1981 in video gaming

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Events

Magazines

• November - The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games (C&VG) starts.
• Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.

Notable releases

Games

• Midway releases Gorf and Wizard of Wor
• Sega releases the Turbo and the Frogger video game, which was developed by Konami
• Namco releases New Rally-X, Warp and Warp, Galaga, and Bosconian, which is the first game to have a continue feature.
• Nelsonic releases the Space Attacker watch LCD game
• Nintendo releases Shigeru Miyamoto's Donkey Kong
• Williams Electronics releases Eugene Jarvis's Stargate
• IBM and Microsoft include the game DONKEY.BAS with the IBM PC, arguably the first IBM PC compatible game.
• Ultima and Wizardry are released, starting two of the most successful lines of role-playing video games
• President Elect, the first commercially published political simulation game, was released by Strategic Simulations.
• Muse Software releases Silas Warner's Castle Wolfenstein

Hardware

• Astrovision Inc. distributes the Bally Computer System after buying the rights from Bally/Midway
• Acorn Computers Ltd releases the BBC Micro home computer, which brought the game Elite to prominence
• Coleco Industries releases the Total Control 4 home console
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore VIC-20 home computer
• SEGA test markets the SG-1000 home console in Japan
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX81 home computer in the UK. Shortly, J. K. Greye Software publishes 3D Monster Maze written by Malcolm Evans – the first video game featuring real-time 3D graphics without using specialized vector graphics hardware
• November - Nintendo´s Game & Watch is released in Sweden.

Business

• APF Electronics, Inc. goes defunct