1973 in video games explained

1973 saw a substantial increase in the amount of video games created and distributed in multiple sectors. In coin-operated games, a craze for Pong-style games ignited the first fad for video games both in the United States and other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Time-sharing networks saw greater proliferation of popular programs through type-in listings. The PLATO network played host to some of the earliest massively multiplayer games.

Events

• January – Pong is licensed to Midway Mfg, subsidiary of Bally, for release as Winner (1973).
• April – Atari Inc. launches Pong nationally to distributors of coin-operated games across the United States.^[1]
• August 26–28 – The fourth U.S. American Computer Chess Championship is held in Atlanta, Georgia. It is won by Northwestern University's Chess 3.5 running on a CDC 6400 computer, successor to the undefeated champion from the prior three years.^{[2] [3]}
• September – The Japanese Amusement Association show is held in Tokyo. The company Kansai Seiki displays the prototype game Playtron, among the first games utilizing color graphics – though it is never released.^{[4] [5]}
• November 9–11 – The Music Operators of America show is held in Chicago, IL. Over a dozen companies exhibit video games at the show, almost all clones or variants of Pong.^[6]

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Total Cabinet Unit Sales: 50,000-70,000 units.^{[7] [8]}

Total Revenue (machine sales): $20 million-$77 million.

Title	Arcade cabinet units (Estimates)	Manufacturer	Developer	Genre
Paddle Battle	17,000	Allied Leisure Industries	Universal Research Laboratories	Sports
Pro Tennis	7,000^[9]	Williams Electronics	Magnetic Corporation of America	Sports
Winner	7,000^[10]	Midway Manufacturing	Atari Inc.	Sports
Tennis Tourney	5,000	Allied Leisure Industries	Universal Research Laboratories	Sports
Super Soccer	5,000	Allied Leisure Industries	Universal Research Laboratories	Sports
TV Ping Pong	3,300^[11]	Ramtek Corporation	Ramtek Corporation	Sports
Gotcha	3,000	Atari Inc.	Atari Inc.	Maze
Asteroid	2,000	Midway Manufacturing	Atari Inc.	Racing
Hockey	2,000	Ramtek Corporation	Ramtek Corporation	Sports
Space Race	1,500	Atari Inc.	Atari Inc.	Racing
TV Tennis	1,0005,000	Chicago Coin	Chicago Coin	Sports
Volly	1,000	Ramtek Corporation	Ramtek Corporation	Sports
Olympic TV Hockey/Olympic TV Football	7501,000	Chicago Coin	Chicago Coin	Sports
Elimination!	500	Kee Games	Atari Inc.	Sports
Pong Doubles	500	Atari Inc.	Atari Inc.	Sports

Home consoles

Total Revenue (retail): $4.6 million.^[12]

Notable releases

Publications

• July – 101 BASIC Computer Games, edited and compiled by David Ahl, is published by Digital Equipment Corporation. The publication is vital in the dissemination of influential mainframe games like Hamurabi, Star Trek, and Lunar Landing variants.

Arcade

• March – Volly by Ramtek Corp, Rally by For-Play Manufacturing, and Paddle Battle by Allied Leisure are released in the United States, among the first clones of Pong.
• April – Ping-Pong by Alca Electronics is released in the UK as the first European coin-op video game.^[15]
• July – Sega releases Pong-Tron and Taito releases Elepong, the first two video games produced for the coin-operated games market in Japan.
  • Atari Inc. releases Space Race, a combination of a racing game and obstacle avoidance.^[16]
• August – Tennis Tourney by Allied Leisure is released, the first four-player variant of Pong.
• September – Gotcha is released by Atari, a game featuring characters in a maze.^[17] The game is notable for its low-production variant, Color Gotcha, which may be the first commercially-released video game utilizing color graphics.^[18]
• October – Elimination! is released by Kee Games, a ball-and-paddle game featuring up to four people in an elimination-style contest. Atari's version is released as Quadrapong.
• December – Nutting Associates releases the ball-and-paddle game Wimbledon, among the first color games.^[19]

Mainframe

• February 25 – Jack Burness completes Moonlander, a graphical version of the Lunar Lander game concept for the DEC GT-40 intelligent terminal. His version features the first overworld map and the first Easter egg in a video game.^[20]
• May – Hunt the Wumpus by Gregory Yob is first distributed on paper tape by the People’s Computer Company newsletter.^[21]
  • Empire by John Daleske of Iowa State University is released on the PLATO IV, a game featuring trading and resource management elements with up to eight players.^[22]
• August – Empire II is released to PLATO by John Daleske and Silas Warner. This version evolved into an arena combat shooting game featuring fifty simultaneous players on any of eight teams.^[23]
• Lemonade Stand is developed for the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium.

Console

• Magnavox releases the games Interplanetary Voyage, Basketball, W.I.N., and Brain Wave for the Odyssey at retail. Previously they had provided the game Percepts to customers who returned their survey card, but these were the first commercial releases of console games separate from the hardware.^[24]
• Official test markets for the Odyssey outside of North America begin.

