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1975 in video games

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List of years in video games
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1975 had new titles such as Western Gun, Dungeon and dnd. The year's best-selling arcade game was Taito's Speed Race, released as Wheels and Wheels II in North America.

Financial performance in the United States

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The "paddle game" trend came to an end in arcades around 1975, with the arcade video game industry entering a period of stagnation in the "post paddle game era" over the next several years up until 1977.[1]

Best-selling arcade games

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The following titles were the best-selling arcade video games of 1975 in the United States, according to annual arcade cabinet sales figures provided by Ralph H. Baer.[2]

Rank Title Arcade cabinet sales Developer Manufacturer Genre
1 Wheels / Wheels II (Speed Race) 10,000 Taito Midway Manufacturing Racing
2 Tank / Tank II 6,000 Kee Games Kee Games Maze
3 Flim-Flam 4,000 Meadows Games Meadows Games Pong
Gran Trak 20 4,000 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Racing
5 PT-109 1,500 Mirco Games Mirco Games Shooter
6 Avenger 1,000 Electra Games Electra Games
7 Crash 'N Score 500 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Driving
Gun Fight (Western Gun) 500 Taito Midway Manufacturing Shooter
Jet Fighter 500 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc.
Shark Jaws 500 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Action
Steeplechase 500 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Racing

Highest-grossing arcade games

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In the United States, RePlay magazine published the first annual chart of top-grossing arcade games in March 1976, listing both video games and electro-mechanical games (EM games) on the same chart for the previous year. The following were the highest-grossing arcade games of the previous year, in terms of coin drop earnings.[3]

Rank Arcade video games Arcade electro-mechanical games (EM games)
Title Overall rank Genre Title Overall rank Genre
1 Tank / Tank II 1 Maze Super Shifter 4 Racing
2 Wheels / Wheels II (Speed Race) 2 Racing Air Hockey 6 Air hockey
3 Gun Fight (Western Gun) 3 Shooter Wizard 7 Pinball
4 Indy 800 5 Racing Skee Ball 9 Skee-Ball
5 Gran Trak 10 / Gran Trak 20 8 Racing F-114 10 Shooter
6 Twin Racer 11 Racing OXO 15 Pinball
7 BiPlane 12 Shooter Rifle Range 16 Gun
8 Racer (Speed Race) 13 Racing Crown Basketball 18 Sports
9 Demolition Derby 14 Racing Amigo 19 Pinball
10 Street Burners 17 Racing Grand Prix 20 Racing

Events

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Business

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Notable releases

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Video game consoles

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Games

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  • dnd, the first video game to include a boss, and arguably the first computer role-playing game, wrapped up initial development. Some sources list the game as 1974; it is unclear exactly when it became playable.
  • Nürburgring 1, the first first-person racing game, was developed in Germany by Dr. Reiner Foerst.[22][23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Special Report: Tom Petit (Sega Enterprises)". RePlay. Vol. 16, no. 4. January 1991. pp. 80, 82.
  2. ^ Baer, Ralph H. (2005). Videogames: In the Beginning. Rolenta Press. pp. 10–3. ISBN 978-0-9643848-1-1.
  3. ^ "The Nation's Top Arcade Games". RePlay. March 1976.
  4. ^ a b Winter, David (2006). "Magnavox Odyssey: The first home video game console". pong-story.com. Archived from the original on February 21, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  5. ^ "pongmuseum.com - Newsblog". pongmuseum.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  6. ^ "SEGA (image file)". static.wikia.nocookie.net. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  7. ^ "SEGA (image)". static.wikia.nocookie.net. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  8. ^ Martin Picard, The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Early Japanese video games Archived June 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, International Journal of Computer Game Research, 2013
  9. ^ KCTS-TV. "History of Gaming / Interactive Timeline of Game History". PBS. Archived from the original on February 18, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  10. ^ "The Golden Age Arcade Historian: Video Game Firsts??". November 22, 2013. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  11. ^ Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, p. 197, Focal Press, ISBN 0-240-81146-1
  12. ^ Thomas, Donald A. Jr. (2005). "–1975–". Archived from the original on March 12, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  13. ^ Cassidy, William (May 6, 2002). "Gun Fight". GameSpy. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  14. ^ Shirley R. Steinberg (2010), Shirley R. Steinberg; Michael Kehler; Lindsay Cornish (eds.), Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, p. 451, ISBN 978-0-313-35080-1, retrieved April 2, 2011
  15. ^ Stephen Totilo (August 31, 2010). "In Search Of The First Video Game Gun". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  16. ^ Western Gun at the Killer List of Videogames
  17. ^ Bousiges, Alexis (2005). "Gun Fight". Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  18. ^ "Western Gun". Emulation Status. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved February 19, 2006.
  19. ^ Maragos, Nich (2004). "Talking: Don Daglow". Archived from the original on October 13, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  20. ^ Adams, Rick. "A history of 'Adventure'". Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  21. ^ Rusty Rutherford. "The Creation of PEDIT5". Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
  22. ^ Torchinsky, Jason. "Meet The Doctor-Engineer Who Basically Invented The Modern Racing Game". Jalopnik. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  23. ^ Oliver, Christian. "Reiner Foerst's Nürburgring - The world first 3D arcade car race game, made in Germany!". weltenschule.de. Archived from the original on February 13, 2021. Retrieved July 30, 2017.