1976 in video gaming

List of years in video gaming (table)
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Events

• October – Warner Communications acquires Atari from Nolan Bushnell for $28 million USD. Bushnell stays on as chairman.^[1]
• 3.5 million video games are sold, earning the retail video game industry $242 million in revenue.^[2]

Business

• New companies: Apple Computer, Data East

Notable releases

Games

• January – Sega releases Heavyweight Champ,^[3] the first video game to feature hand-to-hand fighting.^[4][5][6] It uses controls that simulate throwing actual punches.^[4]
• February – Sega releases Road Race,^[7] a racing video game that introduces pseudo-3D, forward-scrolling, third-person graphics.^[8]
• April – Taito releases Speed Race Twin,^[9] a sequel to Speed Race that allows simultaneous two-player competitive dual-screen gameplay and uses colour graphics.^[10]
• April – Atari releases Breakout, whose prototype was designed by Apple Computer cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, to video arcades.^[1]
• August – Sega releases Man T.T.,^[11] also known as Moto-Cross, an early motorbike racing game, using a pseudo-3D, forward-scrolling, third-person perspective,^[12] similar to Road Race.^[8] It also introduces haptic feedback, causing the handlebars to vibrate during collisions.^[13] Sega-Gremlin re-brands it as Fonz.^[14]
• October – Atari releases Night Driver,^[15] a first-person perspective racing video game.
• October – Gremlin releases Blockade, the first of what become known as snake games.
• Exidy releases Death Race, a racing game based on the film Death Race 2000, to video arcades. The game sparks a public outcry over violence in video games, and is banned in many areas.^[16]
• While working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, Don Woods discovers and expands Will Crowther's Adventure. Later in the year, James Gillogly ports Woods's version of the interactive fiction title from Fortran to the C programming language for Unix-based computers.^[17]

Hardware

• August – Fairchild Semiconductor releases the Video Entertainment System (later known as the VES or Channel F), the first video game console to use a microprocessor and cartridges.^[18]
• Coleco releases the Telstar, a console clone of Pong based on General Instrument's AY-3-8500 microchip.^[19]
• Radofin releases the 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System video game console in Europe.^[20]

References

1. Thomas, Donald A. Jr (2005). "–1976–". ICWhen.com. Archived from the original (shtml) on March 17, 2006. Retrieved February 18, 2006.
2. TV Games Probed, Reading Eagle (December 21, 1976)
3. http://www.gamefaqs.com/arcade/567840-heavyweight-champ/data
4. Spencer, Spanner, The Tao of Beat-'em-ups, EuroGamer, February 6, 2008, Accessed February 23, 2009
5. Ashcraft, Brian, (2008) Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers, (Kodansha International), p. 94
6. Nadia Oxford, 20 Years of Street Fighter, 1UP.com, November 12, 2007
7. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=road-race&page=detail&id=14493
8. Road Race at the Killer List of Videogames
9. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=speed-race-twin&page=detail&id=19477
10. Speed Race Twin at the Killer List of Videogames
11. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=man-t.t.&page=detail&id=26084
12. Moto-Cross at the Killer List of Videogames
13. Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The video game explosion: a history from PONG to PlayStation and beyond, p. 39, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 0-313-33868-X
14. Fonz at the Killer List of Videogames
15. http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=night-driver-upright-model&page=detail&id=26054
16. Gonzalez, Lauren. "When Two Tribes Go to War: A History of Video Game Controversy / The Major Offenders". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 17, 2007. Retrieved February 18, 2006.
17. Adams, Rick. "A history of 'Adventure'". The Colossal Cave Adventure page. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
18. "Fairchild Video Entertainment System/Channel F". ClassicGaming.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved February 18, 2006.
19. Winter, David (2006). "Coleco Telstar". PONG-Story. Archived from the original on March 2, 2006. Retrieved February 18, 2006.
20. Hansen, Dale (2002). "1292 Advanced Programmable Video System FAQ version APVS.01". Archived from the original (text) on May 13, 2010. Retrieved February 18, 2006.