Games Released in 1980

248 new games debuted in 1980 across 10 platforms, with Arcade seeing 28 releases. December was the busiest month, with 20 releases.

Top Platform

Arcade

New Releases

248

Busiest Month

December

What was the most popular game of 1980?

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. It is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Players control Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called Power Pellets causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points.

Which days had the most releases?

December 31 was the busiest single day of 1980 with 17 releases.

17 releases

December 31

9 releases

June 1

6 releases

February 1

6 releases

January 1

Which month had the most releases?

The busiest release month of 1980 was December, totaling 20 titles.

How did each season compare?

Q4 was the busiest quarter of 1980 with 32 releases.

Q1 (Jan–Mar)

22 releases

Most popular release in Q1

Moon Cresta

Moon Cresta is an arcade game released in 1980 by Nichibutsu. A moving starfield gives the impression of vertical scrolling, but the game is a fixed shooter in the vein of Namco's Galaxian. Incentive Software published a version of this arcade game for many 8-bit home computers of the time. Dempa also released a port of both Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta for the X68000. It was also released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on March 9, 2010 and PlayStation 4 (Arcade Archives) in 2014.

Q2 (Apr–Jun)

19 releases

Most popular release in Q3

Missile Command

As a regional commander of three anti-missile batteries, the player must defend six cities in their zone from being destroyed. The player's six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missiles, some of them even splitting like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). New weapons are introduced in later levels: smart bombs that can evade a less than perfectly targeted missile, and bomber planes and satellites that fly across the screen and launch missiles of their own.

Q4 (Oct–Dec)

32 releases

Most popular release in Q4

Battlezone

Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor. Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years. Throughout the 1980s, Battlezone was ported to several home computer systems (usually on the Atarisoft label), including the Apple II, the Commodore 64, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the Atari XEGS. The Atari ST port contains large parts of the original 6502 code which is emulated in real time. An Atari 2600 port was also released, but has colored raster graphics due to limitations and the view is behind the tank rather than inside it.

Which platforms saw the most releases?

Arcade received 28 new titles in 1980, holding the most releases. The runner up was Apple II with 13 new titles.

Arcade28 releases

Apple II13 releases

Intellivision11 releases

TRS-8011 releases

Game & Watch5 releases

Odyssey 2 / Videopac G70005 releases

Atari 26004 releases

Fairchild Channel F3 releases

Atari 8-bit2 releases

VC 40002 releases

What genres were most popular?

Arcade was the dominant genre in 1980 with 36 titles. Shooter followed closely with 29.

Arcade36

Shooter29

Sport10

Strategy9

Adventure7

Simulator6

Puzzle4

Racing3

Platform1

Quiz/Trivia1

1979 1981

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1980

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