1979 in video games

Events

Business

• New companies: Activision, Capcom, Edu-Ware, Infocom, Quicksilva, Strategic Simulations
• The US market for arcade games earns a revenue of $1.5 billion.

  Notable releases

Games

• April – Sega's dot-eating driving game, Head On, is released. It becomes a popular concept to clone, especially for home systems.
• August – Atari releases Lunar Lander, the first arcade version of a game concept created on minicomputers ten years earlier.
• November – Atari releases the vector graphics-based Asteroids, which becomes Atari's second best selling game of all time and displaces Space Invaders as the most popular game in the US.
• November – Namco releases fixed shooter Galaxian in full color.
• November – Vectorbeam releases Tail Gunner, a space shooter with a first-person perspective.
• December – Nintendo releases Radar Scope, featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person perspective. Later, 2000 out of 3000 manufactured machines are converted to Donkey Kong.
• Cinematronics releases Warrior, one of the first fighting games without a boxing theme.
• Sega releases the vertically scrolling Monaco GP, featuring full color and day/night driving. It is one of Sega's last discrete logic hardware designs.

• August – Automated Simulations releases Temple of Apshai, one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers. It remains the best-selling computer RPG through to 1982.
• October – subLOGIC releases Flight Simulator for the Apple II.
• Richard Garriott creates , a computer role-playing game for the Apple II. It launches Garriott's career and is a precursor to his highly successful Ultima series.
• Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw create what is commonly recognized as the first playable MUD.
• Atari, Inc.'s 8K Star Raiders cartridge is released and becomes a system seller for the new Atari 400/800 computer line.

• December – Atari Adventure for the Atari 2600. It is the first action-adventure game and has one of the first known Easter eggs.

  Hardware

• June – Texas Instruments releases the TI-99/4. It is the first home computer with a 16-bit processor and, with TI's TMS9918 video chip, one of the first with hardware sprites.
• September – NEC releases the PC-8001, the first in the PC-8000 series of home computers.
• November – Atari, Inc. releases the first two models in the Atari 8-bit family: the Atari 400 and Atari 800 home computers. They feature custom graphics and sound coprocessors which support sprites, four-channel audio, and programmable display modes.

• Mattel test markets the Intellivision console in Fresno, California. It is released throughout the United States in 1980.

• November – Milton Bradley Company releases the Microvision, the first handheld game console that uses interchangeable cartridges.