1974 in video gaming

Events

*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.

cite web
title=–1974–
work= [http://www.icwhen.com/book/ ICWhen.com]
author=Thomas, Donald A. Jr.
year=2005
url=http://www.icwhen.com/book/the_1970s/1974.shtml
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*H.R. "Pete" Kaufman leaves Ramtek to found Exidy, Inc..
*Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. and formally enters the video arcade game market.
*Atari acquires Kee Games as a "marketing ploy." Atari will continue to use the "Kee Games" title as a brand name until 1978.
*Royal Philips Electronics N.V. acquires Magnavox, which becomes "Philips Consumer Electronics."

cite web
author=Kaiser, Robert D.
year=1999
title=The Ultimate Odyssey² and Odyssey³ FAQ
url=http://www.digitpress.com/faq/odyssey2.txt
format=text
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*On 25 March, the United States division of Service Games changes its name to Sega.

Notable releases

*"Play Meter", the first magazine devoted to coin-operated amusements (including arcade games), publishes its first issue.
*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.

cite web
author=Gegan, Shaun and David Winter
year=2003
title=Magnavox Odyssey FAQ version 2.9.1
url=http://www.pong-story.com/o1faq.txt
format=text
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*Prior to their acquisition by Atari, Kee Games releases "Tank" to video arcades.
* Atari releases "Gran Trak 10", the first racing game, to video arcades.

cite web
author=Cassidy, William
year=2003
title=Hall of Fame / Gran Trak 10 and Sprint 2
url=http://www.gamespy.com/articles/488/488750p1.html
work= [http://www.gamespy.com/ GameSpy]
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*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.

cite web
year=2004
title=The Maze War 30 Year Retrospective
url=http://www.digibarn.com/collections/games/xerox-maze-war/index.html
work= [http://www.digibarn.com/ DigiBarn Games]
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
**Jim Bowery develops "Spasim" for the PLATO system. Two versions are release, the first in March and the second in July.

cite web
author=Bowery, Jim
year=2001
title=Spasim (1974) The First First-Person-Shooter 3D Multiplayer Networked Game
url=http://www.geocities.com/jim_bowery/spasim.html
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*Rusty Rutherford develops "pedit5", the first dungeon crawl game, for the PLATO system.

cite web
title=Hack and slash
url=http://www-users.mat.uni.torun.pl/~martacz/index.php?id=hns
accessmonthday=16 February
accessyear=2006

]
*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.

cite web
author=Koster, Raph
year=2002
title=Online World Timeline
url=http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml
work= [http://www.raphkoster.com/ Raph Koster's Website]
date=February 17
accessdate=2006

] . Development continued into 1975; it is unclear at what point the game became playable.

References