October 1981

Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

Arcade board mobility has coinop spooked George Plimpton is pimping Intellivision & The youth of America sees pro-gaming as their future

These stories and many more on this episode of the Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in October of 1981. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events.

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Links: 7 Minutes in Heaven: Video version - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57968609 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix https://www.mobygames.com/game/arcade/qix Corrections: September 1981 Ep - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56209373 7 Minutes in Heaven - Castle Wolfenstein - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56209208 https://www.mobygames.com/game/frogger-ancient-shadow Jerry Jewell Interview - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57602735

1941: Judges denounce Pinball as Gambling https://www.nytimes.com/1941/10/09/archives/judges-denounce-pinball-as-gambling-but-reserve-decision-in-jersey.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball#1947:_Flippers_introduced https://www.nytimes.com/1941/10/19/archives/nickel-monte-carlo-the-pinball-box-cashes-in-on-a-love-of-gadgets-a.html?searchResultPosition=2 https://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/flintstones-the-treasure-of-sierra-madrock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6aguUfV2XQ

1961: Satellite positioning system underway https://www.nytimes.com/1961/10/08/archives/star-substitutes-satellites-to-replace-heavenly-bodies-as-guides.html?searchResultPosition=24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_(satellite)

1981: US Arcade industry hesitant about interchangeable kits Play Meter Oct. 1 1981 pg. 22 https://segaretro.org/Sega_G80

Taito's Moon Shuttle introduces continuous play Replay Oct. 1981, pg. 56 https://www.mobygames.com/game/moon-shuttle https://www.denofgeek.com/games/the-origins-of-the-video-game-continue-screen/ Atari and GCC drop suits Replay Oct. 1981 pg. 16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Computer_Corporation Atari settles with Cinematronics Play Meter Oct. 15, 1981 pg. 148 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematronics

Williams revenues double Replay Oct. 1981, pg. 14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMS_Industries Coleco signs licensing deal with Midway Toy & Hobby World Oct. 1981 pg. 16 https://archive.org/details/hh_cpacman https://www.miniarcade.com/coleco/coleco.php https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/sunset-bowl-in-ballard-will-close-in-april/ Michael Katz Interview - https://www.patreon.com/posts/35169258 https://archive.org/details/hh_cdkong https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1982-Sears-Christmas-Book/0003 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1982-Sears-Christmas-Book/0636 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1982-Sears-Christmas-Book/0646

George Plimpton to promote Intellivision sweepstakes Toy & Hobby World Oct. 1981 pg. 58 https://wearethemutants.com/2017/05/18/george-plimpton-advertisements-for-intellivision-1980-1983/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPUMfUvRAOE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Plimpton February 1980 Jump - https://www.patreon.com/posts/34288179

Imagic enters the game publishing fray https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/08/business/advertising-imagic-account.html?searchResultPosition=2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagic They Create World Imagic ep - https://www.patreon.com/posts/mysteries-of-57377105

Byte takes a first look at the IBM PC https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1981-10_OCR/page/n25/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1981-10_OCR/page/n31/mode/1up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer

Atari muscles in on Apple's educational turf https://archive.org/details/1981-10-compute-magazine/page/n5/mode/1up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/

Nasir Gebelli goes it alone https://archive.org/details/softalkv2n02oct1981/page/39/mode/1up Jerry Jewell Interview - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57602735

Computers can win big at chess tournaments https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1981-10_OCR/page/n305/mode/1up Coining of phrase arcade-adventure https://archive.org/details/softalkv2n02oct1981/page/55/mode/1up

The Dirty Book is looking for your raunchy software creations https://archive.org/details/softalkv2n02oct1981/page/80/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/TheDirtyBookV2N1/page/n3/mode/2up?q=the+dirty+book

The Gamemaster beckons you to enter his mansion https://archive.org/details/softalkv2n02oct1981/page/82/mode/1up http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/softline_3.2.pdf https://books.google.de/books?id=-dgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=harlow+stevens+jr&source=bl&ots=UxMV-u2BB_&sig=ACfU3U0VAEzuFq0DpEWWDkGS07PAFMjsqw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjSpdOb_MfzAhWrgP0HHQHgCLsQ6AF6BAgUEAM#v=onepage&q=harlow%20stevens%20jr&f=false Mike Blanchet profiled in New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/25/magazine/video-games-star-war.html?searchResultPosition=1 http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/blanchet/blanchet.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(urban_legend)

Recommended Links: The History of How We Play: https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/ Gaming Alexandria: https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/ They Create Worlds: https://tcwpodcast.podbean.com/ Digital Antiquarian: https://www.filfre.net/ The Arcade Blogger: https://arcadeblogger.com/ Retro Asylum: http://retroasylum.com/category/all-posts/ Retro Game Squad: http://retrogamesquad.libsyn.com/ Playthrough Podcast: https://playthroughpod.com/

Sound Effects by Ethan Johnson of History of How We Play and Enzo Maida.