Business

• March 19 – Konami Industry Co., Ltd. is formerly incorporated in Japan by Kagemasa Kōzuki, Yoshinobu Naka, Tatsuo Miyasako.^[25]
• May – The company Hudson is established in Sapporo, Japan as the business arm of the radio shop CQ Hudson. The company later changed its name to Hudson Soft when it began selling computers and associated software.^{[26] [27]}
• August – Atari opens their Atari Japan subsidiary to import games for the domestic market.^[28]
• September 25 – Kee Games Inc. is founded in California. The company is majority owned by the principals of Atari but is presented as a competitor.
• October 19 – Exidy Inc. is founded by former Ramtek engineer Pete Kauffman and Samuel Hawes. Their first product was a Pong clone.
• Taito Co Ltd. – in the business of coin-operated amusements as well as general import and export – opens its office Taito America in Illinois, the first Japanese company involved with video games to open an American office.^[29]
• The toy company Nintendo Co. Ltd. establishes the label Nintendo Leisure System to release coin-operated games, starting with the electro-mechanical Laser Clay Shooting Range.
• Videomaster of the UK is established to distribute coin-operated Pong games throughout the nation.^[30]

Notes

1. 1973-04-07 . PONG Into National Distribution; Success for Atari, Inc. . Cash Box . 34 . 40 . 104.
2. News: 1973-08-17 . Computer against computer in chess match . The Daily Herald . Section 2, 2.
3. News: Kenny Jr. . Herbert . 1973-09-30 . Computer conquer space, but not Bobby Fischer . The Boston Globe . A-24.
4. Book: Akagi . Masumi . Soreha "Pon" Kara Hajimatta - Ākēdo TV Gēmu no Naritachi . Amusement News Agency . 2005 . 978-4990251208 . 89 . ja:それは「ポン」から始まった-アーケードTVゲームの成り立ち . In the Beginning, There was "Pong" - The Origins of Arcade TV Games.
5. Web site: shmuplations . 2021-12-29 . Kasco and the Electro-Mechanical Golden Age - shmuplations.com . 2024-07-21 . en-US.
6. 1973-11-24 . Focus on MOA's 25th Anniversary Expo . Cash Box . 35 . 21 . 50-51.
7. Cole . Bernard C. . 1974-06-27 . A whole new game . Electronics . 69-70.
8. Book: The Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market . Frost & Sullivan Inc. . 1976 .
9. Book: Baer . Ralph H. . Ralph H. Baer . Videogames: In the Beginning . 2005 . Rolenta Press . 978-0-9643848-1-1 .
10. Jarrell . Timothy . November 1976 . Like Old Man River Midway Sales Go Rollin' Along . Play Meter . 2 . 12 . 50.
11. News: Neven . John F. . 1977-07-11 . Notice of Motion . 22 March 2024 . Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. . US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
12. Book: The Electronic Games Market in the U.S. . 1983 . Frost & Sullivan Inc..
13. 1974-05-13 . Magnavox will drop . Weekly Television Digest with Consumer Electronics . 14 . 19 . 9.
14. Book: Baer . Ralph H. . Ralph H. Baer . Videogames: In the Beginning . 2005 . Rolenta Press . 978-0-9643848-1-1 .
15. Book: Meades, Alan F. . Arcade Britannia: a social history of the British amusement arcade . 2022 . The MIT Press . 978-0-262-37235-0 . Game Histories / edited by Henry Lowood and Raiford Guins . Cambridge, Massachusetts.
16. 1973-07-21 . Atari Bows 'SPACE RACE' . Cash Box . 35 . 3 . 39.
17. 1973-09-29 . Atari Ships 'Pong Doubles' & 'Gotcha' . Cash Box . 35 . 13 . 54.
18. Web site: Fries . Ed . 2016-05-25 . Fixing Color Gotcha . 2024-07-24 . en.
19. 1973-12-08 . Nutting Industries Ships Color Tennis TV . Cash Box . 35 . 23 . 44.
20. Web site: Willaert . "Critical Kate" . 2021-04-11 . Moonlander: One Giant Leap For Game Design . 2024-07-24 . A Critical Hit! . en-US.
21. May 1973 . Lost in the Caves . People's Computer Company . 1 . 5 . 4.
22. Web site: Daleske . John . PLATO Empire - Empire 1 . 2024-07-24 . www.daleske.com.
23. Web site: Daleske . John . PLATO Empire - Empire 2 - Tactics . 2024-07-24 . www.daleske.com.
24. Web site: Willaert . "Critical Kate" . 2020-02-09 . Box Art History #1: The First Video Games In Boxes Were For Magnavox's Odyssey . 2024-07-24 . A Critical Hit! . en-US.
25. Web site: Corporate Info / Corporate History . Konami . February 15, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060210122851/http://www.konami.co.jp/en/corporate/data/index.html . February 10, 2006 . dead .
26. Book: Carlston, Douglas G. . Software people: an insider's look at the personal computer software industry . 1985 . Computer Book Division, Simon & Schuster . 978-0-671-50971-2 . New York.
27. Web site: Corporate Info. / History . https://web.archive.org/web/20051124135835/http://www.hudson.co.jp/corp/eng/coinfo/history.html . November 24, 2005 . February 15, 2006 . Hudson.
28. Book: Goldberg, Marty . Atari Inc.: Business is Fun . Vendel . Curt . Syzygy Press . 2012 . 978-0985597405.
29. 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.
30. News: Eglin . Roger . 1977-06-26 . Big shots with a small screen . Sunday Times . 63.

See also

• 1973 in games