoverofNewCommentSystem: You may have been in the minority, but it was an awesome minority. We even had the Intellivision PlayCable, which, believe it or not kids, let us download games from our cable companies to play on our system. In 1982. Before you were born. (well, a lot of you, anyway)
methane
@Nick: Curses, but you should have seen how I shot through my own shields to shoot them while remaining protected!
#8. Oh how i loved Adventure. Well, aside from the goddamn bat that would steal the trophy.
My sisters loved Pitfall, but Adventure was my game of choice. I can't even imagine what it's like for kids with games like World of Warcraft wasn't around back then.
@Skeetz: The gun swiveled in the middle, so that the front part projected the ghosts, and the back part was used to aim and had the trigger. It never worked real well, as you can imagine.
Ah, here it is! "Ghost Gun" it was called.
CSX321
best egame from that period?...redline by kenner..I still have mine...
fastharry
the simon game is crazy similar to google chrome logo
alysonnation
I have an Atari 2600 and an Atari 2600 Jr both in mint condition and quite a few games for it, I am amazed it still works
I played pong at a friend's house when I was around ten or so. His parents had purchased the home version when it first came out. It was kind of fun, but it was short lived.
We got bored and went back to playing TURBOGRAFX 16 after that, which was OMFGAWESOME!!!11 at the time.
@LoverofNewCommentSystem: Intellivision blew Atari out of the water. I only knew a few other kids who had it, but the rest were envious of us because the graphics were that much better and the 16-directional disc offered twice as much control. Not until the PS1 era did games allow that kind of freedom again.
Hell, I learned to play poker--and well--from Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack decades before it was popular.
Squirrelbot3000
@Purple Monkey Dishwasher:
@Nick: Holy crap! You're, like... the 0ne!
i feel sorry for you old timers =/ you had nothing good to play when you were little =[ at least i had a super nintendo which wasnt that bad lol
LinkinPain
"I've seen a million games, and I've ROCKED THEM ALL!"
Bon Jovi!? Is that a feeble attempt to relate or what?
RobotVampire
@LoverofNewCommentSystem: Ha Ha! Intellivision!
The first of many tech products that was probably better and maybe should've been cooler. But, at least in my parts, was most definitely and inexplicably lamer and would absolutely get you made fun of.
Intellivision! Ha!
"You kick my dog?!"
Yeah, he laughed at me.
tok3ninja; is the best non-star commenter
@Duck Hunt Dog killed
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
@Purple Monkey Dishwasher: no, no. put those searches together and you will find some very interesting sites. give it a go.
Nick
@CSX321: So the target is projected from the weapon? You can't miss! That sounds like a game where everybody wins.. I thought that idea only plagued kids of today.
Skeetz
I had intellivision so I was in the minority among my friends. The Basketball game rocked. And I remember playing a Space game with my dad before watching the original BattleStar Galactica with him!
@Geisrud: I guess I should try the keywords "Hunting" and "Dick Cheney" to get to said analog version
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
@VenomIreland: you shot were they were -- you need to shoot where they will be
Nick
SOMEBODY GET THIS FREAKING DUCK AWAY FROM ME!!! Adventure also had the first Easter Egg!
Crenshaw13
@Purple Monkey Dishwasher: It was an analog version that required a real gun and cleaning the birds after you shoot them.
In the mid-to-late-70s I had a game similar to Duck Hunt, but it used a gun to shoot at ghosts that were also projected from the gun. I think it may have been called "Ghost Blaster," but I can't find anything about it using Google.
CSX321
While Adventure was surprisingly fun, you could not be more wrong about Atari Basketball.
Hours and hours were spent trying to get those two little guys around each other at my house.
I hope those are the other "feet" on those basketball players and not what I think it is..
Skeetz
Its sad I actually played with this during my childhood, and I was born in '90. I always seem to be a few generations behind... Oh well, Time to go play some NFL Blitz on the N64.
I must admit, I never knew Duck Hunt existed before the NES. I've been trying to find screenshots or videos of this old version but I still can't find anything. I did run into this though which I really want to play (but probably shouldn't since I'm at work).
Duck Hunt
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
I hate the fuc***g dog in duck hunt. The most annoying SOB ever!
I still love Space Invaders, I also still suck at it.
I didnt get a 2600 until the 5200 came out but i still remember playing it. I beat Ms. Pacman on that console! Asteroids was so cool, I have a clone on my iPhone. For those of you young enough to have missed this, you really missed out.
justsomereportingguy
@Eltigro: I believe that is correct. It's the first documented egg.
FrankenPC
Asteroids is not the first physics based game by any means, or even the first physics based game where you fly in a spaceship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!
TheCrudMan
Simon is still a very popular game. It's called "Guitar Hero".
One other thing that people forget-- the RSI you could get from those old controllers. I'd play Colecovision bowling for a few hours and my thumbs would be paralyzed for a week.
nunyafishness
Ahh... Misty water-color memories, of the way we were... Too bad, I can't be 12 in '79 again. Would have done everything different!
@Jrsy Devil's Food Cake®: Still got my 2600 too, occassionally play it from time to time for shits 'n' giggles.
maximumleo
I still have my Atari 2600. The joysticks are shot though. They suffered from the same crappy design flaw that the Coleco Intellivision controllers had, using a bubble membrane as a contact. The Intellivision controller (for those too young to remember) had these bubble membrane buttons that would eventually loose their shape over extended usage. Eventually even mashing them down no longer worked.
The 2600's joysticks used these same type of contacts inside the joystick housing. They too would eventually wear down making extra work to move objects/characters left, right, up, down, etc. The Raiders of the Lost Ark game was the most susceptible to this at one critical point in the game, which frustrated me to no end..
I recall my father bringing home a Dragon computer that had the games on tape cassettes. I played Circus for hours.
HorseLips12
I am LOVING all this 1979 tech stuff Giz. I was born in '79. Hurray for 30 years ago.
snubmarkman
i still have lovely memories of the constant fights that get started after someone beats the other at home in that basketball game heh
黒天使