Notable events of 1981 in computer and video games. See also history of computer and video games. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... see also: 1980 in games, 1982 in games Games Released or Invented in 1981 A House Divided Call of Cthulhu Car Wars Wings Game awards given in 1981 Spiel des Jahres: Focus - Sid Sackson, Parker See also 1981 in video gaming Categories: Game stubs | 1981 ... 1980 1980 in games 1979 in video gaming 1981 in video gaming Notable events of 1980 in computer and video games. ... 1982 1982 in games 1981 in video gaming 1983 in video gaming Notable events of 1982 in computer and video games. ... Although the history of computer and video games spans almost five decades, computer and video games themselves did not become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s. ...

Events

• November -
  • - The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games (C&VG) starts.
  • - Game & Watch - released in Sweden.

• Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.

Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Cover of C&VG from 1991 Computer And Video Games (C&VG) was a video game magazine in the United Kingdom, published monthly between November 1981 and 2004. ... Fire, 1981. ... Electronic Games was the first video game magazine published in the united states and ran from 1981 to 1985. ...

Notable releases

• Bally/Midway releases the Gorf arcade game
• Sega releases the Frogger video game, which was developed by Konami
• Namco releases the Galaga arcade game
• Nelsonic releases the Space Attacker watch LCD game
• Nintendo releases Shigeru Miyamoto's Donkey Kong arcade game
• Williams Electronics releases Eugene Jarvis's Stargate arcade game
• IBM and Microsoft include the game DONKEY.BAS with the IBM PC, arguably the first IBM PC compatible game.
• Ultima and Wizardry are released, starting two of the most successful lines of CRPGs.

Bally (with its distinctive Rolling Ball logo) Bally (originally the Bally Manufacturing Corporation) is an American corporation. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) is a video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Spy Hunter. ... Gorf is an arcade game, released in 1981 by Midway Games. ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah (IPA: seɪ.gə) in the U.S, see-gah (IPA: siː.gə) elsewhere) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Frogger is a 1981 arcade game licensed for U.S. distribution by Sega/Gremlin, and developed by Konami. ... Konami Corporation (コナミ) TYO: 9766 (NYSE: KNM) (SGX: K20) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling computer and video games. ... Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ... Galaga is an arcade game created and released by Namco on July 20, 1981. ... Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂, ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is an international company originally founded in Japan on November 6, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... Shigeru Miyamoto with his creations- Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong stuffed toys Shigeru Miyamoto (Japanese: 宮本茂, Miyamoto Shigeru, born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese electronic game designer. ... Donkey Kong (J: ドンキーコング) is an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in 1981. ... Williams is a long-standing electronic gaming and amusement company based in Chicago, Illinois. ... Eugene Jarvis (born 1955) is a game designer and programmer, producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. ... This article is about the 1980s Stargate video game. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services and consulting services. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEx: 4338) is the worlds largest software company, with 2005 global annual sales of almost $40 billion USD and nearly 60,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. ... Donkey, often known by its file name DONKEY.BAS, was a computer game written in 1981 and included with early versions of the PC-DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a driving game in which the player must avoid hitting donkeys. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... Ultima I (1986 re-release) on the Commodore 64 Ultima, later known as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness or simply Ultima I, is the first game in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games and was published by California Pacific Computer Co. ... Wizardry is a series of computer role-playing games that were popular in the 1980s. ... Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally uses gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. ...

Hardware

• Astrovision Inc. distributes the Bally Computer System after buying the rights from Bally/Midway
• Coleco Industries releases the Total Control 4 home console
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore VIC-20 home computer
• SEGA test markets the SG-1000 home console in Japan
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX81 home computer, the first widely available 'domestic' computer to play games in the UK. Shortly, J.K. Greye Software publishes 3D Monster Maze written by Malcolm Evans – the first computer game featuring real-time 3D graphics without using specialized vector graphics hardware.

Bally (with its distinctive Rolling Ball logo) Bally (originally the Bally Manufacturing Corporation) is an American corporation. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) is a video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Spy Hunter. ... Coleco was a company founded in 1932 by Maurice R. Greenberg as Connecticut Leather Company to sell leather supplies to shoemakers. ... Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, an electronics company who was a major player in the 1980s home computer field. ... VIC-20 with accessories. ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah (IPA: seɪ.gÉ™) in the U.S, see-gah (IPA: siː.gÉ™) elsewhere) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... The SG-1000 console, with box The SG-1000, which stands for Sega Game 1000, was a cartridge-based video game console manufactured by Sega. ... Sinclair Research Ltd was a home computer company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England. ... The Sinclair ZX81 home computer, released by Sinclair Research in 1981, was the followup to the companys ZX80. ... 3D Monster Maze is a computer game produced by J.K. Greye for the Sinclair ZX81 platform (16KB memory expansion required), published in 1981 by M.E. Evans. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Steam Locomotive 7646 as a vector, originally Windows Metafile (converted to GIF for display here). ...

Business

• APF Electronics Inc. goes defunct