1971 in video gaming

Notable events

 * On March 22, Ralph Baer files with the United States Patent and Trademark Office regarding a patent for "television gaming and training apparatus."


 * In June, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck form Computer Recreations, Inc.


 * Magnavox signs a license agreement with Sanders Associates regarding the Magnavox Odyssey video game console.


 * Nintendo enters the video game industry, working with Magnavox on developing the Shooting Gallery light gun accessory for the Odyssey game console.


 * Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd. adopts "Namco" as a brand name.

Notable releases

 * August: Computer Space, the first commercially sold arcade video game, and the first commercially sold video game of any kind, is location tested by Nutting Associates.


 * In September, Computer Recreations, Inc. installs Galaxy Game, a version of Spacewar! for PDP-11 hardware and one of the first coin-operated video arcade games, in Tresidder Union at Stanford University.


 * In November, Nutting Associates releases 1,500 cabinets of Nolan Bushnell's Computer Space, the first commercially released video game in the arcades.


 * Don Rawitsch, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, students at Carleton College develop The Oregon Trail for a mainframe with teletype terminals.


 * Don Daglow programs a computer baseball game on a PDP-10 mainframe computer at Pomona College.


 * Mike Mayfield develops Star Trek on a Scientific Data Systems Sigma 7 minicomputer.