1974 in video gaming
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Events

Maze War, one of the earliest first-person shooters, was ported to a number of computer systems. The above image was created from a version of the game written for the Xerox Star 8010 in 1985.

• The number of copies of Pong (or commercial clones of PONG) exceeds 100,000 units. Approximately 10,000 of these units were manufactured by Atari, the original developer of the title.¹
• H.R. "Pete" Kaufman leaves Ramtek to found Exidy, Inc..¹
• Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. and formally enters the video arcade game market.¹
• Atari acquires Kee Games as a "marketing ploy." Atari will continue to use the "Kee Games" title as a brand name until 1978.¹
• Royal Philips Electronics N.V. acquires Magnavox, which becomes "Philips Consumer Electronics."²
• On 25 March, the United States division of Service Games changes its name to Sega.¹

Notable releases

• Play Meter, the first magazine devoted to coin-operated amusements (including arcade games), publishes its first issue.¹
• Magnavox reissues the Odyssey and releases it in Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela.³
• Prior to their acquisition by Atari, Kee Games releases Tank to video arcades.¹
• Atari releases Gran Trak 10, the first racing game, to video arcades.⁴
• The earliest first-person shooter video games are released:
  • Steve Colley, Howard Palmer, and Greg Johnson develop Maze War on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.⁵
  • Jim Bowery develops Spasim for the PLATO system. Two versions are release, the first in March and the second in July.⁶
• Rusty Rutherford develops pedit5, the first dungeon crawl game, for the PLATO system.⁷
• Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood develop dnd, the first game with a Boss, and arguably the first computer role-playing game, for the PLATO system.⁸. Development continued into 1975; it is unclear at what point the game became playable.

References