1977 in video games

Events

• Agnes Kim opens the first Electronics Boutique, a kiosk at the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania selling transistor radios and calculators.
• Atari opens the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, a combination video arcade/pizzeria conceived by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. In June, Bushnell purchases the rights to Pizza Time Theater back from Atari for $500,000 USD.
• Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd. formally changes its name to Namco, and establishes Namco Enterprises Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong, its first subsidiary based outside Japan.

  Notable releases

Video game consoles

• In January, RCA Corporation releases the Studio II video game console.
• In September, Atari releases the Atari Video Computer System video game console alongside nine launch titles in the USA.
• Coleco releases a number of new models of the Telstar series: the Telstar Alpha, the Telstar Colormatic, the Telstar Regent, the Telstar Ranger, the Telstar Galaxy, and the Telstar Combat. Most of these systems feature only minor variations on the original Telstar model, such as new controller types.
• Groupe SEB releases the Telescore 750 dedicated home video game console.
• Nintendo releases the Color TV Game 6 dedicated home video game console, featuring six variations of Light Tennis. Nintendo's partner, Mitsubishi, produces most of the system's hardware components.
• Philico releases the Telejogo dedicated home video game console, featuring three pre-installed games.
• Bally releases the Bally Home Library Computer home video game console through mail order retailer JS&A National Sales Group. Delays in production of the system, however, mean that none of the units will actually ship until the following year.

  Home computers

• June 10 – Apple Computer releases the Apple II.
• August 3 – Tandy releases the TRS-80 Model I.
• October – Commodore releases the Commodore PET.
• Intelligent Systems releases the Compucolor II.

  Games

• Cinematronics releases Larry Rosenthal's Space Wars, the first vector graphics arcade game.
• Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, the future founders of Infocom, develop the first version of Zork on a PDP-10 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science.
• While studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, Kelton Flinn begins developing a text-based aerial combat game called Air, an early precursor to 1987's Air Warrior, the first massively multiplayer online game.