1980 in video gaming

Business

 * New companies: Mindscape, Inc., Sierra On-Line.
 * Mattel creates the original five-programmer Intellivision game design team, nicknamed the Blue Sky Rangers by a magazine writer when the company keeps their names secret in a TV Guide interview.
 * The US arcade game market's revenues rise to $7.19 billion in 1980 (equivalent to $ in 2024).
 * The home video game console market in the US generates $500 million in sales of systems and cartridges (equivalent to $ in 2024).

Games

 * Arcade
 * February: Namco releases Navarone, Kaitei Takara Sagashi (which was originally developed by K. K. Tokki as a prototype) and SOS.
 * May: Namco releases Pac-Man, its biggest-selling game. One of the most influential games, it had the first gaming mascot character, established the maze chase video games genre, opened gaming to female audiences, and introduced power-ups and cutscenes.
 * June: Namco releases King & Balloon, which was one of the first games to feature speech synthesis.
 * October: Namco releases Tank Battalion.
 * Namco releases King & Balloon, which is the first game to feature synthesized voices. It also featured dual-core processing, using two Z80 microprocessors, the second to drive a DAC for speech.
 * Namco releases Navalone, Kaitei Takara Sagashi, SOS, Tank Battalion, and Rally-X, which is the first game to feature a bonus round.
 * Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game and the Game & Watch handheld LCD game by Gunpei Yokoi.
 * Universal release the arcade game Space Panic, often cited as the first platform game.
 * Stern Electronics (a subsidiary of Universal Research Laboratories) releases the Berzerk arcade game.
 * Warner Communications' Atari releases the Missile Command arcade game, and the Battlezone arcade game (it was later enhanced for the US Army for military training) – albeit relying on specialized vector graphics hardware.
 * Williams Electronics releases the Defender arcade game.
 * Warner Communications' Atari releases the Centipede (by Ed Logg & Dona Bailey) and Warlords arcade games and also the Tempest color vector arcade game.


 * Computer
 * Rogue is written by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, spawning the category of roguelike games.
 * Edu-Ware releases The Prisoner, loosely based upon the 1960s TV series of the same name. Programmed by David Mullich, it became a classic of the Apple II platform.
 * Infocom releases Zork I, the first Zork game and the first Infocom game.

Hardware

 * Arcade
 * December: DECO releases the DECO Cassette System, the first standardized arcade platform, which many games were developed for.


 * Console
 * Mattel releases the Intellivision video game console.


 * Computer
 * Sinclair Research releases the ZX80 home computer and Acorn Computers release the Atom, the first 'domestic' computers to play games in the United Kingdom.