1972 saw the release of the first commercially successful video arcade game, '' Pong'', and the first video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

Events

*'' Pong'' was the first commercially successful video arcade game. It was first displayed in a prototype cabinet in a bar, Andy Capp's Tavern. *Following the poor sales of ''

Computer Space ''Computer Space'' is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game as well as the first commercially available video game. ''Comput ...

'', Nolan Bushnell leaves Nutting Associates to move his coin-op engineering and design firm with Ted Dabney in to a full-fledged company. When officially incorporating, Bushnell discovers that a roofing company had already been using their name (Syzygy). In its place, the new corporation is named "

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

". *May 24 – Magnavox unveils the Magnavox Odyssey, the first video game console, at a

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its numerous eucalyp ...

convention. Nutting Associates, manufacturer of ''Computer Space'', sends Nolan Bushnell to observe the launch. Bushnell reports back that he found the device underwhelming, and expresses no concern over the competition.

Best-selling arcade video games

The following titles were the best-selling arcade video games of 1972 in the United States, according to annual

arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

sales figures provided by

Ralph H. Baer Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer. Baer's family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gain ...

Notable releases

Video game consoles

* September – Magnavox begins to sell the Magnavox Odyssey through its own retail stores. * November 29 – Atari releases its first

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

, Allan Alcorn's Pong.

Games

* Gregory Yob programs '' Hunt the Wumpus'', an early progenitor of the

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

genre, in

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

for

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

s. * Don Daglow programs ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' on a PDP-10 mainframe computer at Pomona College. Note that this is a different game from the '' Star Trek game of 1971'' * ''Civilization'' (not related to the Sid Meier '' Civilization'' games) written on the

HP2000 The HP 2100 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers that were produced by Hewlett-Packard (HP) from the mid-1960s to early 1990s. Tens of thousands of machines in the series were sold over its twenty-five year lifetime, making HP the fourth largest mi ...

minicomputer at Evergreen State College. A rewrite of this game would come be to known as ''Empire'' Classic.

References