1974 in video games

• January 31 – A fire destroys the factory of Allied Leisure in Hialeah, Florida.{{Cite news |date=1974-02-05 |title=Fire-Hit Hialeah Factory Expects To Resume Output Within the Month |work=The Miami Herald |pages=5-B}} The company is forced to exit the video game industry temporarily.
• April 15 – Magnavox and Sanders Associates file suit against Atari Inc, Bally Mfg, Chicago Dynamic Industries, Allied Leisure, and Empire Distributing for infringement of the patents related to the Odyssey by Ralph Baer and Bill Rusch.{{Cite news |date=1974-04-15 |title=Complaint For Patent Infringement |url=https://archive.org/details/19740415ComplaintForPatentInfringement/1974-04-15%20Complaint%2001/ |access-date=1 October 2024 |work=Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. |agency=US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division}} Magnavox’s wave of litigation would be highly consequential to the development of the video game industry.
• June 21–23 – The program Ribbit from the University of Waterloo earns victory at the First Canadian Computer Chess Championship, running off of a Honeywell 6050.{{Cite news |date=1974-06-14 |title=Kitchener-Waterloo Community Corner Calendar of Events |work=Waterloo Region Record |pages=13}}{{Cite news |date=1974-06-25 |title=Computer chess champion |work=Star-Phoenix |pages=2}} It later wins at the fifth U.S. American Computer Chess Championship, displacing the four time champion Chess 4.0.{{Cite news |date=1974-11-15 |title=College computer loses electronic chess match |work=Daily Sentinel |pages=3}}
• July – Nakamura Seisakusho (later Namco) purchases Atari Japan for 296 million yen. The company becomes the exclusive distributor of Atari video games in Japan for several years – solidifying a long-term relationship between Atari and Namco.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Alexander |title=They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry |date=November 27, 2019 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-138-38990-8 |volume=1: 1971 – 1982 |pages=288 |language=en}}
• August 5–8 – The first World Computer Chess Championship is held in Stockholm, Sweden. Kaissa, a program developed in the Soviet Union, earns first prize.{{Cite news |date=1974-08-02 |title=Bob Prinsen |work=Middlesex Chronicle |pages=10}}{{Cite news |date=1974-08-09 |title=UW Chess Team Third |work=Waterloo Region Record |pages=3}}
• August 27 – Sega sponsors a national tournament of competitive video games called the All Japan TV Game Championships at three hundred locations throughout Japan.{{Cite journal |date=1974-10-26 |title=Sega Hosts TV Game Tourney In Tokyo |journal=Cash Box |pages=45}}{{Cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Ken |date=2024-08-19 |title=Golden Age Game Tournaments: Sega’s Hockey TV – Sega-16 |url=https://www.sega-16.com/2024/08/golden-age-game-tournaments-segas-hockey-tv/ |access-date=2025-02-11 |website=Sega-16 |language=en-US}}
• September 15 – The New York Times runs an article covering the Pong boom titled “The Space Age Pinball Machine.”{{Cite news |last=Range |first=Peter Ross |date=1974-09-15 |title=The space age pinball machine |work=The New York Times |pages=92}}
• November 1–3 – The Music Operators of America show is held in Chicago, Illinois. Notable video games at the show include Qwak! by Atari, Tank by Kee Games, and Baseball by Ramtek.{{Cite journal |date=1974-11-16 |title=coin machine news |journal=Cash Box |pages=40-41}}

Total Video Game Cabinets: 40,000 units.{{Cite book |title=The Coin Operated and Home Electronic Games Market |publisher=Frost & Sullivan Inc. |year=1976 |publication-date= |pages=87–88}}{{refn|The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals 30,000 games with traditional arcade cabinets and 10,000 for those under the new cocktail table presentation.|group=Note}}

Total Video Game Revenue (machine sales): $40.5 million.{{refn|The Frost & Sullivan estimate totals $33 million in games with traditional arcade cabinets and $7.5 million for those with the new cocktail table presentation.|group=Note}}

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

Home consoles

Total Console Unit Sales: 145,000–150,000 consoles.{{Cite book |title=The Electronic Games Market in the U.S. |date=1983 |publisher=Frost & Sullivan Inc. |pages=26–26a}}{{Cite book |title=Electronic Games & Personal Computers |date=February 1979 |publisher=Predicasts Inc. |page=41 |ref={{sfnref|Predicasts Inc.|1979}} }}

Total Console Revenue (retail): $9–11.3 million.{{sfn|Predicasts Inc.|1979|p=42}}

(*) Indicates a sales number given by official company sources.

