1984 In Video Gaming

Article Index for
1984 In

Website Links For
1984

Information About

1984 In Video Gaming

EVENTS

Notable releases

Alley Cat is released for IBM PC Compatible s

'''' ( Sierra , IBM PC ), the first animated Adventure Game , the first in the ''King's Quest'' series, and the first to use the AGI Engine .

Namco releases '' Gaplus '', '' Tower Of Druaga '', '' Pac-Land '', which is the first side-scrolling platformer, '' Grobda '', which is a '' Xevious '' spin-off, '' Super Xevious '' and '' Dragon Buster '', which is the first game to use a life bar.

Nintendo releases '' Balloon Fight ''.

'' The Ancient Art Of War '' by Dave Murry and Barry Murry , the first major Real-time Strategy game, is released by Brøderbund .

'' Paperboy '' by David Ralston Atari , Arcade Game ), later ported to many platforms, featured innovative bike handle steering controller.

'' Elite '' by David Braben and Ian Bell is published by Acornsoft , an early and very influential wireframe 3d space trading game offering full six degrees of freedom and a then unique open ended design.

'' Knight Lore '' by Ultimate Play The Game is released for the ZX Spectrum (and later ported to the BBC Micro , Amstrad CPC , MSX and Famicom Disk System ). ''Knight Lore'' is the third title in the Sabreman series but the first to use the innovative Isometric Filmation Engine .

'' The Lords Of Midnight '', a groundbreaking strategy adventure game by Mike Singleton is released.

Hardware

RDI Systems releases the Halcyon Laserdisc home console.

Business

New companies: Kemco , Accolade , New World Computing

Defunct companies: Astrocade Inc., FTL Games ( Developer and Publisher )

Hasbro , Inc. acquires Milton Bradley Company

Management Sciences America acquires Edu-Ware Services

Warner Communications Inc. sells the Consumer Division of Atari , Inc. and creates an entirely new company ( Atari Games Corp ) out of the retained arcade division.

Sega and CSK merge to form Sega Enterprises Ltd.