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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 traditional computing audiences. Several developments of games 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• August – The initial prototype of Computer Space is tested at a bar called the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park, California.
• 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.

Financial performance

United States

Arcade

Notable releases

Games

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. The following year it was added to Hewlett-Packard’s contributed programming library and became a staple of timeshared computer networks.
• 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.
• 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.

• At Carleton College, students create several graphical games including one replicating pinball on a graphical terminal.

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. Ralph Baer's numbers compiled in April 1976 are mostly estimates without direct access to sales figures.

References

1. Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
2. "Plaintiff's Responses to First Interrogatories to Plaintiffs by Defendant Chicago Dynamic Industries, Inc". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. 1974-08-28. p. 6. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
3. ^ Smith, Alexander (2021-05-12). "Worldly Wednesdays: A Timeline of Computer Space". They Create Worlds. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
4. Baer 2005, p. 62–63.
5. "Trial Transcript". Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. 1976-11-03. pp. 473–474. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
6. Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012). Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-0985597405.
7. Baer 2005, p. 69–70.
8. Smith, Alexander (November 27, 2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry. Vol. 1: 1971 – 1982. CRC Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-138-38990-8.
9. Smith 2019, p. 135.
10. Baer 2005, p. 10.
11. ^ Smith 2019, p. 133.
12. "Star Trek". Games of Fame. 2013-04-28. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
13. Smith 2019, p. 243–244.
14. Rankin, Joy Lisi (2018). A people's history of computing in the United States. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard university press. ISBN 978-0-674-97097-7.
15. Kendall, Mark (2013-06-26). "Putting Bytes into the Old Ball Game". Pomona College Magazine. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
16. Wrede, Jim (1971-05-20). "Games people play". The Carleton: 4.

History of video games

v t e Chronology of video games Early history 1947–1972 1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Near future v t e Video game history by platform By platform Early mainframe games History of arcade video games Golden age Timeline History of video game consoles Crash of 1983 Console war History of mobile games By console generation First (1972–1980) Second (1976–1992) Third (1983–2003) Fourth (1987–2003) Fifth (1993–2005) Sixth (1998–2013) Seventh (2005–2017) Eighth (2012–) Ninth (2020–) v t e Video game genres List of video game genres Action Platformer Endless runner Platform fighter Shooter Arena First-person Hero Light gun Shoot 'em up Bullet hell Rail Twin-stick Tactical Third-person Survival Battle royale Survival horror Other Beat 'em up Hack and slash Fighting Platform fighter Maze Pac-Man clone Snake Stealth Action-adventure Grand Theft Auto clone Metroidvania Adventure Escape room Graphic adventure Interactive fiction Interactive film Visual novel Walking sim Digital tabletop Deck-building Roguelike deck-building Digital collectible card Puzzle Hidden object Sokoban Tile-matching Role-playing Action role-playing Looter shooter Soulslike Dungeon crawl MMORPG Monster-taming Roguelike Roguelike deck-building Tactical role-playing Simulation Life Dating Farming God Social Virtual pet CMS Business City-building Government Sports Fishing Racing Kart racing Sim racing Vehicle Flight simulation Combat Lunar Lander Space Submarine simulator Train simulator Vehicular combat Other Falling-sand Immersive sim Strategy 4X Auto battler MOBA Real-time strategy Time management Real-time tactics Tactical role-playing Tower defense Turn-based strategy Turn-based tactics Artillery Wargame Grand strategy Other genres Cozy Fitness Horror Survival horror Incremental Music Rhythm Non-game Party Photography Programming Typing Related concepts Themes Advergame Bishōjo Christian Comedy Educational Girls Licensed Otome Sexual Eroge Nonviolent Personalized Sci-fi Serious Art Climate change News Player modes Multiplayer Co-op MMO PVP Single-player Production AAA Indie Doujin soft Fan game Design Casual Hypercasual Emergent gameplay FMV Gacha Kaizo Masocore Nonlinear gameplay Open world Sandbox Side-scrolling Twitch gameplay Vertically scrolling Other Minigame Toys-to-life Video game clone Video game modding Video game remake v t e Video games by country Africa Ghana Kenya Nigeria South Africa Americas Latin America Brazil Colombia Canada United States Asia Bangladesh China India Indonesia Iran Japan South Korea Malaysia Philippines Russia Thailand Turkey Europe Belgium Czech Republic Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Poland Russia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand

• 1971 in video gaming
• Video games by year