• August – Masumi Akagi publishes the first issue of the Japanese coin-operated amusement publication Game Machine. The magazine runs for 28 years.
• December – The American publication Play Meter, devoted to coin-operated amusements, publishes its first issue. Founding editor is Ralph Lally II.

• January – Dungeons & Dragons is released by Tactical Studies Rules.{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Jon |title=Playing at the World, 2E, Volume 1: The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons |date= |publisher=The MIT Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-262-37939-7 |edition=2nd |series=Game histories |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |language=en}} The pen-and-paper tabletop game is the origin of the role-playing game and would exert a major influence on video games, through the genres of RPGs and adventure games.

• February – Taito’s Basketball by pioneering game designer Tomohiro Nishikado features the first human-shaped characters in a coin-operated video game.{{Cite book |last=Akagi |first=Masumi |title=アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005) |publisher=アミューズメント通信社 |year=2005 |isbn=978-4990251215 |pages=41 |language=ja |trans-title=List of Arcade TV Games (1971-2005)}} Midway licenses the game for release in North America as TV Basketball, making it the first Japanese video arcade game to be officially exported to the U.S.{{Cite journal |last=Shaw |first=Mike |date=1985-10-15 |title=East is East and West is East |journal=Play Meter |pages=28, 30}}
• March – Atari releases Gran Trak 10, a video driving game featuring advanced technology including a ROM to store graphics and course data.{{Cite web |last=Fries |first=Ed |date=2017-06-14 |title=Fixing Gran Trak 10 |url=https://edfries.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/fixing-gran-trak-10/ |access-date=2024-10-01 |language=en}} After initial manufacturing issues, the game becomes a massive success.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=188–189}}
• Meadows Games releases the enhanced ball-and-paddle game Flim Flam.{{Cite journal |date=1974-03-30 |title=California Clippings |journal=Cash Box |pages=56}} It's among the most successful Pong clones, released in both upright and cocktail cabinet format.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=180}}
• May – Clean Sweep is released by Ramtek, a ball-and-paddle game featuring screen-clearing gameplay.{{cite magazine |date=1974-05-25 |title=Streaking is new Clean Sweep is Newer |magazine=Cash Box |pages=51}} It serves as an inspiration for Breakout.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=283}}
• August – Sega ships Balloon Gun in Japan, the first coin-operated video game utilizing a light gun.{{sfn|Akagi|2005|p=34}} The method used is different from the Odyssey light gun, able to identify individual parts of the screen being shot.
• October – Baseball by Ramtek is released.{{Cite journal |date=1974-11-02 |title=Ramtek Intro's Baseball Video Game at Expo |journal=Cash Box |pages=MOA28}} In addition to being the first coin-operated sports video game to authentically depict aspects of its play, it is the first video game to represent multiple characters with animation frames on screen at once.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=176}}
• November – Kee Games releases Tank. The game is a reinterpretation of Computer Space featuring custom controls and competitive gameplay.{{Cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Marty |title=Atari Inc.: Business is Fun |last2=Vendel |first2=Curt |publisher=Syzygy Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0985597405}} It becomes the best selling arcade video game released in 1974 in all and is seen as a defining moment for video arcade games.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=193–194}} The game is later adapted to Atari's Video Computer System as Combat.
• Taito releases Speed Race, a racing game featuring an early form of scrolling graphics. It helps pioneer 100 yen as a standard play price in Japan.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=199–200}}
• December – TV Pinball by Exidy introduces eliminating solid targets to ball-and-paddle games, preceding Breakout.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=201}}

