1971 in video games explained

1971 is the first year of the commercial video game industry with the release of Computer Space by Nutting Associates and Galaxy Game by Mini-Computer Applications. The majority of digital games remained on mainframe computers and time-sharing networks, while an increasing number were demonstrated outside of computing audiences. Several developments of games which are later commercialized including Oregon Trail and the Magnavox Odyssey console are first publicly tested in this period.

Events

• March 11 – A preliminary agreement is signed between Magnavox and Sanders Associates to license the patents by Ralph Baer and William Rusch for the technology of the Brown Box home video game prototype. Magnavox would begin development on a product based on this technology, initially dubbed Skill-O-Vision.^{[1] [2]}
• Spring – Nolan Bushnell establishes contact with coin-op game manufacturer Nutting Associates. He joins the company as chief engineer with an agreement to separately license the game and technology developed by himself and Ted Dabney to be manufactured by the company.^[3]
• July 26-30 – Magnavox initiates its first test market of its home video game system in Grand Rapids, Michigan at their authorized dealer Williams Magnavox Home Entertainment Center at the Eastbrook Mall.^[4]
• August – The initial prototype of Computer Space is tested at a bar called the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park, California.^[5]
• August 2-4 – The second U.S. Computer Chess Championship is held in Chicago. The winner of the previous competition, Chess 3.0, wins for a second year.
• October – A second test market of the Magnavox home video game is held in Los Angeles at three stores under product manager Robert Fritsche.
• October 15-17 – Computer Space is shown at the Music Operators of America show in Chicago, Illinois by Nutting Associates. Though the game attracts some notice, distributors do not place any orders for the game.^[6]

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Title	Arcade cabinet units (Estimates)	Manufacturer	Developer	Genre
Computer Space	1,300-1,500200	Nutting Associates	Syzygy Engineering	Multidirectional shooter
Galaxy Game	2^[7]	Mini-Computer Applications	Mini-Computer Applications	Multidirectional shooter

Notable releases

Arcade

• Late November – The first prototype of Galaxy Game is placed on location at the Stanford University Tressider Union by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck, operating under the name Minicomputer Applications. The initial version enables one on one player at one dime per play or three players for a quarter.
• November or December – Computer Space by Nutting Associates ships, becoming the first commercially-available coin-operated video game.

Computer

• Summer – High school student Mike Mayfield developers the game Star Trek in BASIC on an SDS Sigma 7 at University of California at Berkeley. It remained relatively unknown until it was ported the following year to Hewlett-Packard’s contributed programming library.^{[8] [9]}
• December 3 – The program OREGON is showcased to students of student teacher Don Rawitsch at Jordan Junior High in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It had been earlier tested by the students of Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann at Bryant Junior High.^[10]
• University of California Pomona student Don Daglow writes two games for the PDP-10 computer, one called Baseball and another called Star Trek. He would later become a prominent game designer and producer.^[11]
• At Carleton College, students create several graphical games including one replicating pinball on a graphical terminal.^[12]

Business

• January – The legal partnership between Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney is formalized as the Syzygy Company. Their name on the cabinet of Computer Space is rendered as “Syzygy Engineering.”
• September 4 – Ramtek Corporation, one of the first companies involved with coin-operated video games, is founded to produce graphical terminals.

See also

• Early history of video games
• 1971 in games

Notes

1. Book: Baer . Ralph H. . Ralph H. Baer . Videogames: In the Beginning . 2005 . Rolenta Press . 978-0-9643848-1-1 .
2. News: 1974-08-28 . Plaintiff's Responses to First Interrogatories to Plaintiffs by Defendant Chicago Dynamic Industries, Inc. . 22 March 2024 . Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. . 6 . US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
3. Web site: Smith . Alexander . 2021-05-12 . Worldly Wednesdays: A Timeline of Computer Space . 2024-03-23 . They Create Worlds . en.
4. News: 1976-11-03 . Trial Transcript . 22 March 2024 . Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. . 473-474 . US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
5. Book: Goldberg, Marty . Atari Inc.: Business is Fun . Vendel . Curt . Syzygy Press . 2012 . 978-0985597405.
6. Book: Smith, Alexander . They create worlds: the story of the people and companies that shaped the video game industry . 2020 . CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group . 978-0-429-42364-2 . Boca Raton.
7. Book: Smith, Alexander . They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry . . 2019 . 9781138389908 . 1 . 132 . en . refSmith2019.
8. Web site: 2013-04-28 . Star Trek . 2024-03-23 . Games of Fame . en.
9. Book: Bunch, Kevin . Atari Archive Vol. I . . 2023 . 978-1955183215 . en.
10. Book: Rankin, Joy Lisi . A people's history of computing in the United States . 2018 . Harvard university press . 978-0-674-97097-7 . Cambridge, Mass.
11. Web site: Kendall . Mark . 2013-06-26 . Putting Bytes into the Old Ball Game . 2024-03-23 . Pomona College Magazine . en-US.
12. Wrede . Jim . 1971-05-20 . Games people play . The Carleton . 4.