Release date: 1980

1980 was the year the Atari VCS became a hit. In March Atari released Space Invaders, the first arcade game officially licensed for a home console. It sold 1.25 million cartridges that year and helped Atari sell more than a million consoles. Warren Robinett’s Adventure, with its hidden Easter egg, also arrived in 1980.
It was also the year a second company joined in. Activision released its first four cartridges in August, and three of them are here: David Crane’s Dragster and Fishing Derby, and Bob Whitehead’s Boxing. Atari’s own line kept growing with Night Driver, Video Checkers, Dodge ‘Em and Circus Atari. The console changed too: the difficulty switches moved to the back, leaving four switches on the front.
Some games on this page reached shops later than the label suggests. Video Pinball, Othello and Pelé’s Soccer are usually dated to 1981, and Stellar Track and Steeplechase, two games Atari made for Sears alone, came out in March 1981. Stunt Cycle and Wizard are 1980 prototypes that were never released.
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