1981

February

• Mattel Electronics test-markets the keyboard component of the Intellivision in Fresno, California. [5.48]

(month unknown)

• At Nintendo, Sigeru Miyamoto designs the Donkey Kong game, based on films King Kong and Beauty and the Beast. The character "Mario", a construction worker, is created. [43.51] [124.49]

May

• Atari completes work on the Centipede arcade video game. [89.65]

June 1

• Imagic is formed by William Grubb and other former executives of Mattel Electronics and Atari. [120.D1]

(month unknown)

• General Consumer Electronics Corporation is formed by former Mattel Electronics officials. [58.D5]
• Nintendo releases the Donkey Kong video game. The first location in the USA to host one of the games is the Spot Tavern in Seattle, Washington. The hero Mario was originally called Jumpman. [44.TD7] [89.29] [124.49] [672.148]
• Midway releases the Ms. Pac-Man game. Original game title was Crazy Otto. (100,000-115,000 units are sold in its lifetime.) [304.142] [305] [672.148] [682.77]
• Sega/Gremlin introduces the Frogger video game. [89.29] [672.148]
• A man dies of a heart attack while playing Berzerk in a video arcade. This is the first video game-related death. [685.136]
• Namco releases the Galaga arcade video game in the US. [304.148] [672.148]
• Atari announces the Cosmos handheld video game system, to use holograms for 3D play. (The unit is never released.) [672.150]
• The American Army hires Atari to modify Battle Zone to their specifications. The resulting US$15,000 MK-60 system incorporates line drawings of Soviet and American tanks. [89.125]
• Astrovision releases the Bally Computer System. [12]
• Atari releases the Centipede arcade video game in the US. (50,000 units are sold during its lifetime, second best for Atari.) [672.148]
• Centuri releases the Vanguard arcade game in the US. [672.148]
• Atari releases the Haunted House video game for the Atari 2600 in the US. [683.150]
• Milton Bradley releases the Frogger board game, based on the video game. [786.76]
• Epoch releases the Cassette Vision video game system in Japan. [1091.92]

July

• Atari releases the Asteroids video game cartridge for home video game systems. [93.45]
• Town council of Irvington, New York, passes an ordinance limiting each establishment to three video game machines. [278.50]

September 3

• Coleco Industries obtains exclusive use of Midway Manufacturing's trademark on self-contained and portable electronic versions of Midway's coin-operated arcade games. [79.D3]

(month unknown)

• To date, Atari has sold one million Space Invaders cartridges. [89.xix] [93.45]

October 10

• At the Citicorp Center in Manhattan, New York, Atari sponsors an open tournament of arcade games. Frank Cretella scores 118,740 in Asteroids, setting a new national record. [93.45]

October 28

• At the Expocenter in Chicago, the Atari Coin-Op $50,000 World Championship is held, over five days. Participation is only 250 players, on expectations of 10-15,000. [94.102] [672.150]

November 19

• President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines bans video games in the country, because of parent and teacher complaints regarding youth morality. [96.23] [278.51]

(month unknown)

• The annual Amusement and Music Operators Association convention is held. Taito America introduces the Qix and Lock 'n' Chase video games. Atari introduces Tempest, Atari's first color vector graphics game, second in the industry to Sega Enterprises's Space Fury. Exidy shows the Mouse Trap video game. Williams Electronics shows the Make Trax video game. Stern shows the Turtles video game. Centuri shows the Round Up video game. Nichibutsu shows the Frisky Tom video game. Nintendo shows the Donkey Kong video game. Sega Enterprises shows the Frogger video game. [89.30,42] [672.148]
• Bally licenses Commodore to manufacture its arcade games into cartridges for the VIC-20 computer. [8.6]
• Steve Juraszek plays arcade game Defender for 16 hours and 34 minutes on one quarter, scoring a world record 15,963,100 points. [278.49]

December

• The city council of Oakland, California, votes to ban minors from arcades during school hours and after 10 PM weeknights, 12 PM weekends. [89.122]

December 31

• Percent of US homes with a cartridge-based video game system: 9%. 80% of them are Atari systems. [89.106]
• Unit sales of Atari VCS game systems to date: 6 million. [89.104]

Year

• During the year, Bally's Midway Manufacturing Division sells 96,000 machine sales of Pac-Man, for US$200 million profit on revenues of US$1.2 billion. [55.C8] [60.S2.13] [109.D1] [672.148]
• Arcade video game revenue for the year: US$5-5.7 billion. [89.xix,138] [278.49] [672.148] (US$7 billion [281.39]) (US$8 billion [53.D1])
• Unit sales of video game machines for the year: 4.5 million. Revenue: US$1-1.2 billion. [58.D5] [63.21] [278.49] [287.110] [672.148]
• During the year, Atari ships 50,000 Centipede video game machines. [89.143] [161.S3.19]
• Market share of video game systems in the US for the year: Intellivision 15%. [672.150]
• Unit sales of Mattel Intellivision game systems during the year: 600,000. [278.55]
• Unit sales for the year of Atari VCS game cartridges (by Atari): nearly 20 million. [89.112]
• Sales of Atari game systems and cartridges during the year: US$740 million. [287.78]
• Unit sales of video game cartridges for the year: about 30 million. [49.C17]
• Sales of video game systems and cartridges in the US during the year: about US$1 billion. [58.D1] [89.xix] [167.D23] [288.31]