1984 in video gaming

1984
1984 in games

Notable events of 1984 in video gaming. See also history of computer and video games.

[edit] Events

Alley Cat is released for IBM PC compatibles
King's Quest (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.

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.