• The first version of Maze War is completed by three students at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California for the Imlac PDS-1 terminal. The game is seen as the progenitor of the first-person shooter.{{Cite web |last=Moss |first=Richard |date=2015-05-21 |title=The first first-person shooter |url=https://www.polygon.com/features/2015/5/21/8627231/the-first-first-person-shooter |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}
• January – The science fiction economic strategy game Star Trader is first distributed by the People’s Computer Company via paper tape.{{Cite journal |date=January 1974 |title=tapes |journal=People's Computer Company |pages=13}} It has a long-lasting legacy on computer systems, with subsequent iterations of the game expanding its design.
• March – Jim Bowery develops Spasim for the PLATO IV system, a graphical space flight simulator.{{Cite web |last=Bowery |first=Jim |date=2008-12-30 |title=Spasim (1974) The First First-Person-Shooter 3D Multiplayer Online Game |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091018234220/http://geocities.com/jim_bowery/spasim.html |archive-url= |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=}} It is the first computer game to implement true 3D graphics, rather than fixed perspective. Spasim inspires a number of PLATO flight simulation games including Airace and Airfight.
• The first version of the game Wander is developed by Peter Langston. It is the earliest example of a parser-based storytelling game; an early example of interactive fiction.{{Cite web |last=Ant |date=2015-04-22 |title=Wander (1974) — a lost mainframe game is found! |url=https://ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/wander-1974-a-lost-mainframe-game-is-found/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=Retroactive Fiction |language=en}}

• Magnavox releases the Odyssey in markets outside of North America.
• July - Control Sales (sales arm of Universal Research Laboratories) offers the game console Video Action. It is a repurposing of Tennis Tourney by Allied Leisure, including a television and four potentiometer controls for $499 at retail.{{Cite news |last=Braun |first=David H. |date=1974-06-14 |title=David Braun Deposition |url=https://archive.org/details/1974-06-14-david-braun-deposition-and-exhibits/1974-06-14%20David%20Braun%20Deposition%20and%20Exhibits/ |work=Magnavox Company v. Chicago Dynamic Industries, et al. |agency=US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division}} It is the second unique video game console available to consumers.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=210}}
• August – Schraeder Electronics offers Dixi Ping Pong in the Netherlands, utilizing a custom transistor-to-transistor logic console design.
• October – Italian home appliance company Zanussi advertises the Ping-O-Tronic console. It features one-handed controllers.{{Cite journal |date=1974-10-10 |title=Il Gioco-Sport di Moda |journal=L'Europo |pages=1}}
• Videomaster Ltd. of the UK offers Home T.V. Game, the first in a line of systems from the company.{{Cite news |date=1974-10-24 |title=Colour TV |work=Evening Post |pages=11}}

• January 21 – Meadows Games is founded in Sunnyvale, California.
• June – David Nutting and Jefferey Fredericksen found Dave Nutting Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the facilities of coin-operated games company Milwaukee Coin Industries.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=271}} Dave Nutting Associates would create several important video games published by Midway Mfg including Gun Fight, Sea Wolf, Gorf, and Wizard of Wor.
• July 10 – Kenzo Tsujimoto founds the coin-operated machine operator IPM Co. Ltd. The company later changes its name to Irem Corporation.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=428}}
• July 23 – Sega Enterprises Inc. is incorporated. This is made the parent company of the Japanese Sega Enterprises Ltd. which continues to operate.{{sfn|Smith|2019|p=292}}
• September – Atari Inc. purchases Kee Games and makes Joseph Keenan the President of Atari.{{Cite journal |date=1974-09-21 |title=Atari Acquires Kee Games Factory; Keenan Prexy, Bushnell Chairman |journal=Cash Box |pages=36}} Atari continues to release games under the Kee Games label until 1978.
• October 25 – North American Philips purchases a majority share in Magnavox.{{Cite news |date=1974-10-30 |title=Philips Has 84.1% Of Magnavox |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |pages=22}}

• 1974 in games

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{{History of video games}}

Category:Video games by year