Games of Impact - 1979

Games of Impact takes a look at the most important games in the industry’s history, with a max limit of 20 per year.

NOTE - This is a re-release of my Strachey’s List series, just renamed and reformatted. I’ve made small changes to reflect more accurate information.

Asteroids

November 1979 - Atari

Key People: Lyle Rains, Ed Logg

Developed by Atari icons Lyle Rains and Ed Logg, Asteroids actually brings back the old school days of gaming, taking inspiration from early titles like Spacewar! as you control a spaceship taking down asteroids and flying saucers. The game became a mega hit, following the success of Space Invaders to start a sci-fi boom in the video game space. The Atari VCS console variant sold over three million copies! Today, Asteroids is one of the most copied games and you can find all sorts of versions across multiple platforms.

Galaxian

September 1979 - Namco / Taito

Key People: Kazunori Sawano, Shigeichi Ishimura, Kōichi Tashiro

Tasked with creating an alternative to Space Invaders, Namco tapped Kazunori Sawano to lead a team to make a successful competitor title. Galaxian was born out of that and revolutionized gaming along the way. This was the first full RGB color graphics game, the first game with a tile-based hardware system, and the first game with scrolling effects. You control a ship and shoot at multiple aliens, who can dive down and attack you. The game has become a staple of the golden age of arcades and influenced Nintendo to use hardware sprite rendering to make their games.

Galaxy Wars

1979 - Taito / Universal

Another title made to take advantage of the Space Invaders phenomenon; Galaxy Wars does try to do things a little different. The player guides a missile through obstacles and a fleet of aliens. While a relatively simple, it’s one more game that shows the success and popularity of the “invaders” shooters that started to take over arcades.

Head-On

April 1979 - Sega / Gremlin

Key People: Lane Hauck

This Sega title has players navigate a maze to collect as many dots as possible for points, while avoiding collision with the other player. The game uses a lives system over a timer, something that was starting to become more of the norm in gaming. Head-On was one of the more critically successful games in 1979. The game’s system of dots and lives is very similar to future iconic game Pac-Man, potentially serving as an influence.

Heiankyo Alien (Digger)

November 1979 - University of Tokyo’s Theoretical Science Group / Gremlin

Key People: Itaru Kawakami, Mitsutoshi Tabata

Created at the University of Tokyo’s Theoretical Science Group, Heiankyo Alien would prove to be a popular title for PC players in Japan. It eventually released to the arcades and in North America was released under the name Digger by Sega’s Gremlin. You play as a cop who has to protect a city against an invading army of aliens. The player has to dig a hole to trap the aliens and score points, with a max of nine levels to play. The game influenced maze games and future titles that adopted the “dig” mechanic. It’s a great show of the emerging creativity of Japanese game developers.

Lunar Lander (1979)

REL - Atari

Key People: Wendi Allen, Rich Moore

The Lunar Lander video game is one of the more cloned games ever made. This is the 1979 variant which came from Atari and made the game more popular in the mainstream. It plays similar to the previous version, with a focus to land on the moon’s surface. With the Atari name behind it, this 1979 version helped make this style of game known beyond the original computer players of the early 70s.

Monaco GP

November 1979 - Sega / Gremlin

This racing title would set the standard for the next decade’s racers. It uses an overhead perspective and has the way narrow the more you play, as well as avoiding obstacles such as puddles. It became successful at the Japanese arcades and eventually picked up the same popularity in other countries as it released. It received critical acclaim across early video game magazines and quickly became a must play title for the year and early 80s. Eventually, Sega would bring the game back with newer versions for its consoles.

Sherrif

October 1979 - Nintendo / Exidy / Sega

Key People: Genyo Takeda

Sheriff was created by the Nintendo icon Genyo Takeda, who would become notable for his work on hardware. Sheriff uses the “damsel in distress” idea, which would become a part of early Nintendo games. You play as Mr. Jack, a sheriff who has to save Betty and save the town from bandits. Sheriff was the start of Nintendo becoming interested in the arcade industry, which would slowly but surely lead to their entry into the home console industry. A new employee for the company, Shigeru Miyamoto, drew the art for the game.

Superman

September 1979 - Atari

Key People: John Dunn

One of the first adaptions of a comic book hero to video games, Superman was released in late 1979 and had you play as the iconic hero. Superman must fix a bridge, stop Lex Luthor, and return to the Daily Planet in the best time possible. The game received many awards, including Game of the Year. Superman came out at a perfect time as the Atari VCS console began to become more and more popular with Americans. With the Superman film’s release, the year prior, the game took advantage of the demand the film created to be such a huge hit. Before today’s popular superhero games, Superman set the standard and showed there was room for these icons in gaming.

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