1971 in video gaming

Events

*On 22 March, Ralph Baer files with the United States Patent and Trademark Office regarding a patent for "television gaming and training apparatus."

cite web
url=http://www.thocp.net/software/games/golden_age.htm
author=Stahl, Ted (ed.)
year=2005
title=Chronology of the History of Video Games / Golden Age
work= [http://www.thocp.net/ The History of Computing Project]
accessmonthday=15 February
accessyear=2006

]
*In June, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck form Computer Recreations, Inc.

cite web
url=http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/galaxy.html
title=The Galaxy Game
year=2006
work= [http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum.html Computer History Exhibits]
accessmonthday=26 August
accessyear=2006

]
*Magnavox signs a license agreement with Sanders Associates regarding the Odyssey video game console.

cite web
url=http://www.thedoteaters.com/stage1.php
title=Player 1 Stage 1: Bits From the Primordial Ooze
author=Hunter, William
year=2005
work= [http://www.thedoteaters.com/ The Dot Eaters]
accessmonthday=24 August
accessyear=2006

]
*Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd. adopts "Namco" as a brand name.

cite web
title=Namco History (English summary)
year=2001
url=http://www.namco.co.jp/eg/history.html
work= [http://www.namco.com/ NAMCO WonderPage]
accessmonthday=15 February
accessyear=2006

]

Notable releases

*In September, Computer Recreations, Inc. installs "Galaxy Game", a version of "Spacewar!" for PDP-11 hardware and the first coin-operated video arcade game, in Tresidder Union at Stanford University.
*In November, Nutting Associates releases 1,500 cabinets of Nolan Bushnell's "Computer Space" — another free-standing implementation of "Spacewar!", and the first commercially released video game in the arcades.
*Don Rawitsch, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, students at Carleton College develop "The Oregon Trail" for a mainframe with teletype terminals.

cite web
url=http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/greatestgames/p-34.html
author=GameSpot Editorial Team
title=The Greatest Games of All Time / Jimmy Has Dysentery
work= [http://www.gamespot.com/ GameSpot]
year=2004
accessmonthday=15 February
accessyear=2006

]
*Don Daglow programs the first computer baseball game on a PDP-10 mainframe computer at Pomona College.

cite web
url=http://gamedesign.uw.hu/gamedesign0033.html
title=Conclusion
work= [http://gamedesign.uw.hu/ Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games]
accessmonthday=15 February
accessyear=2006

]
*Mike Mayfield develops "Star Trek" on a Scientific Data Systems Sigma 7 minicomputer.

cite web
url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/space/star_trek.html
title=Star Trek: To boldly go... and then spawn a million offshoots
year=2000
author=Markowitz, Maury
work= [http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/games/index.html Games of Fame]
accessmonthday=15 February
accessyear=2006

]

References