1982 in video games

Financial performance

• The US arcade video game market is worth $4.3 billion, equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation.
• The US home video game market is worth $3.8 billion, equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation.
• The Japanese home video game market is approaching ¥300 billion, equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation.

Japan

United States

Best-selling home video games

Events

• September 25 - The first animated adaptation of a video game, Hanna-Barbera's Pac-Man cartoon, begins airing on ABC.
• December 27 – Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.

Major awards

Business

• Eidansha Boshu Service Center shortens its name to Enix and in August establishes itself as a computer game publisher.
• New companies:
• *Argonaut
• *Artech
• *Compile
• *Cosmi
• *Data Age
• *Distinctive Software
• *Dragon Data
• *Electronic Arts
• *English Software
• *First Star Software
• *Gamestar
• *Imagine Software
• *Llamasoft
• *Lucasfilm Games
• *Martech
• *MicroProse
• *Richard Shepherd Software
• *System 3
• *Ultimate Play the Game
• *U.S. Games

Notable releases

Games

Arcade

• January – Sega releases Zaxxon, which introduces isometric graphics and looks far more 3D than any other raster game at the time.
• January 13 – Midway releases Ms. Pac-Man ; it is the sequel to Pac-Man, but was created without Namco's authorization. They also release Baby Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus without Namco's authorization later in the year; the former is a pinball/video game hybrid.
• February — Exidy releases Victory (video game)
• April 19 – Namco releases Dig Dug, manufactured by Atari in North America.
• August – Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Jr., the sequel to Donkey Kong.
• August – Taito releases parallax scroller Jungle Hunt.
• September 24 – Namco releases Pole Position, one of the first games with stereophonic and quadraphonic sound. Featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person, rear-view perspective, it becomes the most popular racing game of its time.
• September – Sega releases maze game Pengo, starring a cute penguin.
• October – Namco releases Super Pac-Man, the third title in the Pac-Man series.
• October – Universal releases Mr. Do! solely as a conversion kit, the first game in the series.
• October – Gottlieb releases Q*bert.
• November – Konami releases Time Pilot.
• Bally/Midway releases the Tron arcade game before the movie.
• Atari releases Gravitar which, though extraordinarily difficult, inspires a number of gravity-based home computer games.
• Williams Electronics releases Joust, Robotron: 2084, and the second game of the year with parallax scrolling, Irem's Moon Patrol. Robotron popularizes the twin-stick control scheme for fast action games.
• Data East releases BurgerTime.
• Taito releases Front Line, which creates the blueprint for mid-80s, vertically scrolling, commando games.
• Electro Sport releases Quarter Horse, the first Laserdisc video game.Kangaroo is one of the first Donkey Kong-inspired games to become popular in arcades.
• Gottlieb releases Reactor.

Console

• February – Atari releases Haunted House for the 2600, which is later considered one of the first survival horror games.
• March – Atari's Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man hits stores.
• April – Activision releases Pitfall!, which goes on to sell 4 million copies.
• May – Atari releases Yars' Revenge.
• August – Overlooked arcade games are revitalized as ColecoVision launch titles, including Cosmic Avenger, Mouse Trap, Lady Bug, and Venture.
• October – Atari releases Swordquest: Earthworld, the first title in a planned four-game contest.
• December – Atari releases E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Written in five and a half weeks, it's one of the games that sparks the video game crash of 1983.
• Activision releases River Raid, Megamania, Barnstorming, Chopper Command, and Starmaster for the Atari 2600. River Raid becomes one of the all-time bestselling games for the system.
• Starpath releases Dragonstomper and Escape From the Mindmaster.
• Parker Brothers releases Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600, which is the first Star Wars video game.
• Imagic releases Demon Attack, Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, and Dragonfire for the 2600. Atlantis sells over a million copies while Demon Attack doubles that.

Computer

• March 11 – Infocom releases their first non-Zork title, Deadline.
• August 24 – Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress is released.
• November – Microsoft Flight Simulator is released for the IBM Personal Computer. It becomes a standard compatibility test for IBM PC compatibles and launches a long-running series.
• Big Five Software releases the widely ported Miner 2049er, a platform game with ten screens compared to the four of Donkey Kong.
• Broderbund releases Choplifter for the Apple II.
• Edu-Ware releases Prisoner 2 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, and IBM PC compatibles.
• Koei releases The Dragon and Princess, the earliest known Japanese RPG, for NEC's PC-8001 home computer platform. It is an early example of tactical turn-based combat in the RPG genre.
• Koei releases Night Life, the first erotic computer game. The company also released the erotic title, Seduction of the Condominium Wife, which was an early role-playing adventure game with color graphics, owing to the eight-color palette of the PC-8001 computer. It became a hit, helping Koei become a major software company.
• Pony Canyon releases Spy Daisakusen, another early Japanese RPG. Based on the Mission: Impossible franchise, it replaces the traditional fantasy setting with a modern espionage setting.
• Sir-Tech releases Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, the second scenario in the Wizardry series.
• Sierra On-Line releases Time Zone for the Apple II. Written and directed by Roberta Williams, the graphical adventure game shipped with 6 double-sided floppy disks and cost US$99.
• Synapse releases Necromancer and Shamus for the Atari 8-bit computers.
• Hiroyuki Imabayashi's Sokoban is released for the PC-88 and becomes an oft-cloned puzzle game concept.
• Datamost releases the action/adventure game Aztec for the Apple II.The Arcade Machine from Broderbund is one of the first general-purpose game creation kits.

Hardware

Arcade

• January – Sega releases the Sega Zaxxon, an arcade system board that introduces isometric graphics.
• September – Namco releases the Namco Pole Position, the first arcade system board to use 16-bit microprocessors, with two Zilog Z8002 processors. It is capable of pseudo-3D, sprite-scaling, and displays up to 3840 colors.

Console

• May – Emerson releases the Arcadia 2001.
• August – Starpath releases the Starpath Supercharger add-on for the Atari 2600
• August – Coleco launches ColecoVision in North America, the first console with versions of Donkey Kong and Sega's isometric Zaxxon.
• November – General Consumer Electronics releases the Vectrex with built-in vector monitor.
• November – Atari renames the venerable Atari Video Computer System to the Atari 2600.
• Atari releases the Atari 5200, a console based on the hardware of Atari 8-bit computers with analog joysticks and no keyboard.
• Entex releases the Adventure Vision tabletop console.

Computer

• July – Timex Sinclair releases a modified ZX81 in the US as the TS1000. It's the first sub-$100 home computer.
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore 64 home computer, which would become one of the best-selling computers of all time.
• NEC releases the NEC PC-98, which would become the Japanese market leader and one of the best-selling computers of all time. It is released as the APC overseas.
• Sharp releases the X1.
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX Spectrum home computer, which would become Britain's best-selling computer.
• Dragon Data, initially a subsidiary of Mettoy, releases the Dragon 32 home microcomputer.